It’s so cold. 
I’m wearing two pairs of socks inside the house.
I need HOT food.
Please share your best Stew and Soup recipes.
I like a good ham and bean soup. potato soup, Corn Chowder. Hot food is so good.
Love chicken & dumplings. Unfortunately my dumplings usually don’t turn out very good.
Simple Chinese vegetable soup:
I use a heaping tablespoon of this as a base:
Add 5-6 cups of water/vegetable broth
Once that’s simmering, toss in about 3 carrots, diced small, like 1/4" cubes
Add extra firm tofu, also cut into 1/4" cubes
Add in finely chopped greens; spinach, collards, kale, whatever
Thicken with cornstarch or potato starch solution
Top with sesame oil and sliced green onions to serve
You can add in any other diced vegetables you like. Harder vegetables do better than soft ones. Once I added in baby bok choy and it just disintegrated after simmering a short while. If you want it a little spicy, add in some chili oil or a bit of gochujang.
It’s warming up here. We’ll have freezing rain (instead of snow) for the next few hours. Still, I have my feet on a heating pad.
Here’s a recipe I got from Colophon Café’s website when they still hat it on there:
The Original African Peanut Soup
This often-copied-never-duplicated recipe was created in the fall of 1985 to compliment the movie playing across the street “Out of Africa”. The ginger root, chilis, and garlic give it a distinctive, spicy taste which some people call “addictive”. This recipe has appeared in other cookbooks, including the Colophon’s Best Recipes.
Blend in food processor to create soup base:
1 oz Fresh Ginger Root, scrubbed and diced
2 Cloves Garlic
1 tsp Crushed Chili Peppers
3 1/4 cups Diced Tomatoes, canned or fresh
1 3/4 cups Dry Roasted Unsalted Peanuts
1 small Onion, choppedPlace soup base in Pot, Add the following. Cook to 165 degrees:
1 1/2 cup Chicken Stock
3 cups WaterAdd to thicken:
1/4 cup Melted Butter
1/4 cup FlourFinally Add:
2 cups Diced Tomatoes, canned or fresh
1/2 lb Cooked and cubed Turkey or ChickenHints: Whisk warm Roux into soup and simmer to thicken. Add final tomatoes to thin and add chunkiness to soup. Thin with water to desired consistency.
For vegetarian version, leave out the turkey and use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.
Garnish with Peanuts. Serves 6-8 people.
I suppose you could use unsweetened peanut butter instead of processing the peanuts.
I’m a simple person.
Beef Stew:
Prepare beef. Use pre-cut stew meat, or cut/trim steaks or a small roast, reserving trimmed fat.
Chop one onion. Don’t care what kind. Throw in a pot, sautee with butter (I use a whole stick, but you do you) and the trimmed fat from your beef until the onion begins to brown. Add some minced garlic, continue to sautee for a few more minutes. Add the beef and kosher salt to season and draw moisture out of the meat.
Brown the beef, and cook down most of the liquids that have been released, then add a handful of flour. (You’ll notice I don’t measure, I just do what looks right). Mix together, forming a sort of beefy-oniony roux, allow it to begin to darken a bit; then add some dried parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary, and black pepper. Mix it up a bit, then deglaze the bottom of the pot with two bottles of Guinness and a quart of beef stock/broth.
Add sliced carrots/potatoes/celery. Slow cook until you can’t stand waiting any longer.
Viable substitutions: Red wine instead of Guinness, with a splash of Worcestershire. Sometimes some Colman’s dry mustard or some soy sauce (reduce the salt added though!) or a dollop of Marmite to change up the flavor profile a bit. It’s pretty hard to make it anything less than tasty…
My favorite stew is pozole verde.
I don’t really have a recipe, I’ve made it enough that I just buy all the stuff and put it together by feel.
But this is pretty close:
One thing I insist on: the garnishes at the end are key. And the best garnish for this is quick-pickled radishes (thin slice, let marinate in a mix of lime juice, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, salt, and some spices). A must add. Plus crumbled tortilla chips.
Potato soup. I bought a bag of potatoes, but I forgot cream, dammit.
But I digress.
Half an onion or a leek for every two potatoes. Mince and lightly fry in a lot of butter as long as you can. Ideally, it should dissolve in the soup.
