Potato, Leek, & Bacon soup

Another easy soup. Pretty tasty.

Ingredients

~6 streaky bacon rashers

~2 leeks, dark green parts removed

~3 potatoes

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup milk

pepper

To Make

1. Cut the bacon rashers into 2 inch pieces using kitchen shears.

2. In a medium-sized stock pot, fry the bacon pieces to somewhat under desired doneness.

3. While bacon is cooking, prepare the vegetables:

Peel the potatoes and cut them up into 1 inch cubes.

Thinly slice the white parts of the leeks.

4. Add the leeks and potatoes to the pot. Cook for a few minutes until they have softened a bit, stirring occasionally.

5. Add the broth, stir, cover. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

6. Use a potato masher to mush up the potatoes, if they haven't mostly disintegrated on their own.

7. Stir in the milk.

8. Ladle into bowl, add pepper to taste. Enjoy with crusty bread.

Easy Hearty Chicken & Leek Soup

Born from the need to consume some chicken that was about to meet its use-by date. Chunky 'n' hearty but also light 'n' brothy.

Ingredients
~ 2 tablespoons olive oil
2 chicken cutlets, cut into small (~1 inch) bits
2 leeks
2 or 3 carrots
6 cups water
1 cup brown rice
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 bay leaf

To make
1. Heat olive oil in a medium stock pot over medium heat. Add chicken bits, spread evenly over bottom of pot. Cook for ~5 minutes, stirring/turning every so often.
2. While the chicken cooks, prepare veggies:
Slice the leeks lengthwise, then chop the halves. Rinse chopped bits to get rid of grit. Dice the carrots. Add the veggies to the chicken in the pot, stir and then let cook for another few minutes.
3. When the veggies have begun to soften, add the 6 cups water, 1 cup brown rice, bouillon cube and bay leaf. Stir. Cover and simmer for about ~20 minutes.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste (I didn't add any) and enjoy!

Red Lentil Soup

Made this last night for dinner. I'm on a bit of a lentil kick lately, mostly because I've got loads of them in my cupboard that I want to use up (among other dried goods - stay tuned for a recipe incorporating barley in the near future!) I slightly modified the recipe found here. I like this one because I happened to have almost all the components sitting in my cupboard or fridge already - just needed to pop out and buy an onion.

Ingredients:
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 3/4 cups split red lentils
7 1/2 cups water
a chicken bouillon packet
salt and pepper
1 tsp cumin
~2 tablespoons lemon juice (from a bottle, cuz I had some in the fridge)

To make:
1. Put the onion bits, lentils, water, bouillon, and a little salt and pepper in a large pot. Simmer 1/2 hour, or until the lentils have disintegrated.
2. Stir in cumin and lemon juice and adjust seasoning to taste.

As usual, I ate this with a couple slices of whole wheat sourdough toast. And there's loads of it, so I'll be eating it for lunch all week.

Slow Cooker Mac & Cheese with Tomato Basil Soup

Sometimes when I'm working at the department I head to Karen's on Astor for lunch, and get a small half mac&cheese/half tomato-basil soup with a roll for lunch. It's cheesy and creamy and hot and delicious. Today I decided to recreate it at home.

For the mac and cheese component, I adapted a recipe I found at Culinary Cory. The main substitution was Muenster cheese for Velveeta (eeeew, Velveeta...), but I also used slightly less salt than originally called for. Here's the tweaked version I made:

Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese
3 cups Cavatappi pasta (dry)
3 Tbl. unsalted butter
8 oz. Muenster cheese, cubed
1 ¼ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 cup milk
½ cup heavy cream
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 5 minutes or until it is just under al dente. Drain and place in the slow cooker. Add the remaining ingredients to the pasta and stir until well combined. Cook on high for 2 – 3 hours stirring about every 30 minutes.

For the rest:

While the mac & cheese in its final burbly minutes of cooking, heat up some Imagine Organic Creamy Tomato Basil soup in one pan, and boil some shelled edamame in water in another.
Put a big ladleful of mac & cheese in a bowl.
Pour the hot tomato basil soup over it.
Drain the edamame, put in a separate bowl to serve on the side. Lightly salt the edamame, if you're into salt.

The result is creamy, filling comfort food perfect for a cold rainy night. And it looks pretty, too (orange-yellow next to bright green)