Roasted Vegetable and Tomato Bisque

Preheat your oven to 375°. Scrub the vegetables then cut them in chunks into a big bowl. Drizzle with a generous amount of good quality extra virgin olive oil and season with a good seasoning blend. Pour onto a big baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

2 big carrots

1 green pepper

2 big celery stalks

1 sm.-med beet

1 big purple shallot

2 med. Yukon Gold potatoes

16oz. bone broth
28oz. San Marzano tomatoes

1 jar tomato pesto
1 can coconut milk

8-12oz.± water

Roast the vegetables 35-40 minutes until they're browned lightly. Put about half into your blender jar along with some bone broth and about half of the tomatoes. When well blended, pour into a 6 quart pot. Repeat until all the roasted vegetables, bone broth and tomatoes are well blended and in the big soup pot. Check the seasonings and add 1T sugar. Whisk in the coconut milk, tomato pesto and zest of one lemon. 

Top with some fresh chopped parsley, basil or dill.

This was really good with cottage cheese-almond flour-cheese biscuits I made the other day.

Ahhh soup! For me, 'soup season' is 12 months of the year. .😊. .Lin

Coconut Tomato-Vegetable Bisque (with compound butter parmesan biscuits)

SO many vegetables!

This is what I started with. If you substitute English cucumber for the squash, it's very similar to the ingredients for my Gazpacho!

I only roasted those shown on the cookie sheet: squash, purple onion, carrots, cabbage, small tomatoes and garlic. The others have more delicate or fresh flavors, and are best with minimal cooking. 

Drizzle with single source EVOO, season with your favorite vegetable seasonings then roast until golden at 350° for 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut up the other vegetables and saute on low heat, starting with the green pepper and celery.

Saute in 2T each:
Better Than Bouillon-vegetable, EVOO, water. After about 10 minutes, stir in the cut up grape tomatoes and green onions. When it begins to bubble again, cover and move off the burner.

Stir in the rough chopped roasted vegetables, the can of stewed tomatoes, 1-2t coconut or brown sugar.

Simmer everything an additional 10 minutes. Blend with an immersion blender until it reaches the smoothness you want. At the end, blend in some fresh basil, then stir in 1 or 2 cans of coconut milk. I used 2 cans this time.

I made some biscuits, in a muffin tin, to go with this. Crack open a can of 8 jumbos, cut each biscuit in 4 pieces putting 3 in each paper-lined muffin cup in a 12 tin. 8 will be bigger ones with 4 being smaller, having only 2 biscuit pieces.

Top each with about 1T grated parmesan-romano cheese. Drizzle with melted butter seasoned with garlic salt, pepper, Italian seasonings. Bake until the tops are nicely browned. If there is extra butter, butter the tops when they are cooled a bit. . .Lin

Whole 30 - Langostino Bisque

This was a fun recipe to create! 😃

The end result was a little too thin - too much bone broth - as well as a bit too lemony. Nevertheless, it's really a great bisque, but I think my favorite of all has been each of my Crawfish Bisques.

Saute the chopped carrots, potatoes, green pepper 2 of the garlic cloves-minced, and celery into a couple tablespoons of butter or ghee, in a 4 quart soup pot.

Sprinkle this with Himalayan pink salt, black + cayenne pepper and Old Bay seasoning, then saute and let it sizzle together a few minutes. Add some bone broth, cover and simmer 7-8 minutes.

Next add 2-3T of lobster Better Than Bouillon, 2-3T pure tomato paste, the kale, celery tops, 5-6 chopped green onions and the other 3 crushed-minced garlic cloves and 5 oz. of the langostino to the pot. (If you're not restricting alcohol, 1/2c or so of a good cooking Sherry could be added now.) Stir, cover and simmer, on low heat, another 7-8 minutes. Then remove from the burner to cool just a little.

Cut the remaining 7oz. of whole langostino into smaller pieces, drizzle with a little pure lemon juice, and set aside until after the bisque has been blended.

