Tag Archives: soup

Chicken and Dumplings

  March 20, 2013 - 6:00 am | , , , , , , , ,
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“You have your hands full!” It’s the one comment I hear more than any other when people see me with all three kids. I hear this most at the grocery store when I am wearing one twin, have the second in the front of the grocery cart, and my four year old in the main part of the cart. As the mom of 11-month old twins and a four year old, I suppose I do have my hands full. However, I am always amused and perplexed when I hear this. What does my commentator really mean? That I am busy from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed? Yes, that’s certainly true. But in today’s over-scheduled life, don’t all moms? I don’t know of a single one that sits on the couch eating bonbons all day. One kid or five, every mom I know has almost every minute of their day spoken for. We all watch the clock for the moment when that last little lock of hair settles on a pillow for the night (and not the first time, but that second or third time, after the drink of water, the monster search and the little speech on why they couldn’t possibly go to sleep).
Why does the number of children I have deem me more deserving of the hands-full title than the career mom with one or two kids? I’ve done it both ways, and as tiring and trying as my current life is, I would take it over the stress and guilt of the working mom. In truth, I lead a charmed life. I might not admit to it when I look down to see my clothes polka-dotted in unknown substances, or try to figure out the last time I got a decent shower, but at the end of the day I know I have it good.
Did moms hear this at the grocery store fifty years ago when the average woman had four children? I do wonder how they managed at the store. How did they maneuver around the store before the days of the carts with the cars at the front or fantastic hard-to-find carts with room for two kids at the front (room for a child was introduced in shopping carts in 1947). What inventions will my children enjoy that will make even easier for them?
We may all have our hands full these days, but that doesn’t mean that we have to rely on heavily processed convenience foods. In fact, providing healthy foods free of preservatives, coloring and additives actually makes life easier. I’m not the only mom to notice the difference in my kid’s behavior when they eat over-processed foods and when they eat meals made from scratch. Making dinner is one of the best forms of entertainment in our home. Not only can I entertain them by having them help make the meal (the twins watch from their high-chairs), but Little Guy is more willing to try foods that he helped to make.
Chicken and Dumplings is probably the one meal I make more than any other during the cold months. It is my grandmother, Martha Kornegay’s, recipe. Now nobody will deny that Martha Kornegay was truly a woman with her hands full. The mother of six, and a working mom, she had her hands full for decades! When she was raising her children, she did not have all the convenience foods available today. Meals like chicken and dumplings were her convenience foods because they provided a wholesome meal all in one pot and because it is an inexpensive meal.

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Martha Kornegay’s Chicken and Dumpling Recipe in her handwriting

I have changed her original recipe a little to improve it nutritionally but make it taste just as good as her original. I tried just adding whole-grain flour, but that didn’t work. The dumplings were heavy and tough with the bitter flavors that whole-grains can sometimes have. I used buttermilk to balance the flavors and a pinch of baking soda to help lighten the heaviness of the whole wheat. Using the correct type of whole-grain flour helps too. Like with so many other recipes, I have the best results with spelt flour, but you could also use a white whole-wheat flour here too.
Whatever flour you use, the dough will be VERY wet. There will come a point, when you are making the dumplings, when you will think there has to be a typo in the recipe, and you will think that you really need to add more flour, that there is no way this will roll out and turn into dumplings. When you do, just ignore your thoughts and follow the recipe. As long as you roll this out on a pastry mat, waxed paper or parchment, you will be fine. In the finished product, the flour you use on which to roll this out is just as important as the flour in the dumplings. It creates a thick stewy broth. If you stir it well while you put in the dumplings, it will not clump. Trust me.
It pays to use your own chicken stock in this recipe. Your finished product will only be as good as the stock you use. I usually make a roast chicken one night, then take the left-over meat off the bones and use the bones to make my slow-cooker chicken stock over-night. Then the next night I already have my broth and chicken done and only have to chop some carrots, make the dumplings and cook some peas. A little planning provides dinner for two nights plus leftovers, and even better – EVERYONE will like it. Enjoy!

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Chicken and Dumplings
Serves 6-8
The dumpling dough is very wet when when it is mixed together. Adding extra flour to the dough makes the dumplings tough. You need a lot of flour when rolling out the dough, and that flour is then used to thicken the broth into a stew.
You can make this with any type of whole-grain flour or use only all-purpose flour. Traditionally this would be served very peppery. Adding the pepper several minutes before serving will allow the pepper flavor to strengthen.

