The recipe is simple.  Sauteed veggies mixed with chicken in a simple chicken broth sauce spiced with cinnamon and cumin and served over whole wheat couscous.  I made things even easier by shredding a rotisserie chicken instead of cooking the pound of chicken breasts the recipe calls for.  I also left out the tomato paste, did not drain the canned tomatoes, used 2 cups of broth instead of 1, and garnished with fresh cilantro and mint.  The combination of fresh herbs with the spices was wonderful.

You can easily make this a vegetarian dish by leaving out the chicken, using vegetable broth, adding more tomatoes, zucchini, chickpeas, or trying some different veggies.  I guess you could use some type of mock meat…if you’re into that kind of stuff.  I have tried and actually liked some of those choices, like a Philly “Steak” made with seitan at a food truck called Counter Culture in Austin.  Thanks for taking me, Sarah!  It really wasn’t bad, but I don’t see myself ever cooking it.  If I am going to cook something vegetarian at home, I stick with veggies and protein packed beans.  Plus I don’t think Ben would ever go for it.  He had a hard time eating chicken sausage, so I don’t think he’d go for tofu or seitan in place of good ol’ reliable meat.

Chicken and Chickpea Stew

Adapted slightly from epicurious.com

Ingredients

• 1 small rotisserie chicken, shredded (use 2-3 cups of chicken)
• 1 box whole wheat couscous (prepare what you need according to the instructions)
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 1 zucchini, chopped into 3/4 inch chunks
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• chopped fresh cilantro and mint for garnish (0ptional)

With the little guy keeping me pretty busy I knew that I had to be really on top of things in order to get the house cleaned and dinner made in time.  I chopped all my veggies and prepped all that I could the night before while Ben was home.  This made the cooking process simple and clean up a breeze.

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.  Here is the link.  I didn’t change much.  I used a rotisserie chicken to further simplify this soup, and I used more green chiles than the original recipe calls for.  The extra green chiles made it a bit hotter, so use a 4 ounce can if you don’t want that added heat.  I also added a chopped red bell pepper in with the onions for more flavor and color.  We ate left over chili for a few days, and it was even better.  I like to crush Fritos or blue corn chips and mix them in the chili, then top it with sour cream and cheese.  Enjoy!

Chicken Chili

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced jalapeno peppers
• 1 (7 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 3 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
• 3 (15 ounce) cans white beans
• shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• sour cream
• tortilla or corn chips

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Slowly cook and stir the onion and red pepper until tender.
2. Mix in the garlic, jalapeno, green chile peppers, cumin, oregano and cayenne. Continue to cook and stir the mixture until tender, about 3 minutes.
3. Mix in the chicken broth, chicken and white beans. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Serve garnished with cheese, sour cream and corn chips.

Soup is quite forgiving.  The world does not come crashing down when you realize you’ve left something out, don’t have quite enough of an ingredient, added your ingredients in the wrong order, or added more of something than directed.  Thank goodness, since almost all of those things happened to me!

Ben was not happy when I told him the tortellini soup had no tortellini.  Ben likes tortellini.  But he ate it anyway and I think he thought it was pretty good.  He had a bowl and a half, so it couldn’t have been that bad.  I really liked how chock full of veggies this soup was.  The amount of sausage made it just meaty enough and provided a nice flavor.  I added a huge handful of torn basil leaves right before serving and that was lovely.  I really enjoy fresh basil and am sad I will have to wait until next summer to grow some of my own.  I have attempted this before…and failed.  But every summer I try again.  Maybe this next time I’ll get it right and it won’t wither and die on me.

Here is the recipe, which was adapted more than just a little bit since I was not quite on top of things when I went grocery shopping.  I will try out the original recipe sometime and post that as well.  Enjoy!

Italian Sausage & Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound ground Italian sausage (sweet, mild or hot)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 2 zucchini, cut into half moons
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 7 ounce can tomato sauce
• 5-6 cups broth (chicken or beef)
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup torn basil leaves
• Parmesan cheese, grated, for garnish

Directions

1. Heat about 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat.  Brown sausage in a large pot or dutch oven, then drain meat on paper towels and set aside.
2. Add another teaspoon of oil to the pot and cook onions and garlic until softened, scraping the brown bits off the bottom of the pan.
3. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, oregano, sausage, and salt & pepper to taste.  Simmer for 20-30 minutes.
4. Add mushrooms, zucchini and more liquid if desired for a thinner soup.  Simmer for an additional 20-30 minutes.
5. Stir in basil and season again just before serving.  Serve with grated Parmesan.

Anyway, I don’t know how I arrived at this recipe.  I searched for sweet potato soup recipes and ended up with black beans and sausage in there at some point.  I found a lot of variations with similar basic ingredients, so I used a few recipes and combined what I liked about each of them to make this soup.

This recipe from Epicurious uses dried black beans, so I used this recipe from Laura’s Kitchen also which uses canned.  I used ingredients from both, which are almost identical.  I used smoked turkey sausage, 2 sweet potatoes, 2 cans of black beans, 1 medium yellow onion, a couple cloves of garlic, tomato paste and half chicken broth half water.  For spices I used cinnamon, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, Worcestershire, salt and pepper.  Use the cinnamon.  It is so yummy.  Laura’s recipe garnishes with cilantro, which is probably delicious.

I made simple cornbread to eat with the soup, and topped Ben’s off with a little sour cream and cheese.  I ate mine without the extras and thought it was pretty good.  The flavors were not overpowering, but it may need just a dash more salt.  The sweet potatoes were tender, but not mushy.  The black beans are so very tasty in this soup, and the sausage is a nice addition but not absolutely necessary.  This would be great as a vegetarian soup, and I think I will make it that way next time.

