Loaded Baked Potato Soup

When I was a teenager I spent a large portion of every weekend at the mall. Sadly, Robin Sparkles didn't visit the Crystal Mall in Waterford, Connecticut, so my mall visits didn't have a theme song.  However, the visits had a common theme and it was the food court. As a chubby adolescent, I loved the mall food court. My eatery of choice was one in which you could get a baked potato with all the toppings you could imagine. I have no idea if this establishment still exists in the Crystal Mall as I avoid the mall like the plague whenever I'm in Rhode Island, but here's my soup homage to the wonder that was the loaded baked potato store.

For my version of a loaded baked potato soup, you'll need: 1/8 pound pancetta, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 chipotle in adobo, 3 large baking potatoes, 1 small broccoli crown, a few tablespoons heavy cream, fresh chives, cheddar cheese and some salt and  water (which I forgot to include in the picture).

First, dice the pancetta into small bits and dump it into your soup pot. Turn the heat onto medium-high. If you have a fan or hood over your stove, turn that on too.  Cook the pancetta until the fat has rendered, at least 10 minutes, being sure to stir it frequently so it doesn't burn. 

Meanwhile, mince the garlic and chipotle in adobo.  Set them aside together.

Next, peel and dice the potatoes.

Depending on how quickly you work, by now the pancetta should be rendered. Add the garlic and chipotle to the pot, stirring frequently for about 2 minutes.

 

Next, add the potatoes and stir to mix. Now is a good time to add some salt as well. In a move uncharacteristic of my usual behavior, I added a lot of salt, like a tablespoon (go ahead and judge).

 

Then, add the water. I added about 5 cups.  Increase the heat to high to bring the soup to a boil.  Boil until the potatoes are cooked through.

 

Meanwhile, divide the broccoli crown into small florets and set aside.

Once the potatoes are cooked remove the pot from the heat and coarsely mash the soup with a potato masher. If you're looking for a smooth soup (which I was) also blend the soup with an immersion blender.  If the soup isn't as smooth as you'd like (which mine wasn't) also add some heavy cream or milk, and blend again until you're happy with it.

 

Return the pot to heat and  add the broccoli florets.  Cook for about 5 minutes until the broccoli are cooked.

 To serve, top with some fresh chives and shredded cheddar cheese. Enjoy!

Roasted Squash Chipotle Lentil Soup

The inspiration for this soup comes from one of the students at work who just happened to get engaged (I had to quell my excitement because said student doesn't know me that well and also doesn't know how much I love, love, love weddings and would very much like to plan his). On Friday, over lunch, him and I had a rousing conversation (well, to us) about just how easy it is to make stock and how gross it is to make stock from chicken feet. The people surrounding us at the table were not nearly as enthralled with our conversation. Possibly least enthralled was our vegetarian boss. Anyway, we got to talking more in depth about soup and he said something about throwing a chipotle pepper in regular old lentil soup and I thought that was brilliant.

Here goes a very spicy Roasted Squash Chipotle Lentil Soup. you'll need: 1 butternut squash, 1 yellow onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 3 parsnips, 2 chipotles in adobo, some hot smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste, a cup or so of lentils, and a 1/4 cup of peppadews.  Where's the broth you may be wondering. I just used plain old water.

First, preheat the oven to 350. Second, make smarter decisions than I did.  In my defense, I was making this at 7:15 on a Sunday morning, because I was wide awake and instead of acting like a normal person and enjoying some coffee and a newspaper, I made soup (and a spinach lasagne). Yeah I'm nuts.  However, Brian woke up to the smell of roasting veggies, so that's pretty awesome. I guess there's a perk to having an insane wife.

Start with the onions, slicing them into rounds, and peel and coarsely chop the parsnips.  Arrange these on the bottom of your roasting dish, coat with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper.  Next the butternut squash.  You really want to peel this before roasting it as it will make your life easier later (trust me, I failed to do this). Then halve the squash, remove the seeds, and place it on top of the onion, cut side up.  Lastly, peel the garlic, but leave the cloves whole. Place these in the round part of the squash. Coat the squash with a bit of olive oil and again sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper.  Roast for about 50-60 minutes or until the squash is done.

While the veggies are roasting, mince the peppadews.  What's a peppadew? First and foremost, peppadews are delicious. They are delicious stuffed with goat cheese, and in hummus and just out of the jar. I ♥ them. I literally shrieked and did a little dance in Trader Joe's when I found them there. I have one jar in my fridge and another in the pantry right now, in case of peppadew emergency.  But I digress, peppadews are a sweet and spicy pickled peppers. They are also a topping in this soup. If you can't find them, you're really missing out. Go find them. Go harass your local grocer until they are stocked. You will not be sorry.

Once the veggies are done, puree them, however you'd like. I opted for the food processor as it is the most efficient. Here's also when I realized I should have peeled the squash first. Cutting hot squash from its skin was not fun. I also added about one cup of water to assist in the pureeing process.

