Soup for sick hubby

Sweet hubby has been sick this weekend. That seriously almost never happens. I think it's been years since his last sniffle or cough but he's had it good this weekend, fever and all. Poor baby.

Soup is all I ever want when I'm not feeling good and I figured a hot & spicy soup would surely loosen up his congestion and help clear his head. I'd recently purchased the ingredients for a hot & spicy black eyed pea soup that I usually make for New Year's Day but figured this was a good excuse to make it early. I'll just have to be sure to buy the ingredients again before New Years rolls around.

I've had this recipe for over 20 years but I've had to adjust it since going to a plant-based diet since the original recipe calls for bacon. Even after I quit eating bacon, I still put turkey sausage in it. No more. And it's still yummy, too!

I saute some onion, chopped jalapenos and garlic in a little veggie broth...



Next I did something I've never done before. Since I didn't really want to mess with making cornbread to go with the soup, I did the next best thing and added some polenta to the soup. I just chopped up a few slices of pre-made polenta and added it in, along with a can of Rotel tomatoes. I let this heat for a few minutes to soften the polenta.






After this was heated through, I added 4 cans of black eyed peas (drained and rinsed) and 4 cups of veggie broth. I let this simmer for about 20 minutes to blend the flavors and really soften the polenta. It was yummy AND spicy! Cleared my head and I wasn't even congested!



Jennifer’s Hot & Spicy Black-eyed Pea Soup

1 large onion, chopped
2 cups fresh tomatoes, chopped or 1 can Rotel tomatoes
3 Tablespoons chopped jalapenos
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
4 cans black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
4 cups veggie broth
1/2 package polenta, diced

Saute onions, tomatoes, jalapenos and garlic. Cook 4-5 minutes, stirring often, until vegetables are softened.

Add polenta and warm through. Add peas and veggie broth and stir well. Simmer 20-25 minutes over low heat.

Place soup into bowls and sprinkle with Daiya cheese if desired. Serve with corn bread.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Home, sweet home


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Home, sweet home

Big Batch O' Chili

It may not be winter yet by the calendar but it is DEFINITELY winter here in Oklahoma this weekend. Snow, sleet & freezing rain started early enough Thursday that our boss let us go home early. Friday we woke up to a winter wonderland.




Beautiful. Peaceful. And COLD. Absolutely frickin' cold. Wow. The temps have been hovering close to single digits - the wind chill has definitely been there. And what sounds good for dinner on cold winter days? Uh, hello? Chili, of course! But chili is full of beef or venison, right? Well, not my chili! :)

I made this last winter when we had a houseful for some occasion... not sure when. When I make it now I know we'll have plenty of leftovers to enjoy over the next few days and that's okay. Like all chili, this vegan chili just gets better and better the next few days.

I didn't think to start taking pictures until I was pretty far into making this tonight but the recipe is so easy you won't need pictures for the first parts. Just start with a chopped onion, a couple of stalks of chopped celery (I chop mine pretty small because sweet hubby thinks he doesn't like celery.... sheesh), one diced red bell pepper and some veggie broth. Saute these ingredients until tender, then add a can of chopped green chiles. Next comes the spices... 2 Tablespoons chili powder, 2 teaspoons cumin, 2 teaspoons turmeric and 2 teaspoons oregano.

This is where I started taking pictures:




Then you'll want to add half a package of ground veggie crumbles. I always use Light Life Smart Ground but I've discovered recently that if you want to go gluten free you can just use reconstituted TVP instead. The Smart Ground is not gluten free but Red Mills TVP is. Because I had the Smart Ground on hand and because we don't have gluten concerns (but our next door neighbor does so this is good to know!), we just used that tonight. It chops up easily into the mix.

Next I slaved over the can opener and opened 1 can of diced tomatoes and SIX cans of beans - 2 black beans, 2 kidney beans and 2 pinto beans with jalapenos. Rinse them well and they look like this: (aren't they pretty?) :)





Add that to your chili mix and heat well. After that, you can add whatever you'd like to the top of your chili bowl. Hubby adds mustard to his. I add mustard and ketchup, sometimes chopped red onion or maybe Daiya cheese. And, of course, this is one area where we splurge and add Fritos. What is chili without fritos? Not chili. At least not in Oklahoma. We've served this to die-hard carnivores and they were none-the-wiser. :)





Stay warm, everyone!

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