Chicken and Vegetable Tortilla Soup

I have been making this for at least the last 20 years. This was originally a Cooking Light recipe that I have modified over the years many times over. This recipe reflects the way I have been cooking it for the last several years. It is completely homemade with fresh vegetables, and I use an already cooked organic rotisserie chicken from the store to save time. One pot meal with an abundance of vegetables!

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 90 minutes
• Difficulty: easy
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Pretty easy one pot meal with an abundance of vegetables.

Credit: This recipe is based on this Cooking Light  recipe

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 1 large sweet onion, small dice
• 1 jalapeño, finely chopped
• 1 red or yellow bell pepper, small dice
• 2 carrots, peeled and small dice
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 to 2 tablespoons chili powder (chili powders vary a lot in flavor and spiciness)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dry oregano
• kosher salt and pepper (start with a teaspoon of salt if you are using all salt free products and 10 grinds of the pepper mill add more at the end if needed)
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 28 oz can no salt added chopped tomatoes
• 2 fresh ears of corn, cut off the cobb
• 1 quart of no or low sodium chicken stock
• 2 cups of shredded cooked chicken breast (I just buy some cooked “perfectly plain rotisserie chicken” from Whole Foods to save a little time)
• sliced lime wedges (optional)
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro (optional)
• tortilla chips

Procedure

1. In a large dutch oven, sauté onions in a bit of olive oil for about 5 minutes.
2. Add jalapeno, bell pepper and carrots, and cook for about 5 more minutes, until soft.
3. Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper and stir for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
4. Add wine and stir until it has mostly burned off. Stir in tomatoes and cook for a couple of minutes.
5. Purée about 2/3 of the vegetable mixture and then return the puree to the dutch oven. Add the corn, broth and chicken. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to simmer. Let it simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.
6. Taste for seasoning, add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve in bowls with crushed tortilla chips, cilantro and a squirt of lime. Enjoy!

https://healthyseasonalcooking.wordpress.com

April, 3, 2024

Curry Mee – Malaysian Vegetable and Noodle Soup

Again, quite a bit of time has passed since I last added a recipe. I was busy, the world was still turning, life was normal…then BAM, COVID-19. So now I have A LOT of extra time and energy and I am returning to my recipe blog. I made an amazing soup yesterday from my favorite recipe blog, The Woks of Life. The layers of flavor, the aromatics, the warmth were all really terrific and comforting! I made some personal adjustments to the original recipe by adding more vegetables, using shrimp instead of chicken thighs (my son is still boycotting chicken- but it turned out too spicy for him anyway) and using plant-based shirataki noodles instead of egg noodles. If you want to make it vegetarian use vegetable broth instead of chicken, add salt instead of fish sauce and if you don’t eat shrimp you can eliminate it (maybe add tofu). I think it is a versatile recipe, add or subtract vegetables and proteins as you see fit.

• Servings: 4 +
• Time: 50 min
• Difficulty: easy
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Healthy take on a Malaysian yellow curry noodle soup.

Credit: Curry Mee Malaysian Noodle Soup by The Woks of Life

Ingredients

• Neutral oil such as safflower or canola oil
• 1 medium sweet onion, minced
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 1 Tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 Tablespoon lemongrass (grated lemon zest is a good substitute)
• 1 Tablespoon red curry paste
• 1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin
• 1 large carrot, sliced in thin rounds
• 1 pound peeled and deveined shrimp
• 3 Tablespoons curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 13.5 ounces of coconut milk
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth or stock
• 3 Tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon coconut sugar (or whatever kind you have on hand)
• 8 ounces shirataki noodles (prepare according to package directions)
• 2 cups raw bean sprouts
• cilantro leaves or basil leaves for a garnish
• 1 lime, cut into wedges

Procedure

1. Heat a little oil in a medium stock pot over medium high heat. Add onion, garlic, ginger and lemongrass. Cook for about 6 minutes, or until onions begin to soften and mixture is fragrant.
2. Add the mushrooms and carrots and cook for a few minutes.
3. Stir in the red curry paste and then add the shrimp, stirring well.
4. Turn up the heat to high and add the curry powder, turmeric, coconut milk, chicken stock, fish sauce and sugar. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. While the soup simmers prepare the noodles according to their instructions.
6. Add the noodles and half the bean sprouts to the soup. Stir and cook for a minute.
7. Pour soup into bowls and top with the remaining bean sprouts and cilantro (or basil) as a garnish. Add a squeeze of lime. Enjoy!

