Tomato Soup

I want to start this by saying I'm NOT a soup person!  I think I've written about this before, however, there are a few types of soups I truly enjoy!  One of them happens to be Tomato Soup - but I'm VERY picky!!!!  I absolutely LOVE the way the restaurant The Smith in NYC makes their tomato soup and since I can't get that here in Jacksonville, the next best thing for me is Panera's.

I've never made tomato soup before and decided to give it a shot today!  I didn't use one specific recipe, but instead, blended a few different ones.  It turned out great, but.....not The Smith's.  As I've also stated previously, I don't really go grocery shopping to get ingredients for a recipe and sort of work with what I have at home instead.  This may be why the soup didn't turn out exactly like The Smith's! LOL!  Next time, I'll try to get the right ingredients.  First of all, I didn't have canned, peeled tomatoes. I decided to use some crushed tomatoes I had and broil 3 of my regular tomatoes, remove the skin, and add them to the soup.  I also didn't have half and half and instead used the whole milk I had in the fridge.  One recipe said to use a parmesan rind (which I DID happen to have) and another said to add a bay leaf....I did both of these things!  I also added a bouillon cube for flavor as well as some garlic and onion powder.

Here are the three recipes I went back and forth with while making it today:
http://www.thriftydiydiva.com/copycat-panera-bread-creamy-tomato-bisque-soup-recipe/

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipe/creamy-tomato-soup/11926/

http://citycookin.com/roasted-tomato-soupthe-smith/
I found this recipe after I had already started making it the other two ways....next time I might just give this one way a shot!

Here are some pics of the soup:

After pureeing and putting back in the pot with some milk

Placing in the Vitamix

Grated parmesan for garnish

Placing the roasted tomatoes in the stew with the parmesan rind

Crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic, and chicken broth

Tomatoes fresh out from under the broiler

Leave out the tomato skin!!!

Carrot, Ginger, Turmeric Soup!

My husband said he tried a phenomenal butternut squash soup at Panera earlier this week and I had randomly pinned this soup recipe on the same day.  I decided to give it a try today!  Unfortunately, the link didn't work through Pinterest, but all of the ingredients were listed below the photo and so I used those ingredients and used another recipe as a guide.  It actually turned out SOOOOOOO good!  I'm not really a soup person, but my husband is, and I got his stamp of approval on this one!

Here are the two recipes I used as a guide:
http://helloglow.co/healing-carrot-soup-with-turmeric-and-ginger/
This is the one I used as a guide.  I did the beginning steps as stated with the green onions, garlic, and ginger in the coconut oil. I then added the cinnamon, turmeric, salt, and carrots also like it said.  But then I added a few items from the original recipe I pinned:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/354517801902042690/
I added a little curry powder, half a tin of coconut milk, water, and I even added some of the turkey broth that I have saved from Thanksgiving!

Here's what it looks like:

After blending and putting back in pot

Blending all the ingredients together after carrots have softened

Ingredients simmering together

Baked Potato Soup

My LOVE for baked potato soup started about 20 years ago when I was an intern in my 1st school back in when I was in college.  My supervising teacher decided to make baked potato soup in a crock pot and bring it for a few of us for lunch one day.  It was the BEST potato soup I've ever had and still cant' quite seem to replicate it exactly!  I also want to start this by saying that I am NOT a soup person.  I'm not one of those people that makes or buys soup regularly, but there are 2 kinds of soup that I can't resist, but ONLY when they're REALLY, REALLY good!  The first is a tomato soup!  I LOVE the tomato soup at "The Smith" restaurants in NYC (check my nyc blog for more) and the one that they make here at Panera is good too! The only other soup I ever buy is potato, but it is VERY rare because most places make it with bacon or ham :(  Even the recipe that I have here from Pinterest calls for bacon.  Whenever a recipe calls for bacon, I just use some chicken stock instead.  This is one of the best recipes I've found for baked potato soup.....so here it is:

http://www.centercutcook.com/ultimate-loaded-baked-potato-soup/
I find that this recipe makes a REALLY large amount of soup, so I always half it and there's still plenty.  I also like to add a little garlic and onion powder to the soup along with a bouillon cube to give it a little extra flavor!  Now, this may be because I don't have the bacon, so those of you using bacon, may want to try the recipe as is before adding these things!

Here's how my soup turned out!

Thai Coconut Curry Soup!

So, I've decided to try something NEW!  Over the last several years, I've developed a love for Asian/Thai flavors and have tried to replicate several of my favorite recipes.  I've also discovered how EASY it is to cook with rice noodles and decided that today I would try a Thai soup!  It was fairly easy and SOOOOO flavorful!  My hubby's going to LOVE this one!

I followed this recipe on Pinterest:
http://www.feastingathome.com/thai-coconut-noodle-soup-khao-soi/

Here's how it turned out!

MMMMMMMMMMMM!

All the ingredients blended together before adding the shrimp

Red curry with onions and ginger

Soaked Rice Noodles

Saturday is soup day!

One of the differences between how I was raised and how my husband was raised was the association with a certain type of food on a certain day of the week.  I've posted in the past that I believe my mom cooked whatever, whenever we needed it, and my cooking style somehow follows that pattern.  I don't buy groceries based on a certain menu that I want for the week, but instead, buy a bunch of fresh veggies and meats and then cook whatever I'm sort of in the mood for each day.  My husband does NOT do things this way and was accustomed to planning out meals and having certain meals on certain days.  One of those certain days is Saturday and to be more specific, SOUP on a Saturday!

I make a GREAT corn soup recipe directly out of my Trinidadian Naparima Girl's High School cook book (I've posted info about this cook book before!!!), but it is not like those corn soups you get on the side of the road after an AMAZING soca/reggae party.  I've always wanted to learn to make it that way, but have never found a recipe that quite matches the taste of those ones on the street!  The other day on Facebook, friends of our started posting a corn soup recipe from Tasty and we both decided we wanted to try it!  After watching the video, my husband decided that he already knew how to make it and then did his own thing without following that exact recipe.  His soup turned out to be REALLY, REALLY good, but still not the corn soup we were looking for.  It turned out to be more of a split pea soup, but again, it was incredibly tasty and filling and so I've decided to post his recipe here today!

Here is the recipe we saw on Facebook, if you're interested in trying it:

http://www.foodienationtt.com/carnivalcornsoup

But here is a loose recipe to follow if you'd like to replicate what my husband made today:

First he sauteed some onion and garlic in vegetable oil for a few minutes.  He then added dried split peas and continued to sautee them together for another 5 minutes.  He then added a few pieces of pieces of pumpkin (butternut squash), added a little bit of water, and brought it to a boil so that the peas and pumpkin became tender.  He added some chopped chives, salt, and pepper.  He then took it off the stove and put it in the blender for a few seconds until pureed.  He put the puree back over the stove in the pot and added about a cup of coconut milk (he made his own coconut milk for this recipe, but you can use the kind in the tin).  He also added pieces of salt fish that he had already boiled the salt out of and added corn kernels that he had cut directly off the cob.  He then added a sprig of thyme and some more chives, chopped carrots, the chunks of corn on the cob, and a cup of chicken broth.  He let it simmer for another 10 minutes.  In that time he made the dumpling and just dropped the pieces right into the soup.  He let it simmer on low for another 5-10 minutes.

Here's how the soup turned out today:

Mmmmmmmmmm!

The soup on low heat after mostly cooking and adding freshly made dumpling

My husband is a good dumpling maker! PS - this kind of dumpling is really just flour, water, and salt....this is NOT an Asian dumpling!