Once everything except the lemon-marinated langostino has been added to the pot and simmered, then cooled slightly, pour in the can of coconut milk, then use your immersion blender to blend everything - a little bit, or smooth, your choice.

At the very end, stir in the langostino and the lemon juice they were marinating in. 

Reheat, just until barely bubbling, stir and ladle into bowls. Garnish and serve accompanied by whatever crunchy things you like. This would pair nicely with a Chef's Salad or just a big bowl of chopped mixed greens (and crusty bread if you're not restricting grains.) . . . Lin

Another Blended Tomato-Vegetable Soup

This turned out so well! I tasted it with and without the coconut milk, and it's great both ways.

Chop the celery and carrot and saute in Greek Kalamata extra virgin olive oil. When the aromas start to release, add 1 medium onion and lots of fresh garlic, chopped. Add the seasonings of your choice, I used black pepper, smokey paprika, garlic salt, a blend of ground-dried vegetable seasoning, from Costco, and some vegetable Better Than Bouillon.

Stir in the stewed and diced tomatoes. Rinse the can's with fresh, cold water and add 36oz. or so to the pot. Simmer everything, over low heat, for an hour or two. Blend with an immersion blender, then check the flavors. Add a little coconut sugar if too acidic and make any other adjustments to the seasonings. 

Let this cool a bit if you're adding the coconut milk. Just stir that in and reheat to a very low simmer. Serve with oyster crackers or a grilled cheese sandwich. The next day I made some stir-fry steak, potatoes and asparagus and served that in a bowl with a scoop of this soup over the top. That was also excellent! Like a chunky tomato-cream gravy. . .Lin

Roasted Spicy Tomato—Vegetable Soup

Scrub and rough cut the vegetables for roasting.

4 Roma tomatoes
3 mini bell peppers
3 red or Yukon Gold potatoes
6 big peeled garlic cloves
1 med.—lg. purple onion
4 carrots

Put this group of vegetables in a big bowl, drizzle with EVOO to coat everything then pour onto parchment paper lined baking sheets with edges. Roast at 375° until nicely browned.

After roasting, if possible, peel the skin off the tomatoes and peppers and throw that away. Transfer the roasted vegetables to the pot with the celery. 

3 ribs of celery

You'll want to keep the celery, and the other greens more fresh, so  those don't get roasted. Put the chopped-sliced celery in EVOO, in a 6 quart soup pot. and sauté a few minutes before adding the roasted vegetables. To this you'll add about 52oz. canned tomatoes:

1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 14.5oz. can diced tomatoes
1 28oz. can diced tomatoes (not shown)

Rinse the cans, adding about 28oz. of that water, then stir in the seasonings and coconut milk:

2T± vegetable Better Than Bouillon
1T± Lowry's Garlic Salt
1t± powdered rosemary
1t± powdered oregano
2t coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
1 13.6oz. can coconut milk

Simmer this on low heat about 15 minutes. Blend with an immersion blender, then check the flavors. Blend in the following greens:

1/2 bunch of Italian parsley
celery tops
some fresh basil

Serve this with a dusting of fresh grated strong flavored cheese, and oyster crackers.

This will feed lots of hungry people. . .Lin

German Potato Salad Soup

I thawed a package of 6 Quail and also 1 Pheasant to roast over the weekend for a family get together after church this past Sunday. Rather than a fussy sit-down roast poultry dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, etc. I decided to keep it casual. I made an interesting version of something similar to German Potato Salad and a cucumber, tomato, onion salad to go with the roasted meat. After lunch, I took off all the meat, packaged that, and made a pot of bone broth with the bones and skin.

I'll probably make a stroganoff sort of thing with the leftover meat, either all 18oz. of it, or half and use a chicken salad recipe for the rest, so stay tuned for those.

Meanwhile, I still had leftover hot potato salad to turn into something else. Today I decided to make soup, using mashed up potato salad as the focal ingredient. This potato salad has onion, celery, dill pickles, mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, a bit of sugar, salt, pepper, and crumbled bacon. Mashing it somehow seemed the logical thing to do.

