Chicken Lemon Pesto Soup (Recipe tweaked)

I can't get enough of this soup! I loved the taste of the Chicken Lemon sausage that I picked up at Marcello's Meats. At $12.50 for three sausages, it is a little rich for my budget (but it was oh so delicious!). I decided to take inspiration from Marcello's chicken lemon sausages and this is what I did. I made mini-chicken lemon meatballs. Our local grocery store sells ground chicken so I started there.  

Ground chicken

Gluten-free bread crumbs

Milk

Grated lemon zest

Lemon juice

Gluten-free Montreal Chicken spice blend

Gluten-free garlic spice blend

Thyme

Chicken Lemon mini-meatballs

Chicken broth

Carrots

Celery

Leeks

Garlic

Baby Spinach

Green Onions

Pesto

Sea Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

White kidney beans

Parmesan cheese rinds

Pesto Chicken Soup II

I discovered a little Italian market in the neighbourhood that sold some lemon chicken sausage and oh-my-goodness is it ever good. I prefer the lemon chicken sausage over using chicken breasts in this soup. I was planning on adding white beans to the soup but someone beat me to the beans and I didn't have any spinach on hand to add to this version. Still a work in progress....

Lemon Chicken Sausage (casing removed and cut into pieces)

Chicken Stock

Diced Carrots

Diced Celery

Parmesan Cheese rinds

Lemon grass

Pesto

For a light lunch I added a simple cucumber and cherry tomato salad drizzled with some balsamic reduction.  

Happy Eating!  

Borscht

Gotta love autumn for all the food gifts that find its way to the table. These are organic beets that someone found in their organic food delivery box but didn't know that to do with them.  

I thought I would give a try at making borscht.  I used a recipe that I found in Classic Home Cooking by Mary Berry and Marlena Spieler.  

Red cabbage

Beets

Carrots

Red onions

Tomatoes

Red potatoes

Chicken stock

Dried dill

Dried Celery

Red wine vinegar

Organic coconut cane sugar

Sea salt

Black pepper

I know it is a popular soup but I think it needs something.  I added back bacon and that helped. I think it could use more seasoning, cumin perhaps? I do like cumin.  

Curry Cauliflower Soup

Oh my goodnes, this bowl of soup will go down as the best bowl of soup I have ever made. The recipe is from the Looneyspoons Collection. And I just tweaked it a bit according to the items that I had on hand. 

Since I didn't have evaporated milk, I substituted coconut milk. What is curried food without fresh ginger? So, I threw in some of that. I didn't have Swiss cheese so I substituted it with Sovrano, a hard ripened cheese. And I believe that is it for changes to a fabulous recipe.  

It is the perfect soup to take off the chill from yesterday's snow.  

Creole Style Chicken-a-la-King

A basic Chicken-a-la-King recipe kicked up a whole bunch of notches!  

Butter

Celery

Red Peppers

Wild Mushrooms

Onions

Shallots

Garlic

Gluten-free flour (I used Cloud 9 all-purpose blend, available at Costco)
Thyme

Gluten-free Creole Spice 

Milk

Chicken Stock

Left-over Roast Chicken

Serving suggestions:  Serve on sprouted brown rice, quinao, or roasted spaghetti squash.  

Soothing Soup

It is cold season here. I'm fighting off a nasty sinus infection and cough for a few weeks now. And it has me thinking.

Can chicken soup help fight a cold or the flu? It has been a long held believe of mine that it does help.

I swear by cayenne pepper in my steaming hot pot of soup as my secret weapon. (Skip the pasta.) I also have a friend that swears by garlic and grated ginger in theirs to help loosen congestion and get things draining.

How about you?  What's your secret ingredient?

White Bean Chicken Chilli

Peel and wash tomatillos, roast in 350 degree F oven for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Meanwhile... 

saute 2 large onions and 6 cloves of garlic in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until soft. Add 2 peppers (green and red). Add 2 tbsp cumin and oregano.

Using a potato masher, mash the tomatillos. Add to the stock pot with the onions and garlic.

Add white beans.

with 3 cups of chicken stock, 3 chopped tomatoes, 1 cup of corn, green chillies, and 1 lb. chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces.

Added bonus, this freezes well!

Quinoa!

Quinoa cooked with water = good.  

Quinoa cooked with broth = delicious.  

Quinoa cooked in left-over water that homemade chorizo was cooked in = super un-believeable-ly yummy!  

Just saying.    

Chestnut Bisque

Melt 1 Tbsp of butter in a large saucepan.
Add 1 diced onion, 4 carrots, 2 stalks of celery.
Saute for about 7 minutes

Add 2 pounds of peeled chestnuts.
I used fresh chestnuts that were cooked in a pot of salted water.
Saute for another 5 minutes.  

Add 6 cups of chicken stock, 1/2 cup fresh parsley, salt, pinch of nutmeg, and freshly ground pepper.
Bring to a boil, simmer for 20 minutes.  

Puree, adjust seasoning if needed.  

Enjoy!  

The perfect day...

I love cooking and that is what I've been busy doing today. This is how my perfect day unfolded.

Breakfast: Poppyseed Buns from Lorenzo's Bakery, Coffee, and CBC on the radio

After breakfast it is time to start chopping vegetables for chicken soup.  

And vegetables for the pizza.  

Aww, little baby pepper inside the big pepper!  

When the soup starts to boil, reduce to a simmer and add the Rosemary and Garlic Dumplings.
Simmer for 20 minutes.
I found the recipe for the Rosemary and Garlic Dumplings over at The Spunky Coconut.  

Now to focus on the gluten-free pizza.
 I have to say that I highly recommend this pizza mix.  

Top with pizza sauce, pepperoni, red onions, green peppers, cheese.
And then pop into a 400 degree F oven.  

While the pizza bakes, enjoy a bowl of soup!  

What's on the stove today...

I'm making the Winter version of Jamie Oliver's Chicken stock. You can find the summer version here. I don't have a readily available supply of fresh herbs in the backyard right now, so I'm using the dried version of the same backyard herbs.

Chicken stock

Have you ever made your own homemade chicken stock? It is really simple, just ask Jamie Oliver. He has a great recipe and you can find it here.

I made it this afternoon and have to give it 2 thumbs up!

Make sure you use a large pot!  I used the large pot that I usually use when making soup and it was not large enough. I still needed to add another 2 L water.  So I transferred it to the big pot that I have for prepping canning jars.

I added a few more carrots and peppercorns than Oliver's recipe said to and I didn't spoil the brew. After four hours at a gentle simmer that house smelled wonderful and I was happy with how it cooked down.

After straining it...

Making the labels...

And ready for the freezer.