Soup Recipes for the cooler months

[Sinclairwife]

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[sunshine]

Chicken Soup with potato dumplings

1/4 c Onion; chopped
1 tb Vegetable oil
2 c Chicken; cut up, cooked
1 c Carrots; sliced
1 1/2 c Bisquick
1 tb Green onion; chopped w/ top
1/4 c Milk
1 ea Garlic; crushed clove
6 c Chicken broth
1 c Celery; sliced
1/4 ts Sage; dried, crushed leaves
1 c Mashed potatoes; cold
1/8 ts Pepper

The first 8 ingredients (onion to sage) make up the soup. Cook onion and garlic in oil in 4 qt. Dutch oven, stirring frequently, until golden brown. Add broth, checken, celery, carrots, and sage. Heat to boiling. Prepare the potato dumplings by mixing the Bisquick, mashed potatoes, green onion, pepper, and milk until a soft dough forms. Beat vigorously 30 seconds. Knead about 2 minuted or until smooth, adding more baking mix if necessary. Roll dough into 18 balls, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Drop the dumplings into the boiling soup. Cook uncovered over low heat 10 minutes. Cover and cook 10 minutes longer. Each serving has 305 calories.

[Sinclairwife]

Spicy Tumeric Stew

6 Chicken Thighs
4-6 Tbsp. Olive Oil
Flour
Salt, Pepper

1 1/2 Tbsp. Cumin Seeds
1 Tbsp. Corriander Seeds
2 Tbsp. Ground Ginger
2 Tbsp. Tumeric
2 Bay Leaves
1 Cinamon Stick
4 Cloves Garlic, minced

1 or two Onion(s), diced
1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
1 Green Bell Pepper, diced
3 habanero Peppers, minced
1 large can Crushed Tomatoes

For Sauce:
16 oz Chicken Stock
16 oz. Plain Yogurt
4-6 oz. Goat Cheese
3/4 cup Flat-leaf Parsely, chopped

Get a heavy-duty pan (a large, deep one, so we can add a lot of liquid, or use a stock pot) and heat it well, then add about half the oil. Dredge the chicken thighs in seasoned flour and brown on both sides, then set them aside.

Toast the cumin and corriander seeds in the hot oil. This happens very quickly; as soon they go brown and you can smell the spice wafting up off the pan, add the the other spices, (ginger, tumeric, cinamon, bay) the garlic, and the onion, and give 'em all a stir to coat. [3] You might need to add the rest of the olive oil at the point if it looks a bit dry; you want the veg to have enough to fry in. Then add the peppers, stir together, and let sautee until the onions are soft and traslucent, say 5 or 6 minutes.

At this point, add the crushed tomatoes and the chicken stock. Return the chicken to pot and taste for seasoning (Don't worry if it seems too spicy at this juncture; see [2].) Let the whole come to a boil, then turn the heat down to a gentle simmer, and let work for about an hour, or until the chicken is falling-off-the-bone tender.

Fish out the bay leaves and the cinamon stick. Remove the chicken, take off the skin and seperate the meat from the bone, and return the meat to the pot. Turn off the heat, add the yogurt and the goat cheese, and stir thoroughly until everything's incorporated. (The yogurt goes in pretty easy, the goat cheese is a bit slower to incorporate.) Add the parsley, give it a good stir, and you're good to go.

The end product should be a rich, meaty stew, bright yellow in color, with green and red flecks from the pepper and parsley and darker spots of spice.


- Spice amounts are approximate. I eyeballed it at the time. But I thought people might find "A hefty amount of tumeric" a bit vague. Adjust to taste, of course, but if you don't like a lot of spice, then, um...don't make something called "Spicy Tumeric Stew."

The heat pretty much comes from the Peppers in this dish. If you don't like a lot of heat, you could knock it down a pepper or two. But I'd leave at least one in; you want some kick, and if it tastes too hot initially, that's fine, as a lot of the heat will be mellowed out by the yogurt 'n goat cheese in the completed dish.

Adding the onion immediately after the powdered spices is Very Important, as it prevents the spices from burning.