Chicken and chickpea soup

I had some bone-in chicken breasts and some chicken stock that needed to get used up. What to do? I didn't much feel like doing a boring chicken noodle soup (I pass no judgment if your particular version is the sexy kind of chicken soup that flashes its boobies at Mardi Gras - my chicken noodle soup wears cotton undies and sensible shoes). So I googled chicken soup with chickpeas. Weird - yes, I will give you that. I don't normally think chickpeas when I think sexy soup. But I have been on a bit of a chickpea bender of late, and I was keen to try out the new way I had found on Chow Hound to soak them (it's a Nigella tip where you add a slurry of baking soda, flour and salt to the soaking water).

What I found was a promising Martha Steward recipe from Everyday Food. Cumin, cinnamon and coriander, garlic, lemon and cilantro...it looked appealing on a cold day.

So I gave it a shot. Verdict? We have a winner. The chickpeas were tender and creamy. The chicken was not too dry (thighs would have been perfectly moist). And the flavours were just Moroccan enough to feel exotic on a cold March day. The finishing touch of minced cilantro tossed with garlic and lemon juice was gor-geous.

Here is my adaptation.

Chicken and chickpea soup
Adapted from Everyday Food.

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs or 2 bone-in, skin on chicken breasts
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 large yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced or 2 medium leeks, light green parts only
• 3 teaspoons minced garlic
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3/4 teaspoon ground coriander seed
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained or approximately 1/2 to 2/3 cup dry, soaked overnight (see note) and cooked until tender
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Note: Pick through the dry chickpeas and remove any twigs or stones. Put in a pot and add water to cover by several inches. Mix together 1 teaspoon baking soda with 1 tablespoon flour and 1 tablespoon salt. Add a bit of water and stir to make a thin paste. Stir this paste into the soaking chickpeas. Refrigerate at least 12 hours.

Instructions:

1. In a large, heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high. Season chicken with salt and pepper and cook, skin side down, until skin is browned and crisp, about 6 minutes. Slightly more if you are using large chicken breasts. Flip chicken and cook until browned, 6 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate.
2. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from pot. Add onion or leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 4 minutes. Add 2 teaspoons garlic and spices; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in carrots and return chicken to pot. Stir in broth.
3. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a medium simmer, partially cover, and cook until chicken is falling off the bone, 50 minutes.
4. Remove chicken from soup. When cool enough to handle, tear chicken into large pieces, discarding skin and bones. Return meat to pot. Add chickpeas and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. In a small bowl, stir together 1 teaspoon garlic, lemon zest, and cilantro; sprinkle over soup before serving.

Serves 6.

Cauliflower soup - yum yum yum!

Back in January I supplied my first set of recipe links. Last night, I finally got around to making the cauliflower soup from The Wednesday Chef. What was I waiting for?! Months have gone by during which I could have been filling my belly and waxing my virtuous soul with this elixir from the gods. Sorry. I'm embellishing a bit. But this is a really good soup. And you know what the sign of a good soup is? My husband doesn't like soup  - he loved this soup.

The bonus: it's good for you in a way lots of cauliflower soup isn't. It gets all its yumminess from healthy things - no added cream or cheese. Just leeks or onion, cauliflower, water, olive oil, salt and lemon juice. That's it! It also calls for a finishing touch of a dusting of piment d'espelette. That's a ground Basque red pepper that has a mild heat. I don't have any so substituted plain paprika though next time I might use the hot, or even my smoked sweet. Luisa Weiss, the Wednesday Chef blogger suggests also adding croutons but I didn't miss them. (Although we had toasted pita with a little cheddar melted on them on the side. And a shrimp avocado salad.)

I'd show you a picture but it got eaten up too quickly for me to stage a shot. But it pretty much looked like the shot on Luisa's website. I mean, it's cauliflower soup.

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:

1 leek or 1 onion
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cauliflower, green leaves and trunk removed
Water
Salt
1/2 lemon
Piment d'Espelette, optional
Homemade croutons, optional

Instructions:
1. Peel and clean the leek and cut into thin slices, discarding the tough green tops. If using the onion, peel and thinly slice. Warm olive oil in a heavy pot and gently sauté the leek or onion in the olive oil until wilted, 5 to 7 minutes. In the meantime, wash the cauliflower and slice thickly. Add the cauliflower to the pot and stir to combine. After 2 to 3 minutes, add enough water to cover the vegetables.
2. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat, cover the pot and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and, using an immersion blender, purée until smooth and creamy. Add salt to taste and the juice of the 1/2 lemon. Taste and, if your socks don't roll up and down, add the juice from the other half. I had to keep adding juice a squeeze at a time and then finally, kaboom, it was perfect. You could also pass extra lemon wedges at the table.
3. Serve dusted with piment d'Espelette or homemade croutons.

