I have been lurking over at Boomama’s place today. She is hosting a Souptacular!
As Honey and I were perusing the MANY, soupy recipes, I decided I wanted in on it.
We have soup a LOT around here. Well, Honey, Ab-Cat and I do. The other two are soup-a-phobes. It’s easy, good for you and you can use whatever you have on hand. I made soup last Sunday. Ab kept asking me “what kind?”. I really couldn’t tell her, cause I was makin’ it up as I went! I used up some veggies that needed to be used, and opened a can of chicken, cause I had no meat. A little of this, a little of that, and it was soup. Very tasty too! Clean Out The Refrigerator Soup, I guess.
Mostly, we make chicken broth from the bones of Sam’s Club rotisserie chickens. Because it is a most scrum-tru-lescent broth. As a matter of fact, there is some simmering right now. But we also use good old Swanson’s.
Since I couldn’t decide which one to share, I decided to do a two-fer! The first is one that I had at a BSF fellowship. It was good. I added chicken to make it more of a meal.
Mediterranean Minestrone
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped celery
2 garlic cloves, minced I buy the kind already minced and use about a T.
lg 49 oz. can chicken broth or use the above mentioned scrum-tru-lescent homemade
2 to 3 cups of cubed cooked chicken whatever sounds good to you
2 14.5 oz. cans Italian style diced tomatoes, undrained
2 t. sugar
1/4 to 1/2 t. pepper
1/2 c. orzo pasta do NOT use more of these itty bitty little rice shaped pasta, or you will NOT have soup. You will WANT to, but you have been warned.
1 to 1 1/2 c. frozen spinach your choice, I probably use more rather than less
1/2 can chopped black olives.
pepper to taste we are heavy pepperers (that is NOT a word!)
crumbled feta cheese
Saute onion, garlic and celery in olive oil. Add broth, chicken, tomatoes, sugar and pepper. Mix and bring to a boil. Add orzo pasta and cook for additional 15-20 minutes until orzo is tender. Stir in spinach and olives and cook for 3-4 minutes. Ladle into bowls and add a generous sprinkle of feta cheese. Or a lot! Yummo!
Italian Escarole
1 lg can of chicken broth 49 oz. or your yummy homemade broth.
1 lb. escarole I just buy a head and use it. I have never weighed or measured
1 lb. ground beef
3 c. cooked brown rice
small can of tomato paste
1/2 to 1 t. chili powder Honey is a fan of the HOT.
salt and pepper to taste
Brown ground beef and drain. Add broth, tomato paste, chili powder and cooked rice. Simmer for an hour. Wash escarole and chop well. Add that and simmer another 15 minutes or so. Garnish with Parmesan.
This is one of Honey’s favorites!
Thanks for stopping by! And thank you BooMama, for inviting us to your Souptacular Crockpotalooza!
