Strep throat survival soup, AKA Cream of Broccoli

 I have been plagued by a recurring bout of strep throat ever since mid August. I’m on my 3rd round of antibiotics now! Thankfully, the subsequent bouts have not been as bad as the first one, when this soup really was one of the few things I could eat that also filled me up and satisfied cravings for green food and protein. I have turned to it again this time around, knowing that if things get worse, this is one meal I will still be able to enjoy.

I had never made cream of broccoli soup before strep throat and I don’t know if it would taste so good if I wasn’t sick, but if you ever find yourself unable to eat solid or acidic foods and want something filling and hearty, I recommend it!

Here’s the original: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/13313/best-cream-of-broccoli-soup/. I haven’t really made any changes to speak of.

Ingredients

• 2 + 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion, diced finely
• 1 stalk celery, diced finely diced
• 3 cups homemade chicken broth
• 8 cups broccoli, cut into small florets
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• Pepper to taste (if your throat can handle it)
• Salt to taste

Method

1. Melt 2 tbs butter in a med-large soup pot. Sauté onion and celery until tender.
2. Add the broth and the broccoli, cover with a lid, and simmer 10 minutes
3. Purée with an immersion blender until smooth
4. In a small pot, melt the remaining 3 tbs butter. Add the flour and whisk together. Add the milk and stir regularly while you heat this mixture until it starts thickening and gets a little frothy/bubbly. I use a small whisk for this.
5. Add the milk mixture to the broccoli part and stir well.
6. Optionally add some pepper and/or salt to the pot, or just do this when it’s in your bowl.

Feel better soon!

Butter, a can of tomatoes, and half an onion = tomato soup

(And some water and salt)

That's all you need.

Well, and let's be honest... it's a lot easier if you also have an immersion blender. Which you probably should.

And to be fair, I also went ahead and fancied it up since I happened to have a couple sprigs of fresh basil and some white pepper. But those are really unnecessary. The bottom line is this is a super simple and delicious soup.

The basic recipe comes from Inspired Taste and they will tell you the full background story, so check it out: https://www.inspiredtaste.net/27956/easy-tomato-soup-recipe/

I will post my ever-so-slightly-more-complicated variant here:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (4 tbs) butter
• 1 800mL (28 oz) can of tomatoes - I'd go with low sodium and either whole or diced but it doesn't really matter
• 1/2 an onion, peeled and chopped into large chunks
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups water (I added about 1/2 tsp of "better than bullion" to mine)
• entirely optional: 1/8 tsp white pepper
• entirely optional: a small handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped

 

 Method

1. Decide if you're making a single or double batch (you might want more)
2. Get out a suitably-sized pot and put it on medium-high heat
3. Melt the butter in the pot
4. Add the onion. You can cook it for a couple of minutes if you want or just continue immediately to the next step.
5. Add the can of tomatoes with all juice/pulp. 
6. Add the water or broth (don't forget to swish some of it around in the tomato juice can to get out all the yummy tomatoeyness)
7. Add the salt
8. Give it all a stir and bring to a boil - reduce heat to a simmer and set a timer for 40 minutes.
9. Give it a stir once in a while as you wait for the timer.
10. Toss in the extra seasonings if you're using them
11. Blend.
12. Serve, ideally with glorious homemade toasted sourdough bread that your awesome housemate baked.

French Onion Soup

Rich Beef Stock

+

Epicurious French Onion Soup

+

The dusty old soup bowl set that has sat in our cupboard unused for 4 years

=

a) soup too delicious to stop and take a picture of the result

b) s(o)uper yumminess

c) not nearly as much soup as we expected, given all the onion

d) something we will definitely make again
e) all of the above

the correct answer is e.

Vietnamese-style Hot and Sour Chicken Soup

Poor ilan is sick so yesterday in Vancouver we found him some Vietnamese hot and sour soup for lunch.  It was super yum, so today I decided to try to make something similar at home.  I pulled ideas from a whole bunch of different recipes and websites and here's what I ended up doing (roughly)...

