Mango Mint Soup

I have a ripe mango sitting in my fridge. Might as well turn it into something useful before it goes to the garbage.

Ingredients Recipe:
1 large mango, peeled and destoned 1/2 onion, chopped 1/2 cup cold water 1 tsp of Badia's Habanero pepper sauce juice from 1 lemon 1/2 tsp grated or minced ginger, 1 sprig of mint leaves.

Peel and destone a ripe mango. God, I love the color of mango :)

Add pulp, ginger, mint leaves and lemon juice to blender.

Add Badia Habanero pepper sauce, or add a fresh chilli pepper instead.

Add chopped onion. I would have used a shallot instead, but I didn't have one...

Add 1/4 cup water and then puree the sucker.

I transferred it to a container and refridged it to let the ingredients absorb into one another.

It's so beautiful! :)

I will eat for dinner, but I am not sure what exactly pairs well with mango soup...

And I think I may have put too much ginger.

We shall see.

Creamy Tomato Basil

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

(An old recipe that I really love)
Servings: 4

Ingredients:
1 leak
3 large tomatoes
2 carrots
2 large fresh sweet basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp of cumin
2 cans tomatoe sauce
1 can vegetable broth
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter


Directions:
1.In a medium saucepan, fry the chopped leak and carrots over medium heat with the butter.
2.When carrots are soft, add the two can of tomato sauce and wait until it begins to boil as well.
3.Add the vegetable broth.
4.Chop the three tomatoes any way you like and add to the soup.
5.Add water to suit your preference of thickness in the soup. (Adding more water will yield soup for more people, but it might be thinner).
6.Bring to a boil.
7.Add cumin, fresh basil leaves, salt and pepper and let soup sit for 10 minutes in low-medium heat to absorb flavors.
8.When soup has reached the flavor you desire, remove from saucepan and run through the blender for a creamy, rich tomato basil soup!

Cool Summer Recipes

I am getting really great inspirations from the Food Network and online recipes. These are some of the soups I will be making over the next few weeks. I am really excited to explore new flavors for summer. To be honest, I hate the idea of drinking soup on a sunny day. Hot soup, hot day. Not a pleasant mix. I also don't like many "summer soup" recipes that I find because they are really sweet. And I refuse to serve a smoothie in a soup bowl. I want my soups to be refreshing, but also rich!

Some ingredients I want to experiment with this summer's are....mint, cucumber, lemongrass, cilantro, melons (all kinds), avocado, sweet red peppers, mango, coconut, ginger, tomatillo, lump crab/lobster, corn fresh off the cob, summer squash, chilis (even if it may bring on the heat) and perhaps even cherries. And shallots, shallots, shallots! No heavy spanish onion this summer!


Avocado Chill (key: Haas avocado with a kick of lime, cilantro and mint)
Dewy Day Fizz (key: Honeydew Melon and apple cider)
Mango Funk (key: ginger, something like this...but not really)
Tomatillo Crisp (key: tomatillo, lime, fresh tortilla)
A Day at Sea (key: chilled lump crab, sweet red peppers)
Coco Nuts (key: coconut milk, pistachio, lemongrass) Darn! I found a great inspiration that included rum as a key ingredient! Grr! Sacrifice Cristy, sacrifice!
Sunny Squash (key: yellow squash, rosemary)

Clearly, these are all still in the works. I will get a better idea once I visit Whole Foods this weekend. Clever names will follow :)

Avocado Chill

I was thrilled when I ran into this recipe of avocado soup. Yum! It has cucumber, mint and lime as ingredients, so it is definitely a refreshing recipes. In addition to the mint, I added some organic homegrown cilantro as well. How exciting is this?! I, of course, tweeked this recipe: No cucumber for sure. I HATE cucumber. I didn't substitite it because I actually think cucumber is a perfect choice for this soup, but just not my taste. I love the idea of shallot rather than white or spanish onion. Shallots are milder and sweeter. Yum! I wasn't sure about the cumin, though. I normally use cumin to give my food a smoky flavor. I only used a pinch, so I can't say i really taste it.

This recipe is soooo exciting! Of course, I went to Whole Foods last night and got organic avocado, mint, and shallots. All other spices and ingrediens I have and are also organic.

New Recipe:

Ingredients
Servings: 1 cup (just for myself)
**note: avocado goes bad in about a day, so don't make more than you will eat**

1 haas avocado, peeled and pitted
1 shallot, chopped
1/3 cup of organic vegetable broth
1 tsp of olive oil
3 small leaves of mint
a small bunch of chopped cilantro (mostly leaves, not stems)
fresh juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon(s) salt ground black pepper to taste
a pinch of ground cumin

Two yummy Haas avocados from Whole Foods.

Ripe and Ready! I just want to pour olive oil, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, and EAT it!

Put all the dry ingredients in the blender. slowly add olive oil. Then add vegetable broth.

Check it out to see if it's the consistency you prefer. I personally perfer it a bit thick so I can drip corn chips in it (or even crusty sour dough bread would be delicious, but a bit heavy for me)!

Transfer to the bowl and chill in the fridged.

Add fresh mint on top before serving! Oh, and squeeze fresh lemon over it.

My Little Organic Garden

My babies

I am so excited to have organic herbs on hand. I mean, how awesome is it to walk over to the planting pots and snip a few sprigs of frangrant herbs? I planted 6 herbs about 2 months ago: Chives, rosemary, basil, ciliantro, oregano and spearmint. They all grew beautifully except the spearmint. I am not sure if it is the seeds or if it is my green thumb, but the spearmint never sprouted. Actually, I found out a week ago that I should have covered the pot lightly in order to keep the moisture in the pot. I replanted it and covered it, but I still don't think this was the problem because I watered it often enough to keep the pot soil moist.

