Recipe: Chick-Chickpea Stew

I was trying to follow a recipe, I swear. But it turned out that I was out of a couple of the items required and had to change it up at the last minute. I think the changes I made created a more interesting and tasty soup than the one I was trying to make. My partner in dinner swapping thought so too and requested the recipe...so before I forget what I did, here it is.

Chick-Chickpea Stew

2 cups dried chickpeas (a.k.a. garbanzo beans)
4 chicken thighs
Water
1 tsp. cumin
2 bay leaves
3-6 cloves of minced garlic
4 tbl. tomato paste
4-8 oz. pesto
1 cup coarsely chopped roasted red peppers
S&P

Soak the chickpeas for 3-4 hours (or plan for an extra hour or so of simmering time). Put the chickpeas in your large soup pot with the chicken thighs on top and just cover with water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook until the chicken is done through. Remove the thighs and set aside to cool.

Add the cumin, bay leaves, garlic, and tomato paste. Mix throughly and cover to continue cooking the chickpeas. Mine simmered for about 30 minutes before the chickpeas we close to ready.

Shortly before serving, pull the meat off the chicken thighs and add to the soup. Stir in the pesto (I used Nettle Pesto I made this spring, but I think any pesto flavor would be good...if you are using something highly flavored like basil or cilantro, add it slowly to adjust the flavor as you go) and the roasted red peppers. Simmer for a few more minutes to mingle the flavors.

Serve with crusty bread and salad.

A Collection of Soup

Over at TidyMom they are collecting soup recipes. I think this is brilliant, because I love soup. There is a give away also, but my motivation is mostly my love of soup. I looked back over my posts and here are all the soup recipes I have posted about. All tried and true favorites - which one will you try?

Almost-Instant French Onion Soup - this relies on the magic of a slow cooker. It's not instant in that you have to start it the night before. It is instant in that your total cooking time is 20 minutes with a food processor. And you end up with extra caramelized onions, which is always good.

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Dinosaur Bean Soup - a creation I made when working with some heirloom beans from a local farmer. The first part of the post is about the bean and grain CSA that I belong to (and love). The soup recipe is near the end.

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Sunshine Soup and Ham & Barley Winter Stew - two recipes in one post! The sunshine soup is a bright soup with all red, yellow, and orange ingredients that we made for Winter Solstice. The Ham & Barley Stew is just what is says it is. Both these recipes feature more heirloom beans and grains from my CSA. The flavors of these ingredients is amazing and worth tracking down if you have time and resources.

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Summer Cucumber Soup - yesterday it was warm here, and sunny! We worked outside for a while, transplanting raspberry canes, and I got to thinking about all the tasty summer foods in the nearing future. This recipe is not appropriate now...but will be in just a few months. And SOOOO refreshing on a summer day!

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Sweet Potato & Beef Stew - using that earlier technique of slow-cooker caramelized onions, I made this amazing stew a couple weeks ago. There is no picture because we ate it to fast. There were no left overs.

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So those are the soup recipes I've posted here. I hope you try them out, enjoy them, and let me know. And really - give-away or no give-away, there are some amazing recipes in the Soupapalooza post I linked to in the beginning. This is the official line: "Come join SoupaPalooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by KitchenAid, Red Star Yeast and Le Creuset!" The give-away ends today, but that is no reason to ignore the cache of amazing recipes. Check them out.

Recipe: Sweet Potato & Beef Stew

Here's the thing - I'm not usually a huge fan of your standard beef stew. It's okay, but the flavor combination never enthuses me. So I set off a couple of days ago to do something different. And I did - it is still stew and has many of the qualities of stew that we all know and love. But the flavors are new, to me anyway.

Sweet Potato & Beef Stew with Caramelized Onions

2 onions
1/2 stick of butter
4 cloves of garlic
1 pound stew meat (or chuck cut into cubes)
1/2 cup flour
1 leek
1 large parsnip
2 sweet potatoes or yams
4 cups beef broth
2 bay leaves
Rosemary, salt & pepper to taste

I used my slow cooker for this, but it should be easily adaptable to stove top.

Night before: slice the 2 onions and toss into the slow cooker with the butter. Set on low for 8 hours. Wake up to Caramelized Onions. This is a good thing.

In the mid-morning: cube parsnip, sweet potatoes, and slice leeks. Mince the garlic. Dredge the stew meat in flour and brown in a skillet with the garlic. Place veggies, meat, herbs, and beef broth in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve with crusty bead and salad.

Two Soups for You

Though I haven't been doing much writing here, I have still been cooking, and cooking a lot! Partly holiday feasts and partly the exciting beans and grains, and mostly that we get hungry and must eat good food.

Among other things, I put together these two soup recipes and since both use ingredients from Lonesome Whistle, I wanted to share... And I really love to share the recipes I create. Recipe creation feel like such an art form, and one that benefits most when the recipes go out into the world.

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Sunshine Soup

I made this with Brother-Bug and his best friend when we gathered to call back the light at the (close to the) Winter Solstice. We chose ingredients that were red, yellow, and orange to help us see the return of the sun. It was a good match with an Irish Soda Bread and some broccoli. We shaped the bread like a sun, and the broccoli represented the coming summer trees. It was a tasty and magic meal!

Soda Bread Sunshine!

1/2 Butternut squash
3 carrots
5 c water
2 T veggie bouillon

Cook squash, carrots, water and billion till the carrots are soft. Blend or mash till smooth.

Add to the soup purée:

1 1/2 cups Vermont Cranberry beans, precooked
1c frozen corn
About a teaspoon each of powdered ginger & mustard
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat through till the corn and beans are warm and the spice flavors have mingled a bit.

Serve and enjoy. Sing "Here Comes the Sun".

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Ham & Barley Winter Stew

Close up of Purple Barley - gorgeous, right?

1 ham hock
1 cup purple barley
2 sweet potatoes, cubed
1 white potato, cubed
2-3 tablespoons smoked paprika
Water to cover
Bay leaf
Parsley
Salt & Pepper

I made this in my slow-cooker - any excuse to use the Christmas present, right? I put all the ingredients in, covered them with water, and cooked it on high for about 5 hours. Before serving, pull out the hock and strip any clinging meat into the stew. Adjust the seasoning.

Serve with crusty bread.

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I'm thinking of grinding some of the Dakota Black Popcorn in my grain mill, and seeing how it comes out as cornbread....