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rainbowgardener
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Re: Nothing like homemade soup when the cold front comes

very nice! I will have to try it. I don't use cauliflower much, partly because I don't know what to do with it except pour cheese sauce over it.

It's not soup, but on the general topic of things that are warming for chilly days, last night I made peanut butter hot chocolate. Put hot cocoa powder and non-fat milk powder in a mug. Dropped a healthy spoonful of peanut butter on top of it, then poured hot water over the whole thing and stirred it up well. Yummy! tastes like hot liquid Reese's cups. (Hint: It would probably be easier to drink, if you peanut butter were creamy, instead of chunky! :) )

gumbo2176
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rainbowgardener wrote:very nice! I will have to try it. I don't use cauliflower much, partly because I don't know what to do with it except pour cheese sauce over it.

It's not soup, but on the general topic of things that are warming for chilly days, last night I made peanut butter hot chocolate. Put hot cocoa powder and non-fat milk powder in a mug. Dropped a healthy spoonful of peanut butter on top of it, then poured hot water over the whole thing and stirred it up well. Yummy! tastes like hot liquid Reese's cups. (Hint: It would probably be easier to drink, if you peanut butter were creamy, instead of chunky! :) )
I don't do this often since my Dr. doesn't like me eating fried foods, but I'll sometimes deep fry cauliflower, broccoli, green tomatoes, pickles, okra, onions for a fried veggie platter. Not the healthiest thing going, but sooooo good.


I also like to make a pickled veggie medley with cauliflower, carrots, onions, peppers and garlic. I'll break it out along with other pickled goods when I host a party at the house for folks to snack on.

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Gary350
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We make lots of soups & stews summer & winter it is the easiest way to cook and get a lot of vegetables into a meal. Most of these are easy to make in a crock pot. We make the original recipe first then after tasting it we get creative with vegetables.

Vegetable soup is one of my favorites with lots of vegetables including cabbage.

Beef stew is good too.

Chili with beans is another favorite of mine. Texas chili with no beans is NOT chili its just tomato soup with beef.

15 bean soup is very good we are finishing up a pot of this.

Broccoli cheese soup is good too.

Navy Bean soup is very good.

Oriental sweet & sour soup is good I like to add lots of vegetables.

Menudo is another Mexican favorite we make it with chicken & vegetables.

Greek Lintel soup is good it is loaded with herbs and vegetables.

Brunswick stew is good sometimes too.

Tamale stew is good herbs onions & good flavor, I add vegetables.

Tandoori Chicken soup is another of my favorites with carrots & peas.

Roasted Corn Bean chowder. I lost my good recipe, not all recipes are good.

Blacken chicken stew with noodles or vegetables is a good one.

German Sausage stew with beans & vegetables is one of my favorites.

Tomato Basil soup is good.

Italian Bell Pepper & Onion soup is good with home grown garden peppers but not with grocery store peppers.

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rainbowgardener
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I did make the big pot of veggie chili with garden peppers (green and banana) and green beans. We ate some and I froze most of it. So my freezer now has at least a dozen ready made meals: chili, lasagna, minestrone, etc as well as a dozen bags of pesto sauce and a bunch of frozen veggies.

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Thanks for the cauliflower soup recipe Your Majesty. I started a Keto diet a couple of weeks ago and cauliflower is the basis for faux potatoes, cauliflower mac and cheese, cauliflower pizza crust, and now soup. I wish it were broccoli since I like it better. I don't miss the bread so much as I miss the fruit.

While we are on the subject of soups I usually don't make long cooking ones. I don't trust my slow cooker to be by itself and it doesn't really make much of anything considering how long it takes. I do like the faster Asian soups

Tom Yum
Tom Yum Goong Recipe

Serves 2 | Prep Time: 15 Minutes | Cook Time: 10 Minutes

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups shrimp stock (best), canned chicken stock, or water
10-12 shrimp or 8 oz (head-on and shell-on but chop the eyes part off, devein if you like)
3 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
6 bird’s eyes chilies (pounded)
3 (big) slices galangal or ginger
6 kaffir lime leaves (bruised)
2 tablespoons nam prik pao (Thai roasted chili paste)
2 tablespoons chili oil
3 teaspoons fish sauce
1 stalk lemongrass (cut into 3-inch strips, pounded with a cleaver)
6 canned straw mushrooms / fresh oyster mushrooms / fresh or canned button mushrooms

Method:

In a pot, bring 3 cups of water to boil. Then add a big handful of shrimp/prawn heads. Boil the shrimp head until the water turns slightly orange in color. Press the shrimp heads with spatula to extract the “goodies” from their heads. Let the stock reduce to slightly more than 2 1/2 cups. Drain the shrimp stock and discard the shrimp heads.

