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I've gone to the darkside.... find all posts now at www.soupthereitisblog.com 

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REALLY Spicy Chorizo Kale & Sweet Potato Soup

So today's soup is one of my time favorites to make. I don't think I've ever made it the same way twice, but the most important staples here I would say would be the chorizo, kale & sweet potato (as indicated by the title). So if you remember anything about this recipe, just remember those three guys and I'm sure it'll all come together for you somehow. 

Feeling like any good yuppie, I went to Trader Joe's for all my ingredients. If your local Trader Joe's is anything like the one we have here in Philadelphia, it can be a jarring and stressful experience. You can't just waltz in there and take your time deciding on ingredients because then you'll most likely get hip checked or be on the receiving end of some serious sighs and eye rolls.

So either be prepared and mentally map out your path before you get there or be like me and blindly throw things into your cart that sound reasonable by both description and price. Here's what I walked away with for the soup:  

Ingredients (please don't add a cat):

2 Chorizo sausages 

Tuscan Kale 

Sweet potato (chopped into bite size pieces)

Carton of chicken broth 

1 zucchini (cut into half circles)

Red bell pepper (chopped)

Garlic

Onion

Shallots
A bag of frozen roasted corn 

Asiago cheese 

Sage

Rosemary 

Roasted cayenne pepper 

Lemon 

Red pepper flakes 

Dried red pepper

Caraway seeds 

Homemade Croutons 

- French bread


Cook: 

Preheat the oven to about 350 degrees and cut your loaf into cubes and throw some olive oil and salt in there.  
Let sit for about 15 minutes or until they look pretty crispy. 

Prepare the chorizo: 

Take the layer of skin that makes the chorizo into links and then cut them up into bite size pieces. 
Also chop up some of your sage & rosemary so that it's ready to add in with the chorizo. 

Mince your garlic and chop your onion and shallots. 
Add a little oil to your deep pot and then cook until onion & shallots are translucent

Throw in the chorizo, sage & rosemary.
Do you when it comes to this part, but I usually like to go a little crazy with dashes of all the spices listed. Just do whatever feels right to you. 

After the sausage looks about halfway cooked, throw in your corn, zucchini, red bell pepper and your sweet potatoes. 

Okay now stop for a moment and take a quick sniff. How freaking good is this shit starting to smell. So good. 

Alright, so when the zucchini looks about cooked then I'd add in your broth. Bring the broth to a boil and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes and add in the kale. 

Once the sweet potatoes are cooked to soft, squeeze a little lemon juice in there and give it another stir. 

Hopefully you didn't forget about those croutons in the oven because this is where they come in. Garnish with croutons & some grated asiago cheese and chow down! 

So I'm not quite sure what it was for this batch of soup, but we were SWEATING from eating it. If you're not a big spice person I would definitely be careful with the spices. Either the Trader Joe's chorizo we got wasn't playing around or I went a little too loco with all the spices I blindly added at the beginning; regardless this was us at dinner: 

Fire in my mouth aside, this is still one of my all time favorite and very hearty soups!

Red Seafood Stew with Chorizo & Potato

A few weeks ago I went out to eat at Devil's Alley in Center City for with my boyfriend.  It's a pretty nice spot in right around the Rittenhouse area that would be a cute date night or after work dinner spot. Whoever the bartender was that night made us some pretty spectacular Manhattans as well. I know they were spectacular because I was slightly tossed after my first glass...

via Buzzfeed

But I digress. The main event of my meal was hands down the mussels I had that were cooked in some savory red sauce with chorizo and peppers. I got a little crazy in the grocery store trying to think about how I could recreate the dish and make it my own and started blindly adding items to my cart that I thought were or should have been in the dish... 