8-10 cups Slow-cooker Poultry Broth (chicken) or any low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter or chicken fat
1 cup whole grain spelt flour whole-wheat flour
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 pinch baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
3 cups cooked, boned, skinned and shredded chicken – a mixture of white and dark meat (about 1/2 chicken)
1 1/2 cups carrots, peeled and sliced (about 4 medium)
salt and pepper to taste

Bring the broth and butter to a boil in a large soup pot or dutch oven. While the broth comes to a boil, make the dumplings.

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In a medium bowl combine the whole-grain flour, 1 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper; set aside.

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In another bowl mix the egg, buttermilk and baking soda.

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Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until well combined; the dough will be very wet.

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On a pastry mat or waxed paper, spread 1/2 cup of flour. Scrape the dough onto the floured surface and cover the top with another 1/4 cup of flour.

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Using your hands, spread the dough out to 1/3” inch thick. Use a knife or pizza cutter to cut the dough into 1”X3” pieces.

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When the broth has come to a rapid boil, slide the dumplings, one at a time, and the extra flour into the broth. It is okay if some of the dumplings break while moving them into the broth. Use a pastry scraper or knife to get off any dumplings that stick. Immediately stir the mixture until the dumplings are separated and the flour has mixed into the broth. A few small lumps of flour are fine and will cook themselves out in time. Add the chicken and carrots and return to a simmer. Reduce the heat and cook, stirring frequently but gently until the dumplings and carrots are tender and the broth has thickened, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and cook for another ten minutes before serving. Serve with green peas.

Bean and Sausage Stew

  January 9, 2013 - 10:18 pm | , , , , , , ,
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So far our legume series has featured two unusual ways to prepare them—fried in an appetizer and a french-fry substitute. This week we fall back to the tried and true, the traditional bean soup (or stew). People have been cooking up beans in a pot since before the invention of farming. They were first gathered from wild vines. My guess is that the first gatherers just popped a few freshly shelled beans in their mouth. They were tasty, but a bit later in the night, the digestive problems set in and they changed their minds. Beans have various complex sugars and combined sugar-proteins (lectins) in their husks. Some of the sugars are hard to digest and others are downright toxic to humans. See http://www.usdrybeans.com/nutrition/nutrition-facts/. They soon discovered that cooking destroyed most of these problem nutrients and thus into the pot went the beans.

By the way, some slow cookers (mainly older ones) don’t get hot enough (176 degrees Fahrenheit) to break down the lectins. If you suspect that your slow cooker isn’t adequate, check its temperature or soak and/or boil the beans and discard that water before finishing them in the slow cooker.

“Pease porridge hot. Pease porridge cold. Pease porridge in the pot nine days old.” Was Mother Goose a negligent cook, unconcerned about her childrens’ nutrition? Well, if she was one of the multitude of peasants in middle-ages Europe, peas porridge (from the French potage) might be all she had for the week’s rations. Even the well-to-do began their medieval feasts with a course of potage or two. What’s potage? Anything cooked in a pot. Ummm, soup or stew; I’m still undecided.

Let no one doubt that bean soup is a cornerstone of civilization. The United States Senate has bean soup in its private dining room every time the doors open. This unbroken tradition began over a century ago by order of some farm-state senators of that day.

Tradition aside, about this time, mid-winter, I start to really crave this stew. It’s this recipe that started me on my cheese-rind-in-the-soup kick a few years ago. In this recipe the cheese rinds help tame the spicy sausage, mellow the beaniness and lend a soft cheesy flavor. I choose to use lots of different beans because each size has its own distinct purpose. The small lentils, peas, and beans dissolve into the soup to thicken it into a stew, the mid and larger beans provide texture. Bob’s Red Mill 13 Bean mix is what I’ve always used, but of course there are others.

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As long as the mix has both large beans and small lentils and split peas it should work. One cup of this soup will give you the warmth and energy to shovel the walk or even to bundle up the kids in the countless layers necessary for snowman building. Enjoy!

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Mixed Bean and Sausage Stew
Serves 8
I’ve made this soup with kielbasa, chorizo, and andouille sausages. I use the turkey variety, but as long as your using a good quality, smoked and strongly flavored sausage it should work.
2 cups dried mixed beans with no flavorings such as Bob’s Red Mill 13 Bean Mix
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package smoked sausage (12-16 ounces depending on the sausage), quartered lengthwise then cut into 1/2” pieces
1 large onion, diced in small 1/4” pieces
3-4 large carrots (about 3/4 pound) diced in large 1/2” pieces
1 teaspoons dried thyme (or 2 teaspoons fresh)
2 bay leaves
6 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese rinds
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt

Soak the beans overnight or bring to a boil for five minutes and soak for one hour, then drain. In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat two tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil begins to shimmer add the sausage.

