Posts Tagged: Soups and Stews
Turkey and Wild Rice Soup [PALEO]
When I was a kid, there were few comforts come winter that soothed as much a hot bowl of homemade turkey soup did. With Thanksgiving and Christmas being so close together, bone broth gets whipped up on the regular around here and there’s always leftover turkey from hosting to tend to. This is one of my favourite dishes, hands down, based on nostalgia AND taste.
What’s even better is that I’ve made this low-carb, dairy and wheat free. Paleo if you please, but … more importantly, gloriously full of root veggies that are low on the glycemic index.
- 2 c. cooked wild rice (cooked separately)
- 2 c. cubed and cooked sweet potato
- 4 tbsp. grass-fed butter/ghee/coconut oil
- 4 tbsp. avocado oil
- 2 c. chopped onion
- 2 c. chopped celery
- 2 c. chopped carrot
- 2 c. chopped turnip
- 4 cloves garlic
- 8 c. turkey bone broth (or any other stock)
- 2 bay leaf
- 5 cups chopped leftover turkey
- 2 tbsp chopped, fresh thyme
- 1 tsp. kosher/pink himalayan sea salt
- 1 tsp. teaspoon ground black pepper
- Prep all your ingredients and begin cooking wild rice and roasting sweet potato in the oven. Toss all prepped and uncooked root veg together in a big bowl and set aside.
- In a large dutch oven, melt the butter and oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery and cook about 10 minutes until onions are soft and translucent. Deglaze with white wine. If making a double batch, take out half of the mirepoix and add to another big soup pot.
- Add half the turkey broth to one pot and the rest to the other with the bay leaves, thyme and turnip. Turn the heat up to medium-high and bring soup to a boil. Turn heat back down to medium and let simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add turkey, cooked wild rice, cooked sweet potato, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes more.
- Serve soup in large bowls, slurp and savour! (Freeze the other batch after cooled down!)
Dairy Free: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Just so we’re clear, this is a Paleo soup recipe, but obviously the sandwiches aren’t. If you’re new here, you might not know that I try and alternate between a plant-based and Paleo diet. The rest of my family don’t have the same health issues as I do so essentially they can indulge in what I do not! Meals like these make that kind of diverse food prep easy. It’s just grilled cheese yo. Perhaps a little bit fancy, but no big whoop. If you want to get into making big batches of bone broth to use in many an Autumn and Winter recipe, here’s my recipe!
- Soup (double batch if you please)
- 2 tbsp. ghee, coconut oil, or
grassfed butter - 2 tbsp. REAL maple syrup (amber if you have it!)
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 4 large garlic cloves, chopped
- 8 c. bone broth (or 3½ quart sized tetra packs of veggie or meat based stock)
- 10 cups 1-inch pieces peeled butternut squash (about 3½ lbs.)*
- 2 tsp. minced fresh thyme
- 2 tsp. minced fresh sage
- 2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 (heaping) tsp. ground ginger
- 1 c. cashew cream (soak ¼ cup of cashews in hot water for about 20 min., drain rinse and blend, adding
in more water until cream-like consistency is obtained) - BONUS! Apple, Crispy Sage + Gruyere Sandwiches (for 4)
- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
- 8: ¼-inch-thick Italian loaf bread slices (or bread of choice)
- 8 slices Gruyere cheese
- 2 peeled and thinly sliced honey crisp apples
- 5 or 6 baked sage leaves per sandwich
- Soup:
- Bake cubed butternut squash tossed in 1 tbsp. of oil or butter and the maple, in a preheated oven of 350 F for about 25/35 minutes (depending on the heat of your oven), turning cubes midway.
- Melt the other tbsp. of oil or butter in large dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, ginger, garlic and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add broth, all squash and herbs; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer a few minutes.
- Working in batches, puree soup in double batches. Return soup to same pot. Stir in the cashew cream and bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
- Sandwiches:
- Preheat panini press. Butter BOTH sides of each bread slice. Arrange bread, buttered side down across a large expanse of counter to create an assembly line.
Top half of the bread slices with one slice of cheese, then apples, topping with another slice of cheese. Place other pieces of bread slices to complete the sandwich prep and grill until golden, about 2 minutes. Remove from press and let sit for 30-60 seconds before slicing. - Ladle soup into bowls and serve those delectable sandwiches with those who can eat bread and cheese without a care in the world!
