Curry Lentil Soup

In case you're wondering, I don't exlusively cook horribly fattening albeit fatally delicious meals. They are just so much more fun to take pictures of and blog about than healthy things like salad and whatnot.I've made this a half-dozen times now, and this makes a great comforting soup that actually has a great flavor and is a satisfying meal. I added chicken base and bacon fat, but if you use substitutes, this can be made entirely vegetarian.

4 small red potatoes or 1 lb russet, diced into small 1/2 cubes

2 large stalks celery, diced

2 carrots, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 lb diced tomato

2 cups frozen chopped spinach

6 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbsp bacon fat or oil

8 cups water

1 tbsp chicken base

1 1/2 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp badia complete seasoning

salt & pepper to taste

1 lb of lentils (about 2 cups)

Tip from me: Celery leaves are great in soup. No need to discard that good stuff! When I use celery stems in things like tuna salad, I save the leaves for soup. Likewise, when using herbs like cilantro or parsley, don't just use the leaves, throw in the stems, too. Use everything you can, just wash it first. I put cilantro in the food processor. The stems have a lot of flavor!

Add the bacon fat or oil and the chopped carrot, celery, onion, potato, and garlic. Mix it up and leave it to cook covered on medium heat while you rinse your lentils.

Add all remaning ingredients (make sure you have a big pot!) and bring to a boil.

When it comes to a boil, turn it down to med-low heat and leave to simmer until the lentils and potato chunks are soft (about 30 mins).

The soup is going to be chunky, so you can add more broth and less veggies if you like it more soupy.

It got the seal of approval from Jorge, who said that he could smell it before he came in the house. It came out great, and I'd make it again! It's pretty healthy except for the oil/fat I added at the beginning. If you want to omit that part, you can add all your ingredients together at once and boil them. You can also add less water and serve as a stew over rice. Cilantro would also make a great garnish for this soup.

Thai Chicken

On a lark, I decided to make Thai Chicken. Keep in mind that this is American Thai food. It's an exotic twist on familiar ingredients, just enough to push sissies out of their comfort zone (soy sauce? peanut butter? I know what those are but why are they together?!) I love how it turned out, and would certainly make it again in a heartbeat, especially with all the ginger I have leftover. I had leftover cilantro from the guacamole I made, and I was in a hurry to use it before it wilted. I'm really glad I added the cilantro, it goes wonderfully in this dish! This is what I came up with after mixing & matching recipes and ad-libbing. I never learn, do I? Well, good thing, because it turned out amazing. I'm making a note here: huge success. These pictures are from the first time I made them, but I included bonus veggies in the recipe from the second attempt.
Here's what goes in :

2 chicken breasts, halved (opened like a butterfly), then thinly sliced into strips width-wise
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced/grated
1/2 onion, chopped (it was supposed to be green, but I used what I have!)
sliced green and red bell pepper (about 1/4 pepper each)
2 cups of diced broccoli (I used frozen)
1 rib of celery, sliced
1 carrot, peeled & sliced
1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped peanuts

Sauce:
7 tbsp soy sauce
5 tsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp Worcestershire
4 tbsp creamy PB
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp brown sugar

In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, worceserchire, vinegar, peanut butter, curry, cayenne, and brown sugar. Add more or less of any ingredient to suit your tastes.

Mix until creamy (I found it hard to eliminate clumps of PB at first, but the texture improves as it sits... maybe the vinegar breaks it down?)

Cook your chicken, garlic, and ginger in a skillet or wok over med-high in the oil until the chicken is browned on the outside. Note: The chicken browns best in a dry pan.  That is, add the minimum oil and omit juices, otherwise it will look white like mine. Your choice!

Throw in your array of veggies as well as the peanuts. Cook for about 10 mins, until the chicken is cooked through and the veggies are nice and soft.

Throw in the sauce you made (it should be the right texture now, give it a good mixing if needed) and mix everything up. Let it sit for one minute.

Add the cilantro and turn off the heat.

Serve over rice or rice noodles and enjoy! It's going to taste great! This should be enough for about 6, depending on how ravenous your family is. I tried feeding it to my brothers and this would have been about enough for two teenagers. Note: If you have teenagers, make triple and just throw it all in a trough. If not, just serve over a bowl of rice or noodles and they will get coated in that yummy sauce!