BEST Tomato Soup EVAH!

I adore tomato soup. LOVE.IT. Ive tried to make it a few times and it was always good... but not stellar. This one though takes the cake. What is the secret? Well I think there are two. One - the sherry. It gave the soup a great flavor! Second - anything with this amount of butter and cream cant HELP but be good! ;)

I got the recipe from the Pioneer Woman... her stuff always looks great!

Sherried Tomato Soup

6 tablespoons melted butter

1 medium onion, diced

1 46-ounce bottle or can tomato juice

2 14 ounce cans diced tomatoes

1 to 3 tablespoons chicken base

3 to 6 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

Black Pepper

1 cup cooking sherry

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

chopped fresh parsley

chopped fresh basil

Saute diced onions in butter until transluscent. Add canned tomatoes. Add tomato juice, sugar, pinch of salt, and black pepper and stir. Bring to a near boil, then turn off heat. Add in sherry and cream and stir. Add in parsley and basil to taste, adjust other seasoning, and serve!

I omitted the parsley.

Clear-out-the-pantry Coconut Curry Soup

A while back I made this soup to use up a variety of things in the fridge before going bad... SO yummy!

First, I sauteed 4 green onions, chopped, in olive oil in a pot. I added 1/4 a white onion, diced that was in hte fridge too. Minced a little leftover fresh ginger, and added about 1 can worth of cocnut milk - combining the two open cans in hte fridge (one regular and one light) plus 1 cup of stock. I added a splash of fish sauce. I soaked and chopped some dried lemongrass. I added 2 tsp of red curry powder and about 1-2 tablespoons of fish sauce, and a splace of rice vinegar... and let the whole thing simmer for a bit.

In a separate pot, I cooked about 1/2 cup of jasmine rice according to pkg directions.

Then add 1 pound of shrimp - thawed, peeled, deveined - to the soup and simmer until shrimp is done through. Sreve with a scoop of rice and topped with chopped cilantro.

This was so good! Nice kick from the curry but the coconut helped cool it a bit.

Sweet Potato Soup with Chipotle Cream

A few months ago, my mother-in-law mailed a clipping from Ladies Home Journal with this recipe, saying that it sounded like something we would like. She was right! I filed it away fully intending to make it... but then it got lost in the shuffle. When trying to decide what to make for our bi-weekly sunday dinners with my sis and bro, I looked through my soups and saw it again. Sweet Potatos go well (I think) with Pork (which I was serving as well) and soups are good weekend projects since sometimes they take some extra time and cleanup.

This was SO good! I really liked it! The Chipotle cream is key so don't skip it. Without it, the soup was too sweet, almost baby-food like? But the smokiness in the cream was the right balance. I couldnt find unsalted pepitas ANYWHERE (not at Trader Joes, not at Kanes, not at Fitzgeralds, and not at Stop and Shop...) so salted it was. I dont think it was an issue though, still was yummy. I recommend this soup and would definitely make it again!

Makes 15 Cups

2 T olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

3 pounds sweet potatos, peeled and diced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1 T tomato paste

4 (14 ounce) cans low sodium chicken broth (note: I read this as 4 cups and then later felt like more broth was needed... guess I was right!)

3 T maple syrup

1 T lime juice

1 1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp cumin

3/4 tsp dried sage

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1 bay leaf

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 chipotle chile (from a can of chipotles in adobo), seeds removed and finely chopped (1/2 tsp or to taste - I did more like a full tsp)

2 tsp adobo sauce (from can) or to taste (I did a bit more)

1/2 cup unsalted pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)

In a large pot, heat oil over low. Add onion and cook until softened, about 8 minutes. Increase heat to medium; stir in potato, carrots, and tomato paste. Cook until vegetables begin to caramelize, about 4 min. Add broth, syrup, juice, salt, cumin, sage, pepper, bay leaf, and nutmeg. Cover and cook until vegetables are fork-tender, about 30 min. Discard Bay leaf. Puree using an immersion blender or in batches in a blender.

For Chipotle Cream: in a small mixer bowl, beat cream on medium to firm peaks. Fold in chile and adobo sauce.

Ladel soup into bowls, top with a dollop of cream, and sprinkle with pepitas.

I don't like CAPERS!!!

