Category Archives: I Cooked: Soups and Chilis

Dec31

Smoky, Spicy Black-Eyed Peas

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IMG_3011Happy New Year!  This year’s black-eyed pea recipe is my favorite so far…and the easiest, as it spent all day in the slow cooker. The smoked turkey leg added a ton of flavor and made this dish more of a meal. Here’s to a fantastic 2015. Cheers!

Smoky & Spicy Black-Eyed Peas (Adapted from myrecipes.com)

3 cups fresh shelled black-eyed peas

1 large onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 jalepenos, minced

2 cups turkey (or chicken) broth

1 smoked turkey leg (about 12 oz)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp salt

Fresh ground pepper to taste

1 bay leaf

Hot sauce

IMG_3017Place everything except hot sauce in the slow cooker and stir well to combine. Set the slow cooker on low for 7-8 hours. Stir to break apart turkey meat, then remove the bone and bay leaf. Serve with hot sauce and enjoy lots of good luck in the New Year!

Dec19

Posole, Pasole, Pozole

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IMG_2895There seem to be several ways to spell this traditional Mexican stew, and even more ways to cook it.  My Mom makes it often but without any specific recipe, and I don’t cook it regularly enough to ever remember what I put in it the last time — so this post is for the specific purpose of being able to recreate my posole next Christmas without searching the internet.  Posole is traditionally made with a base of onion, peppers (poblano, chipotle, and bell peppers), garlic, tomatillos, tomatoes, and hominy.  The hominy is what makes it special, in my opinion.  I like to add shrimp at the end, but chicken or beef would work too.  Make a huge batch, bake some cornbread, and you are ready to feed a crowd.

Shrimp Posole (serves 6)

1 tbsp oil

1 large onion, diced

1-2 poblano peppers, diced

2 large bell peppers, diced

2 tomatillos, diced

6 cloves (or more) garlic, minced

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp chipotle chile powder (or to taste – optional)

1-2 chipotles in adobo sauce (remove the seeds if you don’t want it too spicy)

1 28 oz can diced, fire-roasted tomatoes

2-3 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1 large can hominy, drained and rinsed

1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 lb raw shrimp, tails off and deveined

2 ripe avocados, diced

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Heat the oil over medium in a large dutch oven.  Add the onion, peppers, and tomatillos and cook 5-10 minutes, until softened.  Add the garlic, seasonings, and chipotles in adobo sauce and cook another minute, then add canned tomatoes, broth, and hominy.  Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce to a simmer, allowing to cook for at least 20 minutes, but up to a couple of hours if you have the time.  Add the black beans and cook another 5 minutes.  Right before serving, add the shrimp, cooking just 1-2 minutes until the shrimp turn pink.  Garnish with avocado and cilantro (sour cream is good too).

Feb14

A Fine Time for Chili

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Chili Bean Corn Bread Pie

I love chili and love trying new chili recipes, but let’s face it — the window for chili-making in Texas is pretty tiny.  This fact just makes me enjoy it that much more.  This past weekend was unseasonably cold for February in Texas, and I took full advantage by trying out Ellie Krieger‘s recipe for Chili Bean and Corn Bread Pie.  It is a delicious vegetarian recipe with two kinds of beans, green chiles, and lots of spice.  The recipe called for ancho chili powder; I had chipotle chili powder on hand and it gave the dish a wonderful smoky flavor.  The best part is the very thick corn bread topping made with honey and buttermilk, which sweetens the whole meal when you mix it in with the chili.  I do like the fact that this is such a healthy recipe, but the extra calories added by including cheddar cheese in the cornbread would be worth it, so I will try this next time.

While I was happy that my husband liked the meal, I was most thrilled to see Romeo, my 11-year old Boston Terrier, stalking the oven while the chili baked.  He only does this when my Mom visits at Christmas and Easter (and cooks a turkey and a ham, respectively), and never for anything I cook.

Romeo, the Chili Stalker

Chili Bean and Corn Bread Pie (recipe adapted from Ellie Krieger’s “Comfort Food Fix”):

For the Filling:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp each ground cumin, dried oregano, and chili powder

1/2 tsp dried coriander

15-oz can low-sodium kidney beans, drained and rinsed

15-oz can low-sodium pink or red beans, drained and rinsed (I used pinto beans)

14.5-oz can no-salt-added diced tomatoes with their juices

Two 4-oz cans diced green chiles, drained

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro leaves

For the Topping:

1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/3 cups low-fat buttermilk

1 large egg

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp canola oil

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray.

