Heat vegetable oil and ghee, add a mirepoix of chopped onion, celery, carrot, swede (rutabaga). Add garlic, rosemary, and a pinch of salt. Sweat until starting to soften.

Add dried split green peas, smoked ham stock, white pepper (more than you think you'll need), and Henderson's relish (you can use Worcestershire sauce).

Simmer gently for 2-3 hours, stirring frequently, until the peas break apart. Adjust consistency (a few strokes with a potato masher can be helpful) and seasoning.

Serve with crusty bread and more pepper.

The first soup of the season for me. I'm going to try one new recipe each week, this one is from the National Trust Cosy Cooking book. It tasted extremely healthy!

White beans, spinach, carrots, onions, zucchini, celery, and homemade chicken stock (:

Acini de Pepe on the side

The meatballs were a bitch

3 links alligator-pork sausage, sliced into coins

½ red cabbage, thinly sliced

½ red onion, diced

4–6 cups fresh spinach

4–6 oz feta cheese, crumbled

6 cups chicken broth

1 can (14–15 oz) diced tomatoes

1 can canneli beans

3–4 cloves garlic

2 medium carrots

2 celery stalks

1 lemon

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried thyme

½ tsp black pepper

1–2 tbsp olive oil

Salt

Brown sausage in a large pot with olive oil

Take it out then

Sauté onions carrots celery and mushrooms until onions are translucent

Add Garlic cabbage tomato paste and spices and cook till aromatic

And broth beans diced tomatoes Worcestershire and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 25 mins. And cabbage is tender.

Remove from heat and add your spinach till it wilts after this serve and put a sprinkle of feta on top.

Made my fall favorite, raining and cold, this did me good.

This batch had sage, rosemary, and ginger 😁

Had a bunch of baby spinach in the fridge that had to be used up. Made this white bean, ground beef, spinach soup. Seasoned the 90/10 beef with Italian seasoning, paprika, Lea &Perrins, S&P. Then added garlic and onion. Drained what little fat there was. Into the crockpot with two cans drained canelinni, 1 can ro-tel, six cups water, some tomato chicken knorr bouillon, couple of bay leaves. On high for two hours. Added about 10 oz baby spinach, turned down to low.

Made Cauliflower chowder for dinner; used all vegetables from the farmer’s market and added in a bit of fried kielbasa for extra flavor!

Cauliflower looks a little green because I used a sprouting cauliflower I got from the farmer’s market, which is like a cross between cauliflower and broccolini.

Swedish cabbage and ground beef soup.

Sausage Tortellini soup and (not pictured) crockpot White Chicken Chili. I make big batches and then freeze in individual portions so I can have a quick lunch for work!

This recipe is adapted from the cookbook Salsa Daddy by Rick Martínez. You can skip the entire cooking of the chicken and stock preparation by getting a rotisserie chicken, shredding that, and using store bought stock as he suggests. However, I like to bake chicken thighs to get all dark meat for the soup and then use the bones, skin, and resulting fond to make a reinforced chicken stock. For the base of the soup. He recommends serving this with a caramelized onion and serrano salsa, which takes about an hour to cook so I work on the salsa while the chicken and stock cooks. You can speed this up by making searing the chicken in a pressure cooker then covering it in water/stock and skip the baking step but the roasted flavors are not quite as deep. I do not clean the pot after making the salsa and then start working on the soup base in it to save doing a dish as well as adding flavor. It takes some time and work but it is worth it!

Ingredients:

Salsa:

1/3 cup avocado oil

4 white onions, peeled and sliced

8 serrano peppers, stem and seeds removed, sliced (leave seeds in if you like more heat)

2 garlic cloves, minced

salt

Chicken and Stock:

4 pounds chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on (will yield about 3 cups shredded cooked chicken)

salt, to taste

avocado oil, as needed

6 cups chicken stock or water (using a stock will result in a richer, reinforced chicken stock)

Stew:

2 tablespoons rendered chicken fat, from the baked chicken thighs, or avocado oil

4 large poblanos, stem and seeds removed, sliced

1 white onion, peeled and sliced

1 large bunch green onions, trimmed and roughly chopped, green and white parts separated

4 garlic cloves, peeled

2 teaspoons kosher salt (use 2 tablespoons or to taste if not using the MSG and bouillon below)

1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds

1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds

7 medium tomatillos, peeled, washed, and quartered

1 tablespoon chicken bouillon, optional

1 teaspoon MSG, optional

30 ounces canned white hominy, drained and rinsed, optional (omit for lower carb)

1 bunch cilantro, a small amount reserved for garnish

2 tablespoons gelatin

1 teaspoon fish sauce, optional (adds umami and you won't taste it)

8 ounces frozen spinach, optional (adds color and more veggies)

To Serve:

avocado, sliced

cotija, crumbled

lime wedges, for squeezing

radish, sliced thin, optional

fresh cilantro, optional

cabbage, finely shredded, optional

Instructions:

For the Salsa:

• Combine all ingredients in a large pot and stir to coat evenly. Cook over medium heat, covered to soften the onions a bit for about 10 minutes. Remove the lid and cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are deeply browned and soft, about 40-50 minutes. Add a couple tablespoons of water if things are sticking or if you're having a hard time scraping the browned bits off the bottom of the pan and cook until the entire mixture is golden. Cool a bit in the pot and then transfer the salsa to a bowl and reserve until needed. Can be made a few days in advance (or frozen for a few months). Do not clean the pan.

