Schaubel Zup (Green Bean Soup)

This summer is my first attempt at gardening, and what fun it's been! It's immensely satisfying to be able to go to your backyard and pick fresh vegetables to use for your dinner, so when I saw that my green beans were ready for picking I knew I wanted to make this soup for dinner. But my Internet was down and I couldn't find the recipe that I had saved, so after getting a few recipes, some from family and some from Church cookbooks I was ready. I'll give you the rough measurements of what I used, but you can change it according to how thick you like your soup.

Schaubel Zup

1/2 Link Mennonite Sausage (about 12"), cut into bite size pieces
4-6 cups fresh green beans

Let this cook together in a large pot with about 4L of water until the green beans are tender, add:

2 medium carrots, sliced
5 medium potatoes, cubed
1 medium onion, diced
handful of fresh parsley (or 1 tbsp dried)
handful of fresh savoury (I didn't have any so I added a little dill instead but I have heard you can add a tiny sprinkle of thyme)
1 tbsp Chicken bouillon
Salt to taste

Let this simmer until the vegetables are done, just before serving add about 1/2- 1cup cream, I use light cream. At this point you could also add a 1/4 cup butter and let it melt in the soup, but this is optional. For a treat serve this with warm biscuits!

*These were just my rough measurements, you might need to add more or less of the vegetables. I think next time I make it I'll add more vegetables to get it a little thicker.

Enjoy!
Tina

Cilantro Turkey Rice Soup

For those of you that don't know this, never EVER throw a turkey carcass away after a turkey dinner until you've made broth from it! The first time I heard this I thought, blech how can you get anything tasty from a carcass. But I trusted the reviews and really, I don't know why I doubted it since it's common sense that your broth flavor comes from the bones and not the meat. All you do put the turkey skin and all, minus any leftover meat into a large pot, cover generously with water and let this simmer for 3 hours. Strain and it's ready to be used.

Now on to my soup, I had the broth that I made last night and I knew that I didn't want it to go to waste but I wasn't in the mood for your typical chicken noodle soup, I was actually in the mood for the refreshing taste of cilantro, I love the taste of cilantro. But after looking all over the web I couldn't really find a recipe that was perking my interest. So I winged it and came up with great results, will be making this soup again, and again... you get the picture.

I will say that this made a large soup, we're a family of five and we'll get two meals out of this soup.

Cilantro Turkey Rice Soup

4-6 litres of turkey broth (or chicken)
1 bay leaf
5-6 whole peppercorns
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp chicken bouillon (I use yellow kind from a Mexican import store)
salt to taste
about 1 cup fresh chopped cilantro
3 medium carrots, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large zucchini, sliced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 large jalapeno, whole

2 cups cooked rice
2 cups leftover turkey, chopped

Bring the broth to a simmer and add your herbs and seasonings. While this simmers cut your vegetables and add to your broth. Cook until tender. Add the rice and turkey. Serve soup with fresh lime juice and baked tortilla chips. We also used saltine crackers. Either way it's a good summery kind of soup, just what I wanted today.

Enjoy!
Tina

Cream of Broccoli Soup

We love cream of broccoli soup, but I've always been a little apprehensive with making it. I've tasted too many cream soups that tasted a little like cardboard, but this one was really good. In fact my husband said it tasted like the soup from one of our favourite restaurants!

I'm going to post the original recipe and then I'll let you know about some of the changes I made.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

2 Tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
3 cups chicken broth
8 cups broccoli florets
1 tsp chicken bouillon
dash of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 cups milk

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add onions and celery and saute until tender. Add broccoli, broth, bouillon, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until broccoli is tender. Take your potato masher and gently mash the broccoli, I like a chunky soup so I barely mashed them at all. Meanwhile melt the 3 tbsp of butter in a smaller saucepan and stir in the flour. Now slowly add the milk, stirring in between. It should be smooth before you add more milk or else you'll get a lumpy soup. Stir this into the soup until thickened.

Now here's how I changed the recipe; I added more chicken broth, all together I used about 4 or 5 cups chicken broth. I also added about 1 cup of 18% table cream to give the soup a richer taste. With adding the extra liquid I then used 5 tbsp of butter and 5 tbsp of flour to thicken the bigger soup. I also used an extra celery stalk.

Enjoy!
Tina

Chicken Noodle Soup and Tortas

If you're a Mennonite, you're familiar with this noodle soup! One of my favorite meals even if it is a million calories, lol. A lot of women would tell you to use an organic free range chicken for the stock, it tastes better but I don't always have those in the freezer and I still enjoy the taste from other chickens.

You can make your own egg noodles but I have found that if I have to make the pasta too, I tend to not make it. So I go the easy route and buy a bag of egg noodles from a Mexican import store, way quicker.