So this month, Kate is hosting Platinum Chef Challenge, and her five ingredients are:

Leeks

Lemon

Cream

Rosemary

Capers

I had all sorts of great ideas and felt very inspired by this grocery list. So inspired that I made my entry THAT DAY. But I have waited to post my results. Why? Well. I learned that I really. Truly. Not at all. Made me gag. Needed to eat a chocolate bunny to get the taste out of my mouth. Dont. Like. Capers!!!!!!!!!

I think that had I discovered a love of capers. Or even a like. I would have enjoyed my dishes. I was tempted to try something else for a more palatable result, but that would mean including capers. Again. NOOOOOO!!!

I made two dishes though, both incorporated all five ingredients. The first was an asparagus soup, and the second a tapenade of sorts. Ryan really liked the tapenade (he does not share my capers aversion apparently).

Roasted Asparagus-Capers Soup

1 bundle of asparagus, trimmed, washed

3 sprigs of rosemary

1 lemon

4 cups stock

1 bundle leeks, trimmed and carefully washed

4 oz craime fraiche

2-3 tablespoons capers

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

scallops

bacon

Roast asparagus in an oven at 450 degrees tossed with oil, rosemary sprigs, and thinly sliced lemon for about 15 minutes or until slightly charred.

Meanwhile, in a large stock pot, heat oil over medium and add chopped leeks. Stir occasionally until slightly browned. Add stock and simmer about 10 min. In batches if needed, puree the stock/leeks and asparagus in a food processor or blender to smooth. Stir in cream to taste. Salt and pepper to taste.

In a small skillet, sautee the capers until slightly brown. Stir into soup. (Optional) Sear bacon wrapped scallops.

If desired, top with bacon-wrapped scallop.

Caper Tapenade

In a blender, combine 2 T drained capers, and the 'leaves' from 1 sprig of rosemary. Set aside.

Sautee thinly sliced whites from 1 large (or 3 small) leek with olive oil to caramelize. Combine with the caper-rosemary mixture. Squeeze juice from 1/2 of a lemon over, and stir in craime fraiche. Serve with multigrain bread.

Beef Barley Soup

I made this soup for part of the Platinum Chef Challenge (post to follow) and thought I was being all creative with it... turns out Beef Barley soup is a common thing... ah well! I made it sans recipe and with some platinum twists and LOVED it. SO good! Ryan had two helpings :) I would make it again, for sure (once the extra servings in the freezer are gone ;) )

Beef Barley Soup

Ingredients:

1 cup pearl barley

Olive oil

1 can chickpeas

Ground Cumin

1 large onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups stock (I used a combination of beef and chicken - 4 and 2 - have extra on hand to add as needed)

8 ounces butternut in bite sized pieces

about 1.5 to 2 pounds of strips of beef (I forget what cut mine it... bought in bulk and frozen for fajitas)

In a medium stockpot, bring 2.5 cups of water with a pinch of salt to a boil. Add barley, lower heat and simmer stirring occasionally for 45 minutes or until done (tender, most or all water absorbed). Set aside.

In a large stockpot, heat 2 T olive oil over medium high. Add can of drained chickpeas and 1 tablespoon of ground cumin. Cook for a couple minutes, stirring occasionally. When chickpeas start to slightly brown, add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally for another 5 min until onions are soft and browning.

Add Stock. Dump in barley. Add butternut. Lower heat to a slow simmer.

Meanwhile in a large frying pan, heat a tsp or 2 of olive oil over medium high heat. Season beef with kosher salt and cumin. Add beef to hot pan and cook about 15 min, turning. Outside should have a nice crust (not burned) so let it sit to develop and mine was medium. Pull from heat and cut into bite sized pieces (I like bigger chunks of meat myself).

Add pieces of beef to soup, and a bag of baby spinach. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer to soften spinach and serve!

Roasted Tomato Bisque

I got this recipe from William sonoma's website - they have some great recipes!

This was easy though time consuming and very yummy with a nice strong tomatoy flavor. It was great leftover and reheated too :)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 lb. plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 1/4 tsp. kosher salt, plus more, to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 tsp. sweet paprika
1 cup water
4 tsp. light sour cream
4 tsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I used basil instead since Im not a huge fan of parsley and love basil in tomato bisque)

Directions:
Preheat an oven to 425°F. Cover 1 large or 2 medium baking sheets with aluminum foil. Arrange the tomatoes, cut sides up, on the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle evenly with 1 tsp. of the salt and several grinds of pepper. Roast the tomatoes in the oven until they are soft but still hold their shape, about 30 minutes.