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March 17, 2020

Turkey Vegetable Chili

So yesterday was mushroom barley soup and today is turkey chili, I am full-fledged into autumn now…except this is Northern CA and it will feel like summer again in a few days, but that keeps things interesting. I have made this chili recipe a few times and it is dramatically different from my beef and chicken sausage chili I posted a few years ago. I think this is lighter and brighter, not quite a rich as my other chili recipe, although both are pretty light calorie-wise. I lightened-up this Food & Wine recipe by omitting the lager (didn’t want to buy a 6 pack of beer to use only one bottle to make this chili), using two pounds of ground turkey breast meat instead of three (!) pounds of turkey, added some additional vegetables among other small tweaks. I hope you enjoy it!

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 45 minutes active and 1 1/2 hours cooking
• Difficulty: easy-medium
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Adapted from Food & Wine's Turkey and Pinto Bean Chili - a light and vegetable-laden chili for a cool autumn day.

Adapted from Food & Wine’s Turkey and Pinto Bean Chili  

Ingredients

• Safflower oil
• 1 large sweet onion, cut in a small dice
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut in a small dice
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut in a small dice
• 2 pounds ground turkey breast
• 2 Tablespoons of chili powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 3/4 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
• freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
• 2 – 28 ounce cans of low-sodium chopped tomatoes with the juice
• 1 cup of low-sodium vegetable stock or broth
• 1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 cans of low-sodium cannellini beans (or great northern or white kidney beans), drained and rinsed

Procedure

1. Heat a large dutch oven or pot on Medium-high. Add a small amount of oil and coat the bottom of the pot. Add the onion, carrots, bell pepper and garlic and cook for 3 minutes. Add the turkey and cook for about 10 minutes or until meat is thoroughly cooked.
2. Add the chili powder, cumin, oregano, chipotle chile powder, black pepper, and salt  to the mixture and stir for one minute until well-mixed and fragrant.
3. Add the tomatoes, stock/broth, cider vinegar, and the beans. Stir well and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for one hour. Stir occasionally.
4. Uncover and cook for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove from heat and serve in bowls. Garnish with chopped chives or onions if desired.

NOTE: This also works well to follow recipe up to step 3, then once you add the beans put the mixture into a slow cooker, set on medium and leave it to cook for the day. I do this in the mountains, so it is about 45 minutes preparation and then dinner is ready when I come home from skiing! 

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October 3, 2019

chopping the onion

cooking the turkey and the vegetables

Chili simmering

finished product!

Mushroom Barley Soup

Today actually felt like autumn, so I decided to make soup. I had a hard time coming up with the right soup that both my son and I would eat and I finally decided on mushroom barley soup. It is a vegetarian version, I remember loving my aunt’s mushroom barley soup as a kid, but I remember it having beef chunks in it. Since I decided to make this vegetarian I made a side of homemade meatballs to add some extra food for the growing teenager. We were both happy this way and there was plenty of leftover soup for lunch tomorrow and for freezing for future meals.