The basics:

•  Mussels
•  Chorizo
•  Cod
•  Yellow onion
•  Russet potato
•  campari tomatoes (4-5)
• Vegetable stock
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes
• garlic
• scallions
• roasted paprika
• garlic
• red curry paste
• red wine vinegar
•  evoo
• fresh parsley
• pepper
• gruyere cheese
• dry white wine
• lemon juice

Prep:

• Chop up your onion
• Chop up your onion
• Chop up the white parts of about 6 scallions
• Chop up your campari tomatoes into quarter chunks
• Cut 2 chorizo links into chunks
• Rinse off your mussels and then make sure it throw away any open shells or guys that just look a little too funky.
• Cut 1-2 russet potatoes also into chunks

Cook:

 Heat up some oil in your pot and add the garlic, onions & scallions and cook until translucent.
 Add in your potatoes, chorizo & red curry paste.
 This is where I got a little crazy and started just blindly chopping and adding things in. I'm pretty sure I added in:

•  paprika
•  pepper
•  chopped parsley
•  red wine vinegar
•  dry white wine
• A few scoops of your crushed tomatoes (depending on how thick you want your broth to be)

-After the chorizo looked decently cooked through I added in about half of the vegetable stock and let it come to a boil
-Then I added in my mussels and cod
-Once all the mussels have opened, I added the other half of the vegetable stock and then scooped in some extra spoonfuls of crushed tomatoes.

-Let it simmer for about 20-25 minutes and wait for the potatoes to cook through
-Pull out a piece of potato, pop it in your mouth, spit it out across the kitchen, and then cry about getting a blister on the roof of your mouth. (Alternative step here would be to see if potato cuts easily with a knife...)
-When your potatoes are nice & cooked, grate some cheese and serve!

Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup (With A Soda on the Side)

Now Let It Rain....And Clear It Out

For those of you who have no idea what I'm referring to by the title of this post, I give you Webstar's & Young B's "Chicken Noodle Soup" (2006).

Awww yeah, chicken noodle soup! Always a crowd pleaser in my books. I used to make this for my guy friends in college to give me something to do on football Sundays and practice my recipe. Since I was feeding a group of 22 year old boys, my soups took hearty to another level. These boys could barely handle second helpings. (I'm pretty sure this is because it was that good...but then again maybe they didn't want to hurt my feelings.) 

In any case, I now feel pretty confident about this recipe. So I'm not saying this will blow your grandma's recipe out of the water, but it might give her a little run for her bingo money...

Classic Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

8 cups of chicken stock 
white egg noodles

1 whole chicken breast (on the bone if you can -- i think it tastes better! 

3 stalks of celery 

1 parsnip

1 large carrot 

1 shallot

2 cloves of garlic

allspice 

caraway seeds

1 sprig of thyme

2 leaves of sage 
3 bay leaves 

pepper

salt 

parsley flakes 

dried chili red peppers 

chicken base (or bouillon cubes)

gruyere cheese (or another favorite stinky one)

Prep:

• Combine chicken broth and the chicken (Cut into chunks) with the bone and bring to boil. 
• Cover and reduce heat to a lil' simma for about 20-30 minutes. 
• At this time you can go ahead and chop and cut up all your veggies. 

Cook:

• Use a spoon to skim out the fat from the chicken & broth. (This step always seems to be a lot easier said than done - so just do your best.) 
• Use tongs and place the chicken aside to cool for a while.
• Reduce the broth to a simmer and then load in your cut celery, shallots, parsnip & carrot. 
• I usually take a taste test of the broth at this point and add a spoon of chicken base or a bouillon cube if needed. 
• At this point the chicken should be cool enough so remove the excess fat, skin & bones and chop into bite size pieces. 
• *I usually prefer to shred the chicken with my hands rather than chop it up with a knife. 
• Add the chicken into the soup with a few dashes of salt and pepper with the minced garlic. 
• Cook these guys up for about 10 minutes then add in a few dashes of caraway, bay leaves, all spice, thyme parsley and sage. (I go a little herb crazy sometimes) 
• I like my soups with a little kick to them so this is where I chop up the dried red peppers and add them in. 
• Bring it all to a boil and then add in your lil' egg noodles. 
• At this point I kind of make it up every time and add extra dashes of all of the above based on preference and finish it all off with some fresh squeezed lemon juice. 
• Once the noodles are cooked, remove from heat. 
• Shred up some of your favorite stinky cheese and let it melt on the top. 

Now enjoy your chicken noodle soup, chicken noodle soup and your soda on the side (optional).

A Belated Homage to Sochi - Borscht with Veal

Initially this was supposed to be posted during the Olympics, but inevitably I was a little late to the "games". I actually missed just about all of the Olympics this year. 

Except for the amount of fierce Johnny Weir brought: 

So despite my lack for patriotic spectatorship, I was able to get inspired to make some pretty delicious soup that would make you feel like an Olympian. 

