Panera Chicken & Wild Rice Soup (Crockpot Copycat)

Because I have a food blog, you probably think that I cook all of the time. No. In fact, I have managed to get it down to no more than three, maybe four days a week. I'm not all that different from you, some days I like to cook, but some days I really don't. Unfortunately, even on the days when I don't want to cook I still have to eat. So I always seek the path of least resistance, and by that I mean the crockpot.

It's warm and breezy as I write this, but big changes are in the air. Next week the highs are going to be in the 40s, the lows in the 30s, my kind of fall weather. I cleaned out the fireplace today, set a fire, and decided a big batch of chicken and wild rice soup would be perfect. I had seen the copycat recipe for Panera's Chicken & Wild Rice Soup, but the thought of paying attention to something on the stove was not appealing. I took a look at the recipe, and just knew that it could be easily done in the crockpot.

As it turned out, I was right! Essentially, after I chopped the celery, carrots, and onion, I threw everything into the crockpot (including an entire frozen breast of chicken), with the exception of the dairy ingredients. Because I had thrown the chicken in frozen, I cranked it up to high and let it do its thing for about six hours. At that point, I removed the chicken, cut it into bite-size pieces, added it back to the pot, along with the cream and cornstarch slurry, and had a wonderfully delicious and soothing soup. The remainder of it went into single serve containers (I use these, that also make soup easy for gifting.) that I marked and stuck in the freezer. I am set with chicken soup all winter.

Panera Chicken & Wild Rice Soup (Crockpot Copycat)

6 cups homemade chicken stock
1 large chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces (or not)
1 box Rice-A-Roni Long Grain & Wild Rice
2 large carrots, sliced
2 large ribs of celery, sliced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup water

Spray the interior of your 6-quart slow cooker with Pam. Place all ingredients EXCEPT the heavy cream, cornstarch, and water, into the slow cooker in the order listed. Set to "high" and cook 5 to 6 hours, until vegetables are fork tender and the chicken and rice are done. 

Remove chicken (if, like me, you tossed in an entire breast), cut into bite-size pieces and return meat to the pot. Pour in heavy cream stirring to combine. Mix 2 tablespoons cornstarch with 1/4 cup water whisking to ensure there are no lumps, and stir into the soup. Return the lid, and allow to cook another 15 minutes until it reaches desired thickness. 

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Full Plate Thursday, Dishing It & Digging It, Cooking & Crafting with J&J, Amaze Me Monday, Busy Mondays, Make it Pretty Monday, Celebrate Your Story, O My Heartsie Girls Wonderful Wednesday,  Homestead Wednesday, Wow Us Wednesday, Wine’d Down Wednesday, Grace at Home, Friday at the Fire Station, Foodie Friday & Everything Else, Create, Bake, Grow and Gather, Share Your Style, Simple Saturday Blog Hop, A Bouquet of Talent, Paula's No Rules Weekend Blog Party, What’s for Dinner Sunday, Happiness is Homemade Sunday

Butternut Squash and Roasted Red Pepper Soup

I always think of autumn as the season for making soup. I love to make use of vegetables that are just coming to harvest, of which butternut squash is one. When it comes to Butternut Squash Soup, there are two different varieties -- sweet (seasoned with warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg), and savory. These days I am rocking to the beat of the savory music, so I chose the latter.

I love the color of Butternut Squash Soup, but wanted to do something different from the norm, and really have that color blazing like the late fall leaves that I love. So, I adapted the recipe that appears on the back of the box of Melissa's Peeled and Steamed Butternut Squash (If you haven't tried this, you must, it makes soup making so easy.) to include another of their products (and a personal favorite), Fire Roasted Sweet Red Bell Peppers.

You all know by now that I am a huge fan of red bell peppers, so I wondered what it would be like to add them to my soup. The end result was quite tasty. In fact, I tasted so much that I should have just sat down and had a bowl. It was that good (and how adorably cute does it look served in these cabbage demitasse cups?). If you are ready to welcome autumn with a delicious bowl of nourishing soup, I recommend this one.

Butternut Squash and Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Adapted from Melissa’s Produce

2 shallots, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 8.8-oz. package Melissa’s Peeled and Steamed Butternut Squash
1 teaspoon fresh ginger root, minced
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup orange juice
2 whole Melissa's Fire Roasted Sweet Red Bell Peppers, chopped
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Feta (for garnish)
Fresh basil, cut in julienne strips (for garnish)
Bacon, cooked and crumbled (for garnish)

In a medium soup pot, sauté the shallots and garlic in butter until tender. Add the squash, fresh ginger, and broth, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in orange juice, red peppers, salt, and cayenne. Using an immersion blender, purée mixture until smooth and creamy (If you don't have an immersion blender, use a stand blender or food processor to purée soup). Ladle into individual bowls and served topped with a dollop of sour cream, julienne strips of fresh basil, and crumbled bacon. This soup is equally good warm or cold, and keeps well in the fridge.