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: about 45 minutes
• Difficulty: easy-medium
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Fairly quick and healthy vegetarian soup for a chilly day

Credit: Mushroom Barley Soup from Food & Wine

Ingredients

• 8 cups of Vegetable Stock or Broth (or Beef Stock if you aren’t making it vegetarian)
• 1 large carrot, thinly sliced
• 1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
• 1 small onion, cut in a small dice
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1/2 pound cremini or white button mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 cup pearled barley
• salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

1. Heat a large saucepan with a little safflower oil. When hot, add the carrot, fennel, and onion. Saute for about 3 minutes.
2. Add the mushrooms and saute 5 more minutes.
3. Add the garlic, oregano and thyme, and saute one more minute.
4. Add the stock or broth and barley.
5. Bring to a boil, stir and then cover and simmer over moderately low heat for 30 minutes or until the barley is tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve in bowls. Enjoy!

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October 3, 2019

Fresh Summer Corn Soup with Crab

I have made this recipe all summer and it is really delicious! It is like summer in a bowl. It is a recipe from the New York Times Cooking site and I have modified it slightly by leaving out the cream, butter and jalapenos, and adding crab. It has a pretty short list of ingredients and is very light and healthy. I will say that shucking 12 pieces of corn can take some time, so it isn’t quick, but healthy natural food is often not quick, but worth the extra time.

• Servings: 6+
• Time: about 1 1/2 hours
• Difficulty: medium
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Fresh corn, crab and summer in a bowl

Credit: The New York Times Cooking – I can’t post a link because you have to pay for their website now, so I no longer have access to it 

Ingredients

• 12 ears of corn
• 1 sweet onion, small dice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 yellow or orange bell peppers, small dice
• 1 bay leaf
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup of fresh crab, shelled
• 8 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade them

Procedure

1. Remove the husk from all of the corn.
2. Cut the corn off the cob and put the cornless cobs in a large stockpot. Fill the stock pot with 16 cups of water, bay leaf, peppercorns and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and turn down heat to medium and lightly boil for 30 minutes.
3. While the corn cobs are boiling, cut the vegetables.
4. Saute the onion and bell pepper with a little oil in a large dutch oven or stock pot until it is soft and the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the corn and saute for 10 more minutes.
5. Add 6 cups of the corn stock to the corn mixture (avoiding the peppercorns and bay leaf). stir and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Puree about half the soup, so it turns creamy, but you still have a lot of vegetable chunks. Pour into bowls, garnish with fresh crab and basil. Enjoy!

https://healthyseasonalcooking.wordpress.com    August 19, 2019

Healthy Ramen Soup

This is not Ramen from my college days, thank goodness! I remember a roommate I had in college who seemed to eat nothing but pre-packaged ramen (a serious sodium and fat bomb) and Kraft macaroni and cheese. I don’t know how he lived on this combination, but I guess he was young…but there are long-term health consequences… I won’t preach.

Well Ramen is back and getting quite gourmet from what I have read. There is a new ramen restaurant here in Palo Alto that has daily lines snaking around the corner. So popular, but I have not tried it as (1) I don’t want to wait in line to get in and (2) I am pretty certain that restaurant ramen will be loaded with fat and sodium. But curious, as I can be about a new food trend, I decided I would make this myself and add vegetables. I found this recipe on a site called Damn Delicious (catchy name). I have made this a few times with great success. So easy and so delicious! I have only modified it slightly, mostly adding more broth, miso and sometimes changing out the vegetables. It was really good with bok choy instead of spinach, but today I used what was in my refrigerator and that was mushrooms, a carrot and fresh spinach.

• Servings: 4
• Time: 20-30 minutes
• Difficulty: easy
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Finally, a Ramen soup that is healthy and easy.

Credit:  Easy Homemade Ramen by Damn Delicious

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs, soft or hard boiled (to your liking), sliced in half
• Safflower seed oil
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1 large carrot, thinly sliced
• 5 ounces of shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced (I only had some dried shiitakes so I used mostly cremini mushrooms today- but I think the shiitake are better in this soup)
• 6 cups unsalted vegetable stock (or chicken)
• 1 cup of water
• 1 Tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
• Soba noodles or Shirataki noodles
• 2 Tablespoons light miso
• 3 cups fresh spinach (or baby bok choy, or whatever green vegetable you have)
• chopped chives for a garnish

