Beefy Nacho Soup

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• It is Sarah's night for Soup Group. Sarah is the original. (Only an original could rock glasses like that) When soup group started, six years ago it started at Sarah's house. Its first incarnation was a Bible Study, and it existed that way for a time. It is a testament of our friendship that we stayed
  
  together while our group and families, mentalities and beliefs changed. She lives in a charming old farm house that also has changed as time went on: New floors, walls moved, doors replaced by windows. When I asked Sarah how long we have had soup group, she referred to the relative age and birth of her children, the most intimate and meaningful accounting of time passed. 

     And... we have eaten a vast variety of soups. 

     Nacho Soup has happened several times. This week's was especially good in my opinion. There is a secret ingredient in most of my likings... cheese.  This one had that thick, zesty background taste of cheese to support the tomatoes and corn floating around in the rich, orange broth. 

Here is a breakdown of how we rated it: (scale of 1 to 10) 

Adults (or at least we entertain ourselves as adult)

Mike: 8 (with a caveat of just a bit more spice needed) 

Jen: 7

Amy: 8

Sarah: 5

David: 8

Teen crowd

Laurana: 8 

Anika: 8.5

The pre-teen crowd

Daisy: 10

Henry: 8

Carter: 8.75 maybe a 9

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• Beefy Nacho Soup
• 2 lb lean ground beef
• 2 package taco seasoning
• 2 small onion, chopped
• 2 clove garlic, minced 
• 1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes and green chilis, undrained
• 1 can of corn
• 2½ cups milk
• 1/2 coup light cream
• 2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
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Brown beef and salute the onions in pot over medium high heat. Add garlic when the onions are translucent. Drain the beef and then add taco seasoning and everything else but the cheese and cream.  Bring to a boil, cover and turn down the heat. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add the cheese and cream, and turn to low until you serve it.  Eat it with bread and follow with tea and conversation. 

~The Soup Group

Spicy Red-Lentil Carrot Soup with Spicy Chick Peas

The Soup Group

Our Soup Group is made up of a pretty diverse group of people. We come in all types... teachers, nurses, free-lance authors, photographers, accountants, scientists, landscapers... (not to mention vegetarian, gluten free, and pork-free) all types. In all honesty, we are kind of a motley bunch, drawn together by nothing but friendship really. Our conversation last night was kind of centered around our diversity. We ended up taking this personality test. I found out that I am a very rare personality type... big surprise there... and am basically an introverted daydreamer. (I translate this to frustrated author). This group actually started as a Bible study, but has really outgrown that into something based on life and friendship. The subject of our discussions sometimes lands on theology, but more often than not finds it's home in our shared experience. One of those shared experiences is the soup that we make. We meet one night a week at one of our houses, and the owner of the house makes soup. Someone brings a desert... bread, wine, and we have a night of it. Our kids scream around the house, we talk over their chatter and laugh, plan, share and eat soup. This blog is a record of where our lives take us, what we make to eat, and what we think about all of it. 

Cooking a soup for a large group of people can sometimes seem like one is cooking for the military. For example, peeling five pounds of carrots. We normally have to triple or quadruple a recipe to make enough for everyone, which creates its own problems: All soups must be cooked slower, with less heat, so the massive quantity of soupy ingredients don't burn to the bottom of the pot.  We also have to by bigger pots. :) This week's recipe is one that I linked to my pinterest site devoted to potential soups that we might try out. I found the recipe at Celmentine daily , a cute little site devoted to things like this. My kids actually were perusing through my pinterest site and chose this one out. 

 (They have both eclectic and good taste). The danger of the recipe is that is very close to baby food, and I had to modify Clementine's original in a couple of ways to elevate it above a puree. The only change I made was to add a couple of layers of flavor. The base puree is actually sweet and creamy. The magic here is in the lentils that make this a very creamy soup without using cream. It was really nice, but it needed some nuance to bring the thing home.


The group opinion on this one averaged out to a 7.7  out of 10 with the highest being Ruben who rated it a 9.9 respectively and the lowest being Anika and Lauranna with a 6 (still good but not spectacular).

Here is the modified version brought back to the original quantity (feeds four to six adults)

Chick Peas
1 can of chick peas drained
1 table spoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1/2 (or 1/4) teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of Kosher salt

Set your oven to 400 degrees. Drain the chick peas and rinse them. Mix the spices and salt in a large bowl, dump the chick peas in, poor in the olive oil and mix until well coated. Spread the coated peas

on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake for 40 minutes (or until they are nice and crispy).

Soup
1 table spoon of olive oil
1 large sweet onion
4 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 1/2 lbs. of carrots
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 tablespoon of black pepper
1 cup of red lentils
32 ounces of chicken broth
1/4 cup chopped (fresh) parsley

Toppings
olive oil to taste
salt and pepper to taste
parsley to taste

In a medium pot set over medium high heat, add the olive oil, onions and garlic. Sauté till translucent. Add the carrots and cook for another 15 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat to low. Simmer for twenty minutes or until the carrots are nice and tender. The lentils are going to inflate a lot, but it is ok to overcook them because they are going to be pureed anyway. When the carrots are tender use an immersion blender to bring the whole pot to a nice puree. At this time, if you find the puree to be too thick, add more liquid (water will work fine here).

I like to cook my soups ahead of time and let them cool. Something about this process brings everything together nicer. If you do that with this soup, it will cool to a thicker constancy, but don't worry, as soon as you heat it up it will loosen up again.

Serve in bowls with a handful of chickpeas, a sprinkling of parsley and a bit of olive oil on the top.

~the soup group~

Split Pea Soup

Split Pea Soup. My dad hated it. He was forced to eat both this and Lima Beans by my thrift minded, Maine indigenous Grandmother. He stomached all sorts of strange, arcane and transmutative foods that should never have traveled down the esophaguses of the collective public. Cold Baked Bean and Mayonnaise sandwiches. Mayonnaise toasted bread. These were the fodder of his childhood menu. But Split Pea Soup and Lima Beans could not be tolerated.

I love it.

My wife's family would simply slow cook a ham, which in itself is something to behold, and after we had all picked that poor pig's leg clean, whatever meat clung to the bone was thrown into a pot of chicken stock and rock hard, little yellow pea halves simmered for an hour, and the resulting soup is both aromatic and hearty.




Ingredients

1. 1 package (16 ounces) of dried split peas
2. 8 cups of Chicken Broth
3. leftover ham bone with attached meaty bits
3. 2 peeled potatoes (cut into small cubes)
4. 2 medium onions (cut into small pieces)
5. 1/2 cup of chopped celery
6. 1 teaspoon of poultry seasoning
7. 1 teaspoon of sage
8. 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
9. 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
10. 1/2 teaspoon of salt (to taste)

Directions

Sift the peas and look for stones. (It is hard to believe, but in this day and age there are still stones in the peas). Put the ham bone and split peas into the chicken broth and simmer 45 minutes. Remove the bone and take the bits of fascia and such from the meat. Return the meat to the soup and add the onions, potatoes, celery, carrots and seasoning and cook for another hour and a half.

Eat with crusty bread and friends.

~The Soup Group~