Soup

Phở Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Soup)

September 29, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

Pho is a Vietnamese soup that can be made with beef or chicken. Pho, to the best of my knowledge has something of a cult following among foodies and I was excited to try it out for myself. Pho is popular because of the amazing stock that is used to make the soup. The stock is flavored with star anise, cloves, cinnamon, lemongrass and nutmeg.* A list of ingredients and garnishes can be found here. I have never tried beef pho and this is the first time I have ever had chicken pho. Even though I don’t have any prior experience for comparison I really enjoyed this dish and I can see why it is so popular. The broth is really clean and fragrant and the flavors of the garnishes mixed with the noodles and broth are so good. The ingredients are basic but when eaten all together the flavors are more amazing than the sum of its parts. The star of pho is the beef soup and if the chicken version is as good as this was, I look forward to making that one too!

*I used ground spices for my soup but with most pho recipes it will require whole spices (I would imagine some pho purists would think this to be sacrilege). I thought the ground spices were great–I just made sure to strain the broth twice to remove the spice particles to get a clearer and cleaner broth.

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Kare Udon Soup with Tofu and Mushrooms

May 25, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

I recently made Kare UdonB with beef and it seemed like it would go nicely as a meatless soup too. The recipe is identical to the previous one except I substituted the beef with tofu and mushrooms. The tofu was great with the curry flavors. I am completely sold on the packaged curry roux. This is my favorite curry, and I buy the “hot” version. It can be found in the asian foods section in grocery stores: I was skeptical since it looks a little like astronaut food, but the flavors have totally won me over!

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Kare Udon (Japanese Curry Soup)

May 12, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

Kare Udon is a Japanese curry soup made with a simple broth, curry roux, and udon noodles. I have tried Moroccan, Indian, and Thai curries but I have never tried a Japanese curry. The broth is called Dashi, which can be made all sorts of ways but at its most basic is boiled kelp and water. I couldn’t find Dashi anywhere, not even at the local Asian market, so I had to substitute vegetable broth for it. I was excited to find the curry roux and udon at the grocery store. The curry turned out great. I made a full curry with potatoes, carrots, and beef and it was very tasty.

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Moroccan Lentil Soup with Preserved Lemon and Quinoa

March 26, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

It’s been raining a lot lately and I wanted to make something nice and warm from the slow cooker. One of my favorite recipes has been the Moroccan Chicken with Preserved Lemons and I wanted to see if those flavors could translate into a stew. I figured red lentils and chickpeas would go well with the curry flavors of the dish, and it ended up being really good. The soup was pretty thick from the quinoa and needed extra chicken stock throughout cooking. I will probably be adding more later since the lentils and quinoa will keep on absorbing the liquid. This recipe makes a big batch so I will have a lot of leftovers (which won’t be a problem at all).

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Ham and Lentil Soup

December 10, 2010 by The Partial Ingredients

I have been sort of obsessed with my crock pot for the last few months. All I can say is get one (crock pot companies should be paying me for this advertising!) This soup is great for the slow cooker–the ham cooks nicely and flavors the broth without being too salty. I threw in the ham bone for added flavor. I liked how the lentils got really soft and almost dissolved in the broth. This soup turned out great and I will definitely make it again sometime.

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Turkey and Wild Rice Soup

November 30, 2010 by The Partial Ingredients

After Thanksgiving, it is a tradition in my family to take the carcass of the turkey and boil all the leftovers down to make a soup. The flavors of this soup were very good and the broth was excellent because it simmers for a few hours. I had some leftover brown rice so I threw that in with the wild rice. You can always make it with thick egg noodles instead. It’s sad to throw out the picked over chicken or turkey and not use it for anything–with this recipe there is no waste. This recipe also works very well with the leftovers of a whole roasted chicken.

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Chipotle Corn Chowder

November 21, 2010 by The Partial Ingredients

This is not the typical creamy corn chowder but a spicier, smokier corn stew. Unfortunately the season for good, fresh ears of corn has passed so I settled with store-bought bags of sweet corn. This recipe is perfect for sweet corn season and makes a great summer/fall soup. A fresh jalapeno is a good flavor addition to the smokey chipotle chili powder. I had some green bell peppers so I added those in for some extra veggies. I balanced the spiciness by adding sour cream and cilantro for garnish.

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Beef and Barley Stew

November 10, 2010 by The Partial Ingredients

Believe it or not, Californians experience winter too (relatively). It’s gotten colder and rainier now that it’s November, and i’ve been wanting to make a nice, hearty stew. I was excited to try this recipeB because I remember my mom’s beef barley stew from the crock pot. This recipe turned out a lot more savory and different than my mom’s, but it was still very good. I have a modern crock pot that is um, very efficient at cooking (which kind of defeats the purpose of a slow cooker, but whatever). Anyways, I have to be very careful to not over cook meats. A recipe might say to leave everything in for 6-7B hours on low and with my cooker the meat is done in 90 minutes and everything else is raw. This has caused some problems in the past. In order to compensate (since I do really like my crock pot), I have resorted to taking the meat ingredients out and cooking the rest for several more hours. I have a large, 6 quart cooker so if you have a smaller one make sure to use less of everything.

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