I have a friend from Venezuela. She is an amazing cook. She cooks the dishes that she grew up making all the time at home. What is simple everyday food to her is very exciting often complex tasting food for us here in the states. She made this great soup the other week with chicken and vegetables in it. I asked her how she made it and the "recipe" she gave me was pretty similar to how she talks about any dish she makes. It went something like, you use veggies, onions, leeks, peppers, green onions, potatoes, you cook the veggies with the chicken, then blend the veggies. Now when she does that it turns out great, I however need a little trial and error to turn her recipe into a dish.
Instead of trying to follow her vague but great recipe, I decided to make my own soup, similar to hers, but more spring like with fresh favors of the season. It did not turn out to be anything like my goal, so I will have to keep working on a recipe for the soup idea in my head but, what I did get though was a very happy accident. I got a soup filled with vegetables, that is super tasty and healthy.
The chicken and potatoes make it a hearty meal, while all the veggies make it taste fresh enough for spring and summer eating. You can really taste the peppers, but since the broth is blended, it makes eating your vegetables a easy and fun thing to do! Here is what I did.
Summer vegetable chicken soup
2 chicken breasts, skinless bone in
5 green onions whites and greens roughly chopped
1 lbs peppers, mixed colors ( I used bagged frozen because it was cheaper that week)
1 sm- med onion cut in half
3 leeks, thoroughly rinsed and chopped
1/2 -1 jalapeño seeded
3 small- med baking potatoes (whole)
2-3 ears of corn cut in half or thirds, but corn still on hull
4 cups of water
Salt and pepper
Small pinch red chili flakes
1 pinch oregano
Place the chicken and potatoes on the bottom of a large stock pot to ensure they get cooked evenly. Add all other ingredients except for corn. Add about 4 cups water, it should just completely cover all ingredients in pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer. Simmer about 20-30 minutes, until chicken is cooked, and potatoes are tender. Remove chicken and potatoes from pot let cool slightly. Blend remaining ingredients until smooth with a stick blender, or move to blender and blend. When broth is smooth add it back to pot and add corn. Let simmer. When chicken and potatoes are cool enough to handle, shred chicken, and chop potatoes into about 1/2 inch cubes and add back to pot. Soup will be ready to serve immediately or kept warm on stove until serving time.
The great thing about this recipe is that it is so flexible. If you don't have leeks, or don't want to buy them, leave them out. If you have some carrots and/or celery sitting in your fridge that you need to use up, toss them in too!
This makes a lot, I know, but the leftovers are great. Later this week I will post what I did with some of the leftovers I had, personally, I think it was even better tasting than the initial soup!
oh..... and about the corn. So when I first had this dish, it was with a large group of people. None of us seemed to know what do do with the large chunks of corn, most of us scooped around them. Finally someone braved picking it out of the soup broth and eating it like corn on the cob. A little messy, yes, but oh so good! Now I get as many pieces of corn in my bowl as possible!
No comments:
Post a Comment