BORSCHT with Veal

Since I chose borscht specifically for the theme, I was at a loss for where to start. My go-to recipe database is always Epicurious. The recipe I used is based off of a recipe by Noah & Rae Bernamoff  from The Mile End Cookbook. I added veal because I'm a carnivorous lady. 

All in all I'd say it was a pretty easy recipe. The total cook time was probably about 2 1/2 hours with the bulk of that time being waiting for stock to stew.  After that it was easy-peasy. For me, the hardest part of the recipe was making the Olympic rings out of the onion, cabbage, beet, dill & tomato. 

You can find the original recipe here.

Beet Stock: 

• 6 cups of water 
• 1 onion - chop it up  (I used a red onion) 
• 1 carrot, peeled & grated  (or chopped into a million tiny little pieces like I did because my grater is crap) 
• 3 medium sized beets - peeled & grated
• 2 tomatoes - chopped (I used plum tomatoes) 
• 4 stalks of celery trimmed & chopped
• 3 whole allspice berries 
• 3 fresh bay leafs (leaves?) 
• 2 or 3 sprigs of parsley (I used dry parsley flakes) 
• 2 or 3 sprigs of dill finely chopped 
• 2 sprigs of thyme - 1 finely chopped the other whole (no rhyme or reason there that's just what I did) 

For The Soup: 

• 1 table spoon EVOO
• 1 bunch of kale, thick stems removed & cut into ribbons 
• 1 pound of veal - cut into chunks
• 1 carrot grated (again, or just chopped into tiny pieces like I did) 
• 1/4 head of cabbage (I used red cabbage solely because I liked the color better) 
• salt & pepper
• Juice from a lemon (for serving) 
• Creme Fraiche ( I abstained from the creme fraiche -- my  stomach doesn't quite tolerate the lactose) 

Prep: 

Combine all the stock ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil. 

One thing worth mentioning that the Epicurious recipe kind of glided over was the massacre that would take place in your kitchen in the process of grating a beet. Definitely easier said than done I'd say. Honestly if you've just done your nails or something, I'd just chop the beets up into smaller pieces and add about a half a cup of canned beet juice in. 

After you've brought the stock to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer with the lid on for about 2 hours. Go watch 2 episodes of Law & Order on Netflix and come back and give it a stir whenever there's a new suspect introduced (or just every 15 minutes or so). 

When the stock isn't at scalding hot levels, strain the broth through a fine mesh sieve, pressing down on the mixture to extract all the liquid. OR if you're like me and don't own a mesh sieve, use a colander and do your best to complete the former step without spilling hot beet juice all over your cardigan. 

The Epicurious recipe mentions that the broth itself (without any of the solids) can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. Honestly, I don't really understand why you would be storing the broth when you're about two steps away from completing the dish-- but it's your soup not mine so do what you want with that little tidbit. 

Making the Borscht all Borschty: 

Pour the oil into a large pot (probably the same one you just used); place it over medium heat and cook the veal. I minced an extra clove of garlic and added a another sprig of thyme just for flavor. After a few minutes, add the kale, carrot & cabbage. Stir them up and cook them until they're about al dente. Take the broth and pour it into the pot while stirring. Add salt & pepper to taste and add the lemon juice. Cook until veal is thoroughly cooked (duh). Serve it while it's pipin' hot and add your dollop of creme fraiche if that's your thing. 

I don't know about you but, I still can't take creme fraiche seriously because of: 

Maybe that's just me. Creme fraiche or no creme fraiche, accompany your soup with some red wine & you're eating like an Olympian! Or something. 

Welcome To The Souper Dome

Hey All. Welcome! So this is my very first food blog. Actually, my very first blog ever. Unless we can count the angst-filled hours where I poured my heart out on my Xanga back in 2004-2006.

Yeah. Let's actually not count those years.

So to keep it simple; I like eating and cooking soup. When it comes to liquid meals, the possibilities are pretty endless.

I am not a foodie. I am not an organic purist. I won't break my bank on over-priced produce, but I also don't skimp on quality.  I find a lot of my recipes online. Then usually just flip it and reverse them with my own impulsive additions. I burn things sometimes. My knife strokes have a mind of their own. This won't always be pretty. 

I'm  not always a great cook but I'm usually bumping to some good tunes and will always find my hunger satiated when I'm done. So let's eat some soup!