Serves 4 to 5 (or, um, 3)

Pumpkin soup with a southwest twist

Can I keep blaming chemo brain? The other day, I confidently reached my hand into the cupboard, hauled out a big can of whole tomatoes and opened it. Something just felt wrong. It took me a second, but when I finally looked at the can in my hand, I realized it was a can of pumpkin. Pumpkin!? Seriously? Crap. I put it to one side and carefully bent over, looked in the cupboard and pulled out the intended can of tomatoes. As I opened all I could think was, "What the heck am I going to do with pumpkin."

Soup. Of course soup. My husband was voting for pie (my family does a kick ass pumpkin pie - seriously, take a step back if you think yours is even close) but I knew there was no way pie was happening in the middle of a busy week in March. So soup it was.

I don't have a go to pumpkin soup recipe so I decided to take a quick scan on the web. I couldn't find an interesting one...too many curried versions. Then I happened upon a conversation thread for a recipe in Epicurious. That and a couple of turns around my kitchen cupboards and I came up with the following:

Pumpkin soup with corn and black beans

Ingredients:

3 tbs olive oil

2 tbs butter

2 medium to large onions, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 ½ tbs brown sugar

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp chilli powder

¼ tsp nutmeg

6 cups vegetable stock

1 cup milk or cream

1 large can pumpkin

2 cups frozen corn (or more depending on taste)

1 can black beans, rinsed

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional toppings: 

  Chopped cilantro

  Sour cream

  Salsa

  Diced avocado

  Mexican hot sauce

Instructions:

1. Heat oil and butter in a dutch oven or heavy bottomed stock pot.
2. Add onions and cook on low, approx 15 minutes.
3. Add garlic, cayenne, brown sugar, cumin, chili powder and nutmeg and cook another 15 minutes or so, until the onions are caramelized.
4. Increase heat to medium. Add stock and milk or cream and allow to come to a simmer.
5. When hot, whisk in the pumpkin.
6. Puree either in batches in the blender (remember to take care when blending hot liquids) or with an immersion blender.
7. Add in corn and beans. Heat through. Taste and add salt and pepper.
8. Serve warm with optional toppings of chopped cilantro, sour cream, salsa, diced avocado and/or hot sauce.

 Serves 6 to 8.

Yum. :-)

Monday's recipe links

Soup. I love soup. Especially on a day like today where there is slush melting in the driveway and water dripping off the eaves. Did I mention the wind and the frigid air? OK - I need some soup.

1. Rapini, leek and rice soup from Coconut and Lime.
2. Potato, leek and cauliflower soup, also from Coconut and Lime.
3. Soupe au pistou from David Lebovitz.
4. Celery root soup, also from David Lebovitz.
5. Butternut squash apple soup from A Cozy Kitchen.
6. White bean chowder from A Communal Table.
7. Coconut red lentil soup from 101 Cookbooks.
8. Cauliflower soup with gorgonzola, also from 101 Cookbooks.
9. Armenian apricot soup, also from 101 Cookbooks. Sorry, she really knows her soup.
10. Real mushroom soup from Jamie Oliver.

No way - these recipes look too yummy to be healthy

I got my new issue of Eating Well magazine today and I was shocked at the number of recipes I couldn`t wait to try. Wow, how times have changed. Before I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I tended to associate health food magazines with boring articles and brown rice. And kombu, fermented bean pastes and, of course, tofu. And weird goddess drawings. Now, I look at them and am shocked by the plethora of beautiful pictures and interesting recipes...when did they change? Funny what the fear of death does to one's perception. :-)

After half an hour or so of bookmarking recipes, I thought I should share. The common element is simply this - I would try this recipe even if I wasn't eating like my life depended on it. Now, I will warn you, there are many references to brown rice...but if you want to substitute white rice now and then, I won't tell. (But honestly, if you didn't know it was better for you - and if it didn't take so much longer to cook - wouldn't you choose it over white some of the time?)

I'm going to pour myself a glass of wine and try a couple of these out! I might even make some brown rice.