Procedure

1. Heat a large soup pot or dutch oven on medium heat. Add a little oil to the pot and heat another minute. When oil is hot, add garlic and ginger to the pot and stir for about 1 minute. Add carrot slices and mushrooms and sauté for a few minutes.
2. Add stock, water and soy sauce, stir well and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
3. While soup simmers, cook your noodles according to package instructions. (I made vegetable-based, zero calorie shirataki noodles for myself and more traditional soba noodles for my son). Set cooked noodles aside.
4. Add the spinach to the soup and stir.  Turn off the heat, add the miso and stir with a whisk to blend the miso in.
5. Place noodles in bowl, ladle soup in and garnish with two egg halves and chives. Enjoy!

Note:  Shirataki noodles are a new find for me. The are a traditional Japanese ingredient made from the yam-like roots of plants in the amorphophallus family. The noodles are mostly made of water and have an interesting chewy texture. They have fiber and are either very low calorie or calorie-free.  This information and more is from:  Decker, Fred. (2017, July 20). Benefits of Shirataki Noodles. Healthy Eating | SF Gate. Retrieved from http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-shirataki-noodles-11780.html

Healthy Seasonal Cooking,  February 15, 2019

Soup with the soba noodles

Soup with the shirataki noodles, bok choy and roasted oyster mushrooms.

Healthy New England Clam Chowder with Cauliflower- updated

Recipe updated Oct. 11, 2019. Added carrots, made it with chicken broth instead of vegetable for a more pleasant color and added more photos. Served it for dinner and all really liked it!

Happy New Year! When I made the Loaded Baked Potato-Style Cauliflower soup recently, my son and I decided that the same base would probably be really good as a clam chowder, and I could even make it completely dairy-free for those who prefer that. I love New England style clam chowder but it traditionally has a lot of milk and cream and butter…so I have not made it in many years and I am not inclined to order it in a restaurant because it is usually loaded with even more butter and cream than I would make at home. I am not lactose-intolerant, but I think that my morning latte and some cheese is enough dairy for me each day.  This soup turned out rich and creamy without any dairy! I am so amazed at what one can do with cauliflower, so my cauliflower obsession continues along with my squash obsession (check out this amazing Parmesan Crusted Delicata Squash recipe from Skinnytaste – I can’t get enough of this — crispy like a high-quality french fry but so much better for you!).  I am giving Cooking Light credit for inspiring me to create this soup from their cauliflower soup. Let me know what you think!

Healthy New England Clam Chowder with Cauliflower

• Servings: 4-6
• Time: about 40 minutes
• Difficulty: easy
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Rich, creamy and still very healthy cauliflower-based clam chowder soup.

Credit:  Inspired by Cooking Light

Ingredients

• 1/2 sweet onion, chopped
• 1 fennel bulb (white bulb only), chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (or a teaspoon of dried thyme)
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• olive oil
• 1 large cauliflower, florets and stems chopped
• 2 cups unsalted chicken stock (or vegetable stock/broth)
• 2 cups clam juice
• kosher salt to taste (the clam broth will have salt, so taste before salting)
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tablespoon white miso
• 16 ounce package of frozen clams, shelled
• 1 Tablespoon chopped fennel fronds to garnish

Procedure

1. Heat a large soup pot or dutch oven on medium heat. Add a little olive oil to the pot and heat. When oil is hot, add onion, fennel, carrots, thyme, and garlic to the pot and stir often until tender, about 5 minutes. Add cauliflower, stock or broth, clam juice, pepper and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low.  Simmer until cauliflower is very tender, about 15 minutes.
2. Ladle about 80% of the soup (liquid and vegetables) into a blender, add the miso and puree until smooth and creamy. Be careful not to burn yourself on the hot liquid while blending (put a towel over the blender lid).
3. Return the blended mixture to the pot. Add clams cook over medium heat for about 5 more minutes. Taste to see if it needs more salt and pepper.
4. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with fennel fronds. Enjoy!