In a Dutch oven or large, heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook until the onion releases its juices, about 8 minutes. Stir in the paprika.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the roasted tomatoes, along with any juices collected on the pan(s), then pour in the water. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer until the vegetables are very soft, about 25 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Working in batches, carefully pass the soup through a food mill fitted with the medium disk and placed over a bowl. Alternatively, pass the soup through a fine-mesh sieve placed over a bowl, pressing against the solids with the back of a wooden spoon. (this wasnt working for me so I just ran it through the food processor)

Rinse the pan and transfer the soup back into it. Stir in the remaining 1/4 tsp. salt, or more, to taste, season with pepper and reheat over medium heat. Divide the soup among warmed soup bowls and place 1 tsp. sour cream in the center of each bowl, swirling it slightly. Garnish each with 1 tsp. parsley (basil) and serve. Serves 4. Note: I added a splash of cream to the soup too

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma, Essentials of Healthful Cooking, by Mary Abbott Hess, Dana Jacobi & Marie Simmons (Oxmoor House, 2003).

Chicken with Wild Rice Soup

I made this last night - so easy and good! Chicken and wild rice soup from the february Everyday Food mag

I tripled this to have leftovers for lunches and froze some as well. This plus some bread was a yummy dinner!

1 T olive oil
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
salt and pepper
1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth
2 boneless skinless chicken thighs (approx 8 oz total)

1/3 cup wild rice blend

In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium high. Add carrots, celery, onion (I also added 1 chopped red pepper, but I also tripled the recipe to have leftovers). Cook stirring occassionally until vegetables are crisp-tender, 3-5 min.Add broth, chicken, rice, and 1.5 cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, and cover. Cook until chicken is opaque throughout, 6 to 8 minutes.

With a slotted spoon, remove chicken and put on a cutting board. When cool enough to handle, shred with two forks.

Meanwhile, continue to cook soup, uncovered, until rice is tender, 6 to 8 min. Return chicken to the pan; simmer until reheated through, about 1 min. Season with salt and pepper.

Store in refridgerator in airtight container up to 2 days, reheat over medium about 10 min. Or freeze.It was really yummy :)

Tortilla Soup

I saw this recipe on Confections of a Foodie Bride's blog. Easy though time consuming, and so so good. Next time I make it I will double it to freeze.

Texas Tortilla Soup

4 plum tomatoes

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/4 cup yellow onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced (about 1/2 cup)

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

3 cups chicken stock

1 dried ancho chile pepper

1/2 (15-ounce) can peeled tomatoes

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cayenne, for heat (optional)

2 cooked, shredded chicken breasts

4 oz corn, fresh or frozen (thawed) (used about 8 oz)

For garnish:

1 Avocado, peeled and sliced

Tortilla chips or strips (omitted)

1 plum tomatoes, diced

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (used cheddar)

Sour cream (omitted)

To make the soup:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice the plum tomatoes in half. Spread 1 Tbsp of the olive oil on a baking sheet or pizza pan and arrange the tomatoes on top, skin side up. Drizzle the tomatoes with another 1 Tbsp of the olive oil. Roast the tomatos for 35 minutes, until the skins wrinkle and the tomatoes are slightly brown around the edges.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a heavy-bottomed, 4-qt soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and bell pepper and sauté about 5 minutes, until the vegetables become soft. Stir in the chili powder and cumin and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock, 1 cup water, and ancho chile. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then cover, decrease the heat and simmer about 15 minutes, until the ancho chile softens.

Remove the chile from the soup and pull off and discard the stem. Cut the chile in half and discard the seeds, if desired. (Leaving the seeds in makes for a spicier soup, I left them out but the soup wasnt spicy at all, next time I will leave them in) Place the softened chile, the canned tomatoes with their juices and the roasted tomatoes (included as much as possible of the juices and browned tomato bits) in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Puree the chile-tomato mixture about 1 minute. Transfer the chile-tomato mixture to the soup and continue simmering, covered, about 1 hour.

Add salt and pepper to taste and ground red pepper (if using) along with the cooked chicken. If using fresh corn, cut the kernels from the cobs, add the corn to the soup and simmer for 5 minutes. If using frozen corn, add it to the soup and gently heat until corn is hot.

