Soups & Stews

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

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        One of my dear friends brought this over when I was laid up and I can’t tell you how wonderful it tasted! It has been one of our favorite recipes ever since. It is hearty, creamy, comfort food at its finest! I love it served in a homemade bread bowl.

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Ingredients:

1 package Wild Rice Rice-A-Roni
1 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/4 cup butter
2 chicken breasts, cubed
1/4 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup cream (I usually use milk; the cream makes it pretty heavy)

Mix Rice-A-Roni (rice and seasoning packet) with the water and bake in a pyrex baking dish covered with foil for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

After you pull the rice out, in a soup pan or dutch oven, saute carrots, celery, and onion in butter. In a separate pan, begin sauteing chicken cubes in a little bit of olive oil. When veggies are tender, add flour and cook for 1-2 minutes. Then add chicken broth, milk, and rice. Add chicken when it is cooked through. Simmer until it is a little bit thickened. It will thicken additionally as it cools.

Source: Julie Roberts

Summer Garden Vegetable Soup

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    As summer winds itself to a bounteous close, I wanted to share this recipe while the veggies in it are still in season. It is a GREAT way to use up some of that zucchini and those tomatoes I never have quite enough uses for. My kids (who hate zucchini and said tomatoes) even like it. Win-win!

Summer Garden Vegetable Soup
     Source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

  • 3 medium zucchini, chopped into bite-size pieces
  • 4 medium tomatoes, chopped into bite-size pieces
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil (or 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped)
  • 2 Tbsp fresh parsley, minced
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • ¼ cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
  • 1 ½ cups frozen or fresh corn kernels
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, or more 🙂 to taste
Directions
  1. In a large pot or dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. Add the zucchini, basil, parsley and onion and saute, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes (I always do it longer, until it is pretty tender). Add the flour, salt and pepper and stir and cook for one minute to remove the raw flour taste. Gradually add the chicken broth, whisking or stirring constantly. Add the lemon juice; mix well. Bring the soup to a simmer, stirring to prevent sticking, and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the zucchini is tender but still has some bite to it (it will continue cooking for a few more minutes). Add the tomatoes, evaporated milk, and corn.
  2. Bring the soup to a boil and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover the soup and simmer until the corn and zucchini are tender. Stir in the cheese just before serving.

Fresh Tomato Soup

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There’s nothing like a fresh garden tomato.  And I love them plain, on BLT’s, in salads.  But at some point in the gardening season I’m overrun with them.  And then I turn to tomato soup to help me use up and enjoy all those tasty tomatoes!  This is a new recipe for me and I really enjoyed the addition of carrots.  I have to say that I really used this recipe more as a guide and adjusted the amounts based on what I liked, what I had, and what I needed to use up!

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, unpeeled and chopped
3 cloves minced garlic
12 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves
3 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream

1.  In a large pot, heat olive oil on medium low heat.  Add onions and carrots and saute for 10 minutes.  Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute.
2.  Add remaining ingredients EXCEPT cream and stir well.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove from heat.
3.  Using an immersion blender, carefully puree the soup.  If you don’t have an immersion blender, use a regular blender to puree the soup (do this with half the soup, then the other half to avoid overfilling the blender).
4.  Add heavy cream to the soup and stir in well.  Serve with crackers, croutons, chopped basil, etc.

Source:  I Can Cook That

Chicken and Gnocchi Soup (Olive Garden style)

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     Thank you so much for inviting me to post on this wonderful blog! I love to cook and try new things, so I am looking forward to being here very much. 

    For my first post, I will share a wonderful soup we tried a few weeks ago. If you have ever tried Olive Garden’s Chicken and Gnocchi soup, you will be as excited to try this as I was. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy this was to put together. We all loved it (kids included)! It is hearty, silky, and satisfying. And let’s be honest, Gnocchi is just fun to say.

Chicken and Gnocchi Soup (Olive Garden Style)

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon EVOO
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 1 quart half and half
  • 1/2 cup celery, finely diced
  • 1 cup onion, finely diced
  • 2 minced garlic cloves
  • 1 or 2-14 ounce cans of chicken broth (adjust to desired level of thickness)
  • 1 cup carrots, finely grated
  • 1 cup chicken breasts, cooked and diced
  • 1 package gnocchi, cooked  (usually in the pasta or prepared food sections of the store)
  • 1 cup of fresh spinach coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon parsley
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional, but you should use it!)

Instructions

Saute the onion, celery, and garlic in the butter and olive oil over medium heat until the onion becomes translucent. Cook gnocchi according to directions. Stir in flour to make a roux and cook out the raw flavor of the flour for about one minute. Add half and half. Add in the carrots and chicken. Once the mixture becomes thick, add the chicken broth. Stir until the mixture thickens again, add the cooked gnocchi, spinach, and seasoning. Simmer until soup is heated through. May season with additional salt to taste.

Notes: I used home canned chicken for speed and it was delicious. You could also use a Rotisserie chicken, which would give it an added flavor boost.

For those of you who don’t know, Gnocchi is Italian for potato dumplings. 

Source: Copykat.com

Food Storage Chili

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I always have the supplies for this on hand!  It is a great throw together meal, people like it, and it feeds a lot of people!

Add the following to a large pot (you can add straight from the can or drain some of the cans whichever you prefer, I usually add straight from the can).

2 cans chili
2 cans sweet corn
2 cans pinto beans
2 cans black beans
2 cans red kidney beans
2 cans green chilies
2 quarts diced tomatoes
1 Tbl. dried onions
Taco seasoning to taste or cumin and chili powder to taste.

Cook on medium heat until heated through (stir often) then simmer for 30 min.  Top with grated cheese, sour cream etc.  It tastes great with corn bread or biscuits.  Enjoy!

