Zucchini Soup with Quinoa

Earlier this week I picked up a big basket of various veggies at my local Farmers Market. This was one of those "special" baskets where they had combined a bunch of things that they need to get sold. There was enough stuff in this basket to fill an entire grocery bag. When I got it home and went through it, I found that about half of what I'd gotten was zucchini. This wasn't a bad thing since I really like zucchini. Unfortunately, my hubby won't touch the stuff. That said, I typically just saute it in some coconut (or olive) oil with some salt and pepper. Or, if I'm feeling lazy throw it on a baking sheet and roast it.  However, with this much zucchini I knew there was no way I was going to eat it all my usual way.

First off I tried juicing it. Since, I juice A LOT I figured I should try it. I looked online and in my big book of juicing and found a few recipes. From what I found it seemed the best bet was mixing it with apple, or using it in my green juice in place of the usual cucumber. I did both of those and both were quite tasty.

As I sat awake at 5am this morning for no apparent reason I started to wonder what a zucchini soup would taste like.  A year ago I never would have considered it, but with all the juicing and diet changes in the last 8 months a lot of things sound good now that never would have before. So, I went online and found this recipe on the NY Times website. It sounded pretty tasty and I had everything on hand to give it a go.  And that is how my husband found me cutting up zucchini at 6am.

Of course, I wouldn't be blogging about this if I'd actually followed the recipe to the tee. It all started off ok, until I realized that there was rice in that recipe. I don't know how I missed that when I initially read it, but as I was following the directions I realized this little fact.  I don't eat rice, it doesn't like me.  Luckily, I had picked up a bag of Quinoa last week. I've never made quinoa, and I've really only had it maybe twice. So, this was totally foreign to me. It didn't help that I could not find instructions on the bag for how to cook it. There were recipes for things to make with it, but no basic instructions. So, I figured it must be pretty much like rice and just added it to the soup mixture where the recipe said to add rice.

So, my actual recipe looked a bit like this:
2tbsp Coconut Oil
1/2 Onion - diced
3 cloves garlic
2 med-large zucchini (peeled & diced)
2 tsp curry paste (cuz I didn't have curry powder)
maybe 6 cups vegetable broth
1/2 c Quinoa
salt (lots)
pepper (lots)

Saute the onion in the coconut oil, add the garlic, add the zucchini and saute for a few more minutes. Add the curry paste, veg broth & quinoa. Add salt & pepper. Bring to boil. Turn down the heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes.  I really didn't want my soup to be pureed. So, I just mashed the zucchini with a potato masher.

As it cooked it thickened and became almost a poridge.  I added more salt & pepper.  All in all, it quite tasty. I couldn't help but think that if I was feeling sick this would be the perfect alternative to chicken soup.

Bulked up Hot & Sour Soup

Ok, so I've gotten a little addicted to Pinterest, as I've found some really awesome recipes there. One that I ran across was Crockpot Hot & Sour soup. I was happy when I found the recipe as it was also gluten-free.  Then I found another recipe for Hot & Sour soup... and well, I'm really just not known for following recipes. So, I used those two as a base and created my own, adding more veggies to bulk it up a little, and after waiting a day for it to cook in the crockpot.... it is delicious!  So, I thought I'd share.

Dealing with Fibro, cooking needs to be about keeping things simple and that's where Crockpots are awesome.  This soup requires very little prep and the crockpot does all the work.

3 cups water

3 cups chicken broth

2tsp white pepper

1 cup soy sauce

1tbsp sesame oil

1/2 cup white wine vinegar

2 medium kale leaves (about 1 cup chopped with large stem removed)

2 medium carrots

2 asparagus stalks

8oz package of mushrooms (sliced)

2 chicken breasts - cooked &  finely chopped (I used a rotisserie chicken)

1/2lb of tofu cubed 

1 can of bamboo shoots

Finely chop the veggies and chicken. Cube the tofu.  I used a rotisserie chicken so that made life even easier. If you opt to use regular chicken breasts, dice up the chicken and cook it in some canola or olive oil.

Add all of the items above to the crockpot and cook on high for 4-5 hours (or low for 9-10 or longer). It's soup. The longer you let it cook the better.

I love my Hot & Sour soup both HOT and SOUR! You can adjust those levels by increasing/ decreasing the vinegar (sour) or the pepper (hot).

I didn't really think about just how much everything would cook down. Next time I do this I would probably double all the veggies and add a second can of  bamboo shoots.