Recipe Review-Soup Edition

Beer Cheese Soup

6 thumbs ups! My great friend Liz was over the night we had this yummy meal. All three of us liked it. And she provided asiago cheese bread which was heavenly dipped in the soup.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onion (except, yeah right. I don't do onions. sick. death. sick.)

3 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth (except this girl is a vegetarian, so I always replace chicken broth with this awesome stock called NO Chicken broth. You can't even tell a difference!)

8 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon prepared Dijon-style mustard

1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer (I totally bought a giant 24 oz can of Coors

Directions

1. In a medium pot over medium heat, melt butter. Cook celery, carrots (and onion) in butter 5 minutes. Pour in no chicken broth and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

2. Puree mixture in a blender or food processor or using an immersion blender. Return to pot over medium heat.
3. Toss Cheddar with flour and stir, a little at a time, into the pot, until fully incorporated and melted. Season with mustard. Stir in beer to achieve desired thickness just before serving.

SO GOOD!


Spicy Red Lentil Soup



Ingredients

1 cup red lentils (I bought just one cup in bulk at Whole Foods. Whole Foods is, unlike what you might believe, pretty affordable if you do it right.)

1 tsp. salt
1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes
2 Tbs. minced fresh ginger (I don't know if this is different than ginger root or not, but I used ginger root and it was tasty)

1 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
1 15-oz. can light, unsweetened coconut milk
1 Tbs. tamarind concentrate or paste, optional (I couldn't find this so I opted out. I guess you can get it in Indian grocery's and high end grocery's, whatever those are.)

1 Tbs. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. turmeric powder
1 small jalapeño, stemmed, seeded and minced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Directions

Combine lentils, salt and 5 cups water in large saucepan.

Cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, 20 to 25 minutes, or until lentils are tender. Blend lentils with whisk for rustic texture, or purée in food processor for creamier feel. (I pureed. I think I'm glad I did because the texture was very nice and the lentils looked a little strange before they were pureed.)

Purée tomatoes and ginger in blender or food processor until smooth. Set aside. Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Add garlic, and cook 30 seconds, or until just golden, stirring often. Add tomato mixture, coconut milk, tamarind if desired, coriander, cumin, turmeric and jalapeño.

(PS the soup wasn't spicy at all, so I think I will leave some of the jalapeno seeds next time.) Simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in lentils, and simmer, partially covered, 20 minutes.

(haha! I wanted to capture myself cooking. :)

Season with salt and pepper. (seasoned with TONS of salt. I thought the soup was a little bland without it.) Sprinkle with cilantro, and serve. Cilantro? It's like the chocolate of herbs. Delish.

Two thumbs up again! YES!