Three Soups! Bonus Recipes

October is soup season, and we are posting three soups! These are some of our staff’s favorite recipes to add to your repertoire. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Here are the recipes for Thai Hot and Sour Chicken Soup, a delicious Minestrone, and Spicy Chicken and Rice Flu Chaser Soup. Read more…

Apple, Onion, and Cheddar Soup

Soup to Nuts…or Nuts for Soup

OK, I admit it. I like soup. I am eating some right now, in fact. There is something about that first day when it actually feels like Fall, (My temperature gauge said it was 48º this morning.) that makes me want a cup of something warm and cozy. It also makes me think about what soup I will be making and freezing this weekend.

Canned soup is okay in a pinch, and there are some great ones available these days, but they don’t hold a candle to homemade. (Cheating by making chicken noodle with store bought broth still counts.) I have found myself grabbing for the frozen soup a lot lately. Especially after football practice or afternoon activity. (World Series anyone?) A little soup and grilled cheese, maybe a salad, and you have the makings of a quick and comforting meal.

I have been trying to branch out a bit with my recipes. I still have my favorites like the one I am eating now, but I can get bored of the same old, same old after a while. So I’ve been on a mission to find the new and interesting, and I think I found one!

I have owned a copy of the New England Soup Company Cookbook for years, but it’s one of those cookbooks that I tend to forget about. Last week I ran across it while looking for something else, and saw this recipe for Apple, Onion and Cheddar Soup. I knew I just had to try it. It’s perfect now that apples are coming into their season.

Apple, Onion, and Cheddar Soup
Adapted from Marjorie Druker
Chef/Co-Owner, New England Soup Factory

This soup is perfect during the cool fall months. It incorporates apples and cheese, which is an old-fashioned pairing for a pie in New England. The soup builds contrasting layers of sweetness, starting with the apple cider in the stock, then the caramelized onions, and finally the green apples add tartness.

Cock-A-Leekie Soup

Rooster In The Hen House

We have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the first eggs from our chickens since they are now of age. It has been fun to watch them grow from chicks to hens, and to get to know their personalities…and they do have personalities. Some of the biggest characters have been given names.

There’s Trouble, who got her name because if the chickens are found doing anything naughty, chances are she’s at the head of the pack egging the others on. She is also the one who likes to come and peck at our back door to see what we are doing.

Then there’s Turtle and Seagull. They were the easiest to name because Seagull looks like one and Turtle is short for Turtleneck. She has a ruff of feathers around her neck that makes her look like a Shakespearean reject.

The kids named one of the Rhode Island Reds Huevo—short for Huevos Rancheros. Apparently, sarcasm and irony are genetic.

And then, there’s Sparkle who got her name because she’s just not that bright. Now, I realize it’s relative. They are chickens after all, but she is exceptionally tragic. I watched her continuously run into the wire fence the other day, because she couldn’t figure out that she needed to fly back over it, which is the way she got out in the first place. I took pity on her and picked her up to give her a hand. Sigh.

We missed the mark on one of the chickens. As we watched the chicks grow bigger and bigger we noticed that one of the Rhode Island Reds was really tall. We figured she was part of the blessed 1% of poultry who could be referred to as Super Model Chickens. We named her Cindy for Cindy Crawford. The problem is Cindy is actually a rooster. So we changed his name to RuPaul.

Ru has become a problem, as you can imagine any adolescent rooster would. The girls want nothing to do with him, and unfortunately he’s the guy at the bar who just won’t take the hint. Therefore, we were compelled to find him a new home. This weekend he will be going to a nice farm where he can speed date with other chickens who might be more accepting of his nature. It’s a way better fate than the soup pot.

Amy’s Hummus

Hummus Among Us

School has been back in session for a week, at least at my house. (It only took 4 days for two of my kids to get sick. Yay, school!) I am back in lunch making mode. The boys’ lunches are easy, albeit boring: turkey sandwich on wheat, yogurt, fruit, granola bar, and a drink. Every day. All Year. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

My daughter is the difficult one. She’s not a sandwich kind of gal. When she does have a sandwich, she prefers a PB&J but the PB in it is problematic when there are peanut allergies in your class. Any other options that I have given her are short lived. Egg salad is a favorite but I don’t want her to eat that everyday. She’ll eat any leftovers from dinner. There’s always crackers, cheese and salami, but sometimes this feels like cheating, and it’s not the greatest nutritionally.

The most recent solution is perhaps one of the best. She loves Hummus. I have started making my own and sending it in her lunch with various veggies. It’s been great. Plus it’s cheap when you make it yourself.

Hummus is so easy to make, and frankly tastes way better when you make it fresh. I adapted my recipe from a couple from my collection. It’s fast. I made a batch in 5 minutes yesterday. It’s a great go-to afternoon snack and keeps in the fridge for about 5 days—if it lasts that long. Play around with this recipe. I sometimes add harissa if I want it spicy.

Amy’s Hummus

Ingredients
2 14-ounce cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas) or 1 ¼ C dried garbanzo beans, soaked in water overnight, and cooked.
1/4 cup tahini
Juice of two Lemons, or to taste
3 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin (optional)
1/4 cup olive oil

Directions
Drain the canned garbanzo beans in a colander over a bowl to retain the liquid.

Put the drained beans into a food processor. Add the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and cumin if using.

Process the ingredients until a thick paste forms. While the processor is running, add the olive oil. Add some of the reserved liquid until the preferred consistency is achieved. Enjoy!