The rosemary is the one I most often use. The taste is so fresh and strong that I only need a few leaves. I have used in making rosemary/garlic mashed potatoes, beef stew and pasta salad. I chop and toss a fresh leave into pretty much everything I cook. I only used the cilantro once when I made fresh guacamole. The plant isn't really large yet but I just tossed a few chopped leaves over the guacamole and squeezed fresh lemon over it. It was D-lish! I won't use anymore cilantro until it grows a bit more, though. I used the fresh basil today. The plant is growing beautifully! I was complaining recently because the basil plant wasn't giving off scent. What I wrong! I just snipped it and it was so fresh and fragrant! Yum! tossed it into the flying pan with some green peppers and tomatoes that I eventually tossed into a pasta salad. Yum-O! The Chives are growing, but I am not loving them. I have used them numerous times, but they are so thin. Some chive strands wither and die, so I am constantly picking them out of the pot. It isn't bad, but I will to think of better ways to incorporate it into my dishes and soups.

Anyway, here are my babies in their "teenage" stage of development :)

Rosemary

Cilantro

Basil

Chives

Old Navy

Old Fashioned White Bean Soup

I found this recipe in a country soups cook book. I love hearty soups, but it's hard to concoct one if I keep it vegetarian.

Original recipe:

2 lbs white (navy) beans

4 quarts water 1 hambone (will be replaced with ?)

1 lb smoked ham hocks (will be replaced with ?)
1 cup onion, chopped

2 tbs. butter

1 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1 bay leaf

Clearly, the original recipe does not meet ANY of my criteria with all that ham in it.

So, I improvised. Considering that ham is the central element of the soup, I guess I would just rewrite the entire thing and keep the idea of the navy beans (which I absolutely love because they are such a pretty, creamy color)!

I went to Whole Foods on Lane and searched for a ham substitute. Yes, there was smoky chipotle tofu sausage, but I opted for the ground Turky instead.

By the way, did you know that chicken and turkey sausages are wrapped in pork casing? I didn't know that. Thank goodness for a knowledgable dude who works in the meat section. I decided to take some turkey meat anyway and asked the meat dude to mix it with sausage seasoning. I chose a Mild Italian seasoning (sea salt, black pepper, anise, fennel, garlic, parsley, paprika, and canola oil). Don't worry. I kept the soup vegetarian. I just made turkey meatballs as a side dish instead. :-)

New recipe:

1 can (15.5 oz) white navy bean (wash and strain)

4 cups organic vegetable broth

1 cup leek, chopped

2 tbs. butter
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Steps:
1. Put butter in medium pot over medium heat until melted; 2. Put leek into pot. Fry for a few minutes only so that it doesn't brown; 3. Add vegetable stock slowly into pot. Raise heat to high and lower when broth begins to boil; 4. Add beans, bay leaf, and pepper flakes; 5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer.

Side dish:

1/2 pound of seasoned ground turkey

goat cheese

OMG. This fresh goat cheese from Whole Foods was totally worth $9!

Form meatballs out of ground turkey meat and fry in canola oil until thoroughly cooked.

I think turkey takes a little longer to cook than red meat. And turkey is still poultry, so leaving it raw is gross. Cook well!

These meatballs were so freaking good! Whole Foods totally won my heart! They were so smoky and juicy and went so well with the fresh goat cheese.

I even tossed one into my soup. (I promise not to cheat next time)! :)

Lemongrass Orchards

This soup was originally inspired by my favorite soup of all times served at a small Thai restaurant in Coral Gables, Florida (Bangkok Bangkok).


I often made this soup for my best friend after coming back from the university. It is super cheap to make because most ingredients are in my cabinet. Most grocery stores sell raw shrimp about $7 per pound. Just make sure you buy them already peeled and deveined, because doing it yourself is time consuming and only saves you a buck. Not worth the savings, trust me. Generally, two people can eat for about $4 each if all other ingredients are on hand.


Ingredients:
1/2 pound of raw shrimp (peeled and deveined)
4 cups of water
1 shrimp bouillon cube

lemongrass (1/2 teaspoon if dry or slice about an inch if fresh) This stuff is powerful, so add slowly and taste often.

2 thai chili
1 clove garlic, (minced)
a bunch of green onion (chop up, but discard the dark tips because they tend to leave a bitter taste)

1 cup of sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon of Hunt's tomato sauce
2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, put olive oil
2. add chopped green onions and garlic to olive oil until the garlic begins to brown
3. add tomato sauce and slowly add water
4. bring to a boil
5. add thai chili, lemongrass, shrimp bouillon cube
6. when bouillon completely dissolved, add shrimp and mushrooms
7. add salt and pepper to taste
8. squeeze lemon juice to taste

I personally hate that the smell of onion lingers all day long (not good for public relations). But if it's your thing, add an extra small white or yellow onion in addition to the green onion. Even better, chop up and add a leak!

Please note that the measurement of spices (lemongrass and thai chili) I use are based on my personal preferences. If you like the bitter flavor of lemongrass (hence it's name), add more. If you cannot handle spicy, then PLEASE PLEASE do not add two chilis!

Oh, and if you prefer the base to be vegetable rather than shrimp, use vegetable bouillon instead of shrimp bouillon.