Soups – All About Becoming

Peach Soup

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this soup. Years ago, I went to a fancy restaurant in town that served COLD soup. Being a picky eater, I nearly didn’t try it, but I’m GLAD I did. It was plum soup. So delicious! I’ve tried to figure out that recipe for years, so I was glad when I found a peach soup recipe. I tried it, then I tweaked it to the way I liked it and now I am the happiest girl ever when peach season rolls around….. and slightly depressed the rest of the year, because I am such a lover of fresh peaches! I can’t get enough of them! So enough about my relationship with peaches….it’s seasonal. ;o) Here is the recipe I came up with.

Here’s the ingredients: fresh peaches, sliced or quarted; orange juice, peach nectar, plain yogurt, sour cream, sugar, and almond extract.

Put your 3 C of peaches in a bowl or a blender. (I like to use my immersion blender, so I use a bowl.)

Dump in the rest of your ingredients: 1/2 C Sour Cream, 1/2 C plain yogurt, 1/2 C orange juice, 1/2 C peach nectar, 1/4 C sugar and 1 t Almond Extract.

And then blend until smooth. Adjust the sugar to taste. If you have really sweet peaches, you won’t need more. If they’re not as sweet, I’m sorry. ;o) You can add a little more sugar, though, if you’d like.

Then you can chill it in the fridge until serving time. If you are serving it to royalty or for the prom or to impress others (and you will!), then I’ll show you how to make a cute raspberry flower in it.

Pour that deliciousness into a pretty bowl. This is corel…. the final picture I’ll post is a pretty pewter bowl.

Put some fresh or frozen, but defrosted raspberries into a bowl and mash them up.

Then put them in a strainer and strain the seeds out, leaving just the delicious raspberry pulp.

After you’ve strained the seeds, put a little sugar in to taste.

Okay, I’m using a spoon for this example, but I recommend using the squirt bottle (I’ll post it here in a bit) to do this because it is easier and looks better. But you are going to take your spoon and drizzle a circle in your soup.

See, it’s kind of a thick circle. The squirt bottle makes it thinner and nicer looking. After you get your circle done, then take a toothpick and starting from the outside edge of your circle, drag it to the center, creating a “petal.”

When you’re all done, it will look much better than this because the circle is so thick. Then after you have made your petals, you put a dot in the center and it looks like a cute flower.

Here’s a picture of the squirt bottle (and my son’s hand). We aren’t too professional around here. We just want things done! ;o)

And here’s a picture of one done up right purty for Homecoming last year. This was done with the squirt bottle. Much more control. And yes, that’s a sword….we were on a pirate ship, for Heaven’s sake. You can read about it and see pictures in the link above.

So there you have the purty peach soup. One of our all time fave’s around here!!

Here’s the easy-to-read version:

3 C peeled, quartered or sliced peaches

1/2 C Sour Cream

1/2 C plain yogurt

1/2 C Orange Juice

1/2 C peach nectar (I find these in the hispanic food section)

1/4 C sugar

1 t Almond Extract

Blend all ingredients together. Can add pretty raspberry flower, if desired.

I always double this or triple. This batch is not enough for us. =) Let me know if you tried it and how you like it!

Easy Homemade Chili

This is one of my favorite meals my mom made. Very simple, but good. I’ve shortened down the time spent by using my bottled beans, but you can still soak them overnight and throw them in your crockpot the next morning, or you can simply by some cans. The flavor is much better when you use your own bottled or soaked ones.

Here’s the recipe:

Bottled tomatoes, bottled beans, hamburger and onion (sorry forgot to add those to the pic), and chili powder, salt & pepper.

First, brown your hamburger with onion. I didn’t have an onion on hand, so I threw in about a 1/4 c of some dried onion. Add salt and pepper to your hamburger.

Dump your tomatoes in your crock pot.

If you like chunky tomato chili, just leave it. If you want, you can mash your tomatoes with a potato masher, or if you like it smooth and not chunky for those picky eaters, do what I did and stick your immersion blender in and blend them up. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can blend them in your regular blender then dump them in. I recommend getting an immersion blender. I love mine!!

Rinse off your beans. (Sorry about the lighting, the sun was coming through the window by the sink and I don’t have blinds there yet.)

Add your beans to your pot.

Add a couple of tablespoons of chili powder.

Stir it up and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 2-5. You can start on high, then lower it. If you make it early in the morning, then set it for low and just let it cook until you get home. If you don’t get started until after lunch and want it for dinner, put it on high. That’s my rule of thumb. You can always turn it down on low. This is really my favorite chili. Not too many flavors competing. I love to smash up saltine crackers and put it in. I know, I know, it’s a weird thing I did as a kid, but I still love it!

