The Fastest Chicken Noodle Soup Ever

\

It still amazes me that you can buy a rotisserie chicken for less than a raw chicken in any super market. With two members of our household sick with colds, I decided the best and most comforting dinner for a sore throat would be chicken noodle soup. I didn't have a lot of time, so a rotisserie chicken from one of our local grocery stores was a good option to speed up dinner prep time. The other ingredients I needed were chicken broth, carrots, celery, noodles, salt and pepper. Ina Garten has a recipe just like mine in one of her Barefoot Contessa cookbooks, the only difference being the addition of fresh parsley in her recipe. I thought fresh parsley sounded like a tasty change from the usual and planned on adding it to my soup. (Although I have to admit that I used twice the amount that Ina uses….) With everything on hand, here's how I proceeded to make a tasty chicken noodle soup almost from scratch in less than an hour.

Ingredients:

6–14-oz. cans low-sodium Swanson's chicken broth

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup sliced celery

2 cups dried wide egg noodles

2 cups diced, cooked chicken meat from rotisserie chicken (keep the rest of the rotisserie chicken for another dish, such as chicken salad)

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Preparation:

Bring chicken stock to a simmer, add diced carrots, celery, and dried egg noodles and cook for about 10 minutes until the noodles are softened. Add diced chicken and chopped parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat everything through and serve immediately. Makes about 6-8 servings.

Roasted Acorn Squash Soup with Fresh Parsley

It's been a fridge-cleaning kind of day, and since I found a few more acorn squash left over from last fall's farm deliveries, I decided to try my hand at acorn squash soup. Cooking from the top of my head–without a roadmap, so-to-speak–is always a bit more challenging. Frankly, though, how hard can it be to combine a few simple ingredients and turn them into soup? It's always fun to see what the outcome of a few more-or-less educated guesses on combining ingredients might be when I don't follow a recipe. So, here are the steps I took today and, may I say, the soup ended up being very tasty.

Roasted Acorn Squash Soup with Fresh Parsley

Ingredients:

approximately 4 cups roasted acorn squash

2-3 Tbsp. olive oil

2 cups diced sweet onions

1/4 tsp. dried thyme

4 cups chicken stock (or vegetable broth for a vegetarian version)

1/2 cup fresh, minced Italian parsley

salt & pepper to taste

Preparation:

To roast the squash, preheat oven to 400˚F, cut squash in half length-wise, scrape out seeds, brush the outside with olive oil and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet, cut side down. Bake at 400˚F for about 30-45 minutes, until the squash is soft. Let cool and scrape the flesh out of the skins.

In a large deep sauté pan or Dutch oven, heat olive oil and sauté onions and thyme until the onions are translucent. Add the squash and chicken stock and mix well. Heat over medium-low heat for about 20-25 minutes. Add about 1 to 1 1/2 tsp. sea salt and pepper to taste. Turn off the heat and add the fresh parsley. Mix everything well. Take about half of the mixture and purée in a blender until smooth. Mix with the remainder of the soup and serve. Number of servings: about six.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Nothing feels better when you're under the weather than an nice, piping hot bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup. I'm not sure if there is any truth to chicken noodle soup speeding up recovery when suffering from a common cold, but folk wisdom has said for centuries that it does. All I know is that it tastes good and my mom was a master at making a very simple, tasty version entirely from scratch. Here is the recipe–it comes in two steps: the first step describes how to make the chicken stock and cook the chicken, the second step describes how to finish the soup.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup (Hühnersuppe)

STEP I

Ingredients for making chicken stock and cooking chicken:

1 4-lb. chicken, rinsed well, innards removed

10 cups water

1-2 stalks celery, cut in large chunks

1-2 carrots, cut in large chunks

1 large onion, cut in large chunks

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. salt

Preparation:

Put the chicken and all other ingredients in an 8-qt. stockpot, fill with water to cover the chicken (approximately 10 cups), and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer on very low for about 1 1/2 hours.

Remove the chicken and let it cool slightly before deboning. Strain broth and discard all of the vegetables. Return the strained broth to the pot. You now have the clear chicken stock and cooked chicken to make the chicken soup you will actually eat.

STEP II

Ingredients for finishing chicken soup:

all the chicken stock from the first step

2 stalks celery, sliced

2 carrots, sliced or diced

1 tsp. salt (or a little more to taste)

pepper to taste

To the chicken broth add celery, carrots, diced chicken meat, salt and pepper. Bring everything to a boil and simmer on low heat for approximately 20 minutes until the fresh vegetables are tender.

Meanwhile bring a pot of water to a boil and cook egg noodles according to package directions. Serve a scoop of egg noodles with each bowl of chicken soup. Makes about 10-12 generous servings.

Tip: Keep noodles and soup separate, so the noodles don't get soggy but stay al dente. Occasionally, my mom served the soup with rice (buttered rice… she always used butter for cooking…) which is very good, too.

