Posts Tagged ‘soups’

I don't have an Aunt Camille, but I do think it is a pretty name. Aunt Camille is the aunt of a former co-worker, Lenora, who gave me this recipe. I love bean soup and have generally used either Great Northern Beans or Navy Beans for soups in the past. I had never tried the mixed beans before, but Rob and I both liked this soup a lot. I cooked a ham one recent Sunday and then decided to give this recipe a try using the leftover ham bone. Here is my adaptation of the recipe:

Aunt Camille's Bean Soup

1 meaty hambone (you could also use a ham hock)
1 16 oz. pkg. dry beans, mixed variety (mine included a packet of ham seasoning)*
6 cups water
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 ribs celery, sliced
15 oz. can diced tomatoes, including liquid
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. salt (I omitted this)
1/4 tsp. pepper
1-2 tsps. chili powder (I omitted this too)

Rinse and pick over the beans. Place in a large bowl or soup kettle and cover with cool water 2-3" above the beans. Let stand overnight. In the morning drain the beans and add fresh water to generously cover the beans in the soup kettle. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 1/2-2 hours or until beans are tender. Drain the beans and then add the 6 cups of water, the ham bone, onion, celery, tomatoes, bay leaf, pepper, chili powder, if using. Simmer for about another hour or until the ham can be easily removed from the bone. Remove the meat and add back to the soup. Enjoy your delicious soup.

*I added some of the liquid which accumulated from baking the ham so I did not use the ham seasoning packet or add additional salt since the ham itself was salty enough.
If you cook the beans this way by changing the water at least twice you will remove most of the enzymes which can cause gassiness.

Here's a picture of the package of beans that I used:

If you work all day you could soak the beans during the day one day and then cook them that evening and then refrigerate and finish up the cooking process the following day. You could also put the pre-cooked beans and other ingredients in the crockpot on the day of serving and let it cook on low.

Becka

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Got more zucchini?

I bought some at a good price while we were up in the mountains last week and wished I had bought more as I contemplated all my favorite zucchini recipes. A number of years ago when I was recuperating from surgery a friend made me this soup. Rob and I both like soups and this is one of our favorites. I have never made it from frozen zucchini, but I think that would work as long as it was well drained.

Zucchini Garden Chowder

2 medium zucchini, shredded or thinly sliced
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
2 Tbsps. oil
2 Tbsps. flour
dash pepper
1 tsp. sugar
3 cups water
1 Tbsp. chicken soup base
1 (14 1/2 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated skim milk
1 can corn, drained (can use frozen)
2 cups shredded yellow cheese
Fresh parsley for garnish, if desired

In a large soup kettle heat oil and saute zucchini and onion until vegetables are tender. Stir in flour, pepper, Italian Seasoning, and sugar. Gradually stir in water, chicken soup base, tomatoes, and corn. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 5 mins. Add evaporated milk and then heat another minute before stirring in the cheese. Garnish with parsley, if desired. Makes 8-10 servings or about 2 1/2 quarts.

Here's a picture of the shredded zucchini:

This is what the finished chowder looks like. A picture of soup does not always convey how delicious it actually is. This one is quite tasty.

Becka

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Do you like lentils? I don't think I ever ate them until I was an adult. I grew up in the midwest where we ate a lot of great northern beans, navy beans, and kidney beans, but not lentils, blackeyed peas, or pinto beans.

The nice thing about lentils is that they cook quickly and don't need presoaking. At the moment I have two kinds of lentils in my cupboard.

My favorite lentils are these tiny green ones that are French lentils or lentils du puy (pictured here on the left). I first had them in France a number of years ago and at that time they became my favorites. I had difficulty finding them around here until a couple of years ago when I discovered them at one of our favorite restaurants here in Greenville, The Pita House. They have a large array of middle eastern groceries including a rainbow of lentils. Unfortunately I still had some of the less favored brown lentils (pictured on the right) in my pantry, so this week I decided to try a new soup recipe to use up some of them. It was actually pretty good, so give it a try if you like lentils. In a future post I will give you my favorite lentil recipe, so stay tuned, lentil lovers.

The recipe follows a picture of our grandson, Drew (who probably doesn't care for lentils) who just turned two!

Lentil Soup
1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup dried lentils, sorted and rinsed
1 cup peeled and diced carrot
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped cabbage
1/2 cup chopped celery
generous grinding of black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp. beef soup base or bouillon
4 cups water
2 cups tomato sauce (I used spaghetti sauce)
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

Brown ground beef in large soup kettle. Drain off fat and add onions and celery and cook a couple of minutes. Add all remaining ingredients except the vinegar. Heat to boiling and then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer covered until vegetables and lentils are tender, about 30-40 mins. Just before serving add the vinegar.

Becka

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January is sometimes a rather bleak month, no matter where you live. The house always looks a little dreary after we put away the Christmas decorations but it's still too early to put the "spring" wreath up on the door. Last year shortly before Valentine's Day I got an idea for this wreath from Monica at Homespun Heart. (It's in the post for February 6th - I had trouble linking this one directly.) I couldn't find a styrofoam wreath form so I used a straw one that I found at Michael's.

I've gotten several ideas for some new recipes from other blogs this month. We tried Deb's Spicy Vegetable Soup from over at Mountain Musings one night this week and really enjoyed it. The recipe is here if you would like to try it. I didn't have any of the Rotel tomatoes so I substituted a can of Hunts Fire-Roasted tomatoes.

We also tried Black Eyed Pea Salad from Ree over at Pioneer Woman Cooks. It, too, was very tasty. I did substitute fresh parsley for the cilantro since neither of us prefer it. Both of these recipes made enough for several meals for the two of us and were just as good later in the week.

So, if you want to try something new this month I highly recommend that you follow these links and give these ideas a try.

Have you tried any new recipes or decorating ideas this month?

Becka

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