Add lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, bird’s eye chilies, mushrooms, nam prik bao to the shrimp stock and bring it to boil. Add in the shrimp and fish sauce. Lastly, add the lime juice (if you add lime juice too early, the soup might turn bitter). Boil until the shrimps are cooked, dish out and serve hot.

Cook’s Note:

You can use also chicken, a combination of chicken plus shrimp, or seafood combination (shrimp, squid, scallops, green-lipped mussels) for tom yum soup. It’s really up to you, but the most popular tom yum is tom yum goong, goong means prawn.


Tom Yum Soup ( using Tom Yum Soup paste sold in Asian market or online)
INGREDIENTS
3 cups chicken stock or broth
1 scant tablespoon tom yum paste (available in Asian markets and speciality stores)
2 fresh kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
1 stalk lemon grass, tender inner part only, roughly chopped
Juice of half a lime
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 small red Thai chili, finely chopped
½ teaspoon sugar
1 can straw mushrooms, drained
8 ounces raw shrimp, head on, deveined but with shells left on.
2 scallions, cut into short lengths and then into strips
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Nutritional Information
PREPARATION
I usually buy head on shrimp. Fresh is better than frozen. When preparing the shrimp I cut through the back to remove the innards; leave the shell on for more flavor, but save the shrimp heads. Make shrimp stock by sauteing shrimp heads first in a little bit of water, pressing the heads to squeeze out the juices. Add about 3 cups of water; simmer and reduce volume to about half. Strain and discard shrimp heads. (Shrimp heads can be frozen and used later as the base for pancit noodles or paella.)

In a medium saucepan, combine chicken stock or shrimp stock, tom yum paste, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, lime juice and fish sauce. Add chili and sugar, and stir.
Place over high heat to bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low. Add mushrooms, and simmer 1 to 2 minutes. Add shrimp and scallions, and simmer until shrimp is barely opaque, 2 to 3 more minutes.
To serve, divide soup between two bowls. Garnish each with 1 tablespoon cilantro, and serve.
Cherry tomatoes cut in half and small limes (calamondin);halved can also be added to soup. If you like the soup hotter you can add whole Thai chilies. If you don't have galangal, ginger root will work but the flavor will be different. One can coconut milk can be substituted for the chicken stock and added to the shrimp stock to make the creamy version.
Takes 15-20 minutes to make. Serve with rice and fried fish. Serves 2-3

Tinola (Chicken and papaya soup)
3lb roasting chicken, cut up
1 quart chicken broth or stock
2-3 inch finger of ginger sliced and pounded
1 green papaya peeled ( substitute upo or chayote), peeled;seeded and cut into 1-2 inch cubes
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 medium onion, diced
1-2 tablespoons fish sauce
Hot chili pepper leaves (only young tips) or moringa leaves, optional
Adjust seasoning to taste
Instructions
Sauté the garlic, onion, and ginger in 2 tablespoons of oil.
Add chicken and saute until color turns light brown
Add the fish sauce and mix well
Add chicken stock, bring to a boil; reduce heat to
simmer 30-45 minutes until chicken is tender
Add the green papaya wedges and simmer for 5 minutes
Add the hot pepper leaves or moringa leaves. Remove stems; rinse and dry in colander
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve hot over white short grain rice.

Note: short grain rice absorbs flavors, long grain rice looks nice but unless you cook the rice in a broth it is tasteless and
resists absorbing flavors.
Stewing hen is what the original recipe calls for and makes a better broth if you are starting from scratch. Make sure you cut through the thicker bones to release the flavor. Younger birds

do not have as much flavor so starting with chicken broth or stock cuts preparation time since they cook faster and are meatier.
I add less fish sauce since I find the chicken broth is salty enough for me.
Serves 6 in under and hour.