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This post is linked to:

What’s for Dinner Sunday

Happiness is Homemade Sunday

Cooking & Crafting with J&J

Dishing It & Digging It

Amaze Me Monday

Busy Mondays

Make it Pretty Monday

Celebrate Your Story

Inspire Me Tuesday

Reader Tip Tuesday

Tuesdays with a Twist

The Scoop

Dream, Create, Inspire

O My Heartsie Girls Wonderful Wednesday
 Homestead Wednesday

Wow Us Wednesday

Wine’d Down Wednesday

Full Plate Thursday

Grace at Home

Coffee and Conversation

Friday at the Fire Station
Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Create, Bake, Grow and Gather
Share Your Style

Simple Saturday Blog Hop

A Bouquet of Talent

Paula's No Rules Weekend Blog Party

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Cuban Black Bean Soup From Fountain on Locust

Don't you love it when you see a recipe that you want to make, and know that you have all of the ingredients on hand? This is where I found myself last Wednesday while paging through the food section of the Post-Dispatch, spotting a recipe for black bean soup served by a popular eatery in the city called Fountain on Locust. Or, at least I thought I had all the ingredients. As it turned out, I only had one can of black beans, because I’d used the other can in a dip that I’ll be telling you about later.

As long as I didn't have two cans of black beans, I decided to use one can of black beans and one can of cannellini beans. Then, I realized that I didn't have enough homemade chicken stock, so I decided, what the heck, I'll just use 4 teaspoons of ham soup base dissolved in 4 cups of water. Then I thought, huh, I have a ham bone in the freezer, so why not toss it in for good measure?

I knew I wasn't going to stand in front of the stove for all of this -- I didn't want to be bothered with that -- so I threw everything into the crockpot. It turned out to be wonderful soup the way I made it, but I'm sure it's equally as good the way Fountain on Locust makes it as well. The original recipe is below, and it's vegetarian; if you don't mind eating meat and you’d like to try my version, just replace one can of black beans with cannellini, use ham stock, and toss it all into the crockpot with a ham bone. (I let it go on “low” all day long, so about 8 to 10 hours. At the 4-hour spot, I removed the ham bone, cut off the ham, diced it, and added it back into the crockpot, and continued to let it cook until I was ready for dinner.) I garnished with sour cream, diced avocado, diced tomatoes, black olives, and cilantro. It was a meal in a bowl!

Tasty! 

Cuban Black Bean Soup From Fountain on Locust

As appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ medium green pepper, seeded and dice

½ yellow or white onion — not sweet — peeled and diced

½ cup diced carrot piece

¼ cup diced red roasted peppers (I used Melissa’s Fire Roasted Sweet Red Bell Peppers)

1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic

2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, approximately 4 cups, drained and rinsed

4 cups vegetable broth

1 cup crushed tomatoes

¾ teaspoon ground cumin

½ to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, to taste

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon chili powder

1 tablespoon malt vinegar

2 cups cooked rice

½ cup sour cream (optional)

Notes: At the Fountain on Locust, most soups are made a day ahead of serving to allow the flavors to blend.

• The Fountain serves this soup over rice and garnishes it with sour cream. The soup is vegetarian; vegan if no sour cream is added.

1. Pour olive oil into a large 4- or 5-quart heavy-bottom pan. Swirl to coat the bottom, then place over medium-high heat until the oil begins to shimmer.

2. Add chopped green pepper, onions, carrots and roasted red peppers, stir to blend, reduce heat to medium and cook until vegetables begin to soften. Add minced garlic, stir, and cook 1 minute longer.

3. Add drained and rinsed beans, broth, tomatoes, cumin, red pepper flakes, black pepper and chili powder. Stir to blend and simmer until done. If needed, add more broth to the soup to achieve desired consistency.

4. Remove from heat and allow to cool a little. Stir in the malt vinegar.

5. Divide rice evenly into bowls. Ladle soup over the rice. If desired, add a dollop of sour cream for garnish and serve.

