I absolutely adore everything about this soup. Despite the fact that it’s totally healthy, it’s luxuriously rich and creamy and is the perfect way to warm up on a cold day. Top it off with shrimp cooked in spicy piri piri sauce and you have a meal that’s just about perfect in every way.
Soup weather is officially here and I couldn’t be happier! There’s not much that’ better than warm soup eaten out of a bread bowl, is there?
This seafood chowder was inspired by one that I had a few week ago at The Original Soup Man; I love how thick and rich it was and couldn’t get enough of the sweet bay scallops. I drank every last drop and left with plans to recreate it at home ASAP!
Like a lot of people, I re-committed myself* to eating healthier and losing a few pounds in the New Year. Unlike a lot of people, I won’t attempt to live off of cold salads and clear broths. It’s winter, people! I want comfort food – and lots of it.
This milky chowder filled with meaty bites of bacon and the subtle spice of Old Bay and peppery parsnips is what I consider the ultimate winter meal. The combination of smoke and cream reminds me of curling up in front of a fireplace while fat snowflakes fall outside. Close your eyes when you eat it and you can almost hear the bells of a horse-drawn carriage being pulled down the road.
It’s getting to be the time of year when I plan to make soup at least once a week. In addition to being a quick weeknight meal, soup is an easy go-to for weekday lunches – something I’m especially grateful for when I’m trying to avoid holiday related weight gain.
I stumbled on this recipe for sweet potato soup on the Food + Wine website one afternoon and made it for dinner that night. I love potato soup, but it had never occurred to me to use sweet potatoes before! I skipped the fried cinnamon-sugar tortillas in the original recipe and paired the soup with cheese quesadillas for a warmly satisfying meal.
Like most of the country, New York has been suffering through a heat wave for the past week. Quite frankly, it’s too hot to cook or even to eat anything very substantial. For the first few days I was content eating salads for dinner, but after more than two or three days of salad I start to get cranky so I tried to think of something that would satisfy my raving for real food without requiring me to actually cook (since the minutes I spent over the stove sautéing onions last night left me so hot that I couldn’t even enjoy the steak that Shawn grilled for me).
An ice-cold gazpacho seemed like it would hit the spot, but that suggestion was met with a resounding, “No way!” My effort to convince Shawn that gazpacho is basically just pureed salsa (the only way he’ll eat raw tomatoes) didn’t get me anywhere. Luckily, I had this recipe up my sleeve — a sightly spicy watermelon soup without a single tomato.
The subtle, smoky heat of chipotles peppers and the bright snap of pickled onions make this rich stew one of our favorites, and Shawn often requests it.
Unlike other chili recipes that use ground meat, this one calls for cubes of stew beef that, combined with the cornmeal used to thicken it, give the chili a rustic feel that reminds me of cowboys eating around a campfire. This chili is hearty enough to serve on it’s own – no need for rice – but I like to have a few corn tortillas on the side to help sop up the last bits of sauce.
Don’t be tempted to skip the onions – they’re what makes this dish, and it just isn’t the same at all without them.
Tip: I almost always buy packages of pre-cubed stew beef for this recipe, but I find that it’s best to cut each cube into two or three pieces before cooking. Otherwise, they’re too big and I need to use a knife in order to eat my chili. Cutting the cubes into smaller pieces also increases the surface area of the beef, making more room for the other flavors. If you can’t find pre-cubed meat, you can use a chuck roast or any other cut of meat suitable for stewing/braising.
Ropa Veija is a traditional Cuban dish featuring beef that is slowly stewed in a sauce of tomatoes, garlic, and bell peppers until it falls apart into shreds. With the texture of pulled pork and the comforting flavor of pot-roast, Ropa Veija is a real crowd pleaser!
Although it does take a while to make (about 3-1/2 hours), the recipe couldn’t be simpler and it doesn’t require a lot of hands-on time. It’s also the kind of dish that tastes even better the next day, after the flavors have had more time to meld. I like to make a big batch on a lazy Saturday afternoon, then make Ropa and Swiss Sandwiches – a dish I fell in love with at New World Bistro Bar – to eat while we watch football (go Bills!) on Sunday.
