Shrimp Potato Chowder

You can add a cup of frozen spinach to this for color and health; it won't taste exactly the same, but is also good if you like spinach.

By the way, my sweet potatoes were very large and my red potatoes very small. I would go for a ratio of about 1/3 sweet potato and 2/3 regular potatoes (but you can adjust this according to taste).

Ingredients:

3 T. butter
1 medium-large onion
1 cup shredded or diced carrots
2 T. flour
1 large sweet potato or 2 small ones, peeled and finely diced
8 small-medium red potatoes, finely diced (and peeled, if you like)
8 oz. corn (frozen, fresh, canned, whatever)
1 lb. shrimp
4 cups whole milk
1 boullion cube, dissolved in 1/2 cup warm milk
1 cup half and half (I didn't have, so I used 2 1/2 T. butter and milk up to a cup)
couple dashes of nutmeg
salt and pepper

Directions

1. In a large soup pot, saute 3 T. butter with carrots and onions until slightly tender (about 5 minutes)

2. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute over medium heat

3. Add bullion cube in milk, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and 4 cups milk; cook until potatoes are beginning to get tender

4. Meanwhile, place shrimp in lightly salted, boiling water for 2-3 minutes, until just slightly cook. Drain them and let them cool. Once cooled, peel them if they are unpeeled and cut into pieces (about 4 pieces for a large shrimp).

5. Once potatoes are starting to get tender, add shrimp, corn, half and half, nutmeg, salt and pepper and allow to cook until potatoes are very tender.

Lentil Soup

This is an easy and simple soup (other than dicing potatoes, which is sort of a pain) that is perfect for a quick snack or a cold night (just in time for summer!) This recipe makes a LOT of soup, which is okay because it makes good leftovers. Or you could just cut the recipe in half.

I like my soup a little chunky, which means I don't puree it at the end. If you're a pureest (ha!) you can certainly puree it if you feel like it. In that case, you probably won't need to dice the potatoes quite so small.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups red lentils
3 medium-sized potatoes, peeled diced into 1 cm cubes
1 medium white or yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, very finely chopped or put through a press
1/2 cup lemon juice (approximately; to taste)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. oregano
About 8 cups of water, vegetable stock, or chicken stock (or any combination thereof)
salt and pepper to taste (LOTS is good!)

Directions

1. Dump all ingredients into a large pot and cook on medium until it starts to boil

2. Reduce to medium-low heat and continue to boil/simmer for about 40 minutes (the lentils should have split nicely, so the color is not only nice and opaque but it actually starts to taste like lentils and not water); salt and pepper to taste.

Vegetable stock

For all the recipes that call for chicken stock but you've got a vegetarian in the house. I made this for the baby, but it was so delicious that I think I will use it in place of chicken stock from now on, and I haven't even salted it yet!

This makes 2-3 cups, and you can freeze it if you want to keep some on hand.

I intend to make a quiche out of the discarded vegetables...I'll let you know how it goes.


Ingredients

1 large leek, chopped into slices
1 sweet potato, peeled cut into chunks
6-8 stalks asparagus, cut into 1 1/2 inch slices
4-5 cups water
(salt)

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a large saucepan, making sure that the water line is above the vegetables.

2. Bring to a boil, then cover and let simmer until soup has a mild flavor and the vegetables are tender (about 45 minutes to 1 hour).

3. Strain to remove the vegetables so all you have left is the stock.

4. Add salt to taste if you want it salted, or whatever herbs you want (I found rosemary to be very good).

Creamy Butternut Squash-Sweet Potato Soup (sans creme)

I made butternut squash before using a fresh squash and it was the biggest pain in the butt of my life. I love this stuff, but couldn't bear to make it again. I found some canned butternut squash, and thus the recipe for easy soup was born! By the way, most butternut squash soup recipes call for several cups of heavy cream...ouch. I couldn't find any good recipes online so I made this one up, and added sweet potatoes since I had some in the cupboard that were going bad; it was a good call! Also, you could probably use fresh butternut squash in this, as opposed to canned, but a) I'm lazy and b) I'm cheap. Oh, and I forgot the garlic when I made this. It turned out just fine, but I think some garlic would be nice.

Ingredients

1 15. oz can pureed butternut squash
1-2 sweet potatoes, cut into cubes
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, pressed/very finely chopped
2 tablespoons (or thereabouts) fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 can condensed chicken broth, plus water (could probably use non-condensed; about 20 oz., or one 14 oz. can plus water)
2-3 T. butter
A little bit of milk (optional)
Cinammon, nutmeg, cloves, and/or black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Saute the onions at the bottom of your soup pan with enough butter to coat them; add garlic towards the end when the onions are getting transparent

2. Add chicken broth/water, ginger, and sweet potatoes. Boil on medium-low heat until sweet potatoes are tender (about 40 minutes).

3. Puree everything with a food processor until smooth

4. Put back in the soup pot and add butternut squash and spices (and milk or cream if you feel like it, but it's totally unecessary).

Murat's Chicken Soup

Soul food for everyone! This is about as basic and simple a chicken soup as you can get. It's really nice when you get sick (G-d fahbid!)

Ingredients

1/8 cup olive oil
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
Handful of chopped baby carrots (optional; I don't like cooked carrots ruining my soup!)
3 small potatoes, diced
2 gloves of garlic, chopped or minced
1/2 tsp. oregano
3+ T. lemon juice
Huge bunch of fresh dill, chopped
2 chicken breasts
Salt and pepper to taste


Directions

1. In a large soup pot, saute the onion in the olive oil. When it is almost translucent, add the garlic and saute that, too (tends to burn, be careful!)

2. Add the diced potatoes and chopped celery and fill the pot with water so it just covers all the ingredients

3. Add the chicken breast, lemon juice, oregano and dill to the pot. Cover with additional water if needed.

4. Allow to simmer for 45 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

5. Once the chicken is cooked, pull it out of the pot and shred it with a knife; return shredded chicken to the pot

6. Salt and pepper to taste; voila!