Slice-chop the scrubbed vegetables shown: carrots, celery, green pepper and garlic. Sauté these a few minutes in 2-3T butter. Add a couple ladles of bone broth, cover and simmer with seasonings and bay leaves for about 15 minutes until they're all tender. Remove the bay leaves, then mash everything in the pot to a rough-mash stage with a potato masher.

Add the mashed potato salad, stir to combine. Ladle in more bone broth to make it just barely 'soupy.' Simmer this on low for 5-10 minutes. Check the flavor, then stir in a can of coconut milk if you'd like, or just stick with bone broth, using enough to make the consistency right for a rustic soup. Serve with a little shredded cheese on top. . .Lin

I had a bowl of this, made with coconut milk, without cheese on top, and I have to say, it's for sure one of the most interesting soups I've ever eaten! 

A one of a kind recipe, and since there's 3 quarts of it, I'll be working on this pot for a while. It's surprisingly good!

Shawarma Chicken, Vegetables and Pasta

I found a double pack - 2 1# packages - of sliced chicken in an Indian Shawarma sauce at Costco recently.  The ingredients are actually very healthy, and it's almost gluten free. Wheat flour was the last ingredient, so for those of us trying to back away from that, it's a good choice. 

It sounded so good, although I hadn't a clue how to make actual Chicken Shawarma, and decided not to find out. I just went with vegetables I had here. The sauce was surprisingly mild. I served it to my Granddaughter and her two little guys yesterday and everyone ate it! I was going to serve it over rice, but instead, decided on angel hair pasta, since it's my #1 Granddaughter's favorite.

2 sm.-med. dark green zucchini

1 med. light green variegated zucchini

equal amounts of butter + EVOO about 5T total

black pepper

Sauté the zucchini over medium heat while chopping or slicing:

1/2 red bell pepper

1/2 green bell pepper

1/2 orange or yellow bell pepper

1/2 big Vidalia or purple onion

2 big garlic cloves

1# sliced chicken in Shawarma sauce

1 28oz. can of good quality diced tomatoes

Add these vegetables to the pan when the zucchini starts to turn translucent. Remove the chicken from the pack, add any sauce left in the pack to the pot. 

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and add these, and the diced tomatoes, when the vegetables are still crisp-tender. Check the seasonings and make any corrections or additions. 

At the end, cool this a bit then add a 13.5oz. can coconut milk or coconut cream, and 1c honey roasted peanuts.

Serve over cooked, chilled and reheated pasta or rice. Much healthier since this creates a base that's considered resistant starch. . .Lin

Celery Vegetable Soup

Every once in a while, when grocery shopping, I discover some awesome vegetable to build a recipe around. On Tuesday I found some celery that was spectacular! I picked 2 and probably should have bought more. This went together quick and was a fun soup to make.

Snip the celery greens off the stalks and set aside, with the garlic chives, to add at the end of the cooking time.

Chop the vegetables and sauté together in 2-3T of butter in a big heavy bottom soup pot.

1 big bunch of celery
1 lg. Vidalia onion
4 sm. red potatoes
8 lg. cloves garlic
8oz. mushrooms
2 carrots

Season while cooking with pepper, garlic salt and a good salt-free herb blend.

Add 2-3 quarts of water and enough vegetable based Better Than Bouillon to give the broth the flavor you want. 

Simmer this for 30-40 minutes until the celery and carrots are cooked the way you like. I did NOT use the cream of mushroom soup shown. Instead, I added about half a can of coconut milk.

Serve chunky, or blend with an immersion or stand blender. Shown with Dubliner Crisps. Biscuits or warm crusty garlic bread would be nice with this too. . .Lin

Rotisserie Chicken —> Chicken Curry with Vegetables

I've never bought a rotisserie chicken! 😯

I was hungry while shopping recently and kept smelling something WONDERFUL! I followed my nose right to it. I'd been looking at skinless-boneless chicken breasts that looked great, but really expensive. THIS was only $4.99!!! I was sure the sign was wrong and it would ring up at $4.99 / pound since that's about what those breasts cost and they were uncooked. At that point, I was prepared to pay it though, the scent was heavenly! Got it home and found it was a 5-Pound Chicken - for $4.99!