Easy Homemade Chili
2 qts bottled tomatoes
1 qt bottled pinto beans
1 lb hamburger browned
1/2- 1 onion, diced OR a 1/4 of dried onion
2 T chili powder
Salt & pepper to taste

Brown hamburger with onion. Season with salt and pepper. Add tomatoes to crock pot. Blend if desired. Rinse beans. Add to crock pot. Add browned hamburger to crock pot. Add seasonings and adjust them to taste. Cook on high 2-5 hours or on low 6-8 hours.

If you need to feed more people, add another bottle of beans, increase your hamburger and tomatoes. Quite simple and delicious.

Zucchini Bisque

I love this soup recipe. It is especially fun when I do my “green” St. Patrick’s Day dinner. It is a nice flavored soup and even some of my picky ones will eat this one. It’s a fairly quick and easy one to make, too.

Here’s the cast of characters for this soup:

2 medium onions, 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, 1 1/2 pounds zucchini, 3 cups chicken broth, 1 1/2 cups half-and-half, 1/3 teaspoon pepper, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, Pinch cayenne pepper (optional), Grated cheddar cheese

First, slice your onions.

Melt your butter in your soup pan.

Add your onions to the melted butter and saute until clear and tender.

While the onions are cooking, wash your zucchini and trim the top and bottom off. Slice your zucchini. I like to use the mandolin slicer because it gets them a little more uniform and thin….and it is fast when slicing so many. I like to slice mine fairly thin so they cook faster. Have you figured out that I’m an impatient cooker yet?

Stir your onions off and on while slicing zucchini. Can you see how they are clear now? This means they are ready for you to add the broth and zucchini to the pot.Like so. Can you see how the zucchini is fairly white and solid looking? Keep your eye on the zucchini. When it turns clear then you know it is ready for the next step.

It takes about 10 or 15 minutes. You can see in the top right one zucchini that isn’t quite as cooked as the rest.

Here’s a little closer view. I’m hoping you can see how the onions and zucchini are clear and soft. If you get impatient and don’t let them get quite as cooked, then you have chunky soup. Not that I’ve done that before. More than once. Because I’m impatient.

Once the veggie’s are soft, then you want to blend it. I have done this in my blender one or two cups at a time. You can only do a small amount and you have to be careful because when you turn your blender on, it will explode and shoot hot zucchini stuff everywhere and you will burn your hands. Not that I’ve done that before. More than once. Because I’m impatient. It’s messy, trust me. Yet, it is the way I had to do it before I got an immersion blender, which happens to be my favorite way of blending most things. It is one of my favorite kitchen inventions. It is so simple and I don’t have to mess up more dishes. I used to have to mess up a bowl to pour the soup in, then the blender, then back to the pot. That’s TWO extra dishes to wash. NO likey. Immersion Blender. Get one. You’ll be happy you did. It’s is also a great whipper of cream. Yet, I digress…….

Here are the seasonings and spices. I think the recipe said to put them in before you blend, but I got excited to use my immersion blender, so I just added them after. And you can probably tell that I didn’t measure the pepper or the salt. I’m that way. I just throw a little in, then keep adjusting until it has the flavor I want.

After the seasonings are in, add the half and half. You don’t want the soup on high heat after you blend. You just want to keep it at a low temperature. Especially when you add cream, half and half, or milk. By the way, you can substitute any of these if you don’t have half and half. I’ve done that before, as well. I do prefer the flavor with the half and half the best.

Cream is all mixed in. Isn’t is pretty. It is a nice light green color. Taste it and adjust your salt and seasonings.
Put it in your bowls and sprinkle with cheese. Oh, the cheese makes it yummy!!! Once it melts, it returns to it’s joyful light green color. If you are serving it for St. Patty’s Day, and want it a little more green, I suppose you could add some food coloring to it. Frankly, I had so much green stuff I worried about my family’s skin turning green.

Enjoy this yummy soup!! PS. Gable House used to be a really nice restaurant in town that had delicious food. But the good old days are gone. I can’t even remember who gave me this recipe, but I’ve had it for a LONG time. It’s still a favorite around here!

Here’s the full recipe

Gable House Zucchini Bisque

2 medium onions

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 1/2 pounds zucchini

3 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups half-and-half

1/3 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Pinch cayenne pepper, optional

Grated cheddar cheese

Chop and cook onions in butter until clear and soft, but not browned. Wash and slice zucchini. Combine onion, zucchini, and chicken broth in heavy saucepan and bring to boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or until squash is tender. Add seasonings and put mixture into blender to puree until smooth. (I put blended mixture in a bowl until all is blended, then put back in pan. Or use and immersion blender.) Add half and half, adjust seasonings to taste. Reheat, but do not boil. Serve immediately with grated cheese. Serves 6-8.

Cheeseburger Soup

Cheeseburger soup is the family favorite. So favorite, in fact, that it has been requested as “the last supper” for our exchange student and was the must have recipe for my son on a mission.