Notes:

• I made this today under quarantine and used what I had available, which was onion instead of fennel, added three large mushrooms and only one bottle of clam juice along with the juice from one can of clams. I discarded the juice from the other can of clams, so I would get more creaminess from the cauliflower. Worked well! I also sauteed the carrots first, and then set them aside. Then I sauteed the onions, mushrooms and garlic and added the cauliflower (followed the recipe here)…then pureed 80% of that (not the carrots), then added the carrots back in after pureeing the other ingredients. Keeps the soup whiter, like traditional clam chowder made with milk and cream.  I also added one finely diced chicken sausage (sometimes people add a little bacon – this was a sub) and a handful of chopped kale at the end. Served with a little garlic bread to make it dinner. We all enjoyed it!

https://healthyseasonalcooking.wordpress.com

January 15, 2019 – updated October 11, 2019

Loaded Baked Potato-Style Cauliflower Soup

Wow, this was really good. I ate it for dinner on Sunday and have enjoyed the leftovers for the last two days for lunch. I feel like we have been eating more meat than I prefer to eat so I was looking for a vegetarian dish (ok, it has bacon, so almost vegetarian is what I ended up with). I found this on Cookinglight.com and my son and I really liked it! Ok, he liked it as long as I added extra cheese and bacon to his… but hey, he is a growing teen! I love how the soup has a very rich and silky mouthfeel, with only a small amount of added half and half (I am considering leaving the half and half out next time and adding greek yogurt instead?). I give all the credit to Cooking Light, I cooked it pretty much as written. Enjoy!

• Servings: 6
• Time: about 40 minutes
• Difficulty: easy
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Rich, creamy and still very healthy cauliflower soup with a bit of crispy bacon and cheddar cheese to make it seem decadent

Credit: Cooking Light

Ingredients

• 4 thick applewood bacon slices
• 1 leek, white part only, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• olive oil
• 1 medium-sized cauliflower, florets and stems chopped
• 4 cups unsalted chicken stock (or broth)
• 1 teaspoon (or to taste) kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup half and half
• About 1/4 cup grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Place bacon strips on baking sheet and cook until crispy, about 15 minutes. Drain grease thoroughly on paper towels. When cool chop into small crumbles. Set aside.
3. Heat a large soup pot or dutch oven on Medium heat. Add a little olive oil to the pot and heat. Add Leek, celery and garlic to the pot and stir often until tender, about 5 minutes. Add cauliflower, stock, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover ad reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until cauliflower is very tender, about 15 minutes.
4. Remove the majority of the vegetables and liquid to a blender and blend with half and half and blend until smooth. Be careful not to burn your self on the hot liquid while blending (put a towel over the blender lid).
5. Return the blended mixture to the pot. Cook over medium heat for about 5 more minutes.
6. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with cheese, bacon and chives. Enjoy!

https://healthyseasonalcooking.wordpress.com    October 23, 2018

 

Miso Soup + Dashi

Tonight my daughter and I made miso soup with homemade dashi. Usually when we make miso soup we cheat and just use some store-bought chicken or vegetable broth and add miso, figuring it was good enough, but wow, this was so much better! There is so much complexity to this soup now that it has the smell of the ocean from the kombu and bonito flakes and the salty/savory flavor from the miso. So Delicious! The added bonus is that we don’t feel like we just ate a salt bomb as we often do after eating miso soup at a restaurant.  I think the sodium levels are pretty moderate in this version. Unfortunately I didn’t get pictures, so will have to add them next time I make this.