Hello Snow!

Big surprise when waking up this morning: it had snowed! Not a huge accumulation, of course, it is after all only October 10, but enough to cover all the roofs and lawns in a thin blanket of white. Our dogs, Lenny and Louie, had a very surprised look on their faces when I let them out the door into the yard. I think they had forgotten what snow was!

Now they're back in the house, everyone is still asleep, but the first pot of coffee is brewing and I'm thinking about making some nice cauliflower-cheese soup. My favorite recipe for this soup comes from Molly Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook. The only ingredient in it that I don't use is caraway because my husband doesn't care for it. Other than that, the recipe is just to our liking. Try it for yourself!

Cauliflower-Cheese Soup

Ingredients:

1 large potato, peeled and diced (about 2-3 cups diced)

1 large cauliflower, cut or broken into florets (put aside 2 cups of florets)

1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped

3 medium cloves garlic, peeled

1 1/2 cups chopped onion

1 1/2 tsp. salt (I like kosher or sea salt)

4 cups water

2 cups (packed) grated cheddar (plus extra for garnishing each serving)

3/4 cup milk (I find whole milk tastes better, though lowfat is okay)

1 tsp. dill

1/2 tsp. caraway seeds (I always leave them out…, but instead a sprinkling of freshly cut parsley for garnish is nice)

black pepper to taste

Preparation:

Place potato, cauliflower (except for the 2 cups reserved), carrot, garlic, onion, salt, and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer until all vegetables are very tender. Purée in a blender or food processor, and transfer to a kettle or Dutch oven.

If you like a little texture in your soup, set aside 2 cups of the cauliflower florets and steam them reserved until just tender. Add these to the purée along with all remaining ingredients. Heat gently, and serve topped with a little extra cheese.

Fish Stew

An Italian restaurant we visit occasionally serves a delicious fish stew called zuppa di pesce. It's chockful of salmon, shrimp and scallops that swim in a sea of flavorful broth that beckons to be soaked up with crusty bread. Since I've been spending a major part of this week serving leftovers from last weekends party and I still had more than a pound of already poached salmon in the refrigerator, I decided to make my own version of fish stew to use the fish before it turned bad. I added a bag of frozen shrimp and a bag of frozen scallops that I had in the freezer and, even though fresh always tastes better, I thought a stew would be a tasty way to prepare the frozen and the already poached seafood.

My brother-in-law Tim recreated his own version of the restaurant's fish stew a few years ago and it is delicious. I had his recipe and another one from a cookbook to get me started, but ultimately I had to use what I had on hand. The resultat: really good! So here's the recipe:

Fish Stew

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 lb. mushrooms, sliced

1 cup onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1-1 1/2 lbs. salmon, poached

8-oz. bag of frozen shrimp

12-oz. bag of frozen scallops

1 14-oz. can diced tomatoes

2 14-oz cans chicken broth

1 cup dry white wine

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. dried basil

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Heat butter and oil in a 4-6 qt. large pot over medium high eat. Add mushrooms, sprinkle several pinches of salt on top of mushrooms, and sauté for a few minutes. When the mushrooms start drawing water, add onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender. Add salmon, shrimp and scallops and stir. Add diced tomatoes with juices, chicken broth, wine, oregano, basil and pepper. A couple of good cranks with the peppermill will be fine. Bring mixture to a boil and immediately turn down heat to a low simmer. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until flavors have blended. If using fresh fish, simmering the stew may be increased to 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

Suggestion: Our Italian restaurant–and my brother-in-law Tim–also add fresh chopped asparagus to the soup. That is really good. If you choose to add asparagus, just cut fresh spears into 1 1/2-inch chunks and add to the soup during the last 10 minutes of simmering.

Sweet Corn Soup

The first time I had corn, raw, I was fifteen and my parents had decided to take my brother and me on a week-long fall vacation to a farm in Bavaria. Being big-city kids, my brother and I enjoyed being outdoors and helping with the harvest at the time. The day we helped with harvesting corn, I remember sitting on top of a huge pile of corn on the trailer the tractor pulled off the fields at the end of the day. But before leaving the fields, the farmer we stayed with peeled an ear and handed it to me, saying, "eat." I dug my teeth into the corn and thought it was quite tasty. Up until that day, I didn't know people could eat fresh corn. Actually, I didn't know anyone who ever ate fresh corn. Corn, in my experience, was fed to the animals. At least in Germany.

Many years later, after having moved to Minnesota, I found out that most people in this part of the world spend the time from mid-July to mid-August eating corn-on-the-cob almost every day–more or less. Corn-on-the-cob, heated for only a few minutes in boiling water, then slathered with butter, salt and pepper or sprinkled with a little Parmesan cheese, is a staple in our house every summer. We eat so much that the ears quite literally start coming out of our ears, and by the time we're tired of corn, the season is over, and, satiated, we can wait and anticipate the new crop next year.