Ladle the soup into medium bowls. Lean 3 to 4 slices of avocado against the edge of each bowl, partially sticking out of the soup. Arrange the tortilla chips or strips in a similar way. Sprinkle each bowl with a handful of diced tomatoes, some cilantro, and shredded cheese. Top with a spoonful of sour cream. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Adapted from The Pastry Queen, 2004.

Red Pepper Fennel Soup

I got this recipe from Every Day with Rachael Ray Magazine. It was really yummy! My grocery store did not have fresh fennel so I threw in about 2 T of fennel seeds instead and it still had a nice strong flavor. Very good, very easy!

2 roasted red peppers, thinly sliced lengthwise (I used 3)

*to roast peppers: I sliced them and put them all skin down on a foil lined baking sheet and broiled them a few minutes until getting dark spots then flipped them all and cooked until black spots on the skin.
6 tablespoons butter, melted (I used olive oil)
1 leek (white part only), thinly sliced crosswise (I used an onion)
1 small bulb fennel with fronds, bulb finely chopped and fronds chopped for garnish (as mentionned, I couldnt find it in the store so I just used approx 2 T of fennel seeds instead)
1 potato (1/2 pound)—peeled, halved and thinly sliced
2 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper
2 pitas, split and cut into wedges (I omitted)
1/2 cup heavy cream (I used a little less just enough to make it creamy but it would probably also be good omitted)
1/4 cup sour cream (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400°. Reserve 4 strips of roasted red pepper and set aside. In a medium pot, place 4 tablespoons melted butter over medium heat. Add the leek and chopped fennel bulb and cook until lightly golden, about 10 minutes.

Add the remaining roasted red peppers, the potato, broth, 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the potato is tender, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the pitas on a baking sheet and drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle with some of the fennel fronds and salt; toast in the oven, 6 to 8 minutes. Set aside.

Using an immersion or standing blender, working in batches if necessary, blend the potato mixture until smooth. If desired, place a sieve over a large pot and strain the soup. Stir in the heavy cream and season with salt and pepper.

Serve the soup hot or cold with the pita chips. Dollop with sour cream, if desired, and top with the reserved roasted red pepper strips and more fennel fronds.

Pumpkin Corn Chowdah

For this round of homegrown gourmet, I chose the challenge to be SOUP. And what better way to make a soup representative of New England than to make a chowder (something enw for me too!) I ahve no interest in dealing with clams so I thought I would put my own twist on it... I added corn, since corn chowder is a classic, and 1/2 a local pumpkin, some bacon and local tomato for color. I topped it with lobster, and Ryan and I had a fabulous, albeit not so healthy, meal!

Pumpkin Corn Chowder

6 oz bacon, cooked in soup pot, removed and crumbled (leave the fat)

1 large onion, diced (add to pot on med high with bacon fat, stirring)

1/2 a smallish pumpkin, peeled, seeded, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes

4 ears of corn, kernals cut off

3-4 med to large red potatos, chopped into bite sized pieces

Let cook, stirring, about 5 min. Add 3-4 cups of stock (more for a thinner broth, less for thicker) and let the soup come to a boil. Cook until the pumpkin and potatos are cooked through. Add 1 cup of half and half, 1-2 tablespoons fresh thyme, and the bacon. Chop up 2 small tomatos into small pieces and stir in about 5 minutes in. Let simmer until thickens slightly (about 5 more min). Serve, topping with Lobster meat (optional)

Homegrown Gourmet 2 Wrap-up - SOUP

I had the pleasure of hosting this round of homegrown gourmet and chose the challenge to be soup - it is october after all!

There were some great entries... Kate from Paved with Good Intentions is from Orange County (the REAL OC ;) ) and put together pumpkin for the season with Orange, in honor of her home county. This sounds like a really unique flavor combo! Though I personally think she should try to make an avocado soup... a cold one would be perfect for the warm weather there!

Carrie of Carrie's Cooking Creations made a wild rice soup since Northern Wild Rice is native to Minnesota - I never knew that! Her soup looksthick and creamy - perfect for those cold Northern nights!

Erika from Bean's Bistro, our founder, made a Haddock Chowder. A soup, as she put it, perfect for watching the Sox, up in chilly Maine. Understandably... the traditional lobster didnt make the menu but I like a good twist myself!

My entry was another Chowder - I am also a New Englander after all! Mine was a corn chowder with pumpkin and bacon, topped with a little bit of lobster. The corn, pumpkin, potatos and tomatos were all local, and Im sure the lobster did not travel far.

