it's halloween: vampire soup

I'm not one for kitchy names, but I had this soup for dinner last night and it's one and only purpose was to get rid of a cold. I woke up feeling under the weather and I didn't want to get sick, so I culled all the vegetable remains in my crisper along with a little bit of bacon and got to work. While chopping the vegetables, I decided that instead of just a few cloves of garlic, I'd add in the whole head. Perfect for fighting off vampires and nasty bugs. And just to add in a bit of Eastern European flavour, I threw in 2 different kinds of Hungarian paprika. The soup was good and hearty and today I woke up feeling much, much better.

I'm not going to give you the recipe because while the soup was good, it's a good example of taking random ingredients and making dinner without a recipe. So instead of a recipe, you'll get just a minimal guide and hopefully a kick in the pants to get you started to make your own soup. Soup is easy and usually ends up turning out well if you just remember to taste as you go along. For this soup, I had half a parsnip, 2 strips of bacon, a quarter head of red cabbage, half an onion, a couple stalks of celery, a can of chickpeas, a near empty bag of pasta, along with some homemade turkey stock. These ingredients were chopped, sauteed and the liquids reduced before I had my first taste. It needed more, so in plopped a large squirt of ketchup for zing and after tasting it again, I added in a large spoonful of sweet paprika and another large spoonful of a smoked hot paprika. Now I was getting somewhere. I added in half the garlic at the beginning and half near the end. For me it was important to really taste the garlic and have it fresh so it could kick start it's fighting powers. The ingredients themselves don't inspire very much on their own, but put them together in a haphazard way, tasting as you go along and boom! You've got some mighty fine soup.

And yes, I'm giving this vampire soup all the credit. This soup warded off the evil and now I'm ready to make some caramel apples and watch horror movies all night with friends. Happy Halloween!!

Want a recipe for soup? Check out these winter-warming recipes from my archives:
African Yam & Peanut Soup
Black Bean Pumpkin Soup
Cabbage Potato & Chorizo Soup
Italian Minestrone with Beans, Pasta and Chard
Red Lentil Soup with Lemon
Winter Vegetable Soup

leave your fancy pants in the closet

One of my best friends is taking 6 months out of her Vancouver life to ride her bike to Mexico with her boyfriend. They are still enroute, but after weeks of cycling in the rain and wind and cold, they certainly appreciate a home-cooked meal and basic shelter. Central heating wouldn't be amiss, either. You can read about their journey here and if you like, take a peek at Kristen's etsy shop. What's all this got to do with food? This may not be a vegan post (Kristen & her boyfriend are vegans), but it is a post that features some truely comforting food. And I'm sure something hot and home-cooked would go down nicely while riding down a cold, wet highway.

Comfort food ain't pretty, but pleasing the belly is sometimes more important than pleasing the eye and this stew fits the bill perfectly. It's nothing fancy. The flavours are simple, the directions are straight forward and once you add the ingredients, the dish pretty much takes care of itself. Nice. This recipe is also pretty flexible. You can add different vegetables (some rutabaga would be great) and you can control the amount of gravy by the amount of liquid and flour you use. And if you want to pull out all the comfort stops, certainly some dumplings cooked in the pot during the last few minutes wouldn't hurt a thing.

paprika chicken & vegetable stew
6 chicken thighs, skinned
2 T smoked hot paprika
1 T olive oil
4 medium potatoes, quartered
1 onion, quartered
2 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 c mushrooms
2 T flour
2 c chicken broth (+ more water or broth, if needed, to generously cover vegetables)
1 T dijon mustard
1 t dried sage
1/2 bottle of beer
1/2 c frozen peas

1. Sprinkle chicken on all sides with paprika, salt, and pepper. Heat oil in heavy large pot and add chicken. Saute until brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate. Add vegetables (except the peas....those come in later) and saute for a few minutes. Sprinkle vegetables with flour and stir to coat. Stir in broth and beer.

2. Return chicken and any juices to the pot. Add dijon mustard and sage. Stir to combine and reduce heat. Cover and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes. Add frozen peas during the last 10 minutes of cooking time. Serve with rice or crusty bread.