Ingredients

1, 26 oz. can condensed tomato soup
1 c. heavy whipping cream
1 c. white wine
2 ½ c. warm water
4-5 slices prosciutto
2 tbsp. butter
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp garlic, minced
2 tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
½ tsp. garlic salt

Directions

In large soup or stock pot brown prosciutto, remove and chop. In same pot, melt butter and scrape bottom to dissolve any prosciutto fat solids.

Add onion and sautee over medium heat until translucent. Add garlic and cook until vegetables are lightly browned. Pour in white wine and simmer for a 2-3 minutes.

Add condensed soup, water, basil, chopped prosciutto, and salt. Stir together, cover, and simmer on low.

While soup is simmering, pour whipping cream into a bowl. With an electric hand mixer (or a whisk if you are ambitious), whip the cold cream until firm. 5 minutes prior to serving, fold whipped cream into soup and mix well (you can store it in the fridge if you prepared it too early). Once uniformly heated through, serve soup warm, garnished with some shredded cheese and crumbled prosciutto on top.

Note

You can also use bacon instead of prosciutto, but I prefer the subtler flavor of the ham.

Ingredients

1 small rotisserie chicken, 3-5 bones reserved
2, 32 fluid oz. cartons organic chicken broth
1 c. sweet white wine or champagne (room temperature)
½ lb. wide Amish homestyle noodles (can substitute egg noodles or broken spaghetti)
1 c. mixed freshly grated parmesan, asiago, and romano cheese
1 package baby portobello mushrooms
1, 14.5 oz can sliced carrots
1 half white onion, chopped
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 large lemon
½ c. flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp butter

Directions

Remove all of the meat from the chicken and either cube or shred the large pieces. Leave the skin on for an even better flavor. Reserve 3-5 small bones from the legs and wings of the carcass.

In a large soup or stock pot melt butter over medium heat. Brown onion first, then add garlic and mushrooms. While the vegetables cook, roll the lemon around on the cutting board to release the juices, cut in half, and squeeze the lemon juice into a cup, removing any seeds. Once the mushrooms have begun to brown, pour the wine/champagne over the vegetables. Simmer 1 minute.

Add in chicken broth, drained and washed carrots, bay leaf, lemon juice, and chicken bones and bring the soup to a slow boil.

Reduce heat and add in the chicken, noodles, and cheese. Cover and let soup simmer until the noodles are cooked. Add in chopped parsley 5-10 minutes before serving.

Don’t forget to remove and discard the bay leaf and chicken bones before enjoying this soup.

Serve alongside grilled cheese on sourdough and enjoy!

Tip

If you are nervous about losing the chicken bones in your soup, you can use cheesecloth to create a small flavor pouch to place in the soup.

Simply cut a piece of cheesecloth around 1 ft square and place your chicken bones and bay leaf in the middle. Pinch the four corners of the cloth together and tie in a tight knot. Place this in the soup during cooking and simply pull out and discard when you are finished. Remember to wring out the cloth to make sure you don’t lose any flavor in the fabric!

Source: Inspired by Giada De Laurentiis’ Lemon Chicken Soup with Spaghetti

The tomatoes are here! I’ve been waiting for some awesome farmers market tomatoes to make an attempt at some soups and salsas. Here’s my recipe for my first attempt: Thai Tomato Bisque.

Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients:

5-6 medium to medium-large red tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 medium sized white or yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped
2 full stalks of broccoli, florets removed
1 tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tbsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. ghee (butter substitutes just fine)
1 jar (4 oz.) Thai Kitchen brand red curry paste
1 can (14 fl oz.) low fat coconut milk
1 flavor packet from Maruchan brand spicy chili flavored ramen noodles
1 tsp. Sriracha brand chili garlic paste
1 tbsp ponzu or soy sauce
1 cube chicken or vegetable bouillon
2 tbsp. canola oil

Directions:

In order to assure proper timing in this recipe, be sure to do any sort of prep work before beginning to cook. It is most important to start off by preparing the broccoli. If you ever buy fresh broccoli, it feels like you get a few florets and all stalk. If you are like me, this seems like a colossal waste of money. I immediately used the florets in a stir fry the day I bought the broccoli, but instead of throwing out the stalks, I decided to hold on to them just for this purpose.

Bring a medium saucepan with about 1 in of water to a boil. Using a potato peeler, take two 6-in. stalks of broccoli, florets and any leaves removed, and shave the entirety of the stalk into long, thin pieces (yes, the whole stalk is edible). You may choose to discard the outermost shavings. Steam these broccoli slices in the saucepan until tender, but not mushy. Drain broccoli, return to pan, and set aside, removed from the heat source. Pour some ponzu or soy sauce over them and lightly pepper them.

Heat canola oil in a large frying pan or wok on medium high heat. Brown garlic until fragrant (1 min) and then throw in ginger and onion, cooking until slightly tender (3 min). Add in the ghee and turn up the heat to quickly caramelize the onions and ginger, stirring often (1 min). Reduce heat and mix in the chicken or vegetable bouillon, the spice packet from the spicy chili ramen noodles, one-half (2 oz.) of the Thai Kitchen red curry paste, and the Sriracha chili garlic paste (1 min). Add in the freshly chopped tomatoes and mix well. To skin tomatoes, simply parboil them for a minute and the skins peel right off. I personally left the skins on for nutritional benefit, but I did find a few rough pieces in the final soup.

Boil this mixture on medium high heat for around 10 minutes, cooking off a significant portion of the water until you are left with a thicker sauce (consistency of thick spaghetti sauce). Remove from heat and let cool (2 min). Shake the can of coconut milk well and open. Use spoon to stir and make sure it is well mixed. Coconut milk naturally separates, so leaving it near the stove to warm slightly will help it mix more easily.

Ladle half of the soup base and half the can of coconut milk into a blender and puree. Pour into a separate pot. Perform the same with the remaining half of the soup base. Be very cautious when blending hot liquids; be sure to periodically release the steam from the blender. If the soup is too thick, you can add anywhere from 1/2 to 1 cup of water or your favorite chicken/vegetable stock.

Now add both the cilantro and the drained broccoli slices to the soup. Mix and serve warm.

While not a true-to-form Thai dish, this soup fuses together the spiciness of the Thai red curry with the savoriness of creamy tomato soup. Enjoy this alongside any other Thai inspired dish or a simple, yet delicious grilled cheese.

Notes:

Because bouillon, ponzu/soy sauce, chili garlic paste, and ramen spice packets contain quite a bit of salt, I did not add extra salt to this dish. If you omit any of these ingredients, be sure to taste and salt if necessary. If using canned tomatoes instead of fresh, be sure to buy only ones with “no sodium added.”