Lisa's Bean Soup

I went to visit Lisa one night and she had made this wonderful soup. I loved it! I had just bought a huge bucket of 15 bean mix for my food storage and was happy to find a good recipe for it. I used to put the ground beef in, but I don't anymore. We all prefer it with just the ham. I bought three spiral hams from Costco for Sam's farewell, and froze the meaty bones to use later for this soup. I'm afraid I just used my last one. Everyone loves it. I always feel good when I feed my family legumes.

2 cups of 15 bean soup mix, washed

3 qt. water

1 lb. browned ground beef

1 meaty ham bone

1 lg. pinch basil

1 lt. pinch thyme

1 t. salt

Cook all except ground beef. Boil. Simmer for 3 hours

Add:

1 lg. onion, chopped

2-3 stalks celery, chopped

3 lg. carrots, diced

1 16 oz. can tomatoes (I always puree my tomatoes)

1 6 oz. can tomato paste

1 T. parsley flakes

2 T. beef broth powder

Cook until vegetables are tender

Turkey Chili

The other day I was going through my freezer and found some frozen ground turkey. I got so excited because I had no idea it was in there and I felt like I was just given a free pound of ground turkey! I quickly started thinking about what I was going to make with it and decided to try out a Turkey Chili. I found this recipe on Simply Recipes. It turned out pretty good. Micah raved about it. I halved the recipe and had to make a few changes. I felt like it was very dry and not "soupy" enough so I had to add a couple more cups of stock to get it the right consistency I wanted. I also played around with the spices until I reached the flavor I liked. So if you happen to find some ground turkey in your fridge/freezer give this one a try! :)

Turkey Chili Recipe


Ingredients

* 2 cups chopped onion
* 4 garlic cloves, chopped fine
* 1 cup chopped green pepper
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 2 (35 oz) cans stewed tomatoes, crushed
* 2 (15 oz) cans kidney beans, drained
* 2 Tbsp tomato paste
* 3/4 cup chicken or turkey stock (I used chicken stock)
* 2 Tbsp chili powder (or up to 4 Tbsp if you like it really hot)
* 1 Tbsp ground cumin
* 1 Tbsp dried hot red pepper flakes (I left out)
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1 Tbsp salt, plus more if desired to taste
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
* 3 to 4 cups of shredded, cooked turkey meat
* Sugar

* Shredded cheddar cheese, chopped red onion, sour cream for optional garnish.

Method

1 In a large, 8-quart, thick-bottom pot, cook the onion and green pepper over medium high heat, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, for a minute or two more. Add a bit more olive oil if needed.

2 Add tomatoes, tomato paste, stock. beans, oregano, salt, pepper, and cooked turkey meat. Bring mixture to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, for an hour.

3 Salt to taste. Add 1 to 3 teaspoons of sugar to take the edge of the acidity of the tomatoes if desired.

The chili may be made in advance and chilled for 2 days, or frozen for 2 months.

Serve with shredded cheddar cheese, chopped red onion, and or sour cream. Serve alone, over rice, or with corn bread.

Makes about 12 cups. Serves 8.

Cauliflower Leek Soup with Roasted Red Pepper Puree

Hey everybody! Because Lisa is not super computer savvy, I will be posting for her too. A few days ago we saw this recipe on Studio 5 - Cauliflower Leek Soup with Roasted Red Pepper Puree. We just had to try it. It has just about no calories and of course "it's good for you too!" We followed the recipe pretty much to the tee, with the exception that we used red potatoes - they are less starchy. After we ate it we thought of a few things that could be added to give it different flavors such as curry, turmeric, or basil.

Cauliflower Leek Soup with Roasted Red Pepper Puree

2 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Leek

2 Carrots

1 Celery Stalk

2 cloves of Garlic

2 Potatoes

2 cups Cauliflower

5-6 cups Chicken Stock

pinch of Red Pepper Flakes

fresh Ground Pepper - to taste

Chop up leek (use white part only), carrots, and celery stalk. Peel and cut up potatoes in 2-3 in. pieces. Cut up cauliflower into pieces about the same size as the potatoes. Heat oil in a large pot and saute the leek, carrots, and celery until they begin to soften (just a few min). Mince garlic and add, cooking for only another minute or so. Add the chicken broth, potatoes, and cauliflower. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes and cauliflower are fork tender. Puree in a blender (only use about 2 cups at a time).

Roasted Red Pepper Puree

1 Red Pepper

Line a cookie sheet with foil. Cut up red pepper into 4 pieces (remove the seeds) and place them skin side up on cookie sheet. Press them a little to flatten. Broil for about 15 minutes until blackened. Remove from oven and place peppers in a brown paper bag for about 5 minutes (this helps the blackened skin to come off). Puree peppers in blender. Place a spoonful in the middle of the soup and swirl using a knife or skewer.

We hope you enjoy because we sure did!

Lisa and Montell