Filed under: Main Course, Soups | Tags: Coconut milk, Curry, noodles, Turkey
I usually don’t make anything with Thanksgiving leftovers. I don’t mean they go in the trash, I mean we eat the same meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until the food is gone (which usually takes a few days around here.) In years past, it’s been just my husband and I to devour a whole 15 pound turkey (don’t judge.) This year I was happy that everyone ate turkey, including “C” who never eats meat, but it seemed that after a few days we still had tons of turkey even though all of the side dishes had been eaten. Well, I went about spending a day making turkey stock, but decided I really wanted to make something right away with the stock as well as with all of the turkey meat still in the fridge. I’ve wanted to make a curried noodle soup for a long time, but have always been intimidated by curry before. I thought about just making my Mexican Chicken Noodle Soup but with turkey, but then I thought, no that’s lame. I didn’t spend a whole day making stock just to make the same old soup (even if it is really good!) Go big or go home, right?!?! I knew this soup would probably be an epic failure, or a great success, I suppose there isn’t much in-between when it comes to curry.
Lucky for my family it was a success. It was very spicy the first day, even my daughter and husband who like things extra spicy kept reaching for the water, but it did not lack in flavor. When we had the left over’s the second day, the level of heat had come down, but the entire flavor remained. I’m still thinking about that soup and wishing I had made a bigger pot. Even “M” is still asking for more spicy noodles!
Spicy Curried Turkey Noodle Soup
Adapted from Spicy Curry Noodle Soup with Chicken and Sweet Potatoes at epicurious.com
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons lemongrass, chopped
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons red curry paste*
3 tablespoons spicy curry powder
3 cups unsweetened coconut milk
5 cups turkey stock
2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 pound spaghetti noodles
3 cups cooked turkey meat, shredded or cut into cubes
2 cups fresh spinach leaves.
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced for garnish
3 tablespoons green onion, chopped for garnish
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish
1/4 cup honey roasted peanuts for garnish
1 lime, cut into wedges for garnish
Preparation:
Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add next 4 ingredients; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in curry paste and curry powder. Add 1/2 cup coconut milk. Stir until thick and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add remaining coconut milk, broth, fish sauce, and sugar; bring broth to boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then reduce to a simmer and add the spinach and turkey meat until spinach is wilted and the turkey is warmed through.
While broth comes to a boil, add spaghetti to a large pot of salted, boiling water and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes.
To assemble the soup, put noodles in each bowl, cover with turkey, spinach and broth. Top with any of the additional garnishes.
Hey! Hop on over to Melt in Your Mouth Mondays and see some other great recipes!
This post was supposed to be a guest post by my husband featuring his wonderful Thanksgiving turkey but I think we’ve both just awoken from our turkey comas, and he unfortunately awoke with a cold. But I had planned on making stock from the left over turkey carcass anyway. In most of my recipes, I try to use homemade stock when ever possible. I admit, I do keep chicken bullion in the kitchen too though.
Any time we eat a whole bird (or anything with bones) I try to make stock the next day and freeze the leftovers. The best method, you may ask to freeze an entire batch of stock? Well I have extra ice cube trays that I keep just for freezing extra stocks and sauces. The best way to do this is simply waiting until it cools and divide it among a few ice cube trays. I’ll admit the process of making stock usually takes most of the day, but it is always worth it because the house smells so good!
Turkey Stock
Ingredients:
1 turkey carcass, picked clean of any meat and fat, and broken into pieces
3-4 large carrots
3-4 stalks celery
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Roughly chop carrots, celery, and onion into large pieces. Put veggies along with turkey bones into a roasting pan. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast until the vegetables begin to brown and become very fragrant, about 30 minutes.
Put turkey bones, vegetables, garlic into a large pot (I used my pressure cooker) and cover with water. Cook 3-4 hours until the flavors blend, adjusting seasoning as necessary.
Filed under: Main Course, Soups | Tags: Lasagna, Parmigiano-Reggiano, tortellini
Once again my husband was away on business and I’ve mentioned before that when he’s gone I take the opportunity to try a recipe that I know he would not want to try. When I saw this recipe for lasanga soup by Liz on Blog is the New Black, I knew I had to try it! I did want to make it for my husband as well, after all, lasagna is one of his favorite meals, but when I mentioned it to him, I think his exact words were, “Don’t go messing up something that’s already good. If you want to make lasagna, make lasagna. If you want to make soup, make soup, but please don’t try to mix them.” Well, he missed out because it was soooo good.