We had part of the chicken on Sunday, when I had my granddaughter and her family over after church. It was excellent, and there's still SO much left! Today I decided to turn some of this into curry. The bones, skin and cooking juices, that were inside the container it was sold in, will become bone broth and a simple Chicken Soup.

Slice or chop, then sauté the first group of vegetables, for 10 minutes. Add the next group and continue to simmer and stir over low-medium heat until the carrots start to soften, another 10-15 minutes. Keep covered between stirs.

2T coconut oil
2 sliced carrots
6oz. sliced celery
8oz. mixed mushrooms
~ (shown in a 1# container, but I only used half)

6 green onions

1 med. purple onion

4 colorful mini peppers

Add the curry, fruit and nuts, and chicken. Bring back to a simmer. Heat and stir 5 minutes, then add the coconut milk, stir, cover and turn off the heat.

18oz. red Thai curry sauce

1c craisins or dried fruit bits

1c honey roasted peanuts

8oz. chicken cut in 1" pieces

13.5oz. coconut milk

Ladle in a bowl, as is for sort of a curry stew. Or serve over rice or pasta. . .Lin

A Southwest-Curried-Up Chowder Revision

When I'm making food, especially for others, I never want to run out with hungry people wanting more. Years ago, back in my late '20's, in charge of coordinating our church's potluck dinners. I delegated for a while, until I realized not everyone had the same food philosophy as mine. A woman I asked to do the main course seriously underplanned. I was horrified. When I approached her, she said, 'They won't starve, there are other things they can eat.' Well, this was the only hot dish and we had enough to serve about half of the people 😟 From then on, she was in charge of finding volunteers to help with kitchen clean-up, after our dinners. When leading people, it's important to observe note their weaknesses and build on their strengths.

There is a downside to this however. Often I'll make way too much of something. Then, so it doesn't go to waste, I often combine it with my dogs' dry food. They love this 'downside!' This chowder has garlic and onion, so that can't happen. Yesterday I had surprise visitors for lunch so I added a can of diced tomatoes to give it a little color and change the flavor up a bit. I didn't realize how much it needed more seasoning however. It was really bland. This morning, I still have a couple quarts left. . .Hmmm, what to do?

I've mentioned before, how by changing the texture and or the flavor palette a bit, can turn anything into something totally new and different. That's what I'm doing this morning. I wanted to add heat, nuttiness, warm spice, smokiness, lemon and coconut. This is the chowder I posted 5 recipes below. In addition to yesterday's tomatoes, this morning I added: 

1T curry powder

1T ground cumin

1/2T Arizona chipotle blend

1t Penzeys Trinidad

1-2t pumpkin pie spice

...salt-lemon-garlic-cloves+ginger

1T frozen, finely-chopped lemongrass

2/3c natural, organic peanut butter 

1 can coconut milk

1 baked, peeled, sweet potato

Stir, then cover and simmer on low until everything is quietly bubbling, for just a few minutes. Hit it with your immersion blender, let simmer on low again for 5 minutes. Check flavors and add whatever is needed: brown sugar? more pepper? ginger? salt? etc.

Since the soup base of this new creation is a couple days old, be sure it comes to a good simmer each time you serve it. It will only keep a few more days. For breakfast today, I had a bowl with a sprinkle of smokey paprika, dots of sour cream sauce, a little dry dill and some macadamia nuts 😁 

Be Creative, try something new when you're bored with a recipe. You eat every day - so - dust off that kitchen - COOK - Have fun with it! . 😁 . .Lin

Winter Squash Soup

All of a sudden, it was Squash Overload in my kitchen!

My daughter and I split the Red Kuri and the Black Japanese Futsu squash, in the front left. I decided to roast my halves with the big Butternut Squash. No oil, salt, pepper. . .nothing this time, just plain cut squash.