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Cook the sausage, stirring several times, until it is brown on all sides, about eight minutes. Add the onion and carrots and continue to cook until the onions are translucent, about four minutes longer.

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Add the beans, the thyme and bay leaves and the chicken broth and bring to a boil.

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Reduce heat to low and simmer until the larger beans are just tender, about one hour.

Add the cheese rinds and one teaspoon of salt and continue to cook until the smallest of the beans have fallen apart and the largest of the beans are very tender, about another hour.

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Be sure to stir the stew occasionally to make sure the cheese does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Season to taste and serve with crunchy bread.

Potato Leek Soup with Cheese Rinds

  November 15, 2012 - 10:04 pm | , , , , , , ,
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It’s been a stressful week around here. Little Guy’s 4th birthday party was over the weekend, and there’s nothing like a kid’s birthday party to push the stress buttons. Luckily it was a small affair, and luckier still, Little Guy requested an easy theme and cake. A cake so easy in fact that I couldn’t possibly pay someone to make it; I just had to do it myself. Yes, I really am that stupid. Now, let me tell you I can make soup that will bring tears of joy to your eyes, polenta so creamy you want to bathe in it, and pulled pork so tangy and tender that even New Yorkers will let out a yee-haw, but I am no cake baker. So, I was pretty darn pleased when I produced a cake that even I was proud of. See….

Yeah, if you happen to notice that I have done nothing at all but simply covered the cake in a sort-of smooth coating of buttercream and then thrown a few Disney toys on top, don’t tell anyone. I’m really really proud of this one!

We also had a make-your-own pizza bar for everyone which was super tasty and a big hit, albeit a little heavy on the work for the cook. Grilling pizzas for everyone wasn’t hard, it’s just that they all looked so yummy and I had to wait till the end to get a bite of my white pizza with Gorgonzola and caramelized onions. I don’t like waiting for caramelized onions!

After we cleaned up the curling ribbon and I eradicated the leftover buttercream from the house (homemade buttercream and diets don’t go well together for me). I was left with a messy house and a tired, stressed-out cook that wanted a light, buttercream-free meal. Mix in a cold front, and you get the perfect night for an easy, warm, comforting meal that tastes rich and creamy without a lot of cream and fat. So it happened that we dined on potato leek soup the night after Little Guy’s party. It’s easy, comforting, tasty and feeds a hungry family.

One of my soup secrets is cheese rinds. I always save them and throw them in the freezer when I get to the end of my wedges of Parmigiano Reggiano and (more often) Grana Padano. I also try to leave just a little extra of the inner cheese on the rind to melt into my soups and give them a rich flavor.

Don’t tell anyone, but I don’t remove the rinds before serving like others do; I just cut them up prior to serving and leave them in the soup as bits of chewy, cheesy goodness for the eaters to enjoy. If you like chewy and cheese then you’ll understand. Don’t judge.

I think that the few tablespoons of butter and the cheese rinds used makes up for the lack of cream in this soup. Of course I won’t tell if you throw in a glug of cream at the end to finish off this soup. The soup doesn’t need it, but then again, I don’t need buttercream. Enjoy!

Potato Leek Soup with Cheese Rinds
Serves 8-10

The beauty of this soup is its versatility. You can use vegetarian or chicken broth, leave out the dairy all together or substitute a little sharp cheddar at the end in place of the cheese rinds. You’ll still end up with a great soup.

3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1 large bunch leeks (about 4 leeks), dark green parts removed
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 pounds peeled potatoes (I like yukon gold or russet)
6 cups broth or stock (vegetable or chicken)
2-3 large Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese rinds (about 7 ounces)

To clean the leeks, cut off the dark green tops and the root end. Split each leek longways and separate the layers.

Rinse them thoroughly in cold water to remove all the hidden sand. Melt the butter in a large soup pot or sauce pan over medium-low heat. When the butter has melted add the leeks, salt and pepper. Allow the leeks to cook slowly until they are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes.

Add the potatoes, broth and cheese rinds and bring to a simmer.

Allow the soup to simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft but not yet falling apart and the cheese rinds are well softened. Remove the cheese rinds and puree the soup using either an immersion blender or stand blender. (If you use a stand blender be very careful to vent the top of the blender and cover with a towel so you don’t burn yourself or end up with a soup covered kitchen). If you want to leave the softened cheese rinds in the soup, chop them up and return them to the pureed soup.

Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.

Onion Soup

  January 24, 2012 - 3:28 pm | , , , , ,
8 Comments

As someone who is fascinated with the naming of national food theme days (and months), I jumped into action when I found out it is National Soup Month. Now, soup month is not my favorite food themed date, that is reserved for Meat on a Stick Day which is March 27th (mark your calendars). But it’s winter, and soups sounds just about right. Whoever decided on January as National Soup Month probably figured July was not the right timing.

I’ve been craving soup a lot lately. It feels nourishing this time of year. In my excitement to make a beautiful elaborate soup, I grabbed my grocery list and started to make a list of what I would want. Then I looked out the window and remembered I had one problem. . .

Still, there is something about making soup that is ultimately pleasing. You start with such simple ingredients and build flavors one step at time until the end when you have a full flavored satisfying meal. The weather was perfect for a big bowl of hot deliciousness, but getting to the store was not an option in the snow. I might not be able to make soups with long lists of ingredients, but the great thing about soup is that you can pretty much always find something in your kitchen to turn into soup. So many soups are built on basic ingredients that most people have readily available, and such is the case with the classic French onion soup. The most basic recipe calls for little more than onions, water, old bread, a little Gruyere cheese and a tiny splash of wine. I did a quick cupboard check. I had pretty much everything except the Gruyere. I did have, however, a bunch of other cheeses, so I hopped into kitchen mode.

Making the soup is pretty straight forward. When I started looking up recipes, I was amazed. There seemed to be less variation on onion soup recipes than any recipe I had ever researched. All the recipes had you slice the onions and slowly cook them, deglaze with some sort of alcoholic beverage, then add broth (usually beef) and a few aromatics and simmer the soup to reduce and intensify flavors. The only variations seemed to be the type of alcohol used for deglazing: red wine, white wine or brandy. I’ve had onion soup made with just brandy and it’s wonderful, but perhaps a bit to rich. White wine is also nice, but too much adds a sour note that I’m not a fan of. So, decided to base my recipe on Julia Child’s recipe in The Way To Cook and use a combination of both white wine and brandy. After looking through several recipes I also decided on just thyme for aromatics. After surveying my cheese selection, I opted for some grated aged Gouda and sliced Double Gloucester cheddar that I had on hand.

This is the perfect soup to make on a snowy day because it isn’t difficult, but it does take awhile. Constant attention while your onions are browning is key, but then once you add the broth and start the simmering stage, feel free to go out in the snow and make snow angels; we did.

Onion soup may not seem like the sort of thing that is kid-friendly, but it’s actually one of the easiest soups to make for your kids. Simply strain out the onions and give them bread with melted cheese on the side to dip.

Snowy Day Onion Soup – click here for a printer-friendly version of this recipe
based on a recipe in The Way to Cook, by Julia Child
makes 6-8 servings

There are three things which make up the secret to good onion soup. First, slice the onions very thin; second make sure your onion slices are as even in size as possible so they brown at the same rate; and finally you need a lot of patience in browning the onions. To get the onion to brown right, you really need to stir every few minutes for about 40 minutes.

4 tablespoons butter
2 pounds sweet onions sliced thin (2-3 large onions, about 8 cups sliced)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons flour
3 sprigs thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1/4 cup brandy
1/2 cup dry white wine
8 cups Vegetable Stock, Beef Stock, or even Chicken Stock – water if your in a real pinch
6 slices of hearty bread such as french, sourdough or ciabatta, sliced in half if too large for your bowls
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 ounces of thinly sliced or shredded cheese (use the best of whatever you have: cheddar, Parmesan, Gorgonzola, etc)

Melt the butter in a large heavy-bottomed dutch oven or soup pot placed over medium heat. When the butter starts to bubble, add onions, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring two or three times until the onions are wilted and the liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook, stirring every few minutes until the onions are a medium-dark brown, about 25 minutes longer.

Onions during the cooking process: top left – raw sliced, top right – after 10 minutes of cooking, bottom – after 40 minutes of cooking

When the onions have finished browning add the thyme and flour, and cook for two minutes. Add the brandy and cook until the brandy had almost completely cooked off, about five minutes. Slowly whisk in the stock and white wine and bring the soup to a simmer. Simmer over low heat for about an hour, or until the liquid has reduced by about 1/3 and the onions have mostly dissolved into the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

While the soup is simmering, heat oven to 450 degrees and drizzle bread slices with olive oil. Toast bread slices in the oven until the edges are slightly brown and the bread is crunchy, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven.

