SOUP!

Balanced Diet! Ha! I need to find the balance here at All Things Jennifer between —

The Blood of my Enemies & SOUP!

A few weeks ago at Peace of the Pie – HWMMS ordered a flight of soups that included Chicken Pesto and Corn Chowder. Yes, a flight is of three the other one was apparently unremarkable to me, oops.

But the pesto soup…omggggggggggggggggggg. Why had I never thought of making a pesto soup before? Who knows but boy – it’s gonna be in my rotation now.

Soup #1 – Chicken Pesto*

I put boneless skinless chicken thighs on the bottom of the crockpot. Tossed in a jar of pesto (not homemade, sigh – the basil/cilantro harvest was not plentiful last year.) Tossed in sliced mushr0oms, onions, fresh garlic and a box of low sodium chicken stock (again, not homemade*, shocking!)

That’s all. A few recipes I browsed included beans. Nope. I would however add fresh basil if I had any. Verdict – I’M IN LOVE.

UPDATE – HWMMS *LOVINGLY*  called it “boring” said it was still a work in progress. Ok, he told JORDAN that she wouldn’t want the soup because it was “boring.” I think this is what happens when he’s not used to a pure soup – lol- (see below for explanation.)

When I asked what he thought it needed he said – noodles. And more pesto. What I really want is MORE – double the amount of all the ingredients. And fresh basil leaves. Also it needs to cook overnight to really blend the flavors. Hmmm, I probably should have roasted all the ingredients also – and then added stock. Work in progress.

Soup #2 – (Veggie) Corn Chowder

In typical Jenny fashion this recipe is not pure like the one above. I am a soup maker – every week (not always in the summer but most weeks – there will be soup, sometimes more than one.) My soups are made with love – and well, most times anything I find in the fridge or in my frozen veggie/bone scrap bag and/or with a jar of previously souped stock in mason jars in the fridge. One never knows what my broth contains. SOOOO sometimes (like this time) it’s hard to try to replicate.

I started with boiling several ears of corn on the cob – in water -I then cut the corn off of half the cobs (to use for later) and put all the other cobs back in a giant stockpot. While this was happening – in the oven I put baby potatoes, onions, garlic, sweet peppers and cilantro in a roasted pan – topped with some olive oil for about 45 minutes. The roasted mix went into the stockpot with the corn — oh, and I might have found a few apples that were looking a bit wrinkly – so I threw those in too. And two jars of “not quite sure but definately mostly veggie” broth from last week. My stock is boiling down and will simmer overnight. imm

In the morning – the cobs will be removed – and everything else will be immersion blended. Because IMMERSION BLENDERS ARE AMAZING – and I prefer a thick chowder. All these veggies make up the base and then I will add chopped potatoes, onions, sweet peppers and the corn off the cob. Thick and Chunky.

SOUP IS LIFE.

Update of an Update – While HWMMS was reading this post he chuckled at the flight of soup comment and reminded me that his 3rd was chili. Because of course it was chili. He loves his chili the most.