Chicken Noodle Soup
1 chicken, cut into pieces

Generously cover with water and let this simmer for 2-3 hours. Remove the chicken and add the following herbs & spices to the broth in an "herb ball":

1/4 - 1/3 cup dried parsley or 1 small bunch fresh parsley
A 4 piece Star Anise
2-3 Whole Cloves
7-10 Whole Black Pepper
1/3 Cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
2-3 Tbsp Chicken soup bouillon (I use the Knorr brand that gets imported from Mexico, the Knorr that you find in your regular grocery store is not the same)
salt to taste

Let this simmer for about 20-30 minutes. Use a strainer when adding the broth to your noodles, you want just a nice clear broth and the noodles. The herbs/spice amounts given are just a starting point, everyone has their own preferences and you can adjust accordingly.

As for the tortas that you see in the picture, they are a perfect match to the soup. All you do is make homemade hamburger buns, I shape them into oblong buns for this just because it looks nice. Fry up some taco meat and add only a small amount of seasonings, you want the flavor of the meat to be milder than normal. What makes these things taste so good is the avocado spread and mayo! I buy the avocado spread in the fresh dips and spreads section at Superstore but you could also use just a ripe avocado. Spread the Avocado spread on one piece of bread and mayo on the other piece. Add your beef, lettuce and tomato and you're ready to enjoy!

Have a great day!
Tina

Chunky Potato Soup

My daughter is in the morning Kindergarten class so it's so easy so spoil ourselves and have some mommy & daughter bonding time over lunch in the restaurant of our choice. But I'm trying to limit how often we do that, especially when she starts to expect it everyday!

So today I was scrambling to come up with something when I had a hankering for a potato soup. A quick search at All Recipes and this is what I came up with. It was really good too! I'll definitely be making this one again, especially since the ingredients are so simple.

Chunky Potato Soup

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 carrot, sliced
1 celery stick chopped
1 1/2 - 2 cups chicken broth
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp dried parsley
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup shredded Swiss Cheese ( I didn't have any so I used marble)

In a medium sized pot add the potatoes, onion, carrots, and broth. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Lightly mash when cooked.
Meanwhile in a small saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour. Slowly stir in the milk and bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Now stir this into the potato mixture. Add seasonings, cook and stir until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in cheese until melted.

*Note: As with any cream soup, it gets a little thicker as it cools. Personally I will add more liquid next time, I don't like my cream soups too thick.

Enjoy!
Tina

Cauliflower Soup

I made this soup a while ago just never got around to posting it. It tastes really good. I need to make it again very soon. If you go the the Pioneer Woman Cooks website you will find detailed pictures of the soup coming together.

Cauliflower Soup (The Pioneer Woman)

1 stick Butter
½ whole Onion, Finely Diced
1 whole Carrot Finely Diced
1 stalk Celery, Finely Diced
1 whole (to 2 Whole) Cauliflower Heads (roughly Chopped)
2 Tablespoons Fresh Or Dried Parsley (chopped)
2 quarts Low-sodium Chicken Broth Or Stock
6 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour
2 cups Whole Milk
1 cup Half-and-half
2 teaspoons To 4 Teaspoons Salt, To Taste
1 cup (heaping) Sour Cream, Room Temperature

Preparation Instructions
In a large soup pot or dutch oven, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes, or until it starts to turn brown. Add the carrots and celery and cook an additional couple of minutes. Add cauliflower and parsley and stir to combine. Cover and cook over very low heat for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, pour in chicken stock or broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer.
In a medium saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Mix the flour with the milk and whisk to combine. Add flour-milk mixture slowly to the butter, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup half-and-half. Add mixture to the simmering soup. Allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Check seasoning and add more salt or pepper if necessary.
Just before serving, place the sour cream in a serving bowl or soup tureen. Add two to three ladles of hot soup into the tureen and stir to combine with the sour cream. Pour in remaining soup and stir.

Non Traditional Somma Borscht

I love having a good soup during the week for lunch. You get a low calorie but good meal to hold you over until dinner. I try to make soup at least once a weak that me and the kids eat for 2-3 days for lunch, it sure beats trying to come up with a meal everyday.

Most mennonites I know make somma borscht, but most mennonites make it completely different from one person to the next, lol. Some would say that my recipe isn't even a Somma Borscht but either way, I like it. My recipe is simple, very fast, and not the traditional kind, we really like the taste. This recipe asks for Mennonite sausage but if you can't find it in the stores you could use farmer sausage or amish sausage. Any traditonal pork sausage would do. You could also use a ham hock and simmer this for a few hours to get your stock. I prefer the sausage because of time.


Somma Borscht
12" link Mennonite sausage cut into bite size pieces
7-8 cups water
Boil this together for 15-20 minutes

Add:
8 medium potatoes ( I use russet)
1 medium onion
1 1/2 tbsp dried parsley flakes
1 1/2 tbsp dried dill
2 tsp salt

Gently boil this until the potatoes are tender. I prefer to slightly over cook my potatoes so that the soup becomes a little thick. To finish the soup add about 1/2 cup cream and 1/2 cup milk. Enjoy!

I used to use only cream but I try to save on calories where possible so this is something you could adjust to taste. This soup can be adjusted in many ways according to how you prefer your soup. Add more potatoes, or less, add more parsely and dill, or less... you get the picture.

Tina