White, well....TAN Velvet Soup.

I found an AMAZING recipe for white velvet soup.  A soup made from all white items essentially.  Check out the original recipe for all sorts of fabulous information on white foods.  I do not feel like totally copying them, since you know, plagiarism is bad an all. 
White Velvet Soup from Green Kitchen Stories  Also worth checking out since their WHITE Velvet Soup is white and not tan.

Why is mine tan you ask?  I shall tell you.  I used my roasted vegetable stock, which is DARK.  Therefore Tan Velvet Soup.  Oops on the color, but YIPPEE for the taste.

Let's get this started.
 

I tried to take a pretty picture, I did.  but I like natural lighting and well...it was NOT cooperating.

 Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 medium onions
• 1 head of garlic
• 3 cups cooked lima beans (For the beans I soaked the whole bag over night and then cooked the all and froze my leftover beans)
• 2 cups of water
• 2 cups of roasted vegetable stock, or regular if you don't want to be a rebel
• Juice from one lemon
• Sea salt to taste
• olive oil, for drizzling
• paprika, for the end

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2.  Cut up cauliflower into bite-sized chunks. Peel and slice onions into chunks.  Peel garlic cloves.
3. Place all veggies and garlic on a baking sheets and mix together.  Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt.
4. Bake for ABOUT 30-40 minutes until it is caramelized and begin to brown.  For some unknown reason, when I bake things normally, it gets done ahead of time.  When I roast, it takes longer.  I was on the 40-50 minute  time frame.
5. Now...you have options.  The original recipe says to put everything in a blender at the point.  My blender is not that large.  If yours is, go for it.  I used a hand held blender and did it in the pot itself.  Worked like a charm and less mess.
6. If after blending it looses some heat, warm it back up on the stove.
7. Drizzles with olive oil and sprinkle with paprika.

Enjoy!

Radish Top and Kale Soup

Oh...you are still here?  I figured the title post would scare you away.  So, in my CSA basket this week I received radishes.  The group I go through, I get to choose every week what I want.  So this week I decided to get some radishes.  I figured they would be like the ones at the grocery store.  Just little odd round balls.  BOY was I wrong.  These suckers are HUGE and the tops on them are even huger.  It seemed a waste to chuck all the pretty leaves in the trash so I was on a mission to find a recipe to use the leaves.

I found a few recipes.  One was for this soup and another is for a beet, carrot, and radish top salad.   I think I will try that one tomorrow.

Anyway.  I fiddled with the recipe enough to say that I made it up!  Always fun when that happens.  I will not be posting a picture of the finished soup first, because well, green creamy soup does not look that pretty.  But my radishes do!!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter, I used salted
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 medium potatoes, sliced
• 4 cups raw radish greens
• 1 cup raw kale
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1/3 cup half and half
• 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, depending on taste.
• pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  I used a 2 1/2 quart size.  It was rather hard to stir all the greens in.  Larger than that would be ideal.
2. Add onions to the butter and cook until tender.
3. Add the sliced potatoes, radish tops, and kale.  Stir to coat all with the butter.  You don't have to worry about chopping all the leaves, because the soup will be blended at the end.
4. Add the stock and rosemary.
5. Heat to boiling, then reduce and simmer for 30 minutes.  
6. Check and make sure the potatoes are tender.  If they are, let the soup cool for a few minutes.
7. At this point you have a choice.  You can either pour this into a blender and blend OR use a hand held immersion blender.  That is what I used.  
8. Once all blended, add the cream and stir.  Heat through and add pepper to taste.

All done!  I'll add a picture now, just so you can see what it looks like.  Looks much nicer in person!

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

I know what you are thinking...SOUP?  It was 94 degrees today?!?  Are you crazy?

Yes.  Yes I am.

For this soup that is.  Someone I know posted it on a message board I frequent and I thought I would give it a try.  After checking over the recipe I noticed a few things I wanted to change and did.  :)  So...here is my version! WARNING!  I like spicy foods.  Feel free to reduce the taco seasoning! 

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (16oz) can chili beans, undrained (mine was kidney beans with chili sauce-vegetarian)
• 1 (15oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) chicken broth
• 2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
• 1/3 cup taco seasoning
• 3 1/2 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• shredded cheese, optional
• sour cream, optional
• tortilla chips, optional

Directions:

1. Add onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, tomatoes, taco seasoning, and chicken broth to the slow cooker.   Stir well.
2. Add the chicken breasts on top and push them down into the mixture until covered.
3. Set slow cooker to low and cook for about 5 hours.
4. Remove chicken breast and let them cool a bit.  Once cooled enough to handle, shred the breasts with two forks.  Then return the breasts to the slow cooker and stir.
5. Cover and continue cooking for 2 more hours.
6. Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips.