Souper Saturday

Fall is my favorite time of the year and I love the idea of soups. Souper saturday began in my mind when I started making a hearty soup for Saturday supper. We usually watch "As Time Goes By"reruns Saturday night so the soup makes an easy segue into an early night with our old friends, Jean and Lionel. We have watched these shows for most of the 8 years of our marriage and still laugh at so much because they are so like us.

I have some favorite recipes for soup now but I also like ad hoc soups. Whenever I cook meat I save the juice and turn it into a stock that I freeze in those quart yoghurt containers. Sometimes I'll brown more meat than I need for a dinner and freeze that as well.



Turkish Beef Soup started out this way. I had a quart of shin beef already cooked up, a quart of pork stock, a half can of fire roasted tomatoes and a bunch of fresh spinach that was getting sad looking. Why Turkish? because I had the dregs of a bag of Penzeys' Turkish Seasoning. Into the pot!

Combine the beef, the pork stock, the tomatoes, and about 3T of the Turkish Seasoning. Bring to the boil and simmer a bit. Taste for salt, see if it needs some more liquid and then add 1/2 to 1 cup of raw rice. Cook about 15 minutes and taste again. Chop up the raw spinach and add it and cook about 5 more minutes. There you go. The house smells great while you simmer it and if you have some leftovers, someone's got a great lunch. I added some chopped chives when serving, and some powdered sumac to mine. A squirt of lemon can substitute for that sumac if you like the tart extra taste.

Souper Saturday

This was actually a dinner made on Thursday but as I will be at The Symphony this evening, I wrote this one ahead for you. You may consider having it for your dinner tonight if you get that crockpot or oven going early on. This recipe for Portugese Soupas was adapted from Rick Rodgers Ready and Waiting cookbook.

Cube all your beef and get that onion and garlic prepped.

I used a good hunk of frozen pork fat instead of oil. Hey, it's winter, cold and I like that rich flavor. (the brown little nugget is a piece of beef fat which was then discarded)

As you get closer to dinner, you may want to ask The Staff to make tea for you.

Lookin' good here as it's ready to serve.

Then we have the sides of green beans in brown butter and a mushroom bread pudding.

Plated and ready for eating. It went fast, and himself went back for seconds. Well, I did too but just not as much. heheh

My recipe is here and I think this one is mild enough for a dinner that included picky eaters (you know if you have them). The recipe also discusses how else this could be served if you really want to make this a one bowl meal.

Souper Saturday

When I have the house to myself, I tend to get on a roll with projects that are better not stopped for a lot of cooking. Like working in the attic.

This happened this weekend and I found a soup that was just perfect for a quick and good meal.

I had some chicken bits in the freezer, leftover from Greek Grilled Chicken. (Yes, it was bitter cold Inauguration day but I wanted to grill!) I had found one of those treasures that you can find in your pantry if your pantry is like mine - full of those goodies you are saving for a rainy day. Some might call it hoarding, but who am I to judge. Ok, bring out the shoe, because it does fit, so I'll wear it.

The jar was one I couldn't even recall buying much less seeing but no matter. When the directions said, Add one spoonful to 1 cup water, I was sold. I used a heaping tablespoon. The chicken thawed on my soapstone counter top in no time, and I had some sliced mushrooms AND cilantro that amazingly was as fresh as when bought. I boiled up the flavored h2o, then added the chicken, and then the mushrooms. Almost instantly it was done, so I turned the gas off, added a handful of grape tomatoes and a good batch of minced cilantro. Soup!

Could have used more oomph (red pepper/finely sliced Thai chile etc) to make it taste more Thai but hey... it was done in no time, and hit the spot. I'd love this with shrimp, but then I love shrimp most any darn way. I suspect dh would also eat it with fish if he were around. I had enough chicken thawed for a 2nd batch the next day, and made it the same way. Obviously you could add any # of finely chopped/sliced raw vegetables or even some precooked veggies (aka leftovers) if you get them to room temp first and just cook them enuf at the end to get hot. If they were already limp I'd pass on cooking them more.

I do recall having soups like this at room temperature in Thailand but then room temperature was usually pretty darn hot.

Oh, and you just read the recipe.

Souper Saturday

I tend to think about this soup a lot, mainly because I like lasagne A Lot. However, I don't often feel like making lasagna a lot, especially in the summer months when the idea of the oven on for 45 minutes or so has very little appeal. So winter or summer, this is a good one because it's a stove top one and can even be done in a crockpot . I think I would brown the meat first though. My batch is for next week, so the pasta has NOT been added yet.

photograph by Marilyn at GardenWeb

1 pound ground beef (sirloin or chuck)
1 large onion; chopped
5 cloves garlic; minced
4 cups beef broth
15 oz. can crushed tomatoes
15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 can Campbell’s tomato soup
1 teaspoon dried basil
4 oz. fresh baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 cup mafalda pasta (mini lasagna noodles)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Brown ground beef in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onions and continue to cook until onions are tender, stir in garlic and sauté for another minutes. Add broth, tomatoes, soup and basil; bring to a simmer and cook covered for 30 minutes to blend flavors. Meanwhile cook pasta until al dente, drain and toss with olive oil. Add spinach and pasta to the soup and simmer uncovered until spinach wilts, 1 or 2 minutes. Taste soup and season with salt and pepper.

To serve, place 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese in the bottom of bowl and ladle hot soup on top to melt cheese. Garnish top with Parmesan cheese and serve immediately. Serves 4 generously.

Recipe inspired by Lasagne Soup from Cuisine at Home magazine via Marilyn at GardenWeb.

My notes - the pasta will swell quite a bit if you save any leftover soup. You may like that, you may not. I would suggest doubling this if you like it and freezing half to add pasta later. I do find pasta will freeze quite nicely - for a soup like this - if coated with a bit of oil and microwaved for a bit from the frozen state.

Souper Saturday cooked on Sunday

Well the thought was there Saturday and the recipe came out. Then I remembered I was going to be having a big meal midafternoon and really didn't need lunch or dinner at home. Ok. Let's move on to cooking on Sunday and the final result to start.

This recipe came from Jessy (aka the Wicked One) over at GardenWeb. I'm not sure if the Uncle Bill in question is her uncle or not. One of these visits to CA, I'll have to ask Jessy about it. First, my lovelies, you read the recipe. Oh I know, you always do that. Well, I always think I do but sometimes I realize as I'm in the Midst of It that I've kind of skimmed it, not read it. DH would say this is typical of my rush to Not Listen. btw, that binder you see is ALL soup recipes.

I might have chopped the onion and garlic by hand but I wanted to make hummus next so I used the food processor which would then have a little flavor leftover for the hummus.

Saute those babies up, onions first then the garlic for just a tad. No burning!

Add the next batch of ingredients and blend nicely. You can see I used Knorr shrimp base instead of chicken or vegetable as I was adding some crabmeat.

Here is the soup with the dried oregano and pepper added. It was toooo cold to go out and get some fresh oregano when I was starting this but that oregano is a hardy soul and still flourishing outside.

I finished it up by adding about 1/2 cup of crabmeat and a good handful of feta. You can find the whole recipe and my notes here and check out the blender pureeing tip from Chow. This was a perfect Sunday lunch. Now I just need to get some more crab for the leftovers.