Lemon Turkey Soup

I made this today with turkey instead of chicken - for obvious reasons. It was fabulous. I highly recommend it!  http://www.food.com/recipe/lemon-chicken-rice-soup-24712

Easy Tuscan Soup

As always, I started with an existing recipe and then made it my own. Thanks to Giada for the start on this Bean and Garlic Soup.

Add a turn of olive oil and a couple pats of butter to a heavy bottomed pot.
Dice two shallots and add to pot. Saute until soft.
Add 2 sage leaves and 2 large cans of Cannelloni beans - drained and rinsed - stir.
Add 6 cups chicken stock and 4 cloves of garlic.

This is where it starts to vary - Giada uses only four cups but simmers for only ten more minutes. I like to let it simmer for an hour or so.

I also saute about 10 sage leaves in butter until crisp. Remove to paper towels and crumble for topping on soup.

When you are about 10 minutes from serving, turn heat down to low, break out the immersion blender and blend the soup.

Add about a cup of half and half, some ground black pepper, stir, and let sit for a couple minutes.

Ladle soup into shallow bowls and top with crumbled sage leaves.

My Immersion Blender

Creamy Chickpea Soup
4 T EVOO
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
6 (count 'em 6) garlic cloves, minced
1/4 t red pepper flakes
1/4 t saffron
1 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
4 (16 oz) cans chickpeas, drained
6 cups chicken broth
3 T minced basil
1 T lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped, roasted, red pepper

In Dutch oven, heat EVOO. Add veggies, red pepper flakes, saffron, salt & pepper. Cook for 5 min.

Stir in chickpeas and broth -- bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 min.

The directions say, " Puree half the soup ...". I say,"Have fun with the immersion blender. Leave a bit of it chunky."

Add lemon and basil. (The lemon really makes it.)

Serve with roasted red peppers sprinkled in the middle of each bowl.

Wrapping up the Summer Chill-Out Dinner

I also made the beet salad that I posted a while back, baba ghanoush, and gazpacho. The gazpacho recipe follows. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it but cold, red soup is cold, red soup.

Gazpacho

Tomatoes

Green and red pepper

Cucumber

Tomatillo

Green onion

Garlic

Parsley

Cilantro

Basil

Salt & pepper

Bottle of V8

Dice veggies and herbs; toss them all in a bowl. Put about a third of the ingredients in a blender and puree. Add back to bowl with other ingredients. Stir in a bottle of V8. Add salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste. Let sit at least a couple hours; overnight is better.

I learned recently that most recipes for gazpacho include EVOO. I’ve never used it and think it would weigh down the light, fresh veggies.