I took a bit of a short cut by using store bought stuffed tortellini, but it was worth it. I suppose every country/region has their take on other international cuisines. Like, if you get Chinese food from the States, it may not taste like what you would get in China. Well, I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of the Italian food here. Now, I could eat buckets of hummus all day long, but the pizzas and pastas aren’t usually to my liking. Beef pepperoni just isn’t the same. But there is one grocery store that carries lots of European brands and they have a great cheese and fresh pasta counter. So, long story short, that’s why I used the store, bought tortellini, because it was the good stuff.
I also made a bit of a mistake in cooking my stew. You see, it was supposed to be a soup, but I put it in the electric pressure cooker for too long because it got very thick and the parmesan rind I threw in for extra flavor still had a bit of cheese on it and it stuck to the bottom and burned. At first I thought I’d have to toss it and order kabobs (for the fifth time this week) but when I tasted it, it was rich and the burned cheese was just like the crispy brown cheese on top of lasagna. It was a mistake I was glad I made! The stew was like if a hearty tomato soup and lasagna had a love child, this would have been said child.
After two bowls (what, I had no one to share it with, my husband was gone and my kids were already in bed by the time I sat down to eat) I decided that I would make this again for my husband, but just not tell him it’s Lasagna Stew, so then he will eat it (and I know love it too!) This was a great make ahead meal because you let the soup base simmer for hours (or one hour if you used an electric pressure cooker like me) and then throw in the tortellini at the end and it was so much easier than all of the work of lasagna, but still had the entire flavor.
Lasagna Stew
Ingredients:
4 cups chicken stock
8 oz. tomato sauce
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 parmesan rind
1 10 oz package ricotta and spinach tortellini
Preparation:
Combine the first five ingredients in a heavy bottomed pot or electric pressure cooker. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmering. Allow soup to simmer, covered, for 4-5 hours in a pot, one hour in the pressure cooker. Right before serving, remove the parmesan rind and add the tortellini. If you didn’t already make my mistake, add some freshly grated parmesan cheese to the top of each bowl and brown the cheese under the broiler.
p.s. one of these days, I will actually be able to post this on a Monday, but life happens 🙂
This week’s make-ahead meal is really more of a prep-ahead kind of a meal. In last month’s issue of Rachael Ray Magazine, she had a spread of prepping ingredients ahead of time to be able to quickly put together a healthy and easy weeknight meal. I roasted the potatoes, made the bacon and used left over chicken and then at dinner time, into a pot with homemade stock and canned corn it all goes to warm up. Dinner is on the table by the time the family takes off their shoes, washes their hands, and spins around three times really fast. Well maybe it’s just “C” who spins, because it tends to do that for no reason at all.
This soup is hearty enough for my husband who claims not to like soup (lie) but still pretty healthy (well minus the bacon.) You know, it feels good to start off a week with a healthy meal, especially after a weekend of indulgence in way too many orders of lamb chops from our favorite kabob delivery place! Lamb chops, kabobs, delivery?!?! What am I talking about? Well you can read about it here in this shameless plug interview by Diana at Bromography 🙂
Roasted Potato and Corn Chowder
Ingredients:
1 lb baby red potatoes cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 red onion, diced
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade)
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
1 can creamed corn
1 can super sweet corn
3-4 rashers bacon (optional for garnish)
Chipotle hot sauce, to taste
Diced green onion for garnish
Preparation:
To roast the potatoes: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss potatoes, onions, olive oil, salt/pepper together. Place on a baking sheet and roast until the potatoes are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside, about 30 minutes. Allow the potato mixture to cool and refrigerate in an air tight container
While the potatoes are roasting, prepare the bacon by laying the strips on a rimmed baking sheet and baking until the bacon is crisp, about 20 minutes. Remove bacon to paper towels to drain the grease. Once the bacon has cooled, roughly chop it and store it in an airtight container
To assemble the soup: Bring chicken stock, to a boil. Add the chicken, potatoes, both cans of corn, and hot sauce to the broth and boil until everything is warmed through, about 3-5 minutes. Ladle into bowls and top with bacon, if using and green onions.