This soup is hearty enough for a meal. Most soups require a lot more with it to be filling, but not this one. A nice slice of homemade bread or a roll and you have a meal.

First, two disclaimers:

1. The small lens to my camera was dropped and broken, so these pictures are with the long range lens which means I had to stand on stools, counters, and hang from the rafters to get photos.

2. I am not a photographer. Don’t plan to be. I will do my best, but I don’t understand aperature, numbers, lighting, and such. Hopefully, I will get better but being a photographer is not my lifelong goal.

This day I made cheeseburger soup for the scouts. I think I 3 or 4 timesed it. (Timesed must not be a word. I’m getting a red line. However, I’ve heard it said so much and being a Webster, I’m counting it!) Bear that in mind as you chop and dice. You will have less than I show in the pics.

What you’ll need:

Ground beef, onion, carrots, celery, dried basil, dried parsley, salt, pepper, chicken broth, potatoes, milk, butter, flour, velveeta cheese, sourcream.

Here we go:

First, brown your ground beef in your soup pot. (I’m lazy. Like to confine my mess to as few pans as possible.)

While the meat is browning, begin dicing your veggies. Since I have a lot of chopping to do, and I am lazy, I will throw mine in the food processor. First, I chunk them up.

Then I throw them in the food processor.

There they are all diced fine. I like to do mine small so picky people don’t have to deal with “chunks.”

If you’re meat is browned, drain it and leave it for a minute while you get the other ready. Can’t you just feel the heat from that steam?? Please drop a few pieces of hamburger in your sink. It will make me feel better. Thanks!

Chopping carrots. You can either buy these match stick carrots if you are lazy (like me), like them chunky, or are in a hurry (that’s me, too). I actually just threw these in the food processor, too.

All chopped up.

Now the celery.

Chop it up.

In the same pan you browned the meat in, melt your butter and add the chopped veggies along with your basil and parsley. I used fresh parsley because my dried was low and I had fresh on hand. I usually use the dried. Saute until tender.

Add your chicken broth.

Then add your diced potatoes. If you’re lucky and have help, then they can be dicing while you are getting the other stuff ready. No one was home this day, so I diced after I added my broth. I like my potatoes small and bite sized. I slice them length-wise, then flip them and slice length-wise again, then dice OR

If you have four timesed the batch and have a lot to dice, you can use your handy dandy slicer to speed things up.

Add the diced potatoes to your pot along with your drained hamburger and bring it to a boil. Cover the pot and let them simmer until soft, about 10 or so minutes. Or about the time it takes to make your roux.

In another sauce pan, (sorry we have to dirty another pan here), melt your butter and add the flour. Make sure your pan is well loved and used like mine.

Stir it until you have a paste. Then add it to your soup pot and stir to thicken.

Make sure your pan is large enough or you may have to go grab your even LARGER pan and transfer the soup over. I should have only 3 timesed this, but hey, I was worried about feeding hungry, cold boys…..

After you add your roux, add your milk.

Then dice up your cheese in chunks.

Add it to your pot and stir until it’s melted. Add your sour cream last and stir until mixed in.

And TaDa! You have your pot of Cheeseburger soup that is brimming close to the top, so you have to scoop some out into bowls for your married kids so that it doesn’t spill all over the scout leader’s car. Especially when the scout leader is your hubby!

It should look a little more orangeish. I think I didn’t get all the cheese in, but you will LOVE it!!

Hearty and delicious and perfect for a cold winter day or a Last Supper.

Cheeseburger Soup Makes 4 servings (which means I always double it!)

1/2 pound ground beef

3/4 cup chopped onions

3/4 cup shredded carrots

3/4 cup diced celery

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

4 tablespoons butter or margarine, divided

3 cups chicken broth

4 cups peeled, diced potatoes (1 3/4 lbs or 4-5 potatoes)

1/4 cup flour

8 ounces velveeta cubed

1 1/2 cups milk

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup sour cream

In a 3 qt. sauce pan, brown beef; drain and set aside.

In the same saucepan, saute onion, carrots, celery, basil, andparsley in 1 T butter until vegetables are tender, about 10 min.

Add broth, potatoes, and beef; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-12 min. or until potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, in small skillet, melt remaining butter. Add flour; cook and stir 3-5 min. until bubbly.

Add cheese, milk, salt, and pepper; cook and stir until cheese melts. Remove from the heat; blend in sour cream.

2/14/12 Note: I made this soup last night because is was a nice cold, rainy day. I didn’t really read the recipe and forgot to drain the meat. I just threw the carrots, celery, and onions in with the hamburger and sauteed it after the meat was browned. It turned out just fine– actually it was really yummy! So I didn’t use all the butter it called for– just what I needed for the roux.