Yield: 6 large servings or 8 medium bowls

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Happiness is Homemade Sunday

Dishing It & Digging It

Cooking & Crafting with J&J

Amaze Me Monday

Busy Mondays

Art of Homemaking Monday
Make it Pretty Monday

Celebrate Your Story

Inspire Me Tuesday

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Tuesdays with a Twist

The Scoop

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Wow Us Wednesday

Wine’d Down Wednesday

Moonlight and Mason Jars
Full Plate Thursday

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The Mystery of the Green Soup

If this post doesn't illustrate the importance of labels, then I don't know what does. In my annual spring effort of emptying out foods in the freezer, today I decided to have what appeared to be split pea soup for lunch. When I cooked during the winter, I froze soups, stews, and various meals in single-serve containers to make future meals easy for myself. It's rainy and gloomy today, with a slight chill in the air, so I thawed pea soup, put it into a small saucepan, and heated it up. When I tasted it, I realized that it was not pea soup at all. In fact, I honestly had no clue as to what kind it was.  It was tasty, but was not leek soup, or asparagus soup, or spinach soup, or pea. The jury is still out as to whether or not it was zucchini soup. Whatever it was, it was very good, but this is certainly going to be a lesson for me in the future to be sure to label all of my containers!

With spring here, you might be interested in making some green soup of your own. Here are my favorites. Click on the name beneath the soup to be taken directly to the recipe.

Scallion Soup

Magpie's Asparagus Soup

St. Louis-Style Cream of Broccoli Soup

Cream of Celery Soup

Fresh and Creamy Asparagus Soup with Tarragon

Christmas Ham & Split Pea Soup

Split Pea Soup

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Cream of Asparagus Soup 2

Broccoli, Red Pepper, and Three Cheese Soup

Cheesy Leek and Broccoli Soup

Zucchini Vichyssoise

Brussels Sprouts Bisque

St. Louis Bread Company’s Broccoli Cheese Soup

Chilled Cucumber-Avocado Soup

 

This post is linked to:

Dishing It & Digging It

Cooking & Crafting with J&J

Amaze Me Monday

Busy Mondays

Art of Homemaking Monday

Celebrate Your Story
Inspire Me Tuesday

Tuesdays At Our Home

Tuesdays with a Twist

The Scoop

Dream, Create, Inspire
 Homestead Wednesday

Wow Us Wednesday

Wine’d Down Wednesday

Moonlight and Mason Jars
Full Plate Thursday

Thursday Favorite Things
Home Sweet Home
Weekend Linky Party
Grace at Home

Coffee and Conversation
Foodie Friday & Everything Else

 

Beer Pimiento Cheese Soup

It's “Sip Some Soup Sunday,” and have I got a soup for you! No matter the season, soup is always a nice meal, or nice accompaniment to a meal. This soup is one of my new favorites -- no surprise here because it's a pimiento cheese variety. You all know my love for pimiento cheese, so I was very excited to try this recipe from the No Spoon Needed blog. What makes it extra good is the inclusion of beer. Keep in mind, as always, the better your ingredients, the better your finished product. I have been using Corner Kick Coffee Stout from local brewery, Six Mile Bridge, located in a suburb of St. Louis, MO called Maryland Heights. I'm not a beer drinker, but love it for cooking because of the richness, the depth of taste, and complex flavor. It does amazing things to this soup! If you're not a local, be sure you get a nice, rich stout if you plan to try this recipe.

Earlier in the week when I made Red Pepper and Herb Spread, I told you that it could be used in a variety of ways. In my last post I showed it to you as a component in a Veggie Sandwich. Today I'm telling you that it makes a superb topper for this soup. The flavors, the richness, the herbs, all melted into the soup enhance it, making it out of this world! Make the spread, make the soup, and you will delight anyone who consumes it, even if it's only you.

Beer Pimiento Cheese Soup

Slighted adapted from No Spoon Needed

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups homemade chicken stock
12 oz. Corner Kick Coffee Stout (or your favorite stout or dark ale)
1- 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded
1 whole pepper from a 7 oz. jar of Melissa’s Fire Roasted Sweet Red Bell Peppers, finely diced
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large stock pot melt butter over medium heat. Add the onion, and salt and pepper to taste, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the flour, and cook, stirring constantly, until well combined, about 2 minutes.

Slowly stir in the stock and stout. Increase heat to medium-high, and, whisking constantly, bring to a rapid simmer. Cook until thickened, about eight minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in the cream, Dijon, Worcestershire, and hot sauce. Bring to a simmer, and then reduce heat to medium low. Cook, whisking occasionally, until creamy, about five minutes.