Filed under: Main Course, Soups | Tags: carmalized onion, Crouton, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Roasted Tomato Soup, Soup, vegetarian
Last week, I mentioned that I didn’t think I could do Mexi-Monday’s anymore. With the way our schedule has picked up, I really need to have some meals that can be prepared in the morning, and are fresh and waiting when we come home in the evening. So Mexi-Monday must now be make-ahead Monday; but necessity is the mother of invention, right?
After indulging all weekend for my hubby’s birthday, I wanted to make something healthy, but would still be filling after a long day. I know I made soup last week, but I’ve been seeing so many really great soups lately. It’s still hotter than the dickens (is that how the saying goes) so I know it makes me a little crazy to be making soup in 100 degree weather, but my internal clock is telling me it’s fall.
I love to dip a grilled cheese in a soup like this, but since my meal needed to be done earlier in the day, I thought I’d do grilled cheese in crouton format. When my sister first read my blog, she asked if she could put in a request for me to make a grilled gruyere and caramelized onion sandwich…HEY “J”…she also asked for a shout out, so there you go! This was my make-ahead version. I had some caramelized onion bread that I picked up on my many trips to the market over the weekend and topped it with parm. The croutons on their own could have been a meal for a carb-lover like me!
This soup, with the croutons, was a great way to get back to healthy food without feeling like we’re going without.
Roasted Tomato Soup with Caramelized Onion and Parmesan Croutons
Ingredients:
6 large, ripe tomatoes, quartered
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 small onions, chopped
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried basil
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 cups vegetable stock
4 tablespoons tomato paste (optional, but I like a really tomato-y soup)
1 loaf caramelized onion bread
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Salt and black pepper to taste
Preparation:
To make the soup: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a roasting pan, combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, dried spices, and oil. Toss to coat and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20-30 minutes or until vegetables brown and crisp slightly. In an electric pressure cooker*, combine roasted vegetables, with juice, chicken stalk, and tomato paste. Cook on high for 30 minutes. Puree soup to desired consistency with an immersion blender. Adjust seasonings.
To make the croutons: While the soup cooks, cube the loaf of bread. Toss the bread with olive oil and roast for 10-15 minutes, turning occasionally, until all the cubes are golden brown and crispy. Remove from the oven, and while still hot, toss with parmesan cheese.
To serve: Ladle the soup into bowls and top with croutons. Eat immediately.
*If you do not have an electric pressure cooker, this can be done in a heavy-bottomed pot for 45 minutes to one hour.
Filed under: Chicken, Main Course, Soups | Tags: Chicken, Chicken soup, chipotle, egg noodles, mexican
I think that “Mexi-Monday” will have to become make-ahead Monday. Now that Ramadan has ended, life has picked up in our host country. We are able to get out more, meet new friends and enjoy our surroundings. We’ve been getting home late after a day of play dates, coffees with friends, and ballet and music lessons. Fortunately, this meal can be thrown together in minutes with a little preparation.
I first made this soup for my husband some time ago when he was sick. He needed soup, but doesn’t fancy chicken noodle so much, so I tried to make a version that even he couldn’t resist. This has become one of the meals that he looks forward to me making. It was nice for all of us to come home from a busy day to a comforting, homemade soup.
Mexican Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients:
2 cups shredded chicken (you can use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, or shred up leftovers)
5 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1/4 cup jalapeno, diced (remove the seeds if you don’t want it too spicy)
2 cloves garlic
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
4 tablespoons cumin
1 chipotle chili, finely diced
2 cups dried egg noodles
Cilantro for garnish
Lime for garnish
Preparation:
In a heavy bottomed pot, sauté the onion and jalapeno in the olive oil over medium-high heat. When soft, add the garlic, chipotle, and cumin and sauté for another 2-3 minutes. Add chicken and tomatoes and stir in stock. Simmer 20 minutes, or until liquid reduces slightly
While soup simmers, prepare noodles. Add noodles to salted, boiling water. Cook until just shy of al-dente.
Ladle soup in bowls. Add noodles and top with cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice.
Mom de Cuisine 