And finally my choice for our winner:

Becke from Columbus Foodie made a Butternut Bisque made from totally local ingredients! I have lately been so inspired by the book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" that this approach totally appeals to me. Everything from the butter to the stock to the vegetables and goat cheese garnish were from her home state and area, and the result looks fabulous! Congrats! Becke's challenge, should she choose to accept it, is to pick the next round's challenge and judge the results!

HomeGrown Gourmet: Round TWO

Look at me Im a WINNER! :) My sandwich entries were picked as the round one winner of HomeGrown Gourmet so that means I am the host and official picker of the new challenge food!

First the rules:

• Anyone can play!


• A theme will be picked by the host. Participants will make a dish that follows the theme and that somehow represents their home region- town, state, area. Representation can feature a local ingredient, be a traditional dish from your area, or be a creative twist.


• Participants will have 3-4 weeks (host discretion) to complete their recipes and post them to their blog (or email the pics and text), and notify the host. The host will then post the results and then let everyone know via email or message board the results are up!
  An explanation of your dish is required; it can be a story about the local custom or ingredient, how you came about eating/ making the recipe, or an explanation about how your creative dish fits the theme.


• Fresh and local foods are encouraged!


• When the round is done, the host will announce their favorite dish by updating their blog. Favorite is completely subjective to the host- no one expects the host to make and taste test all the dishes, it is just something that strikes the host's fancy! The creator of the fave gets the honor of hosting the next round, if they so choose!

Round Two:

For this round, I had a hard time choosing. THere are so many good ideas... ! I wanted to try and have it be something perfect for fall, so I decided to go with:

SOUP

I am new to soup making and am a convert! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! Please leave a message on this with a link to your blog with your entry or email homegrown.gourmet@gmail.com by October 22nd.

Butternut Pear Bisque

As I mentionned before, we had a ton of pears and neither of us are big plain pear eaters but the challenge to find recipes incorporating them was a success! This soup was fabulous, combining the pears and butternut squash from the farm.

I loosely based the soup on this recipe from Food Network.

Swirl some EVOO in stock pot and add 2 medium onions, diced, Saute to soft. Add 1 medium butternut squash peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces, then 4 pears, peeled and chopped into roughly 1-inch pieces.

Add 1-quart low sodium chicken stock, or enough to cover (I just did enough to cover, did not measure). Add a pinch of nutmeg, a tablespoon or so of ground ginger, and a healthy dose of white pepper. I am not a pepper fan, but the white variety is more mild and helped to counter the sweetness of the pear and butternut. Also toss in a little salt. Let the soup simmer until butternut is soft (approx 15 min). Put solids in blender and blend to smooth. Add back to broth and stir. Add a little cream for color.

Add more ginger/pepper/salt/nutmeg to taste as needed and serve.

REALLY good. This made plenty of soup for freezing as well.

Broc/Cauliflower/Parmesan Soup

Of all the soups I have made lately, I think this one is the best. Very flavorful, yummy, AND healthy. Not too hard to make, and quick (relatively). Ryan and I both loved it, and it made a ton, so the frozen leftovers will be great to have :)

Again, from Recipes from the Night Kitchen by Sally Niremberg (love this cookbook!)

1 T olive or canola oil (I used EVOO)

1 onion, chopped

6 cups stock

2 cups water

1 potato, unpeeled, diced

1/2 head of broccoli woody stems removed, florets chopped (i used a full head)

1/2 head cauliflower, cored, chopped (I used a full head)

2 T dried basil or 1/3 cup chopped fresh (I used fresh)

1/3 cup grated parmesan (I used more like a cup with a little for topping)

heat oil in stock pot, add onion, cook till golden. Add stock, water, potato. Bring to boil. Add Broc, cauli, basil. Return to boil. Reduce to low, and cook until broccoli is tender, about 15 min. (authors note: important not to add broccoli until after stock, etc reaches a boil)

Remove solids and put in blender/food processor, gradually adding remaining broth and cheese (I had to do this in 2 batches). Do not puree, should be chunky.

Creamy Triple Tomato Soup

YUM! This is from my soup cookbook, "Recipes from the Night Kitchen" by Sally Niremberg. This was a hit, the leftovers in the freezer will be great later in the year on a snowy day.

