Sausage and White Bean Stew with Spinach

This round of the recipe swap is Blogger’s Choice. I was assigned Mary Ellen’s blog, which has many tasty recipes. I didn’t have to look too long this time to find the recipe that I wanted to make. She had made this stew relatively recently and it looked fantastic. Her recipe used chorizo, but I knew that I could use any sausage really. I love cannellini beans (although they are never labeled as such at the store) so I knew this would be a well-received dinner.

I bought some chicken Andouille at the store, figuring that it was a spicy sausage. The Andouille was already cooked, so I just sliced it and browned it instead of having to cook it all the way through. This made this fairly quick recipe very quick, which is always nice on a weeknight. I did have a little trouble getting the salt and pepper just right; it kept tasting like it needed more salt, but leftovers the next day seemed salty.

I liked this, but with one exception. I didn’t like the Andouille that I used! It was just too spicy for me and it was all I could taste. It might explain why I couldn’t taste the salt properly because all I could taste was the heat and seasonings of the Andouille. That’s my fault and I will try this again using a more traditional Italian sausage. Thanks to Sarah from A Taste of Home Cooking , who organizes the swaps. I love participating so that I have a chance to try something new and different!

Sausage and White Bean Stew with Spinach

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound sausage links, sliced

1 large onion, thinly sliced

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 sprig thyme (I used Italian seasoning)

2 15-ounce cans cannellini beans, rinsed

2 cups chicken broth

5 ounces baby spinach

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large straight-sided pan over medium heat. Add sausage slices and cook, turning occasionally, until browned and cooked through. Transfer sausage to a bowl; set aside.

Heat remaining oil in the same pan. Add onion, garlic, and thyme. Cook until onion is soft, stirring occasionally, 5-8 minutes. Add rinsed beans and broth. With a potato masher, slightly crush the beans to help thicken the sauce. Cook until slightly thickened, 8-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Add spinach by handfuls and cook just until wilted, about 2 minutes. Add sausage back to that pan and allow the stew to simmer for a few minutes. If the stew is too thick, add more broth and allow to simmer for a few minutes.

To serve, spoon the stew into bowls and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with paprika.

Recipe from Mary Ellen’s Cooking Creations

Ultimate French Onion Soup

For this round of the recipe swap, it’s blogger’s choice where I am given a blog and I get to choose any recipe that I want. I got The Cookaholic Wife for my blog and I had a good time looking through all of the recipes to decide which one to pick. I ended up going with a recipe that I love and I’ve always wanted to make: French Onion Soup.

Now I’m probably a weirdo but my favorite part of French onion soup is actually the onion soup part and not the cheesy bread part. Don’t get me wrong, the cheesy bread part is fine but I love onions. And I love caramelized onions even more. I’ve never really made caramelized onions at home (well, very successfully, that is) and I figured this would give me an opportunity to give them a try.

I halved this recipe since there is just the two of us, but it still makes a good quantity of soup. I used gruyere cheese rather than provolone because I thought that was more traditional and I honestly didn’t look at what cheese the recipe specified before going to the store. The onions took a lot longer to caramelize than the 15 minutes the original recipe stated. I didn’t want my onions to be underdone! Despite cooking the onions a little longer, this soup was fairly quick to make. Oh my, this was so good and the flavors were just spot on! Thanks, Nichole, for a great recipe!

Ultimate French Onion Soup

4 tablespoons butter

2 onions, sliced

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup red wine

1 quarts beef broth

1-1/2 tablespoons flour

Italian bread, sliced

Shredded Gruyere cheese

salt and pepper to taste

In a large pan melt the butter over medium heat. Add in the onions, garlic, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Cook the onions until caramelized and soft, about 25 minutes.

Add in the wine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has almost completely evaporated. Remove the bay leaf. Add the flour to the pan and stir well until all of the onions are coated. Reduce heat to low and cook for a few minutes to remove the raw flour taste.

Add the beef broth and bring the soup back up to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste and cook for about 10 minutes more.

For the bread, preheat the broiler and arrange slices of bread on a foil lined baking sheet. Top with the cheese and broil for 2-3 minutes until bread is toasted and cheese is melted.

 Ladle the soup into bowls and top with the bread.