Recipe Source: My amazing mother, Sheryl Lewis.

3 Ingredient White Bean Chicken Chili

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I love a quick, yummy meal, and this is definitely one of them!

One day I watched my friend dump some things in a pot, stir a bit, and then call her kids down for dinner. I was truly impressed because it took 5 minutes from start to finish, and it looked so delicious and healthy too!

3 Ingredient White Bean Chicken Chili

Ingredients:
A few cans of white beans, drained
1 can of chicken 
A cup or two of your favorite salsa

I am not going to give an exact recipe, well, because there isn’t one and I have made it differently every time depending on how many I needed to feed and what I had on hand. But basically you just dump those ingredients into a pot, in whatever quantities you want, add a little water if needed, and maybe some black pepper. If you want to get fancy, you can add a can of corn! Let it simmer for a few minutes. Serve with your favorite shredded cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips!

A delicious and quick meal! I hope you enjoy! 

PS – You could also make this in a crock pot.

Source: My amazing friend Kim Jones

Olive Garden’s Pasta E Fagioli Soup

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Olive Garden’s Pasta E Fagioli Soup
  • 2 lbs. ground beef*
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 carrots, shredded
  • 1 c. celery, chopped
  • 2 (28 oz.) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 1 (16 oz.) can red kidney beans, drained* 
  • 1 (16 oz.) can white kidney beans, drained 
  • 4 cups beef stock
  • 3 tsp. oregano
  • 2 tsp. pepper
  • 5 tsp. parsley
  • 1 tsp. Tabasco sauce
  • 1 (20 oz.) jar Prego traditional spaghetti sauce
  • 8 oz. pasta 

  •  Brown meat. Drain fat. Combine all ingredients (other then pasta) in a large crock-pot.  Cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours.  Add cooked pasta just before serving. 
  • *I usually make this without meat and it still tastes great!
  • *I have never had white kidney beans on hand when I have made this so I use another can of red kidney beans.
Source: www.favfamilyrecipes.com

Our Favorites from 2012

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Last year around this time we posted the most popular recipes of 2011.  This year we thought we’d do something different…..this time we are sharing OUR favorites!  Each of the Mavens has chosen their favorite personal recipe of 2012.  We hope you’ll give them a try if you haven’t already!

from Emily…..Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin
 
from Anna…..Mexican Street Corn
 
from Melissa…..Amazing Crockpot Grits
 
from Audrey…..Mom’s Rolls
from Niki…..Cheesy Vegetable Chowder
from Julie……Cottage Ranch Dip
 
 
from Amy…..Cobbler Custard Cups
from Kara…..Spinach Dip
 
Care to share what some of your favorite Maven recipes have been?  We’d love to hear from you!
 
image source: Microsoft Office Clipart (manipulated through Picmonkey)
 

Albondigas Soup

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Wow.  I get to post on Thanksgiving Day.  So in case you anticipate running out of creative ways to recycle your turkey leftovers, I am sharing a recipe from Pinterest that I have been wanting to try for a while and it contains no turkey…really.  It came together very easily and tasted really good.

Ingredients:  (please note that some of the ingredients for the soup are also used in the meatballs, so plan accordingly.)

SOUP:
1 T. vegetable oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t. dried Mexican oregano
1/4 t. ground cumin 
6 cups beef stock
2 cups crushed tomatoes
1 canned chipotle chile plus 1-2 t. adobo sauce
2 carrots, grated
1 t. salt
1/2 cup grated zucchini
1/4 cup uncooked rice

ALBONDIGAS (meatballs):
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/4 lb. bulk chorizo
1/4 cup grated zucchini
1 egg
1 clove garlic, minced
1 stale small corn tortilla, processed to crumbs 
1 T. fresh cilantro, minced
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground cumin
1/4 t. dried Mexican oregano

1.  Heat the vegetable oil in a large stock pot (or dutch oven) over medium heat and saute the onion, garlic, oregano and cumin until onions are soft.  Add the beef stock, tomatoes, chipotle, carrots and salt.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes.

2.  Make the albondigas by combining all of the meatball ingredients in a bowl and mixing well.  (One tip, the original recipe calls for a small, stale corn tortilla processed to crumbs but mine would never get small enough.  Next time I will use crushed tortilla chips.)  Pinch off about a tablespoon of meatball mixture and roll it into a ball about 3/4-inch in diameter.  Continue with the rest of the mixture.

3. Bring 2-3 inches of water to a boil in a medium to large saucepan.  Add the meatballs and boil for 3-4 minutes to reduce some of the grease.  Drain the meatballs and discard the water.

4.  Add the meatballs, zucchini, and rice to the soup and simmer for another 30 minutes.  Serve hot.  Garnish as desired.

Source:  Pinterest, originally  from The Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison

Chicken Noodle Soup

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Soup Season is here for sure and Chicken Noodle Soup always hits the spot somehow!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 Cups wide Egg Noodles
1 tsp Vegetable Oil
12 Cups Chicken Broth (I use Bouillon Cubes or granules)
1.5 Tbsp Salt
1 tsp Poultry Seasoning (optional)
1 Cup Chopped Celery
1 Cup Chopped Onion
1 Cup Chopped Carrots
1/3 Cup Cornstarch
1/4 Cup Cold Water
3 Cups Cooked, Diced Chicken

1. Cook your noodles according to package directions. Rinse under cool, running water.
2. In a Large saucepan or dutch oven, combine broth, salt, and poultry seasoning. Bring to a boil.
3. Stir in the vegetables. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes or until the veggies are tender.
4. In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water together. Add gradually to the soup, stirring constantly.
5. Stir in the noodles and chicken. Heat through and serve!

Source: allrecipes.com, with variations