1 T butter

1 large onion chopped

1 clove garlic

1 stalk celery (I forgot to get this and therefore omitted)

1/2 tsp of curry (I eyeballed it and used more than this)

1 28oz can of italian plum tomatos (I used plain)

4-5 cups stock

1 tsp of dried or 1 T fresh chopped basil (I used fresh)

1/4 tsp brown sugar

5 sun dried tomatos

10 cherry tomatos (I used a few more than this)

Cook butter, onion, garlic, celery, curry in stock pot over med heat, covered until veggies are tenger (approx 20 min).

Add plum tomatos and their juice, stock, basil, brown sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook partially covered for 1.5 hours (you house will smell FAB)

Remove solids and place in food processor plus sun dried tomatos. Process to smooth, and add remaining broth.

Slice and float cherry tomatos on top (instead, I added some towards the end of the cooking process and others went straight into the food processor)

Variation that I used: decrease stock by 1/2 cup and add 1/2 cup heavy cream. I meant to do lowfat yogurt but was out.

Corn Basil Soup

I made this ages ago but havent felt like blogging it for some reason (maybe because the pictures arent as exciting as other dishes? I dunno.) It was very good, I think I would have liked it with a little milk, or maybe blended more to make it creamer but overall it was really good, light and healthy.

Recipe is from "Recipes from the Night Kitchen" by Sally Niremberg

1T EVOO or Canola

1 small onion, chopped

1 garlic clove pressed or minced

6 large ears of corn, kernals scraped or cut off (or 2 17 oz cans)

5 cups stock

2-3 T dried basil or 3T fresh chopped (i used fresh, hey its summertime :) )

pinch sugar

Heat oil, onion, garlic in a stock pot over low until golden (10-15)

Raise heat to medium, add corn, stock, basil, sugar, and cook partially covered for 25 min.

transfer 1/2 the solids to food processor and puree. Ret puree to pot, sitr and serve.

Platinum Chef 4 (I think?)

This PC Challenge included the following ingredients: Sweet Potato, Garlic, cilantro (yay!), yogurt and Chocolate. I made a summer sweet potato soup and a fruit dessert with a chocolate-yogurt dip. Both were yummy but the soup was maybe a bit TOO flavorful - I would make it again, with less (or no) ginger and less cilantro.

Cilantro Pumpkin Bisque:

In a large stock pot add about 1-2 TB EVOO, 2-3 cloves garlic, minced, and 3 small teeks (whites only, rinced well, chopped). Cook till softened. Add 4 cups of Chicken Stock, 2 large sweet potatos (peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes) and 3 carrots (peeled and chopped). Cook on med high stirring occassionally until potatos are soft through (about 30 min). Add 1 inch fresh ginger, minced (again, I would omit or use less) and cook for another minute or two. Adda handful of Cilantro, minced (I woudl keep but use less as it is a strong flavor). Immediatly, strain and add the solids to food processor and run until smooth (do in batches as needed). Add in the liquid and run till combined. Add juice from 1 lime. Pour out and add 1/2 to 1 whole large container of fat free plain yogurt (to taste). Serve topped with fresh chopped cilantro. Voila!

Cilantro Lime Chicken

Just for the heck of it, our protein fits too. I used my usually method for chicken - 1+ pounds of CHicken Breast (tenders cut) in a sealable container. Add a healthy dose of Tequila (maybe 1/2 cup?) a little bit of EVOO, 3 limes, squeezed, about 3 cloves of garlic, minced, and a handful of cilantro, chopped. Seal the container and shake well. If you have time, let it sit but the flavors will be imparted if you dont. Cook on a hot pan about 4- 6 min per side (should be brown and crispy)

Rummy Banana's with Chocolate Yogurt Cream:

In a baking dish, add 4 bananas sliced in 1/2 lengthwise and again widthwise. Top with a mixture of: Dark rum, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla. Top with thin slices of butter (about 2 TB). Broil about 15 min (turning bananas halfway).

In mixer, beat 4 oz of heavy whipping cream with a little sugar (1-2T) and about 1/2 cup of cocoa powder until stiff (note: fabulously yummy at this stage!!!).

Stir in about 1/2 to 1 cup of vanilla yogurt. At this stage, I felt it needed to be more chocolatey and added another 1/2 cup of powder. Overall it was V good! I think I woudl have been happy with the Chocolate stuff on its own - the yogurt gave it a nice 'bite' and it was almost like a soft mousse.