1. Balsamic and parmesan roasted cauliflower
2. Leek, potato and spinach stew (OK this isn't an exciting recipe for everyone, but I have always loved leeks and potatoes together - and this one gets great reviews)
3. Brothy Chinese noodles
4. Elise's sesame noodles
5. Grilled salmon with tomatoes and basil
6. Shrimp saganaki
7. Chicken sausage with potatoes and sauerkraut
8. Thai chicken mango stir-fry
9. Seared steaks with caramelized onions and gorgonzola 
10. Oven sweet potato fries or spicier chile-garlic roasted sweet potatoes
11. Layered mashed potato and mushroom casserole
12. Swirled cheesecake brownies

I think you'll love kale

A little while back, I shared a list of ten super foods and number 9 was kale. It wasn't until recently that I discovered how much I loved kale - for the longest time I just lumped it in with all the other dark green leafy vegetables that can be a little, well, strongly flavoured. I recently read an article from a like-minded individual who said if you like spinach (and I do) you will like kale because it isn't bitter at all, but sweet and mild. You don't even need to load it up with butter, bacon or garlic. It is lovely (yes, I used the word lovely) on its own or added to other dishes. Lately I have been adding it to soups and stews and sauteing it quickly before using it to top a baked potato. Favourite new use? Julienned and layered between roasted tomatoes and shredded mozzarella on a thin crust pizza.

Sorry - do I need to mention again that it is a full-out, cape wearing anti-cancer super-veg? Give it a shot and start adding it to your regular vegetable rotation (it kicks zucchini's butt).

1.  365 Days of Kale is the blog of Diana Dyer, wife, mom, dietitian and cancer survivor. She knows kale. Recently, she was asked what her favourite recipes were and these are the ones she makes again and again: Garlic Kale Sweet Potato Soup, Kale Chips, Spicy Lentil Kale Sweet Potato Patties, Kale 3-Bean Salad and Garlic Scape Kale Pesto. 
2. I've written about kale chips before, and included Diana's above, but next I'm going to try this recipe from Chow - lemon kale chips.
3. Kale and apple salad with molasses vinaigrette and lovely sugared pecans. How pretty is that? I can't do pecans though (nut allergy) but I may try it with sugared pumpkin seeds. Won't have the lovely contrast that the shiny, caramel-brown nuts would against the dark green kale, but it beats anaphylaxis shock. From Design Sponge.
4. Roasted kale greens tossed with a champagne vinaigrette. An elegant side to salmon or stuffed chicken breasts. From the Baltimore Chop.
5. Here's a great collection from Canadian Living magazine, including: lemon kale with chickpeas, kale and pancetta quiche,  and gemelli with kale, sage and potatoes.
6. Kale and cheddar gratin, looks yummy and is nice way to make kale more accessible for people who are still getting used to the idea of eating greens! Plus, as an added bonus it has a hit of turmeric in it - feel free to increase it.

Have a great day!

Meatless Borscht

While I love borscht, I don't make it very often. My mother-in-law makes fantastic borscht, and it's kind of a hard act to follow. But our new plant-based diet has changed the way I look at food. If we are going to be successful with this new way of eating, we should be turning more often to vegetable dishes we love to help us miss meat less. Well, as I have already stated, I love borscht. So, here goes nothing.

I turned to Chowtimes for my inspiration. Chowtimes is the very informative and entertaining food blog of Richmond, BC husband and wife Ben and Suanne Yap. If my husband and I want to know where to go in the lower mainland for the best dumplings or pho, this is where we look first. On top of that, they have great recipes.

About this time last year, they posted a good basic borscht recipe without any meat. I adapted it a bit to suit my own preferences and what I had on hand. If I do say so myself, it was spectacular. The key may have been my substitution of  Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar for the apple cider vinegar in the original recipe. That and an extra splash of plain champagne vinegar to cut the sweetness even more. If you don't have a Trader Joe's near you, or someone who can hook you up, a splash of orange juice with a splash of a good white wine, champagne or sherry vinegar will help give it that extra dimension.

Meatless Borscht

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
• 6 medium or 4 large beets, peeled and diced
• 1 large Yukon Gold potato, peeled and diced
•  large carrot, peeled and diced
• 3 - 5 cups finely chopped red or green cabbage
• 2 small or 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken stock (I used diluted chicken bouillon)
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar plus an extra splash of a plain, champagne or other, vinegar
• salt, pepper and sugar to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill or dry dill to taste
• low fat sour cream or plain yogurt, optional

Instructions: 

1. Heat oil in a heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add beets, potatoes, carrot, cabbage and onion and saute until cabbage softens, about 5 minutes.
2. Add stock, water and tomato paste. Reduce heat to medium low and cook 30 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Stir often.
3. Add vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar and dill to taste.
4. Serve hot with an optional dollop of sour cream or yogurt. 

Serves 6.