Eating Paleo or Not: ‘Potato’ Leek Soup For Beginners and Sherry Lovers
Those with food restrictions causing them to eat a paleo or gout friendly diet that is. (The two of which aren’t like two peas in a pod.) Currently the largest divide in my life resides in the kitchen wherein I’ve been trying to warp my schedule constraints to fit double prep and avoiding double prep where I can. Being avid bone broth consumers in our household, you can bet we’ve undergone some discombobulation with the recent addition of Trev’s gout diagnosis. If you’er wondering why, I’ll get to that soon.
What does a family (me specifically) do when most of they eat revolves around organic and or/local free-range hormone free meat and fresh veggies and fruits? Minimal grains and carbs — when one of those family members is suddenly told to steer clear of meat (and booze and other things) and to fill the void with lots of grains and good carbs? (To be clear, I’m not strict about it. I truly believe that food is to be experienced, savoured and shared with loved ones. There are so many cuisines that I couldn’t have, share or introduce my kids to if I never, ever consumed grains, dairy or carbs again. Lets just say I am more than moderate about my intake.)
Kale, Elk Sausage + Potato Soup
I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t look forward to the coming of autumn if for nothing else than the anticipation of hot soups and warm bread. In lieu of our gargantuan harvest of kale this summer and fall, (it just kept growing and growing), I’ve become rather addicted in my obvious (this soup) and hidden ways to incorporate kale into pretty much everything we eat.
Getting Abby to eat kale isn’t a problem, Wyndham however will literally regurgitate any green leafy substance that accidentally makes it into his esophagus. I probably shouldn’t talk about food regurgitation whilst trying to paint you a mouthwatering picture of this soup. So, I shall end things there. Does this soup magically entice my son to eat kale? Nope. What? You thought I was going to say different? Nope, sorry.
But he will eat everything else and pick the kale out and I’ll just give him a sideways look when he pronounces how utterly disgusting kale is and my eyes glaze over in order to ignore his sauce (this would be called picking and choosing one’s battles with a toddler), to fond memories of that morning. Of him slurping down a smoothie that had near a pound of fresh kale in it. Disgusting. Or, delicious as he usually pronounces over the smoothies I make him. Ah, children, so easy to trick. Next up, Santa Claus. Therapy inducing stuff, I know.
In the meantime, there will always be the comforting warmth of homemade soup on cold autumn and winter days. Especially after a therapy session.
How To: Good Ol’ Immunity Boosting Bone Broth
Bone broth where have you been all of my life and why haven’t I been making out with you on the regular? No matter. We’re together now and nothing can tear us apart. It’s you and I forever and like a good samaritan I shall share of your beneficial healing properties and pocket friendly ways like a good believer should. Glory be.
As my learning about food and treating food as medicine deepens, my knowledge base on the healing properties that come from different foods grows wide and strong. Old sayings about food and traditional recipes mean more to me now than just something fine on my tongue and satisfying in my soul and tummy.
Most of us have a had a mom or a grannie or an auntie prepare us chicken soup when we were sick. A recommendation that wasn’t built solely on the soothing feeling of that savoury warmth trickling down a sore throat. Chicken soup is more than just comfort food for the sick. The base, the broth that makes it all so wonderful is truly a medicine…
Unlikely Combination: Asparagus & Apple Soup
I’m trying to remember where I first tasted this brilliant concoction. If my memory serves me correctly it was my good friend Dan, a mighty fine chef – who created such soup from the whorls of his wacky brain.
I, purveyor and lover of wacky minds, loved this soup upon very first taste. Not because it was such an unlikely marriage, the asparagus and the apple; but because it was (is) worthy of food porn status.
There was no sharing of the recipe, no talk of the soup ever again, but it always remained in the recesses of my mind as one of the best things I ever ate. Accompanied of course by some fresh baked bread. Is that not the going rule for all soup? Indeed.
Moving right along…
I’m sure my recipe is far different than Dan’s and I could never get it to taste quite like his. However. It’s incredibly simple and damn tasty, so there’s that. Soup deliciousness made possible by these two toddlers (well, mostly the older one) and their apple picking adventures.
Crock Pot Bison Stew
This is a long-awaited request for the recipe from my loverlie Baker Babe and, well, it’s a general crowd pleaser. I usually I simmer this bad boy all day in the in the crock but in a pinch you can do it in a dutch oven on the stovetop too!