Miso Soup

• Servings: 6
• Time: about 60 minutes
• Difficulty: medium
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Savory homemade miso soup

Credit: Bon Appetit and Epicurious

Ingredients

Dashi

• 8 cups cold water
• 2 – 6 x 5 inch pieces dried Kombu (a type of seaweed)
• 1 1/2 ounces bonito flakes (about 3 cups)

Miso Soup

• 8 cups of Dashi
• 1/2 cup dried wakame (a type of seaweed)
• 1/3 cup white miso
• 1/2 pound tofu (I like firm tofu), drained and cut into small cubes
• 1/4 cup thinly cut scallions

Procedure

Dashi Instructions:

1.  Pour water into a large saucepan. Add kombu and let sit until kombu softens, about 30 minutes.
2. Bring water and kombu mixture to a slight boil and immediately remove from the heat. Discard the kombu.
3. Add the bonito flakes and carefully stir once to submerge them. The broth will be clearer if you don’t vigorously stir it. Return to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for five minutes, skimming off any foam that might form.
4. Strain the dashi (broth). You can let it cool and store it in the fridge for a couple of days or use it now to make the miso soup.

Miso Soup Instructions:

1. Pour the dashi into a medium pot and mix in the wakame.
2. Heat the dashi mixture over moderately high heat until hot. While the dashi is heating up remove about 1/2 cup of it and whisk it in a separate bowl with the miso until well combined.
3. Add the tofu and scallions to the broth (dashi). Cook one minute. Turn off the heat.
4. Mix the miso mixture into the soup and serve immediately. Enjoy!

https://healthyseasonalcooking.wordpress.com    March 13, 2018

miso!

Dashi and vegetables before adding the miso mixture

Mixing in the miso.

Spoonful of umami heaven!

Mushroom Spinach Soup with Middle Eastern Spices

Wow, ten days have passed since I last posted a recipe! My daughter was home for spring break and she was bored so she decided she would do a lot of the cooking, so Helpful! But she doesn’t follow recipes or want to participate in my blogging project, so I haven’t had much to post. Thank you again Melissa Clark and New York Times Cooking for this recipe! This is a very healthy and hearty vegetarian soup that can be bulked up further with lentils, grains or sausage (no longer vegetarian then) if one desires. We decided we just wanted a warm vegetarian soup that wasn’t too heavy, so we left it as is except we added a can of chopped tomatoes and some broth to the recipe.

mushrooms and shallots before roasting

After 15 minutes roasting

After 25 minutes roasting

• Servings: 4-6
• Time: 60+ minutes
• Difficulty: medium
• Print

Rich and Hearty vegetarian soup that has a lot of add-in options

 New York Times Cooking  

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 1 1/2 lb mixed mushrooms such as shiitake, cremini, oyster, etc. medium dice
• ½ lb shallots, finely diced
• kosher salt
• fresh ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped (use a little less if dried)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• pinch ground allspice
• one 14.5 oz can chopped peeled tomatoes (organic or no salt added if possible)
• 4 cups water
• 1 cup of low-sodium vegetable broth
• 5 ounces baby spinach
• fresh lime juice, to taste (I cut one lime and served the wedges with the soup so people could squeeze in as much as they wanted at the table)
• plain yogurt, for serving (optional)

Procedure

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Spread out chopped mushrooms and shallots on a large lightly oiled sheet pan.  Sprinkle vegetables with a little salt and pepper and a little olive oil. Roast for 15 minutes and then stir. Roast for another 10 minutes or until the mushrooms have substantially shrunk and most of the liquid has evaporated. You can alternatively do this in the pot you are going to make your soup in by sautéing the vegetables.
3. Heat a large pot over medium heat, add a little olive oil to just barely coat bottom of pot, after that is heated add the mushrooms and shallot mixture, tomato paste, thyme, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and allspice. If you like a little more spice, add a little more of all spices as I did. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Stir in can of tomatoes including the liquid, 4 cups of water and 1 cup of vegetable broth. Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook gently for at least 20 minutes. I simmered for over an hour because I had the extra time. Stir in the spinach and cook until just wilted, 1-2 minutes.
5. Using a blender or food processor, coarsely purée 1/2 of the soup and add back to unprocessed soup. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve in bowls with a squeeze of fresh lime, sprinkle of thyme and an optional dollop of yogurt. Enjoy!

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March 26, 2017

Simmering soup before spinach was added.

Finished soup (I forgot to add the spinach).