Ingredients (prep everything first)

- 3 tbs minced garlic
- white part of two lemongrass stalks, sliced finely and minced
- 2 red chili peppers with seeds, finely sliced and minced (this made for spicy soup! Use 1 if you want it milder and/or remove seeds)
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- some mushrooms (I think I used 7-8 creminis), quartered
- 3 celery stalks, cut into about 1cm long slices
- 1/2 head green cabbage, sliced into strips (next time I might leave it in somewhat bigger chunks)
- 3 large tomatoes, cut into 6-8 chunks
(You could use different veggies than the above if you like!)
- 1 can of pineapple tidbits
- 1/4 cup fish sauce plus a little more
- about 650mL of chicken broth (we had a yogourt container full in the freezer)
- if you have it, 2 tbs tamarind (I'm sure the soup would be fine even if you don't happen to have this on hand)
- about 1 cup boiling water to prep the tamarind
- fresh herbs for garnish: I used basil (even though I only had a wee bit), mint, and cilantro (could also use some spring onion, possibly even some fresh oregano)

Directions

1. Prep tamarind.  Put the tamarind paste in a bowl and add the boiling water.  Let sit about 15 minutes so tamarind softens.  Press the tamarind and water through a fine sieve into another bowl to extract as much tamarindyness as you can then discard the remaining tamarind chunks.

2. Prep the chicken. Slice the raw chicken across the grain into roughly 1/2cm thick slices.  Put in a bowl with some fish sauce and ground pepper then cover and put it in the fridge until you're ready for it.

3. In a large heavy bottomed soup pot, saute 2/3 of the garlic with the chili peppers and 2/3 of the lemon grass in some olive oil and/or schmaltz.  Once everything is nice and fragrant (about 30s), add 1/4 cup of fish sauce and cook for 2 minutes to reduce it.  Yes, it will smell intensely fishy.

4. Add the chicken stock and tamarind juice to the soup pot, adding a little extra water to help you get everything out of the bowls.  I'd add at least a cup or two of water at this stage.  You can also throw in the lemongrass tops in larger chunks if you like.  Bring to a boil.

5. Add the can of pineapple with juice and again rinse the can with water to get it all.  Add the chopped veggies (in my case, celery, mushrooms, cabbage, and the tomatoes - I added the tomatoes a little later than everything else and maybe should have waited longer than I did).  Reduce to a simmer and cook about 10 minutes (maybe less).

6. While the soup is simmering, heat some oil/schmaltz in a frying pan and add the remaining garlic and minced lemongrass.  Fry till fragrant (30s) then add a couple tbs of fish sauce.  Again, let it cook a minute or two to reduce down but not so much that everything starts sticking to the pan.  Add the sliced chicken and cook until just cooked through (about 4 mins).

7. Add the chicken to the soup, check to make sure everything is sufficiently cooked, and turn off the heat.

8. Ladle into bowls and top with fresh herbs.  Eat and enjoy!

ilan says: "If this soup doesn't cure me, nothing will!"

Whitewater Lemony Lentil Soup

mmm.. this soup is simple but so tasty!  It comes from the fabulous Whitewater Cooks Cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups lentils (they say red ones, but I've done this with red, puy, brown and various combinations thereof)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 tsp salt
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp red chili flakes (yes, it's got just a little bit of kick)
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• juice of 2 lemons
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 tsp fresh dill, chopped (dry is perfectly good too)

Method:

1. Rinse the lentils in a colander and set aside to drain.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large pot; add onions and saute until translucent.
3. Add carrots, garlic, salt, pepper, chili flakes, rosemary, oregano, and bay leaves.
4. Stir well and saute until the carrots are tender.
5. Add the stock and the lentils and bring to a boil. 
6. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 25 minutes or until the lentils are soft.
7. Meanwhile, mix the crumbled feta and dill in a small bowl and set aside for garnish.
8. Remove the bay leaves. You may puree the soup or leave it as is (I've never pureed it).
9. Add the lemon juice, zest, and salt and pepper to taste.
10.  To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with feta/dill topping.