Split Pea Soup

This is the last of my Easter left-overs recipes. My grandpa grew up on a pig farm and his favorite meal was split pea soup with ham. I think he would have really liked this one. It's simple but it makes great use of the left-overs from a ham dinner.

Split Pea Soup
Makes: 6 servings

6 cups water
1 ham hock (or bone left-over from a ham dinner)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, 1/2" dice
1 lb split peas
1 cup ham, finely diced
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1 - 2 tsp chicken bouillon

• Make the ham broth by covering the ham bone with the six cups of water. On high heat, bring to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for one hour.
• Remove the ham bone from the broth. Set the broth aside.
• In the bottom of a large soup pot, saute the onion in the olive oil over medium heat until soft, about five minutes.
• Add the six cups of ham broth, split peas, ham, and black pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the peas are tender, about one to one and a half hours.
• If the soup seems too thick, add some water.
• Test the soup, if it tastes a little bland, add some chicken bouillon, one teaspoon at a time.
• Serve with a piece of crusty bread.

Hearty Chicken & Stars Soup

I had some wonderful left-overs from the Sissy's Chicken that I made yesterday so I decided to turn them into soup! Soup is a great way to use up left-overs and it's a great comfort food for this time of year. I happened to have some carrots and zucchini hanging around so that's what I used today. You could also add: mushrooms, spinach, kale, onions, celery, etc. I also used Israeli couscous because that's what I had in my cupboard. Unfortunately, I've found that it's a little difficult to come by. Instead of the couscous, you could use: egg noodles, elbow macaroni, ditalini (little tube shaped pasta), rice, or potatoes. Also, if you don't have chicken left-overs, you could pick up a rotisserie chicken for this recipe.

Hearty Chicken & Stars Soup
Makes: 6 servings

For the broth:
1 whole roasted chicken
2 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
1 cup whole baby carrots
2 cloves garlic
water

For the soup:
Chopped chicken picked from the bone
2 cups chopped baby carrots
2 zucchini cut into bite size pieces
2 - 4 tsp chicken base or chicken bouillon
1 cup Israeli couscous

Make the broth:

  
• Pick as much chicken as you can off of the bones. Don't worry if there is a lot left on there, it will come off later after the chicken has been simmered. Be very careful to pick out any bones, there are lots of tiny bones in chicken. Set the chunks of chicken aside in the refrigerator.
• In a heavy bottomed stock pot, pour in the oil and heat over medium. Add the whole carrots and garlic cloves. Stir continuously and cook until the carrots and garlic are a nice golden brown, about 5 - 7 minutes.
• Place the chicken bones in the pot on top of the carrots and garlic.
• Add enough water to almost cover the chicken. It took about 10 cups of water for the size chicken that I had.

  

• Cover the pot and turn the heat up to high.
• Once the water has reached a rolling boil, turn the heat down to low-medium-low and continue to simmer, covered for 2 hours.
• After 2 hours, remove the pan from the heat. With a slotted spoon, scoop out as much chicken and bones as you can. Then pour the broth through a mesh strainer to strain out any remaining pieces of chicken and bone. The easiest way I've found to do this is to place a strainer over a really large mixing bowl, pour the broth into there, then transfer the broth back to the soup pan once it has been strained.
• Discard the carrots and garlic.

Make the soup:

• Pick the remaining chicken off the bones, again being very careful to pick out any tiny bones, and add it to the chicken that was picked off previously. You should find that it's much easier to pick apart this time and the chicken just falls off the bone.
• Discard the bones.
• Chop up any large chunks of chicken so that all pieces are bite size or smaller.
• Add the chicken to the broth.
• Cook on medium, uncovered until the amount of broth reduces by 1/3, about 20 - 30 minutes.
• Add the chopped carrots and cook for another 10 minutes.
• Add the zucchini and couscous, cook for another 10 minutes.
• Remove the soup from the heat.
• Add the chicken base or chicken bouillon starting with 2 tsp. If the soup tastes bland, add more base or bouillon, 1 tsp at a time, until the soup reaches the desired flavor.
• Serve with crackers, biscuits, or a nice crusty artisan bread.

French Onion Soup

French onion soup is one of my favorite go-to's for lunch. It's especially great during the winter time. What's really great about it too is that it's a relatively low calorie lunch - if you don't add all the croutons and cheese! Alas, I don't have that kind of will power haha. So here's my high-cal comfort food version...

French Onion Soup
2 Large yellow onions
2 Tbsp butter (I use Smart Balance)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tsp dried thyme
1 Bay leaf
1 Tsp cracked black pepper
4 Tsp beef base
8 Cups water
Balsamic vinegar
Garlic croutons
Melty cheese like provolone, mozzarella, Gruyere, etc.

• Cut the onions in half, then cut into strips.
• Add the butter, olive oil and onions to a large stock pot.
• Cook the onions over medium low heat for about 30 minutes until caramelized, stirring occasionally. This step does take patience and there's no way to speed up the process. It is critical that you do not add any salt. Salt will cause the onions to release their liquid which will hinder the caramelization process.
• Once the onions are caramelized, add the thyme, bay leaf, pepper, and beef base. If you've never heard of beef base, it's similar to bouillon but way better. You can find it just about anywhere, even Walmart.
• Give the onions and spices a good stir, then add the entire 8 cups of water.
• Continue to simmer, uncovered over low heat until the liquid has reduced by half, about 10 to 20 minutes. You can not skip this step. If you do, the soup will taste watered down. You may notice that the recipe calls for twice as much water as actually needed, that's why you need to simmer away half of the water. If you're wondering why we don't just start with 4 cups of water and skip this whole step, the short answer is that simmering out some of the water (also called "reducing") will give a soup or sauce a richness and depth of flavor that can't be achieved any other way. Just like caramelizing the onions, this step takes patience. Cranking the heat up to a boil to speed up the process will ruin the soup for sure.
• Once the soup has reduced and the flavor has reached the right concentration, remove the soup from the heat. Fish out the bay leaf. Give the soup quick splash of balsamic vinegar to brighten up the flavor a little bit.
• That last step would drive Matt insane. He's a very pragmatic kind of guy who requires empirical measurements. If you're like Matt and you absolutely must have an exact measurement, I'd say add about 1 teaspoon of vinegar - just a splash haha.
• Portion the soup into 4 oven-safe soup bowls or ramekins. Top with garlic croutons and cheese. Melt under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown.

I didn't happen to have any wonderful provolone or Gruyere at the time this photo was taken. So, I used whatever I could find in my refrigerator which was pizza cheese. Don't judge me.