Chinese Chicken & Mushroom Soup

We’ve been seeing a lot of crazy rain recently here in Baltimore. So despite it being June, it’s been great soup weather!

This is what I call “fork-and-spoon-soup”, because the soba noodles are hard to tackle with a spoon, but you don’t want to miss any of the delicious broth! The broth is salty from the soy sauce, yet tart from the lime juice.

    

This soup could easily be made vegetarian buy substituting tofu for the chicken. I baked some chicken while the soup cooked and then shredded it to add at the end. Someone in our house was very excited at the prospect of any chicken falling to the floor…

    

Soba noodles are made of buckwheat, which explains their dark brown color. If you’ve never had soba before, I highly recommend trying it; if you’re totally opposed, any type of noodle would work in this soup (egg noodles, spaghetti, or even rice).

This soup comes together pretty quickly, especially if you have some pre-cooked chicken/tofu on hand. So, go ahead and put it on the menu this week!

Chinese Chicken & Mushroom Soup

Prep time: 5 min

Cook time: 20 min

Serves: 2

• 10oz mushrooms (I used baby portobello)
• 3C chicken broth
• 6oz baby bok choy
• 3oz soba noodles
• 8oz chicken, shredded
• 1T soy sauce
• juice from 1 lime

1. Add mushrooms to dutch oven over medium heat; cook until most of liquid has released
2. Add chicken broth to pot, bring to a boil
3. Add boy choy, cover and steam/cook for 5 min
4. Add soba noodles, cover and cook for 5 min
5. Add chicken, soy sauce and lime juice to the pot and warm through
6. Enjoy!

Question: Does your pet(s) hang out in the kitchen while you cook? Do you ever let them ‘taste test’ what you’re cooking?

Mother’s Day Brunch

Wow, we really lucked out with some amazing weather for Mother’s Day this year. My parents came to visit us for the day, starting with a trip to my favorite farmer’s market, The JFX Farmer’s Market. We made our way around the market, picking up things for the week as well as some key ingredients for brunch that I would cook when we came home.

On the menu: Spinach, mushroom & artichoke quiche, lemon ricotta muffins and a beet & feta spinach salad. Mmmmm, delish! The salad is pretty straight forward, dressed with fig balsamic vinegar and garlic & mushroom olive oil (I use a 2:1, vinegar:oil ratio), that I bought at a cute shop, Pure Mountain, while visiting a friend last year.

The lemon ricotta muffins are a Giada De Laurentiis recipe from Food Network, Nonna’s Lemon Ricotta Biscuits. It was the first time I’ve made these, so I followed the recipe exactly.

    

I made them the night before and then popped them in the oven for 5 min before putting them on the table for brunch. I also baked them for 26 min, not 20 like the recipe calls for. They just didn’t look done at 20 min, so I added time in 2 min increments. As a result (I presume), the outside of the muffins were a little hard, but the insides were perfect!

The quiche was one I’ve made before. It uses ricotta cheese, hence the ricotta muffins…I hate having left over ingredients!

It turned out great, I almost didn’t get a picture before it was gone! The mushrooms and eggs I used were straight from the farmer’s market which was awesome.

    

Previously, I’ve added parmesane cheese to this quiche but I totally forgot on Mother’s Day. It was still good, but in the future I will be sure to not forget the parmesan cheese. Cheese makes everything better.

Mushroom, Spinach & Artichoke Quiche

Prep time: 10 min

Cook time: 40 min

Makes: 4 servings

• 1C ricotta cheese
• 4 eggs
• 1/4C parmesan cheese
• 8oz mushrooms, sliced/chopped
• a few handfuls of spinach
• 1 can artichoke hearts, drained & quartered

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
2. Saute the mushrooms, about 5-10 min
3. Towards the end, add the spinach to wilt
4. Meanwhile, combine ricotta, eggs and parmesan in a bowl until smooth
5. Add mushrooms, spinach and artichokes to ricotta mixture
6. Pour into 9″ cake pan, top with fresh ground pepper
7. Bake 40 min
8. Enjoy!

Question: Did you cook for your mom on Mother’s Day?

Creamy Chicken, Mushroom & Broccoli Soup

It was a dreary day in Baltimore, so last night I made Creamy Chicken, Mushroom & Broccoli Soup (loosely based on a recipe from Skinny Taste).

I used low sodium chicken broth, and unsalted butter for this soup. I like to use low/no sodium ingredients when I’m cooking, so that I can add my desired amount of salt as I go. I usually won’t list salt and pepper in a recipe, but I always taste my food as it’s cooking and use salt (I’m a fan of kosher salt) and freshly ground black pepper when necessary. Salt and pepper can seriously make or break a meal, so don’t forget about them!

I had never made this soup before, but I liked the technique of blending part of the soup to thicken it up…I will definitely be doing that again! Also, this technique uses one of my all-time favorite kitchen appliances, my Vitamix. We were lucky enough to receive our Vitamix from my husband’s parents as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago, as these blenders are quite the monetary investment. I’ve been in love with it ever since! It’s great for my morning smoothie, soups, nut butters, sauces, and the list goes on.

You’ll notice that this soup has chicken in it, so I want to point out that I’m not strictly a vegetarian. That being said, you will see quite a few vegetarian recipes here on the blog. I eat meat occasionally, and when I do it’s mainly chicken or seafood. If you don’t eat meat, you could easily keep the chicken out of this recipe and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.

On my way home, I picked up some Panera sourdough rolls to serve alongside this soup…highly recommend! However, a nice side salad would also be a great, lighter, option.

Creamy Chicken, Mushroom & Broccoli Soup

Prep time: 5min

Cook time: 35min

Serves: 3

• 1/2lb chicken breast
• 8oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
• 4oz shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 4 stalks celery
• 2C broccoli, chopped
• 4C chicken broth
• 3T flour
• 1T butter

1. Place flour & chicken broth in blender; blend until smooth
2. Pour mixture into dutch oven, over medium heat
3. Add mushrooms, celery, broccoli & butter; bring to a boil
4. Add chicken, cover and cook for 15min (until chicken is cooked)
5. Remove chicken, let cool before shredding or dicing
6. Place celery and 1.5C of soup into blender; blend until smooth
7. Add blended soup back into dutch over, along with the shredded/chopped chicken

Question: What’s the most recent kitchen/cooking technique you’ve learned?