Tortellini Soup and Parmesan Popovers

You might just popover when you eat this meal! However, I swear I will stop posting so much Italian, but just this last one. I don't know what came over me this last week, but never fret, my kitchen's passport is already on its way to Mexico in light of Cinco de Mayo. I have a few Mexican dishes coming your way so that you can get some ideas brewing for Thursday.

Back to the soup at hand...

If my soup placed an ad in the dating section of the paper it would read: S/W/F. I'm easy and must be paired up with someone rich. Contenders must love garlic!

I think you get the idea. Since the soup is so easy, I just had to add more to it so that my time in the kitchen lasted a bit longer. Does that make me crazy?

So then came the idea for Parmesan Popovers. They are so cute and "filthy rich"! The perfect pairing for a desperate housewife...I mean...the soup.

Tortellini Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs olive oil
• 5 garlic cloves chopped
• 1/2 c chopped onion
• Dash of Italian seasoning
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 8oz can diced tomato
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 package of tortellini
• Handful of fresh spinach


Heat a large soup pot with olive oil. Add the garlic and onion until the onion is transparent. Add the Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste.

Add the can of tomatoes with their juice. Add chicken broth and bring the soup to a boil. Once the soup is boiling add the tortellini and reduce heat to a gentle boil. Once the tortellini puffs up and almost doubles in size, the pasta is done. Turn the heat to a low simmer and add the spinach. Once the spinach wilts, the soup is done.

Serve with a sprinkle of parmesan and fresh chopped basil.


Parmesan Popovers

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon herbs de Provence or Italian seasoning
• 4 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
• 1 cups whole milk
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan (about 5 ounces)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a Kitchen Aid mixer or blender, combine eggs, flour, salt, pepper, and herbs, milk, and cheese. Blend on medium speed.

Spray a mini-muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each cup 3/4 full. Bake until puffed and golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.

They will literally pop out of the pan on their own. :)

Fire Roasted Soup

This soup should wear a caution sign saying, "Eat with caution, flavors might explode in your mouth and could cause an overindulgence in it's deliciousness." The idea originated from a Rachel Ray recipe, but I can't make anything without putting my own twist on it. I just know how I like things and you can always do the same thing too!

The key ingredient (and this is NOT optional) is the ancho chili. I used two for this recipe and it was the base of the soup. Now these are quite hard to find. The way I found them...three grocery stores later, was packaged in a bag in the Hispanic section of the spice aisle. I do not know if you have a section like this in your store but I am in north Cuba so you can bet I have that section. You may also find them in the produce section near the other peppers. The ones I bought were Badia brand. Now here is a little background on the pepper itself. Ancho chili is a dried poblano pepper. They are bright green when fresh but turn almost black when dried this particular way. They are woody and a bit sweet so they are mild as well. They must be reconstituted but it's simple.


Fire Roasted Ancho Chili Soup

Ingredients

* corn tortillas sliced
* 2 large ancho chilies, seeded and stemmed
* 1 quart chicken stock
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 2 ears corn on the cob, husked, kernels removed or 1 cup frozen kernels, defrosted
* 1/2 large red onion, chopped
* 1 jalapeno chili, seeded and chopped or thinly sliced (wear gloves!!!)
* 1 red chili pepper, seeded and chopped or thinly sliced
* 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1 1/2 teaspoons smoked sweet paprika
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 (14-ounce) can fire roasted diced (try to find these, it adds a ton of flavor!)
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 1/2 left over rotisserie chicken, skinned and shredded or just poach some chicken in chicken broth and shred
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 to 2 cups water
* 1/2 lime
* 2 ripe Hass avocados, halved
* Sour cream, for garnish
* Cilantro leaves, for garnish

Directions

Add the ancho chilies and the chicken stock to a large pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the chilies are tender. Remove from the heat to cool.

While the anchos simmer, heat a medium soup pot with vegetable oil over high heat. Add the corn and saute until charred at the edges, 2 to 3 minutes.