Recipe from The Cookaholic Wife

Chipotle Chicken Chili with Flaming Tequila-Pepper Salsa and Avocado Ranch Dressing

For this round of the recipe swap, we had to submit celebrity recipes. This was an interesting theme, because I know some people are probably more famous in some circles than others. I submitted a recipe from Jaime Oliver, who I think is a very famous British chef. I went to his restaurant in England and I think that’s just about the only celebrity chef restaurant I have been to. I got this recipe from Rachel Ray, submitted by Kate at Kate’s Recipe Box.

I generally like Rachel Ray but one thing I noticed about her recipes is that they use a ton of ingredients. This recipe is no exception! It makes sense that she uses so many ingredients as she used to work in a grocery store, creating recipes that used ingredients sold by the store. This recipe wasn’t too hard, if fact it was the perfect dish for my husband and I to make together. I made the salsa and the dressing and he focused on the chili. I halved this recipe and toned down the spicy ingredients. Lately any food with any spice to me tastes really spicy. It’s quite frustrating because I used to like some spice to my food.

I’ve always wanted to use chipotle in adobo, and I have finally gotten the chance. I like it! We used some chicken sausage that we already had and I left the jalapeno out of the salsa. Otherwise not too different. I’m not a big fan of avocado (I know, I’m so strange!) but I loved the avocado dressing. We kept the leftovers and served it with some burritos we made for dinner. Good stuff! We really enjoyed this dish and had a great time making it. We’ll certainly make it again!

4 tablespoons olive oil
6 slices bacon, chopped
2 pounds ground chicken breast
2-3 tablespoons pureed chipotle in adobo (adjust to your heat preference)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon smoked sweet paprika
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups chicken stock
Salt and pepper
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely chopped (I left this out)
4 shots of tequila
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
1 avocado, pitted
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup buttermilk or soured milk
Tortilla Chips

Place a large pot over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the bacon to the pan and brown, about 3-4 minutes. Add the chicken to the pot and brown, 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally to break up the lumps. Add the chipotle, cumin, coriander and smoked paprika, then stir for 1 minute. Add the onion and garlic to the pot and cook until tender, 5 minutes more. Add the tomato paste and chicken stock and some salt and pepper to the pot and bring the liquids up to a bubble. Reduce the heat to a simmer.

While the chili is simmering, place a skillet over medium-high heat with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the bell peppers, red onion and jalapeños to the skillet and cook until tender, 4-5 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the tequila. Return the skillet to the heat and flame the tequila to burn off most of the alcohol. (Be careful!) Add the lime juice, cilantro and some salt to the salsa.

To a food processor bowl combine the avocado, chives, lemon juice and buttermilk. Process until smooth and then season with salt and pepper.

Serve the chili with some of the tequila-pepper salsa and avocado ranch dressing. Garnish with tortilla chips.

Recipe from Kate’s Recipe Box via Rachel Ray

Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Chili

The theme for this recipe swap was potatoes. Since I really just post baked things on my blog, it was a bit of a challenge to think of what I could bake with potatoes. I submitted Sweet Potato Cookies and in return I got this recipe for Sweet Potato Chili from Cathy’s Kitchen Journey. I do like sweet potatoes so I was looking forward to this one. Plus with the slow cooker, it makes my life easy.

I rarely use dried beans so that was a new thing for me. I bought a mix of beans at the store instead of buying several different types of beans. I soaked them overnight and figured all was good. I decided to cook this on high for the shorter amount of time. Well, I don’t ever use high on my slow cooker as I typically put it on in the morning and then let it cook while at work. The chili just never cooked. After 5 hours on high the sweet potatoes were still crunchy and so were the beans. Ok cook it longer! After 8+ hours on high it still wasn’t completely cooked and I’d kind of given up. It was cooked enough to taste though.

When I was mixing the spices, it seemed like a lot of chili powder. 2 tablespoons was way too much and this was so spicy that had it cooked properly, I still wouldn’t have been able to eat it. I looked at the original recipe and it had only called for 1 tablespoon, and I would have liked that more. While this wasn’t a success for me, I liked the idea of the recipe and I hope to try it again, using canned beans and less chili powder. You can’t win them all, but I still had fun trying something new.

3 cups assorted dried beans
¾ cup chopped onion
4 ounce can green chilies
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder (use less)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cups water
Sour cream, cheese or other toppers

The night before, rinse the dried beans. Pick out any stones and discolored beans. Soak in cold water.