Enjoy this rich, stick to your ribs goodness, a most perfect type of cuisine to devour as this time of year as the leaves change colour and start to fall. I use as much organic and or local ingredients as always when cooking for my family. Do what you want in your kitchen, it’s your choice. Why I choose local, drug-free and/or organic whenever possible is for another post, another day.
- 2 pounds bison meat, cubed
- ½ cup coconut or avocado oil
- ½ cup
grassfed butter - ¾ cup of arrowroot flour
- 1 cup yellow onions, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup red onions, coarsely chopped
- 1½ quarts water
- 2 quarts of broth (I used veggie this time, as I did not have beef or chicken and it tasted just dandy. Homemade bone broth is always best!)
- 2 to 3 bay leaves
- 20 peppercorns
- 4-6 cloves of garlic
- ¾ teaspoons dried thyme leaves
- 2 c. sliced carrots
- 2 c. chopped celery
- 2 c. halved baby white potatoes (keep it simple, keep it rustic)
- 1 can of stewed tomatoes (diced or dice them yourself)
- 2 c. chopped parsnip
- 1½ pounds of shrooms (whatever you like, we favour portobello)
- ½ - ¾ bag of frozen peas
- vino or beer (1/2 can of Guinness = yum. Or left-over/turned wine. ¼ of a bottle.
- (Use some for deglazing onions, which cooks off the alcohol; the rest for stock.)
- Pink salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- Toss your lean, gorgeous chunkers in 2 tablespoons of the arrowroot flour, a drizzling of oil of choice and season with fresh ground pepper, salt and a wee bit of your thyme.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil of choice and 2 tablespoons of your butter reserve (see up there?) in a Dutch oven or cast iron, (I use cast iron when using the crock and go dutch when going stove-top) pan over medium-high heat; brown the bison in oil, 2 to 3 minutes per side; remove bison and set aside.
- Saute onion till translucent, add your minced garlic and celery until soft, about 8 minutes in 2 tablespoons (1 of each) of the reserved oil and butter. Deglaze with vino! Stir in some of the broth to ensure you get all the flava flave when transferring to crock-pot.
- Add your beautiful bison to your crock pot or dutch oven and thank it; remaining spices; carrots and parsnips, stock, water, salt, pepper, cloves, canned tomatoes, and the rest of wine or that ½ a can of Guinness.
- Cover and turn down the heat to continue simmering for about an hour and a half if on stove-top. Add potatoes and peas, simmer for the last 45-ish minutes. Add roux (see below), simmer for 15-ish minutes. Serve it up with warm bread (we like ciabatta) and butter. Enjoy just as equally as you would have if it were born of crock descent. Don't discriminate. I'll be trying this action out to accompany my stew next time.
- Crock Pot Finish: You've deglazed your garlic, onions and celery with vino. Add your bison and bless it. Add a bit of broth to make sure you loosen up all of the yummy stuff and pour into your crock. Then do everything the same as in step 3 except your cooking time is longer. Obviously. Add your peas in the last 1 hour of cooking (the total being around 4-6 hours). Also add your roux in the last hour. Dish & bliss-out.
Mother of All Key Ingredients To Everything That is Grand and Great…Roux
I’m not talkin’ the flour and water baloney. I don’t know what I thought I was doing before I met my songbird and began cooking with her. But it’s in her great tutelage that I discovered equal parts flour and butter. Hello! What on earth was I doing before? If you are not making your roux this way…or prefer to go for less fat; nonsense! Enjoy the naughty indulgences food has to offer and get your arse to the gym/track/mat. There’s a time and a place for healthier cooking. There will be plenty of that here too. Moderation and indulgence. It’s the key to NEVER dieting and just fessing up to the simple fact that diets DON’T WORK and make one miserable and obsessed. It’s called exercise and moderation. We all know that deep down, don’t we? But then, someone is buying all the fat-free this and that…
ANYHEW. The roux. This is where the rest of your flour and butter come in. Grab a small sauce-pan and whisk together, (always, never stopping, don’t want clumps!) equal parts butter and flour. Then slowly add in some siphoned stock from your stew into the roux, constantly whisking till thick and smooth.
EAT!
CONNECT WITH JENNIFER
CONNECT WITH SELENA