Chop potatoes into bite size add to pot with chicken stock boil until they fall apart and the liquid is thick. Mash the potatoes in the pot until they are soup.
Added for Mrs. Plant (v.3.0) and her daughter: Add thinly sliced celery with the potatoes. Boil a small finely chopped potato in a different pot until very soft and add to the soup. They pieces of something in their soup.
Serve in bowls, add thick whipping cream. Garnish with feta cheese and/or croutons and/or bacon.
This is easy. I make it without the sambal oelek and with added mushrooms and scallions.
Here’s a Peg Bracken recipe for stew. You can shower me with disdain since it calls for a can of condensed soup, but it’s easy and tasty.
Oven Beef Stew
Serves 6
2 pounds beef stew meat
1 cup peeled and chunked carrots (or use baby carrots)
2 onions, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
1 can tomato soup, thinned with ½ can water
1 big (or 2 medium) potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks
1 small bay leaf
Put all ingredients in a large casserole. Cover and bake at 275° for 5 to 6 hours.
* * *
Here’s a crockpot soup recipe. I’m making it for supper tomorrow night.
Cheese and Meatball Soup
Serves 6
Meatballs:
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
Thoroughly mix all ingredients. Shape into medium-sized meatballs.
2 cups water
1 cup corn – whole kernel
1 cup potato – chopped
1 cup celery – chopped
1/2 cup carrot – sliced
1/2 cup onion – chopped
2 cubes beef bouillon
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco pepper sauce
1 jar (16oz or so) Cheez Whiz
Place uncooked meatballs and all other ingredients, except Cheez Whiz, in electric slow cooker. Stir gently. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. Ten minutes before serving add Cheez Whiz, stirring gently until well blended. Continue to cook covered for ten minutes to be sure it’s hot.
I made a batch of this Turkish Red Lentil Soup last week, and it went straight onto the winter rotation.
It really is easy to make. You squeeze lemon juice onto it when you serve it, so I’m not sure it was intended as a winter soup - but it works fine by me.
For something that’s definitely intended for winter consumption, a Scotch Broth is hard to beat. This has been on the winter rotation for a long time.
j
Salmon Chowder. Super good and SUPER easy. Double the salmon, and add lots of pepper and bay leaf. Ready in 45 minutes start to finish. Clam juice is not optional and Kroger generic oyster crackers are the best.
It reheats really well, as a bonus.
Beer, cheese, sausage soup.
Get some good crusty bread. Id post a better link, but i’m on a tablet.
This white chicken chili is very good and warming. I usually double the recipe, using one can of creamed corn and one can of corn or an equivalent amount of frozen corn. It’s best made with homemade chicken or turkey broth. I’ve made it with leftover Thanksgiving turkey plenty of times. https://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-white-chicken-chili-114789
Peg Bracken’s cookbooks are so fun to read.
Have you ever tried fabada asturiana? Perfect in cold weather. One of many recipes found on the net, most are good:
Easy dish, but takes long time to make correctly. Which warms the kitchen too!
Thanks for that - I kept meaning to look for a recipe for Turkish lentil soup since I enjoyed it in a local cafe run by a Turkish family a long while ago. I think it had a little bit of chopped mint sprinkled over it right before serving when I had it. It was amazing!
For dumplings I just fry up some good, store bought gnocchi prior to serving and dump them in stews and soups. I probably do that more often than just eat it as the traditional dish.
Thank you for the dumpling top. I’ll get gnocchi the next time I’m at the grocery. You add the gnocchi after the soup is boiling? About how long does it take to cook? I’ll test a piece before taking off the stove
I like the recipes. Lots to try during this cold period.
Thanks.
I found this chili recipe a while ago:
I change it up a little; I use stew beef instead of ground beef, omit the green pepper, and add a few tablespoons of masa to thicken it a bit. Leave the spices just as they are.
It’s fantastic, I don’t think I’ll ever buy chili again.
Good gnocchi cooks in 2 to 3 minutes in boiling water. It only takes a little longer to fry to golden, maybe in a bit of butter or oil. If I’m cooking for one I just fry 6 - 8 in a small pan and add to the dish when served. Well, I probably really fry 9, because I invariably eat one, supposedly to test that they are done (they always are.)
Just experiment with a handful of gnocchi and a hot pan. Pull out one every so often to try. When you get one that is just how you like, you know what to look for in future.