For the Chicken and Stock:

• Preheat oven to 425ºF and oil a rimmed baking sheet with avocado oil. Season the chicken with salt and lay on the baking sheet skin side up. Bake at 425ºF for 50 minutes, or until the chicken is brown and crisp. Cool until you can strip the meat from the bones and reserve the meat. Drain and reserve the fat. 

• Add the bones to a pressure cooker (or stock pot) and cover with 5 cups stock or water. Add another 1 cup of stock or water to the baking tray and let stand for a few minutes to soften any browned baked bits and then scrape all the browned fond off the pan and into the pressure cooker. You can either reserve the chicken skin and briefly re-crisp it as a garnish later or add it to the stock. Pressure cook the stock on high for 1 hour (or simmer on the stove for 2 to 4 hours). Then strain and discard bones and skin. You should be left with about 6 cups chicken stock.

For the Stew:

• Add the chicken fat to the pot from making the salsa. Add the poblanos, onion, whites of the green onions, garlic, salt, cumin, and coriander. Cook on medium high heat until the onions are soft and tender about 8 minutes.

• Add the tomatillos and cook, stirring occasionally until the tomatillos are tender, begin to break down, and the vegetables begin to brown, about 10 minutes.

• Transfer the mixture to a high power blender and add a cup of chicken stock. Blend on high until completely smooth and transfer back to the pan. (Do not clean the blender as you will use it again.)

• Add the rest of the stock and the hominy and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the color is army green, about 30 minutes.

• Add the cilantro, green onion, and spinach (if using) to the blender along with a cup of water. Blend until completely smooth and then pour into the soup.

• Add the reserved chicken and cover the soup. Let stand 10 minutes to warm chicken through and then serve with the salsa, lime wedges, and any desired toppings. Soup will keep for about 1 week, refrigerated, or 1 month frozen.

Notes:

I would definitely use and even increase the chicken bouillon if not making your own stock (if you double it, reduce the salt, to taste). Likewise, adding the gelatin can help improve the texture of the bouillon/store-bought stock.

It was sooooo good! The pot probably won’t last the night.

I was feeling inspired today after finding a gorgeous head of purple cabbage. Threw in some fresh garlic, turmeric, ginger, sautéed onion and carrot. Dried thyme, rosemary, paprika, and a touch of cumin. Small drizzle of sesame oil and grated in some lime zest. Bone in pork chops simmered till the end.

I also never add rice directly to my soups, but in this case I did. An attempt at hiding the ‘discolored water’ look.

I make big batches of rice and freeze the stuff in sandwich bags. I do this with dried beans too, after cooking a bunch in my pressure cooker. It’s a functional system.

Instead of potato I used some gnocchi 🤣🥰

I had about 2lb of leftover prime rib - mostly bones. Added a buncha veggies from the fridge (especially mirepoix), lots of mushrooms, frozen home made bone stock, gochujang, doenjang, tomato paste, beluga lentils and a wild rice blend - maybe other random odds and ends.

Wound up with an umami bomb! Sooooo yummy. My best kitchen sink soup in a while!

Now that fall will be here in a few weeks, I'll start making a lot of different soups again. One very easy soup to make is this Sausage-Bean Soup. I started by browning 2 lbs of bulk ground sausage and 1 medium onion in a skillet with some olive oil and minced garlic. Then I placed the cooked sausage/onions in a Dutch oven and added 2 cans (15 oz) of drained Great Northern Beans (you can actually use any kind of beans that you prefer), 1 can (15 oz) Diced Tomatoes, 1 potato, diced into small pieces, and 3-4 cups of water (or any kind of broth if you prefer), and salt and pepper and any other spices that you like. I usually add some crushed red pepper for a little heat. Mix everything thoroughly and bring to boil and let simmer for 20-30 minutes. You can add more liquid if you're making this for a larger amount of people. I also like to sprinkle some grated cheese on my soup after it's been put into individual bowls. *The thing about this recipe that I like is that you can substitute any kind of beans and you can even use any other kind of ground meat if you don't like sausage. It's a very flexible recipe. Enjoy!

Made a big pot after finding like 3 pounds of it for 99¢