Once the veggies look smooth and liquid, add the 2 chipotle peppers.  You may opt to add fewer peppers unless you like really hot soup. I think that eating excessively spicy food is a good way to ensure portion control, so I went a bit overboard with the spicy.

Next, transfer the squash puree to a stock pot.  Add about 5 cups of water and bring to a boil.

Once a decent boil erupts (gross, right?), add the lentils.  I fully intended to add more than a cup of lentils, but that was all I had in my pantry. It's taken me over a year, but I finally cooked an entire giant Your Dekalb Farmer's Market container of lentils. I think this is a victory.  Cook for about 20 minutes until the lentils are done.

Because I write this blog either 1) at the end working/dog walking/gym-ing/choreing on a weekday or 2) while drinking on a Sunday, I often do dumb things. Today's dumb thing was deleting the pretty picture of the finished soup. It was so cute, with a spoon full of minced peppadews topping it. Just picture it. It was cute. Most importantly, the soup was delicious. I hope you an enjoy, even without a final picture.

Quinoa Peanut Soup

Happy New Year!  Yes, I know it's January 10th, also known as Snowpocalypse in the great city of Atlanta thanks to 6 inches of snow coated with a tenth of an inch (and increasing) of ice.  Needless to say, I'm home, enjoying my first snow day in at least 7 years and futilely trying to convince Brian that sledding is lame and I will not do it. I'd much rather sit around and drink some salted caramel hot chocolate and share this delicious recipe for Quinoa Peanut Soup with all 10 of my readers. In full disclosure, I found this recipe on the delightful Fork, Fingers, Chopsticks and adapted it for my own taste.

For this tasty treat, you'll need: 3/4 cup quinoa, 2 stalks of celery, 1 medium onion, 2 sweet potatoes, 2 jalapeno peppers, 1 green bell pepper, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 zucchinis, 3 roasted red peppers, chili flake, oregano and cumin to taste, 4 cups of stock, 4 cups of water, and 1 cup of peanut butter.

 

First, rinse and drain the quinoa.  You may be wondering what in the hell quinoa is. Well, it's a tasty little grain-like seed with fantastic nutritional value. The one thing to remember when cooking with quinoa is that you must, must, must rinse and drain it prior to use to remove the seed's natural coating. I used a fine mesh sieve for this step and set the sieve aside to drain.  If you can't find or don't want to be bothered with quinoa, I suggest using barley, orzo or Israel cous cous instead.

Next, dice the celery, onion, green bell pepper, sweet potato and mince the jalapeno.  I peeled the potatoes as well, and diced everything up so that they were all roughly the same size.  Side note, I've taken to watching The Food Network's Worst Cook in America show because it's a little like watching a train wreck. Last night's lesson was all about mise en place and dicing vegetables in identically shaped pieces. Both techniques were like rocket science to the contestants on the show. I was dumbfounded.  

Now for the rest of the veggies, mince the garlic and dice the zucchini and roasted red peppers.  If you prefer fresh red peppers, feel free to leave the roasted ones out and add a fresh one. I tend to stay away from red peppers unless it's summer time since they're always like $4.99 a pound in non-Summer months and that's absurd.

After about 30 minutes of chopping, it's cook time. I elected to use my cast iron dutch oven for this baby.  I heated it over medium heat and added a bit of olive oil. Then went in the celery-onion-peppers-potatoes and about a teaspoon of red chili flake.  Cook for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are softened.  If you're using a cast iron cooking vessel, you'll want to stir this pretty frequently since things have a tendency to stick.

Next, goes in the garlic-zucchini-peppers.  Also, throw in about a teaspoon of dried oregano and tablespoon of cumin.  A bit of salt and pepper wouldn't hurt either.  Stir all this up and cook for another 2-4 minutes.

 

Now, the stock of your choosing.  First, add only about a cup and scrape the bottom of the pot with your spoon to release any tasty bits stuck to the bottom.  Then, dump in the remaining 3 cups.

Also, add an additional 3-4 cups of water.  Alternatively, you could only use water or only use stock. You do want your total liquid volume to be around 8 cups.

Finally, add the quinoa. Increase the heat to bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes until the quinoa is cooked.

When the 15 minute simmer time is up, give the broth a taste. Mine was nicely spicy on account of the two jalapenos. I was quite pleased since the soup had the potential to be bland as it was just vegetables.  However, it wasn't finished just yet.  Measure out a cup of peanut butter.  Then ladle out about a cup and half of the soup broth.  Using a whisk, fork, blender or whatever you'd like, mix the peanut butter and liquid until smooth, then add it back to the soup.  Stir to mix and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

 

This soup turned out a little thinner than the soups I usually make, but it was very, very tasty. Tasty enough that I'm pretty sure I'm going to make this for a soup swap a friend and I decided to hold later this month. Enjoy!