When the soup is ready, turn on your oven broiler. Ladle soup into oven-safe bowls, top with 1-2 slices of toasted bread and about an ounce of cheese. Place under broiler until cheese is brown and bubbly. Cool slightly before serving. Soup will hold without cheese and bread topping for several days in the refrigerator, or for longer in the freezer.

Butternut Squash Soup

  October 13, 2011 - 8:58 pm | , , , , , ,
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Perhaps you noticed I’ve been M.I.A. recently. Funny thing; it’s hard to cook (much less even think about) food when you are moaning the days away on the couch with morning sickness. That’s been my life for the past six weeks. That’s right, our nest of three is expanding next spring. I am working on getting back into the swing of things, but realistically I will probably be posting less often for the next few months until we settle into our new normal. I am committed to keeping this blog focused on whole foods prepared in a way that respects the planet and the pocketbook and doing so in a way that keeps the whole family coming back for more. Enough of that though–on to Butternut Squash Soup.

This soup is probably my oldest standby recipe. It’s a simple, flavorful, wholesome version of a Fall classic prepared without all the fuss and complications. While most squash soup recipes are laden down with cream, sugar and spices, this one has no cream, no added sugar, and no spices except fresh ginger. I discovered this recipe during a particularly memorable Halloween day in 2002. I was in London for the first time and my first stop was a store called Books For Cooks in Notting Hill. It is just about the most perfect place on earth for a foodie. The front of the store is a cookbook store and the rear is a test kitchen and small restaurant. During the day, the kitchen serves a three course lunch at a set price (£12 back in 2002).The best part is that everything prepared in the kitchen is out of the books they sell. My meal consisted of three courses; pumpkin soup, pork roast over lentils and then my choice of puddings served with tea (of course!). Nine years later, I still remember every bite, but the soup was the clear standout. It was rich and flavorful without being syrupy sweet or cloying with cinnamon and other spices. It tasted like like pumpkin dressed up in an elegantly simple black dress. It was pumpkin yumminess. I was surprised to find out that the soup recipe was not from some exotic European cookbook, but from my go-to all-purpose cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, or as I refer to it, the gospel according to Joy.

Since my introduction to this soup, I’ve tweaked the recipe and made subtle changes. The original Joy of Cooking recipe calls for butternut squash not pumpkin, and I use butternut squash most of the time. I wanted this post to be about the original pumpkin soup I had at Books for Cooks, but I decided it’s not a good idea to cut up a pumpkin picked from the patch just the day before by an eager preschooler; they tend to get a bit attached.

So, while I highly recommend trying this recipe with a fresh sugar pumpkin, I’ll stick with the butternut squash I used to make the soup this time.

Other changes I’ve made through the years include subbing out shallots for leaks, and using olive oil instead of butter. You can easily use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth to make this a meatless meal, but I prefer the mellower, rounder flavors of chicken broth. I think the most important change I’ve made is a nod to the Book’s for Cooks version. Their version was topped with a healthy dollop or crème fraiche; since then I’ve found that the tang of plain Greek yogurt is the perfect complement to the sweetness of the soup. I serve each bowl with a spoonful of the yogurt and a hearty chunk of crunchy bread. Enjoy!

Butternut Squash (or Pumpkin) Soup – Click here for a printer-friendly version of this recipe

adapted from a recipe in Joy of Cooking
makes 8 cups

3 tablespoons olive oil (or butter)
1 cup shallots, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons ginger, peeled and finely minced
2 pound butternut squash or sugar pumpkin, peeled, chopped and seeds removed
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
plain Greek yogurt for serving

Heat olive oil in a stock pot over medium heat. Add shallot, salt and pepper and cook until the shallots are soft and translucent; do not let the shallots brown.


If you’re one shallot short of having enough a little sweet onion.

Add ginger and continue to cook until fragrant, about one minute. Add squash and stir to evenly coat with oil.

Add broth and bring to a simmer.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until squash is very soft.

Using a blender and working in batches, puree the soup until smooth. Be sure to remove the center piece of the lid of your blender and cover with a kitchen towel when blending to prevent the hot soup from exploding from the blender. If you have an immersion blender, it works very well for this step. When all the soup is pureed, return to the pot and bring back just to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top each with a rounded tablespoon of Greek yogurt and a serve with a large piece of crunchy bread.

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