Healthy Cream of Mushroom Soup using Cauliflower

I originally wanted to make bacon mushroom cauliflower pasta for potluck yesterday.  I always think making pasta involves so much cleaning:  a big pot for cooking pasta, then another big wok to sautee all the ingredients, then a coriander to drain the pasta.   With bad time management between feeding the baby and preparing ingredients when party is starting within 30 minutes, I decided to switch my cooking project.  With the chopped mushroom, cauliflower florets and onion, I will just make a simple healthy thick soup that doesn’t need cream to increase the calories.

I ended up needing minimal detergent to wash stuff:  no oil on my chopping board / coriander.  I boiled broth / water in the pan which just cooked cauliflower and scraped down all the brown stuff from pan-roasting.  The liquid carried over to the soup pot is richer than just plain water and I’m left with a relatively clean pot that was easy to wash.  Yeppie!

The only bad thing was, when I turned on the immersion blender to puree the soup, I woke EVERYBODY up:  my husband who napped for only 10 minutes, and my 6 months old baby girl, and my toddler from their not too long naps.  The machine was simply too loud.  Oops!

I forgot to take picture of the soup itself.  The next day I used the thick cauliflower soup to make pasta (back to my original project:  pasta!)

All I needed was to fry some bacon, add some broccoli to the last 3 minutes of my cooking pasta, and extra herbs and salt.  What a healthy alternative to a can of mushroom!

Bacon Broccoli Pasta using Cauliflower Mushroom sauce

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Roasted Squash Soup

Roasted Squash Soup with Homemade Lavender Marshmallow

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Lobster Bisque

I froze the lobster heads and shells after cooking the whole lobster a few weeks ago.  Lobster bisque is always something I want to make, as it’s expensive to order at a restaurant.  Well, it’s a lot of work, and I think coming up with a recipe that I can follow is the hardest.  The 3 recipes I read are all so different, so I’m using my common cooking method: combining what I think would be the best.  Roasting the shells first really brings out the flavor.

I added a bit too much paprika / black pepper.  Thus the soup is a bit more spicy (which we don’t mind.. but for the sake of one of the guests, we should be more conservative with the spiciness.  If you follow this recipe, you should be very satisfied with the soup.  My friend who does not eat lobster actually licked the soup bowl clean.  The saddest part is, it’s actually quite a lot of work, to produce just 5 bowls of soup.  I may not make it again, but definitely it’s one of the best soup made in Grace’s Kitchen.

Creamy Lobster Bisque

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Spicy Italian soup with Potato and Vegetable

This is inspired by Olive Garden, the franchise restaurant that we always have dinner if we go down to the States to shop.  My husband liked their spicy sausage soup a lot, thus I searched online and found a few recipes about Italian soup. This is one of them:

Potato Sausage Soup Similar to Olive Garden’s Toscana Soup Recipe.

It seems like it’s common they add Kale in this soup.  I like the creaminess of my clam chowder recipe, thus I’m replacing clams with Italian sausage and come up with this Tuscano soup.  This recipe will be enough for 6 – 8 people.

Spicy Italian Sausage soup with vegetables and potato

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Healthy Crab and Cream of Cauliflower Soup

I don’t have to cook for next week, and now there is only 1 head of cauliflower in my fridge.  I gave up the idea of making clam chowder today and decided to use up what I have.  Since I’m so cramped for time, I also decided not to make crab cakes.  Then what to do with the 400gm tub of crab meat?  Why not combining the two together.  The soup is extremely creamy without needing any cream.  I added just some 1% milk (like 1/3 cup) at the end as I don’ think my mom can finish the 3 L milk in her home.

Yes, I’m carrying all the pots and ingredients to have lunch at my mom’s house today.  I still remember the days I carried 7-8 bags of ingredients and kitchen gadgets to my boyfriend’s house (now my husband) just to make one meal.  Now I’m carrying stuff back to my parent’s house… LOL

crab and cauliflower soup

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Arrow root carrot soup

A friend told me arrow root soup tastes good, so I bought my first ever arrow root today.  It took me quite a lot of effort to peel its skin and chop it clean.  I am not sure what’s a proper recipe for it.. so I assume it would match with most common chinese soup ingredients.  This is what I tried tonight:

Ingredients:

• one arrow root (about 1.25 pounds)
• 3 carrots
• one big piece of pork shank (1 pound)
• 3 dried honey dates
• some chinese almonds 南北杏
• 1 piece of dried tangerine peel (soaked for 5 minutes, then use knife to remove the white thick parts)

Arrow Root Carrot Soup

I decided to make soup twice a week for better health.  This is my 2011 resolution.

 

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Oxtail Milestrone 羅宋湯

My younger brother in Ottawa would call me from time to time on how to make stews and soups.  His friend told me a secret that I don’t even realize:  my brother loves soup and he would walk 10-20 mins in Taiwan just to find a restaurant so that he can order a bowl of hot soup.  I think nothing beats homemade soup (just the one in my house is not crazy about soup everyday.  I’m going to change that !!) So my brother, here’s a nutritious beef and vegetable soup.  All you need is a bowl of white rice!!

Oxtail soup

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Clam Chowder

We went to Portland for our first anniversary.  It’s hard to resist clam chowder when you are at the coast.  So we ended up having clam chowder everyday.  Of course then I have to find the best clam chowder recipe:

This modified clam chowder recipe is very easy to make and extremely creamy like the ones you have from restaurant.  The trick is to add Old Bay seasoning (got that trick from watching food network).  Finish off with sprinkling smoked paprika on top will bring out the flavor very well.

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