The next day: drain the beans and rinse in a colander. Put in the container of a slow cooker. Combine the onion, chilies, garlic, chili powder, cumin, cocoa, cinnamon, salt, and pepper and add it to the beans. Add the tomatoes (and their liquid), sweet potato, and water. Stir to combine.

Cover and cook until the sweet potatoes are tender and the chili has thickened, on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours.

Serve with sour cream, cheese or other desired toppings

Recipe from Cathy’s Kitchen Journey

Roasted Squash Soup with Sweet Potato and Parsnip

For this round of the recipe swap, we changed things up a bit. Instead of submitting a recipe, the participants submitted their entire blog and then the recipient got to choose the recipe. I’m quite curious what will be selected from my blog! I have my favorites but it’s interesting to see what others like. I received the blog Cheese Curd in Paradise in the swap and there were many good looking recipes to choose from.

I looked through the blog and got some ideas and then I had my husband look and we both had spotted this recipe for squash soup. It contained flavors that we both like. Plus, my husband had received an immersion blender for Christmas and this recipe provided the opportunity to use it. It’s such a fun tool and I recommend picking one up if you are at all interested. They’re a lot cheaper than they used to be.

I tweaked this recipe a bit, and didn’t measure the ingredients very closely. With cooking, you can get away with that! Not measuring while baking is bad news. I substituted butternut squash for the acorn squash as I had one on hand. The originally recipe called for cream, but I just used milk and I don’t think it made any difference. The soup is so thick from all the vegetables; you could also make this vegan if you wanted. I really enjoyed this and it I can wait to make it again. Thanks for the great recipe Ashley!

Roasted Squash Soup with Sweet Potato and Parsnip

1 butternut squash, split and seeded
20 ounces parsnips, peeled and chopped
2 large sweet potatoes
14 ounces chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream to serve

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the butternut squash on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, add the parsnips and continue roasting until both are soft. This could take between one hour and one hour, twenty minutes. Allow the squash and parsnips to cool slightly.

While the squash and parsnips cool, prepare the sweet potatoes. Scrub the potatoes clean and then microwave for 12-14 minutes, until soft.

Remove the squash from its shell and place in a large soup pot. Scoop the sweet potatoes from their skins and add to the pot. Add the parsnips, chicken broth, water, and spices. Heat the soup through and then use an immersion blender to puree soup until smooth. Add the milk and puree again. (You could also puree the soup in a food processor.) Season with salt and pepper.
Serve hot and garnish with sour cream.

Recipe from Cheese Curd in Paradise

Creamy Cabbage Soup with Gruyere

So this is a first for Cookies on Friday. I normally only post baked things but I’ve been participating in my online chat list’s recipe swap and the theme for this swap was soup. I love soup so I wanted to participate. So here it is: the first non-baked thing on this blog. I submitted a sausage tortellini soup and the recipe I got for the swap was this cabbage and Gruyere soup from Mary Ellen over at Mary Ellen’s Cooking Creations.

At first glance, you’d think that this was a horribly fattening soup, but when you look at the recipe (as written) it isn’t too bad. I like cabbage and potatoes in soup. I also have leftover cabbage so I can use it in another soup that I like to make, borscht. This was fairly quick to put together. The only unusual ingredient is the use of a Parmesan rind. You use it like you would a bay leaf: add it in while the soup is simmering and take it out before serving. I was going to leave it out but I was at Whole Foods and they had small containers of Parmesan rinds for sale so I picked one up.

I made the recipe as written with low-fat milk, and I think this made for a too-thin soup. Mary Ellen had used cream and I think that would have been a lot better. Mine soup was quite thin. I thought the Gruyere would thicken it up some but it didn’t really. I think I might also add less broth, so that overall it was thicker. The flavors of the soup were good, so I think this could be excellent with just a few small changes.

Creamy Cabbage Soup with Gruyere

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 potato, peeled and grated
1/2 medium head of cabbage, cored and grated
Salt
Pepper
5 cups chicken stock
1 Parmesan rind
2 cups milk (or half and half, cream)
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese

In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the potato, cabbage, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir together for a minute, taking care that the potatoes don't stick to the pot.

Add the stock, Parmesan rind, and salt/pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.

Add the milk to the soup. Stir to combine well and heat through without boiling. Add the Gruyere, a handful at a time, to the soup and continue to stir until the cheese has melted. Taste, adjust seasonings. Remove the Parmesan rind.

Recipe from Mary Ellen’s Cooking Creations