I cleaned out the seeds then roasted the squash pieces at 375° for almost an hour. I couldn't believe how easily the skins came off! I usually attempt to peel them before roasting! What a struggle that is! (the bright yellow Delicata, Sweet Dumpling and Carnival will be another recipe, or two in the next few days.)

When the squash is done, put it on the counter to cool a bit. Peel it and put it aside until the aromatic vegetables have sautéed. Once the pieces were peeled, their total weight was 4½#.

Chop and Sauté:

1 medium winter onion

1 lg. purple shallot

1 lg. garlic clove

2 stalks of celery (with the finely chopped tops added later) in 2T coconut oil or EVOO

Stir in 1-2t fresh ground black pepper

¼-½t cayenne pepper

2T coconut sugar

When this begins to brown, add a little water. Eventually, you'll add a total of 3 cups, a little at a time. Put the squash into the pot and break it up with a wooden spoon or a potato masher. Add the celery tops, the rest of the water, and:

2-3T vegetable or chicken Better Than Bouillon

2T pumpkin pie spice

Simmer 15 minutes. Blend* this with a regular blender or an immersion blender. Add a 14oz. can of coconut milk, stir and heat again to just a low simmer. Serve with some craisins, a little dab of sour cream and a sprinkle of spiced turbinado sugar. The sweetness brings out the flavor of the squash. . .Lin

*If you like your soup really smooth, silky and glistening, use a regular blender. I like mine with a little texture, so I used my immersion blender.

Roasted Beet Soup

1# sm. beets
2T coconut oil
salt and pepper
6 unpeeled garlic cloves (not shown)

20-24oz. coconut milk from a carton
1T organic local honey
1t-1T pumpkin pie spice

Scrub the beets well. Cut off the tops, tails and any bad spots, but don't peel them. Chop-slice them into 1" pieces into a glass loaf pan. Roast at 375° for 45-60 minutes. After 15 minutes, add the garlic cloves, flip everything around in the pan with a wooden spoon, to coat with the oil and seasonings.

After roasting, when cool enough to touch, peel the garlic and put it back in the pan with the beets. Pour the next group of ingredients over everything. Stir to combine everything then pour it all into a blender. Blend until smooth. -OR- scoop out all the solids into a food processor. Add all the liquid, a little at a time, and process only until the texture is the way you like it. Blending creates a very smooth soup. The food processor would leave more texture.

For toppings, I added a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of dry dill.  Sunflower seeds, pine nuts, or pumpkin seeds and croutons would also be good. . . 😉 Lin

(to avoid a real scare in the bathroom, be advised - this color will go right through you within the next day or two 😳 when it happens, remember, it's due to a colorful beta carotene type substance in beets called betanin, NOT blood and it's healthy, not harmful)

Coconut Fruit Smoothie

1c coconut milk - from a carton

2c mixed frozen fruit - today I used

pineapple, mango, strawberries, blueberries

1c plain Greek yogurt

1T± Mexican vanilla

Put everything in a blender jar, pulse and blend until smooth.

My neighbor texted me yesterday to see if I wanted some extra coconut milk they had. I've used canned coconut milk before, but never this, the thinner type, in a carton. This Stuff Is Good!  For a while now, the liquid in my yogurt-fruit smoothies has been a variety of fruit juices. I like this much better. It seems to create a more natural balance of flavors, plus it's lower in sugar than fruit juice.

These amounts made 2 big servings, containing 240 calories each. Ohhh, this was good! Give it a try!  Get creative with your fruit choices. Bananas, frozen cranberries, frozen cherries, a whole-unpeeled mandarin orange are also excellent choices.  .😃. .Lin

Carrot-Coconut-Ginger Soup

Combine these ingredients in a bowl then pour onto a parchment lined sheet pan and roast at 425° for 30-45 minutes.  