To make the filling, heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened and lightly browned, about 8 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.  Add the tomato paste, cumin, oregano, chili powder, and coriander, and cook, stirring, about 1 minute.  Add the beans, tomatoes with their liquid, green chiles, salt, and black pepper and bring to a boil.  (I found the mixture very thick at this point and added a few splashes of stock).  Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the liquid is reduced by about half, about 10 minutes.  Stir in the cilantro and transfer the filling to the baking dish.

To make the topping, in a medium bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In another medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, honey, and oil.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine.  Pour the cornmeal batter over the bean mixture, then smooth the surface with a spatula.  Bake until the top is browned around the edges and a toothpick inserted into the corn bread layer comes out clean, about 30 minutes.  Makes 6 servings.

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Feb1

Carrot Soup or Bust

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Orange-Scented Carrot Soup

I really enjoy a quick soup-and-sandwich dinner on busy nights.  Any kind of vegetable-based soup with a grilled cheese or tuna melt is easy, healthy, and on the table in five minutes.  The problem is that my sweet 4-year old, Lauren, does not seem to like ANY of the soups I have put in front of her.  Every time I try a new variety, she responds with, “I only want carrot soup Mommy”.  Okay, I have never seen a plain carrot soup in the store, and trust me, I have done a lot of looking.

I saw Melissa d’Arabian making Orange-Scented Carrot Soup on her show, Ten Dollar Dinners, and realized it was time to invest more than my normal five minutes and cook up some carrot soup at home.  As a bonus, oranges are another of Lauren’s favorites.  But knowing this was my chance at creating a soup my daughter would actually eat, the pressure was on.  And did I mention she’s never actually tried carrot soup?

After reading the reviews on this recipe, I cooked the carrot-onion mixture a lot longer than five minutes before going on to the next step (at least 15 minutes).  I also cut the oregano down to 1/2 tsp, added 1/2 tsp of ground cumin, and a pinch of ground ginger.  Since I had already zested oranges per the recipe, I squeezed in some orange juice along with the wine.  I used an immersion blender to blend the soup right in the pot.  The sour cream swirled in at the end is a great addition — don’t skip that part.

The soup was simple, nutritious and tasty.  You could really taste and smell the orange after adding the zest and juice.  As for Lauren — she ate a few spoonfuls, said it was, “okay”, and then told me what she really wanted was tomato soup.

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Jan16

Slow Cooker Attempt #1

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Slow Cooker Potato Rosemary Soup

There have been several crock pot cooking pages popping up on Facebook lately, and the Rosemary Potato Soup recipe finally motivated me enough to dust off my old slow cooker and give it a whirl.  I followed the recipe exactly, except at the end, where instead of adding extra rosemary, I drizzled on a little rosemary olive oil (more on this in a later post) and parmesan cheese.  The flavors were great, but I found the texture to be a bit gluey (like a cross between soup and mashed potatoes?) — perhaps because my slow cooker does not have a “low” setting.  I will be heating up the leftover soup with extra stock to thin it out.  But given I haven’t used the appliance in many years, and because my daughter Samantha was quite happy with the meal (potatoes and rosemary are two of her favorite things), I will chalk this up as a crock pot learning experience.  Now, I’m off to put up some wallpaper with that extra soup.

Jan5

Oh Happy Day, My Child Ate Black-Eyed Peas

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New Year’s Day Good Luck Soup

While I am not an overly superstitious person, I do love the southern tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day to bring good luck and prosperity throughout the year.  Every January 1, I attempt a new recipe that incorporates tomatoes, greens, and black-eyed peas.  This year’s version was the best to date — a great way to kick off my New Year’s resolution of trying at least one new recipe each week.  I started with Ellie Krieger’s Minestrone Soup as the base, but left out the beans and pasta and instead added black-eyed peas and baby spinach.  I did not expect my children to do much more than dunk their bread into the soup and perhaps scoop the parmesan off the top, but it turns out that my oldest daughter Samantha may actually be the superstitious one — she picked out those peas to ensure her year was going to be a good one.  I think I may like this resolution thing.