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ElizabethB
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Imafan - and all.

When I experiment with a recipe I like to evaluate the dish and make changes to improve either the flavor, texture or visual appeal.

The flavor was divine and needed no improvement.

The texture was not what I wanted. Using roasted cauliflower early on resulted in less texture. Next time I will add 2-3 cups raw cauliflower florets to the vegetables.
Add the cumin with the broth.
Add the roasted cauliflower with the white sauce.

Much better texture.

Visual appeal

Before adding the sour cream refrigerate the soup over night. The EVOO rises to the top. Refrigeration makes it easy to remove the oil and allows the flavors to meld.

Final tip

Unless you are cooking for enough people to consume this large pot of soup do not add the entire soup to the sour cream. Put a teaspoon of sour cream in an individual bowl then stir in the soup.

BTW - My recipe won the October Spice Challenge on the cooking forum I belong to. Cumin was the spice for October. :-()

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Gary350
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I love to cook in cold weather, I put 3 ham hocks in 2 quarts of water in the large crock pot last night after dinner. It cooked all night while 1/2 package of dried beans soaked in a large pot of warm water. Before breakfast this morning the 15 bean mix went into the crock pot with the ham hocks along with 1 large onion chopped and 2 cups of celery. After lunch in goes some vegetables, carrots, garlic, 1 quart of tomatoes, 1 T dark brown sugar, 1 T flour, 1 tsp black pepper. 4 pm time to remove what is left of the bone and ham hocks, add the Cajun season pack that came with the beans. Add German sausage sliced in thin pieces. 5 pm it is read to serve. Add salt now, never add salt to cooking beans they become tough. We had corn bread to go with the beans. Also had a Kale Boc Choy Salad.

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tomf
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I made slow cooker beef stew the other day.

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webmaster
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Beef stew is great. Did it have tomatoes or wine in it?

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rainbowgardener
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I've made up big pots of curried butternut squash soup twice now, once for company at home and once for church potluck. All the garden squash are used up now. :( But half of each batch is now in the freezer for winter. :)

imafan26
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Sounds yummy. I could use some soup right now.

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applestar
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My family LOVES making giant stock pot of soup and eating from it all day long, keeping it warm on the stove. Sometimes more ingredients are added and brought back to boil/simmer as we eat from the pot.

We put noodles and pasta in it too — to make noodle soup. But the soup needs to be either chunky with big whole ingredients so the noodles can be dredged out (almost) completely, or else the noodles are added at the end when there is only one more meal left of it.

Sometimes, the soup changes from all the fiddling around, or thickens from the added pasta or from starchy ingredients falling apart as they cook, eventually turning into stew.

Last time, there was barely enough miso-flavored broth left and the Somen noodles I added soaked up all the remaining liquid and it turned into something more akin to Chinese noodles with intense/thick sauce. But if you wanted it as “noodle soup” which I wanted, you just had to put the noodles in a soup bowl and add hot water. :D

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tomf
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webmaster wrote:Beef stew is great. Did it have tomatoes or wine in it?
Tomatoes

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digitS'
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Soups or stews may not be very formal but I think that they can be a little more "crowd pleasing" with the addition of ..

. biscuits, on top.

If the lid is left on during cooking, you may have to call them "dumplings" :wink: . Beef stew, especially, seems to benefit. The pot or a skillet of stew can just be slid into the oven for the quick baking of the biscuits; then, brought directly to the table.

Steve

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applestar
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Oooh haven’t don’t the biscuit/dumpling in a while ! Next one for sure. :-()

gumbo2176
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You folks speaking of dumplings got me to wanting to make chicken and dumplings. I do mine from scratch and instead of using any lard in my flour to make the dumplings, I use the chicken fat that collects on the top of my stock and hardens when it is refrigerated overnight. That adds a nice bit of flavor to the dumplings instead of plain lard.

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lakngulf
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gumbo2176 wrote:You folks speaking of dumplings got me to wanting to make chicken and dumplings. I do mine from scratch and instead of using any lard in my flour to make the dumplings, I use the chicken fat that collects on the top of my stock and hardens when it is refrigerated overnight. That adds a nice bit of flavor to the dumplings instead of plain lard.
Wow, that sounds good!



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