Today, I found myself in the kitchen with a scant dozen ears that I wanted to transform into something other than corn-on-the-cob. My sister-in-law Julie has a wonderful recipe for corn chowder that is out of this world, but I thought it would be a bit heavy for the high temperatures and humidity we've been experiencing this weekend. I settled on a recipe for sweet corn soup that I found in Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food. According to the girls, it's delicious–they already had seconds. What I love about it is that the ingredients are simple, the soup is easy to prepare, and it is tasty.

Sweet Corn Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 very large sweet onion (roughly 2+ cups chopped)

10-12 ears of fresh corn

salt (I like kosher and/or sea salt)

2 qts. water

Preparation:

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat, but be careful not to brown the butter. Add the chopped onion and sauté until the onion is softened and translucent, about 15 minutes. Yes, the onion will quite literally swim in butter, but that will all change once the corn is added.

Meanwhile, chuck the corn (cut the kernels off the cobs). After the onion is softened, add the corn and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add salt liberally. Then add the water.

Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Boil soup for a few minutes, no more than five minutes. Turn off the heat and puree in batches to desired consistency. Adjust seasoning with salt if needed. Yield: about 3 quarts.

Leek and Potato Soup

Leek and potato soup smells good, tastes good, and is simplicity itself to make.

(Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking)

It seems to me that we've had a lot of rich meals lately, so when I went to grocery store today and saw really great-looking leeks in the produce section, I knew instantly that I wanted to make a batch of leek-and-potato soup for dinner. Two humble vegetables simmered together…creating wonderful smells in the kitchen and an all-around satisfying meal. I could almost taste it. Yum! I bought three beautiful leeks and started happily chopping away when I arrived back home.

Leek and Potato Soup

Ingredients:

3 large leeks, white parts only, sliced, washed and dried

1 1/2 lbs. potatoes, peeled and diced

2 Tbsp. butter

6 cups water

1 to 1 1/2 tsp. salt

freshly milled pepper

2-4 Tbsp. heavy cream (optional)

chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Preparation:

Melt butter in a soup pot, add leeks and potatoes and cook covered over low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 6 cups of water and 1+ tsp. of salt and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until the potatoes are soft.

When done, purée the soup in a blender or right in the pot, using a stick blender. Adjust seasonings and stir in a little heavy whipping cream to make the soup a little richer in color and in taste. Top with a sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley when serving. This makes the soup not only look more presentable, but enhances its flavor since potato and parsley always pair nicely.

By the way, when using organic potatoes, I sometimes leave the skin on. The flavor and look of the soup will be more rustic. The soup can be completed with a salad and a loaf of crusty bread.

Easiest Pea Soup Recipe Ever!

Today was another busy day and between school, a visit to the orthodontist, homework, choir practice and confirmation we somehow had to fit in dinner without being able to spend any time in the kitchen. So, I made one of my husband's and older daughter's perennial quickie favorites: pea soup.

I've tried many recipes for pea soup during my married life, adding onions (makes everyone too gassy) or carrots (makes the soup too sweet for my husband), potatoes (to thicken the soup without using flour) and various spices. I honestly do not recall all the different ways we've prepared the soup. What all the experiments boil down to is this: We keep coming back to the same simple recipe that everyone likes best. It can literally be put together in 2 minutes or less. No kidding. If you have a slow-cooker, you can cook my husband's favorite pea soup. It's so simple, a toddler could cook it!

Dan's Favorite Pea Soup

Ingredients:

1-2 smoked ham shanks (sometimes I use 2 smoked pork chops because they're leaner)

2 cups of rinsed green split peas

6-7 cups water

Preparation:

Put everything in a slow-cooker and cook on low all day, or 8-10 hours. Remove ham shanks from soup. Remove all visible fat from the ham shanks and cut meat into small pieces. Mash the peas with a potato masher if you like texture or puree with a blender if you like soup smooth. Add meat and serve.

If the soup is made ahead of time, it can be refrigerated and defatted before serving. It can also be spiffed up by serving it with a nice loaf of crusty bread, a dark rye being my favorite.

New England Corn Chowder

Just a little over an hour ago I finished a huge 12-quart pot filled with sinfully rich New England Corn Chowder. This recipe has fabulous flavor, but it comes at a high price: the fat content makes it almost prohibitive to enjoy often.

I received the recipe a few years back from my sister-in-law Julie, and it's absolutely delicious. In addition, if you have a child with braces, like I do, this recipe can be puréed in a blender without loss of flavor. My younger daughter, the one with the braces, loves it. It makes a great school lunch, too!

Serve the chowder with a green salad and some crusty bread and you have a nice satisfying winter meal! And if you want to eat two bowls of the soup, go ahead. Just plan on spending an extra hour on the treadmill! : )