Turkish Red Lentil Soup (Corba)
I’m on the record as stating that soup is not a meal, in and of itself, with very few exceptions.
This is one of them. (My mom’s baked potato soup is basically the only other.)
I also don’t like lentils usually. That is, until I went to Istanbul last year and we ate in a Kurdish family’s house and were served corba as an appetizer. Corba is a hearty red lentil soup, super flavorful and comforting. When I returned to the States, I started pinning recipes right away so I could try it myself. I learned that red lentils are very different than the dark ones I’d had before, and didn’t have as many texture issues for me.
I’ve made this recipe a few times, trying to get the texture and flavors just right. For some weird reason I have issues with it separating a bit (so becoming a little watery), but since I like it better with crushed up crackers in it anyway, I decided to just let that go. One time I even tore up half a bagel into the soup, and the texture was awesome!
One of the great things about this soup is that it comes together really quickly—like half an hour from start to finish. So you can get home from work, get it simmering, and go about your business until it’s time to blend everything up and serve. Efficiency FTW!
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My Own Personal Best Chili
Let’s be honest, chili is just an excuse to eat corn chips.
When the weather is cold, I always start getting the urge to make chili. Here’s the thing I realized this year, though. I’m much more into the *idea* of chili than in chili as its own thing.
I end up making a huge batch and then have gobs of chili leftovers, which I have to eat for a solid week to get through (yes, I realize I could freeze it, but I don’t like the texture when it’s thawed).
So once I year I make a big pot, a tradition I can’t seem to break. My recipe isn’t necessarily earth-shattering, but it’s delicious and mellow and hearty and comforting…it’s what I consider the best chili ever. READ THE POST
Souper Jenny’s Hungarian Mushroom Soup
All this cold weather and the snow days we’ve been having have made me crave soup. So I dug out some old Souper Jenny recipes and this Hungarian mushroom soup jumped out at me.
Souper Jenny is an Atlanta (Buckhead, to be specific) institution. The owner and her staff have been serving healthy, fresh soups, sandwiches, and salads to crowds often backing out the door for over 15 years.
A while back a few co-workers and I got to do a cooking class with the head chef, where she walked us through making five of their awesome soups in a couple hours.
When perusing the recipes initially, I was least excited about mushroom soup (I’m not a huge mushroom person). So I was shocked when we were tasting everything later and this may have been my favorite—or right up there with the lamb & Guinness stew.
The flavors were so much more complex than I expected, the scent was amazing, and the creaminess really hit the spot. It was also super easy, a win in my book.READ THE POST
Souper Jenny’s Broccoli Corn Chowder
A few weeks ago, my co-workers and I got to do a cooking class at Souper Jenny with one of our media reps. It was a fun night of drinking wine, asking the chef questions, and stuffing ourselves full of five different glorious soups (plus some awesome chicken salad).
Souper Jenny is one of those Atlanta institutions that anyone who has ever lived or worked near Buckhead knows about, but basically they’re all about fresh, healthy soups, salads, and sandwiches (with many vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free choices too). I had only been once before, so all the recipes were new to me. When it came time to try one on my own, I knew what I’d try first—their broccoli corn chowder.
As I’ve discussed here many a time, soup is not something I usually consider a meal in its own right. This soup is definitely an exception, since all the veggies plus the bacon make it quite hearty. I paired it with maple-cranberry cornbread (so moist!) for a lovely cold Sunday night dinner.
Plus, BACON. Who doesn’t love bacon??
Let’s begin, shall we?READ THE POST
Roasted Cauliflower & Aged White Cheddar Soup
Here’s the thing anyone who knows me well (particularly my co-workers) can tell you: I love soup, but I refuse to acknowledge it as a real, standalone meal. Soup is delicious, but it is a PRELUDE to a meal. A pre-meal.
So what happens is that I see all these amazing soup recipes on Pinterest and pin the heck out of them, then they just sit there because I don’t want to go through the trouble of making both a soup and a real entree. And a dessert, because let’s face it, dessert is an important part of any home-cooked meal.
This roasted cauliflower soup, however, was surprisingly hearty and stayed with me for quite a while. I think I had other food with it initially, but I ate the leftovers by themselves and they made several great meals. The cheese added a great flavor (and saltiness, because sometimes vegetable soups can be very bland), but the cauliflower itself was the star. I love me some cauliflower.
Roasted Sweet Potato, Apple, & Sage Soup
My last night at home for Thanksgiving, it was just me and my mom since my dad had to head out of town for work. It had been cold and windy all day, typical Kansas November, and we’d been out running errands most of the day. When we got home, all we wanted was something warm and hearty, a glass of wine, and maybe some White Collar on Netflix.
My mom had picked up some truffle cheese, knowing how much I love truffles. So I decided to make another loaf of the amazing rosemary and olive oil bread I’d tried a couple days earlier and make grilled cheese sandwiches. Of course, we needed some kind of soup to go with it. So I did some searching and found this delicious, slightly-sweet and hearty soup as the perfect flavor pairing.
One thing I loved about this soup recipe was that it didn’t call for heavy cream, so it was a little healthier than many similar recipes. I also loved that you could make this in a normal amount of time instead of cooking it in a crockpot for several hours—I can’t always think ahead that much!
This looks like a perfect winter evening.READ THE POST
Mom’s Amazing Crockpot Baked Potato Soup
In my world, soup is not a meal. Don’t get me wrong, I love soup, but it’s a prelude to a meal or something you eat *with* your meal. Except this soup.
My mom’s baked potato soup is hearty and healthy and delicious and the best dang soup you’ve ever had. Even better? You make it in the crockpot, so it’s practically hassle-free.
[Note: I’ve edited below, I don’t use bouillon anymore, so I just replaced the water and bouillon with chicken stock instead; but you can use bouillon or stock concentrate too]
Goat Cheese Tomato Soup
I don’t know if it’s the time change or some of the quite chilly days we’ve had on and off recently, but I am definitely in bear hibernation mode. All I want is to lay on my couch in my pj’s, read a book, and eat carbs. Hot carbs, preferably. I am super craving comfort food, which is not a good sign for how the rest of this winter will go.
But I happened on this recipe on Pinterest, and a couple things intrigued me. First, I loved that it was nice and creamy (I’m not big on completely broth-based soup), but doesn’t actually call for that much heavy cream (which just plain isn’t good for you). Also, the goat cheese was a nice twist and added a cool flavor, while also making it a little heartier than a regular tomato bisque might be.
And the best part? It was super easy and really quite quick—no waiting 3-5 hours while it cooks in a crockpot.
Look at that face. She kept slowly reaching out her paw like, “Please, sir, can I have some more?” Pitiful.READ THE POST