Stir in the cheeses, a cup at a time, whisking after each addition. Continue whisking until smooth. Stir in the chopped red peppers, taste and season with additional salt and pepper, if needed.

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Inspiration Monday

Art of Homemaking Monday
Make it Pretty Monday

Celebrate Your Story
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Brio Tuscan Grille's TOMATO BISQUE

No matter the season, when it comes to comfort food, soup in particular, nothing satisfies like tomato soup. It was probably one of the first soups most of us experienced. It was creamy and warm and comforting and flavorful, and that soup eating experience stayed with us our entire lives. Now, as an adult, there is no more soup in a can for me, I make my own. 

I have a lot of good recipes for tomato soup, but this is one of my favorites. It's from Brio Tuscan Grille and was published in the Post-Dispatch years ago. Every time I make it and serve it, people go crazy. It's rich and caloric, so the best way to serve this is in a cup (or a Lotus Soup Bowl). It's a must try, so relax, put your feet up, and enjoy a delicious bowl of homemade tomato bisque on Sip Some Soup Sunday.

​TOMATO BISQUE

Makes 8 (1 cup) servings.

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 (14 oz.) cans chicken broth
2 (14 oz.) cans vegetable broth
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
2 1/4 cups canned tomato puree
1 (0.4 oz.) package Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
6 tablespoons cornstarch
2/3 cup water
4 cups heavy cream

In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour; cook, stirring, 3 minutes. Whisk in chicken and vegetable broths; add bouillon, whisking until it dissolves. Bring to a boil. Whisk in tomato paste and puree. Add dry ranch dressing mix; stir until smooth. Simmer 15 minutes over low heat.

In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water; stir until smooth. Stir into soup. Increase heat to medium; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low; cook 4 minutes. Stir in cream; cook until hot, but do not let return to a boil.

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Dishing It & Digging It

Cooking & Crafting with J&J

Amaze Me Monday

Busy Mondays

Art of Homemaking Monday
Make it Pretty Monday

Celebrate Your Story
Inspire Me Tuesday
Full Plate Thursday

Foodie Friday & Everything Else

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Slow Cooker Jambalaya

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It's "Sip Some Soup Sunday," and while I know jambalaya is not soup, I served it as both a main dish, and a side soup, and it was delicious both ways. How perfect is having a recipe that you can serve in two different ways, and it only gets better every time? 

This is yet another stupidly easy crockpot dish. (I know you think I use my crockpot way too much. I probably do, but the food that I have been cranking out in this house day after day has been amazingly good). It's different from a lot of recipes for jambalaya because the rice is not cooked in the pot along with the rest of the ingredients. Really, when I have jambalaya, no matter what recipe I use, I like to serve the rice alongside so that people can take as much or as little as they like. But, because the rice is not stirred into the dish, this jambalaya seems to be extra juicy. So, what I did, when I decided to serve it with rice as the main dish, I scooped it out of the pot with a slotted spoon and placed it alongside the rice and then spooned a little juice over it. What was left over I put into the fridge. The next day I ladled both the juice and meats, shrimp, and vegetables into a soup cup and I had it with a side salad and crusty roll. It was so good as soup that I was tempted to just forget using rice at all, and refer to it as New Orleans Jambalaya Soup. Needless to say, I love the versatility of this dish, and I also love that it only gets better the longer it stays in the fridge.

So, you can sip some soup today, or you can have a flavorful main dish, this recipe is two in one!

Slow Cooker Jambalaya

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken thighs - cut into 1 inch cubes

1 lb. andouille sausage, sliced

1 (28-oz.) can diced tomatoes with juice

1 large onion, chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

1 c. chopped celery

1 c. homemade chicken stock

2 t. dried oregano

2 t. dried parsley

2 t. Cajun seasoning

1/2 t. cayenne pepper

1/2 t. dried thyme

1 lb. frozen cooked shrimp without tails

In a slow cooker, mix the chicken, sausage, tomatoes with juice, onion, green bell pepper, celery, and broth. Season with oregano, parsley, Cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper, and thyme.

Cover, and cook 7 to 8 hours on Low, or 3 to 4 hours on High. Stir in the shrimp during the last 30 minutes of cook time.

This post is linked to: Inspire Me Tuesday, Tuesdays At Our Home, Celebrate Your Story, Homemaking Party Tuesday, Wow Us Wednesday,  Wine’d Down Wednesday, Wake up Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things, Share Your Style, Coffee and Conversation, and Foodie Friday & Everything Else