Reduce the heat a little, add the onions, jalapeno, red chile pepper and garlic. Season with cumin, smoked paprika and cinnamon. Saute for 5 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes.

Puree the anchos and the stock in a food processor, then add it to the soup pot. Stir in the honey and the shredded chicken and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Thin the soup with 1 or 2 cups of water and simmer over low heat to combine flavors, about 5 minutes.

Zest and juice 1/2 lime and add to the soup pot. Seed and dice the avocados and add to a small bowl. Dress with the juice of the remaining lime.

Pile some corn tortillas into each soup bowl. Top with diced avocado and ladle the soup over the avocado. Garnish with sour cream and whole or chopped cilantro leaves.

Thank me later! :)

Lean Green

As you guys know by now, I LOVE to purée my soups and now I have a new recipe that's springy and bright. It's a cinch and hardly requires any ingredients so it's cheap cheap cheap! The picture I took is sort of dark but it has a rich green color and the sour cream adds that creamy texture. If you are into presentation, swirl a bit of real butter in it at the end so it looks glossy.

Creamy Zucchini Soup

• 1/2 small onion, quartered
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 small zucchini skin on cut in large chunks
• 32 oz fat free chicken stock
• 2 tbsp reduced fat sour cream
• salt
• pepper

In a medium pot, saute onion, garlic and zucchini in about a table spoon of olive oil until almost transparent. Add the stock and cook on medium heat.

Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover, and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. If you have an immersion blender, add the sour cream, pinch of salt and pepper and purée until smooth. I used my food processor and did it in batches. Blenders work just as well.

Garnish with parmesan and there you have it, the world's easiest soup and Trevor couldn't get enough of it!

Pesto Presto!

I am absolutely in LOVE with pesto. However, it is kind of expensive and goes bad fast. So I used it across the week. First, I pulled out that frozen pizza crust (see earlier post) and spread it as my sauce. I added a fresh sliced heirloom tomato and some mozzarella cheese and that's all there was to it. Then I spread it on wraps and such for extra flavor. My favorite use of it was in my white bean soup recipe. It is warming up so some people might avoid soups but the white beans keep it springy in my opinion.

White Bean Pesto Soup

5 garlic cloves sliced
Pinch of red pepper flakes
2 cans white canellini beans drained
3 cups chicken stock
3 tbs pesto
Shredded Parmesan

Saute the garlic in olive oil and red pepper flakes.
Add beans and 1/2 cup water. Stir in pesto and chicken broth. Simmer until thickened. Add the chicken broth. Simmer until heated through.

Now you have some more freedom here if you want to add pizazz. You can add some veggies or kalamata olives chopped. I just put some of the mixture into the blender because I prefer my white bean soups pureed. It makes it feel heartier to me. I garnished it with a bit more Parmesan, a drizzle of olive oil and a few basil leaves.

It's quick and very gourmet! Enjoy!

A Twist on Taco Night

Tacos and Texas go hand in hand. Chili is a favorable second. So I set them up together on a blind date...of course, they got married in my kitchen and the rest is history. Here's how to do it:

Turkey Chili Taco Soup

WW Points+: 5 pts
Serving size is about 1 1/2 cups


1.3 lbs 99% lean ground turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
10 oz can rotel tomatoes with green chilies
15 oz canned or frozen corn, drained
15 oz kidney beans, drained
8 oz tomato sauce
16 oz fat free refried beans
1 packet taco seasoning (you can use 40& less sodium)
2 1/2 cups fat free low sodium chicken broth

In a large pot, brown turkey on medium heat, breaking up with a spoon as it cooks. When cooked through, add onions and pepper and cook 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes, corn, beans, tomato sauce, refried beans, taco seasoning and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and simmer about 10-15 minutes.

I topped mine with fat free sour cream, two slices of jalapenos and some cilantro.

Now I know the refried beans sound strange, but trust me on this one. It thickens up the soup and is a lot better than masa flour or cornstarch since it adds flavor and no carby starches.

It's so hearty, healthy and warm. A great way to finish it off is with a Beano enhanced desert. :)