Tortilla Soup

My friend, Heather, brought this to us as we adjusting to being new parents. It is absolutely delicious and tastes like tortilla soup from a restaurant. It tasted like Sothern California to me.

Ingredients

3 cups rotisserie chicken, taken off the bone
1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 can Rotel tomatoes (10 oz) - I used 'original' but you can use 'mild' as well
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)
4 c. water
2 beef bouillon 
2 chicken bouillon
2 cans tomato soup
3 more cups of water
2 T. Worcestershire Sauce
1 T. chili powder

Directions

Saute onions and garlic in some butter in the bottom of your pot.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except the chicken) in the order listed.

Simmer 1 hour. 

Add chicken.

Serve with tortilla chips, sour cream, avocado, shredded cheese, limes.

Cucumber Gazpacho with Shrimp Relish

Cucumber Gazpacho with Shrimp Relish
This is a yummy cold soup.

YIELD: 4 servings
TOTAL: 20 MINUTES
COURSE: Soups/Stews

Ingredients

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 pound peeled and deveined medium shrimp, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 cups quartered grape tomatoes
1/3 cup fresh cilantro
2 1/2 cups chopped English cucumber
1 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
1 cup whole-milk plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Dash of ground red pepper
1 large garlic clove, peeled

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle shrimp with 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, cumin, and paprika. Add shrimp to pan; sauté 2 minutes or until done. Stir in tomatoes; remove from heat. Add cilantro.
2. Place remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, cucumber, and remaining ingredients in a blender; process until smooth. Ladle 1 cup soup into each of 4 bowls; top with 3/4 cup relish.
Sustainable Choice: Look for shrimp that are certified sustainable. U.S.-farmed shrimp or wild Northern shrimp from Canada are the best options. Avoid imported wild and farmed species.

Laura Zapalowski, Cooking Light
APRIL 2011

Taco Soup

1 large can Tomato Juice
2 cans corn
2 cans drained pinto, black or kidney beans
1 lb browned hamburger
1 pkt taco seasoning
1 can tomato paste
1 chopped onion (or can use as topping)

Place above in crockpot and heat on low.

Toppings:
Sour Cream
Grated Cheese
Chopped or Sliced black Olives
Chopped Onions (Optional)
Corn Chips (Fritoes)

I generally don't put in the tomato paste (because I just don't have it on hand) and it turns out great; its a little thicker with the tomato paste.

Chard Potato Soup

Tamara came up with this recipe all on her own. Today was cold and rainy, so it was time for soup. Our superfluity of potatoes was the genesis of this idea. We also had Swiss Chard in the garden, ready for harvesting, that we had never yet used.

2 very large potatoes

onion and garlic, sautéed

@1/2 lb cheese

chicken bouillon to taste

Several large leave of Swiss Chard

Sauté onions and garlic until onions are thoroughly soft so they don’t give Jack a headache. Boil potatoes in water with onion, garlic, and bouillon. While potatoes are boiling, send your husband out to harvest Swiss Chard and make sure he washes the chard before letting him cut it into bits with scissors. When the potatoes are soft enough to eat, add the chard. Let boil just a couple minutes then remove from the heat. Ask your husband to go back out and harvest another chard leaf to be cut into garnish. Make sure he gets one with a pretty red stem. While he’s doing that, add the cheese to the soup. This will help it cool down to eating temperature (especially if the cheese had been inhabiting the freezer up until this point.)

Serve soup in fancy Christmas dishes and garnish with ground sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and cut chard. Sour cream adds to the luxurious texture and gives it a certain je ne sais quoi. Don’t be surprised if this fabulous dish pops up at your favorite fancy restaurant as the soup of the day. It’s really good.

Corn Chowder

Now that the weather is cooling off, soup sounds good! Do not make this soup in the crockpot (it curdles).

Corn Chowder

½ lb bacon
1 onion,
½ cup celery, diced
½ tsp. salt and pepper
2 Tbsp. flour parsley (optional)
4 cups milk
1 can cream corn
diced 5 cooked potatoes

Fry bacon. To 3 Tbsp. bacon drippings, add diced celery and onions. Cook until tender. Removed from drippings and drain. Add flour to drippings and cook until bubbly. Add milk, heat to boil for 1 minute. Add corn, potatoes, salt and pepper, bacon and parsley.