Turnip, Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup

I've never cooked with turnips before but I bought one and decided to make some soup. This was one of the easiest soups I have ever made.

Ingredients 

1 turnip, peeled and cubed

1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon dried herbs (I used oregano)

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup soy milk

Dash of nutmeg

Method

Boil the turnip, carrots and sweet potatoes until tender (around 20 minutes)

Blend and puree the vegetables. Return to pot and add milk.

Bring to the boil and then season.

Yum! I love thick soups but for those that don't it might be a good idea to add some vegetable stock to thin it out.

Girls' Night!

Farrah invited Sheila and I over to her apartment for another long-overdue get-together. I had so much fun, thank you ladies!I'm very glad my mushroom soup and rice pudding was well-received. Farrah's jerk chicken was awesome, as usual. I forgot to take a picture of the zucchinis though:(

Jerk Chicken

"Don't think you can have fun without me!"

Mushroom Soup

Rice Pudding with Canned Fruits

Rice Pudding

Ingredients

3/4 cup uncooked white rice
1 cup milk
1 can coconut milk
1/3 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 can tropical fruit
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cardamon

Directions

In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, cardamon and coconut milk. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly.Add fruit Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.

Cream of Mushroom Soup (I halved this recipe)

2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup chopped onion
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cans (435 ml each) chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup half-and-half
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion and sauté 3 minutes or until tender. Add mushrooms and sauté 7 minutes or until tender.
In a small bowl, whisk flour into a small amount of broth until smooth, then stir into pan. Add remaining broth, bring to boil, and cook, stirring until thickened, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat and stir in half-and-half, salt and pepper. Simmer cream of mushroom soup uncovered, 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Serves 4 to 6

Sweet Potato Soup

 This was one of the simplest soups I have ever made! Not only is it easy to make, it's also delicious. And thank you blender for not letting me down with the pureeing!

Sweet Potato with Smoked Paprika Soup

INGREDIENTS:
Approximately 1 tbsp. olive oil
2 small or 1 large onion, diced
2.5 lbs. sweet potato, diced
4 tsp. of vegetable stock add to 1 litre of water plus about 250 ml. water, enough to cover potatoes
2tbsp. paprika (smoked if you can, optional if you don’t like your soup spicy, and can decrease the amount of paprika if you just want a little kick to it)

DIRECTIONS:
Heat the oil over medium heat.
Sauté the onions until it becomes brown and add the 1st tablespoon of paprika.
Add the diced sweet potatoes, vegetable stock mixture, 250 ml water, and the 2nd tablespoon of paprika, and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are cooked.
Let it cool slightly and purée, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Rhea's Orzo Mushroom Soup

Spring is finally here! The temperatures are climbing so that means I'll have to ease off making soup soon. But before then there are two recipes I really want to try. They are both from Rhea.

To be honest, I'd never heard of orzo before but I found it quite easily at the superstore. It looks like rice, tastes like rice but is a form of pasta. I was really impressed when I read the nutritional information;  loads of B-complex vitamins, fibre, iron and protein. Sounds good to me!

Here's the recipe. I halved the amounts.


Rhea's Orzo Mushroom Soup

INGREDIENTS:
1  lbs. fresh button mushrooms
3 tbsp. all purpose flour
3 garlic cloves, minced
5 cups water
3 tbsp. vegetable stock powder
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
cup orzo pasta, uncooked
1 cup non-fat sour cream

DIRECTIONS:
Heat lightly greased large Dutch oven until hot, then sauté mushrooms, flour, and garlic for 5 minutes.
Add water, bouillon powder, green onion, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes.
Add orzo. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in sour cream. Makes 9 cups (2.25 L)



I added half a cup of sour cream to the soup. It tasted good but I think you can get away with adding less.

 The final product:

I loved it! It was so filling. One bowl was enough for me to feel full. I wish I'd discovered this soup in the winter! Thanks Rhea!

Broccoli and Bok Choy Soup

It snowed today, quite heavily too! I don't remember ever seeing it snow in Vancouver in February! Perfect weather for soup though. I was initially going to just make simple broccoli soup but when I made my chicken curry I did an abysmal job of removing the chicken from the bone so I had three bones with a lot of chicken flesh still on them. As one of the proverbs I live by is "waste not, want not" I decided to make use of the bones to make chicken stock. I also wanted to use the remainder of my bok choy before it wilts. Here is my recipe.

Broccoli Soup

1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets
3 bok choy stalks, chopped up
1/2 an onion, diced
1 medium sized potato, cubed
1 tbsp minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp rosemary
2 cups chicken stock

Saute the onion and garlic. Add the potato, broccoli, bok choy and cubed potato.
Add chicken stock, milk, and rosemary. Mix well
Bring to boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

After it was cooked, I blended it because I don't like chunky soup. It looks a bit weird but it tastes good!

Pumpkin and Barley Soup

Brown Rice Soup: Part 2

It was so delicious I had to make it twice! This time I fried some chicken and added a teaspoon of turmeric but everything else was done the same as the last recipe. I much preferred this method; I guess chicken goes really well with rice. I made a whole batch and it lasted me for a few meals.

Brown Rice Soup with Italian Sausage

Yum! This was good!

Method

Fry some Italian sausage. Set aside.

Fry some onions and vegetables together(I used a frozen veggie mix of broccoli, cauliflower, peas and corn), 1tsp cumin, 1 tsp thyme and some chili. Stir until browned (10-15 minutes).

Add reserved sausage, 4 cups of chicken broth,1 cup of soymilk, 1 cup of brown rice, 2tbsp flour, 3/4 cup lentils, salt and pepper.

Bring to the boil, then lower heat to medium low.

Cook partially covered, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes until the lentils are done.

Stir in some chopped spinach and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add more watre if necessary.

Creamy Mushroom Soup

I bought too many mushrooms today for a stir-fry so I decided to make some mushroom soup. It tasted so good that I swear I will never ever buy canned mushroom soup again!

Creamy Carrot Potato Soup