16-20oz. fresh carrots cut in 1/4"-1/2" slices

2T coconut oil melted

salt and pepper

While the carrots are roasting, sauté and stir the following, for about 10 minutes, or until slightly brown and caramelizing:

1-1/2c chopped onion
1T coconut oil

Then add to the pot and simmer 20 minutes:

a little water - about 1c now, by the end, a total of 4 cups
5 cloves minced garlic
1/4c chopped poblano pepper
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1-1/2 oz candied ginger...
...(or a 1"-2" cube of fresh ginger, peeled and minced)
1t turmeric
1t pumpkin pie spice
cayenne, black pepper, sea salt
1T coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
1T Better than Bouillon chicken or vegetable
~ also add the roasted carrots

Simmer this until the carrots are soft, then blend with an immersion blender.  At the end, stir in 1 can of thick coconut milk, or coconut cream. (not the kind you can hear sloshing when you shake it) Bring this back to a simmer, garnish and serve. Today I garnished with roasted pumpkin seeds, sour cream and dill.

This soup was a surprise to me!  The lemon was the perfect amount for brightening up all the flavors. Also, in the past, when I've made an orange blended soup, it was mostly sweet potato, butternut or acorn squash - with a carrot or two thrown in - or not. Using just carrots gave this an interesting delicate flavor. . .

Remember it's ALWAYS soup season! Just figure out what kind you're craving! . .Lin

Roasted Vegetable and Kabocha Squash Soup

• 1 Kabocha Squash - a.k.a. Japanese Pumpkin
• 5 sm. Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 med. sweet potato
• a few garlic cloves
• 2 ribs of celery
• Little's Chili Lime Seasoning Blend
• Moroccan extra virgin olive oil

Scrub the squash, cut it in half and scrape out the seeds, rub with EVOO. Rough cut - chunk the vegetables, toss in EVOO, arrange on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  Sprinkle everything with Little's Chili Lime and roast in a 400° oven for one hour.

Like Old Mother Hubbard, my 'fridge, pantry and cupboard are currently bare!  I only had 2 cloves of garlic and no onion at all today, but wanted to make this soup. Last fall, I had an abundance of vegetables so I simmered and blended some for a red sauce. I also made 2c packages of chopped, fresh vegetables and froze the sauce and vegetables, for such a time as this. When you have extra vegetables from the grocery store, Farmer's Market or your garden, decide the best way to preserve them for a future time, when your stash is low. Freezing works well for me.

• 2c frozen red sauce
• 1/3c Moroccan EVOO
• 2c fresh, chopped, frozen vegetables
• tomato, onion, pepper, celery, garlic, carrot

While the squash and other vegetables are roasting, slowly simmer-thaw the ingredients above, in a 4-6 quart pot.  Cook at a low bubble, for 10  minutes, then cover and turn off the heat. Cooking isn't really necessary, but I recommend it since raising the temperature develops the lycopene in the tomatoes, which is a powerful antioxidant. However, it's good to include them in your diet in their fresh-raw state as well, since they're an excellent source of vitamin C when eaten right off the vine.

When everything in the pot has cooled a little, add the following.

• 1 can coconut milk
• 2t turbinado sugar
• 2-3t Little's Chili Lime
• 2-3t curry powder
• 1t cinnamon
• 1/2t nutmeg
• 1-2T dark balsamic vinegar

Sweet Bowl

After the vegetables are roasted and are cool enough to touch, scoop out the squash, cut the vegetables a little more then add everything to the big pot. Add a little water or vegetable broth to get a good balance of solids and liquid. Blend with an immersion blender, then simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Check the flavor and thickness, adding more seasoning or liquid if needed.

Savory Bowl

Serve, garnished with sour cream, croutons, cilantro, fresh lime or lemon zest and juice.

The Sweet Bowl was topped with a dab of plain Greek yogurt, sunflower seeds, parsley, cayenne pepper, and some thin sliced crystalized ginger.

The Savory Bowl had small chunks of cooked roast beef, walnuts, cashews, cayenne and coarse salt. Pick a flavor profile then run with it!

Remember - Be Bold - Be Creative!  Cook Up Some Good Food. . .Lin