Black Bean, Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

Adapted from epicurious.com and Laura’s Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire
• 2 large sweet potatoes, cut into cubes
• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 3 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 12 ounces smoked turkey sausage, sliced

Directions

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat, in a medium saucepan, sauté onions until tender, then stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute.
2. Mix in all spices and cook for 30 seconds.
3. Add sweet potatoes and stir, cooking for 3-5 minutes.
4. Pour in chicken broth, water, tomato paste, and black beans and stir together.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Sweet potatoes should be just fork tender.
5. While soup is simmering, saute sausage in a pan over medium heat to brown.  Set aside when done.
6. When the potatoes are just tender remove about 2 1/2 cups of the soup and transfer to a blender.  Make sure there is enough liquid.  Puree the soup and return it to the pot with the rest of the soup.
7. Stir in the sausage and simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes over low heat.
8. Serve with sour cream and grated cheese if desired.

Here is my story.  I was scheduled to leave Amarillo Friday morning at 6:55 to help prepare everything for my sisters baby shower that is today at 3.  I took the day off of work a few weeks ago, and days off are a precious commodity.  As you may or may not know Amarillo received a good foot of snow on Thursday resulting in both Ben and I getting the day off!  So exciting!  Or so I thought.

The Panhandle weather also caused business closures, highway closures, and flight cancellations.  As of this moment my flights have been cancelled and rescheduled a total of 3 times.  If all goes well, I will be in Austin tonight.  I will miss the baby shower and the 3 dozen bird cookies that I made will not be enjoyed.  The cookies I spent all day Thursday rolling and baking.  Argh.  They are cute, no?

I know that I should not complain.  Some people have been affected by the weather in far worse ways than I.  I am in a warm house and I am safe, so I am thankful for that.  I am sad about not being able to see my family.  After Southwest called me this afternoon to cancel my morning flight for tomorrow I decided that I needed to make something for dinner that would bring some sort of comfort to my weary soul!  Nothing says comfort like chicken noodle soup.

There were some very exotic chicken noodle soups out there when I started searching for a recipe.  One was particularly interesting to me.  It had all the regular ingredients but also had saffron and corn.  I almost decided to make that soup, but wanted to do a simple and basic chicken noodle soup.  So, here it is.  Basic chicken noodle soup.  Pure comfort.

This soup is incredibly easy.  Not including chicken boiling time, this came together in 20 minutes.  Since I am only making soup for 2, I thought I would use a bit less chicken and broth.    I increased the carrot, celery and mushrooms because I like a soup that is more full of stuff and not so full of broth.

I used canned chicken broth, but I think you could easily use the water that you use to boil your chicken.  All you’d have to do is add some salt, peppercorns and bay leaf.  I used 4 good sized skinless bone-in chicken breasts and I ended up with leftover chicken that will be made into a tasty chicken salad.

Dinner is served…

Ben said “This tastes so fresh and so clean, clean.”  Get it?  I have a sweet husband.  Anyway, the vegetables give so much to the broth.  It does taste fresh because it IS fresh!  The mushrooms are great, and I would use more of them next time.  Another thing I would increase is the broth.  I ended up adding an extra can for a total of 10 cups.  I did not give the broth its due credit.  Use the broth it calls for.  I was a bit silly in thinking I had better sense than recipe writers.  I guess 16 cups just sounded like a lot to me.  There is a reason I teach math and do not write recipes for magazines.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Bon Appetit, 1998

Ingredients

• 12-16 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 3 carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
• 3 celery stalks, sliced
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 8 ounces dried wide egg noodles
• 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Combine chicken broth and chicken in heavy large pot. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover partially and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Using tongs, transfer chicken to large bowl. Cool chicken and broth slightly. Discard skin and bones from chicken. Cut chicken meat into bite-size pieces and reserve. Spoon fat off top of chicken broth.
2. Return broth to simmer. Add onion, carrots and celery. Simmer until vegetables soften, about 8 minutes.
3. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and sauté until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Add mushrooms to broth; stir in noodles, parsley and reserved chicken. Simmer until noodles are tender, about 5 minutes. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.

This is not “traditional” New Mexican posole/pozole, which is usually made with pork.  So, I guess this is kind of a cheater, short cut recipe, but it is delicious, quick and easy.  We ate this with a green salad and cornbread.  Corn tortillas would also be great with this soup.

The recipe came from Sunset magazine, and we made a few changes.  Some of the methods for putting the soup together didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, and seemed to be a bit tedious.  I am sure that if you followed the directions step-by-step from the magazine you would end up with a great pot of soup.

Chicken Posole with Avocado and Lime

(Adapted from Sunset Magazine)

• 3 large poblano chiles
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 large onion
• 2 cans (14 1/2 oz. each) white hominy
• 1 ½  pounds boned, skinned chicken thighs
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 ½  teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 3 tablespoons ground red New Mexico chiles
• Garnishes: sliced avocado, lime wedges, cilantro sprigs, and sour cream

1. Preheat broiler. When hot, broil poblanos on a baking sheet until blackened, turning as needed, about 15 minutes.
2. Finely chop garlic and onion. Drain hominy; set aside.
3. Boil chicken in water with salt and pepper for 15-20 minutes.  Remove chicken, let cool, then shred.
4. Heat oil in a large saucepan or soup pot over medium heat. Add onion mixture and oregano to pan and sauté until onion is softened, 3 minutes. Add ground chiles to pan and cook, stirring, about 30 seconds.
5. Add broth, hominy, and chicken to pan. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer to blend flavors, 10 minutes.
6. Remove stems, skins, and seeds from poblanos and discard; chop poblanos.
7. Stir poblanos into posole and cook 1 minute. Ladle into bowls; top with garnishes.