Almost Vegan Black Bean Soup

Another great supper made by SO, who had a craving for black beans lately. Delicious, not too thin, warming on a cool night. The almost vegan part is because of the late addition of crushed Doritos for some crunch and a blob of sour cream. You'd have to pick vegetable broth over chicken broth obviously. That is about as close to a vegan dish as you'll find on this blog, except for salads I suppose. And salsas. And granola bars. Never mind.

(almost vegan) Black Bean Soup

I would normally not crunch up Doritos in a soup, but we had dozens of those little tiny 16g bags left over from Halloween. Hate to waste. Other then that, I think the fresh cilantro and a bit of hot sauce made the dish.

Next Time: a different ingredient for the crunch

Me: 9/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: n/a

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is a great soup. Quick and easy, but flavourful, spicy, and great for leftovers. Also, it is all stuff I always have in the fridge (or freezer), with the possible exception of fresh cilantro which has a 50/50 chance. Well, and the hot green chili I suppose.  Many similar recipes on the Interweb suggest all manner of veggies to throw in, or strange cheeses, and layering the soup over tortilla chips - but why would you do that, they get soggy in 2 seconds.  I prefer something a bit simpler, browned chicken with garlic, onion, black beans and corn. The chips make a great garnish however.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Next time: wouldn't do much different

Me: 8/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 7.5/10

Shrimp Laksa

Another great idea from my SO.  This has to be one of my first Malaysian dishes. According to Wikipedia, it is a Chinese Malay dish, so therefore you would find various types of this in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. I had to improvise a bit since we didn't have all the usual ingredients that you would normally put in this dish. Most notable in their absence was lime, lemon grass, and rice noodles. What did I substitute? Well lemon juice mostly, although I also added Kaffir Lime Leaves as well.  As for the noodles, well I added the only thing I had which was gluten-free spaghetti. They are actually made partly from rice, but they taste like conventional spaghetti which is not ideal.

Further research revealed that there seem to be two main classes of Laksa - curry based, and tamarind based. I opted for the curry form. I don't have Tamarind on hand, maybe next time. I ended up blending about 5 recipes, since they all had either ingredients that I didn't have or found undesirable, or used overly complex methods. I didn't have carrots, fish cakes, or tofu puffs;  I didn't want macadamia nuts or mushrooms; I didn't feel like manually grinding 19 spices or simmering and de-boning a whole fish; and finally I didn't have or want ready-made curry paste. This may turn out to be Kraft Dinner for a Malay, we'll see.

Shrimp Laksa

The prep turned out to be a bit involved, but mostly because of all the ingredients. If you just used shrimp paste and curry powder it would go faster. But the actual cooking was very quick, and in the end a nice hot soup is both satisfying and fortifying.

Next Time: Make sure I'm not missing ingredients beforehand, esp. lemon grass and lime. Maybe try tofu puffs as well.

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 9/10 (liked the plain shrimp and pasta - no sauce)

Spicy Squash Soup

It happened again, a pattern is starting to emerge. SO thinks up a great idea for dinner, finds a recipe that sounds good, and lets me cook it.  I'll go even further and say there is inevitably a few ingredients we don't have, or there is something I don't like about the method - so I'll start the substituting game. Sometimes it is something we can't eat (SO and bell peppers, or me and grapefruit), or prefer not to eat, such as cheap and easy pre-packages foods. Why not go fresh if you can? Things such as "real" parmesan, fresh veggies, fresh spices (or freshly ground, such as pepper and coriander) all make a huge difference. Anyhoo. So it is fall, and one starts thinking about squash more and more. I've actually really wanted to get into soups more, so here's my chance. It turned out really good, if a bit spicy for SO's taste. Just right for me.

Spicy Squash Soup

So one thing that I think really saved a lot of time and made this a much quicker dish was the use of an immersion blender. The kind with a metal shaft, not plastic. Makes quick work of the blending, without getting out the food processor, and its 50 plastic parts that all have to be taken apart and washed. Not to mention blending in batches, re-heating the soup, etc.

Next Time: maybe a bit less spice for SO's benefit; even more cilantro; better quality or home-made broth

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a - are you kidding? Soup? Maybe in a couple years.