Yay my first recipe post! I had promised some friends on facebook that I would post
this recipe for them after sharing pictures and a delicious description with
them.
There is almost always a story to how I come up with some of
the things I do. This recipe is no
different. I follow and peruse many different foodies on Instagram, many of
which are exclusively paleo cooks or lifestyles. You will hear me talk about
paleo often. Here’s a link with a
description if you feel like knowing what I’m talking about. http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/what-is-paleo/
So Instagram! On an Instagram that I follow I came across a
picture, not a recipe, for cauliflower and bacon soup. Now some of you may be
going “Bacon! Bacon? But bacon is bad for you!” Eh wrong, not true. Some bacon
is definitely nasty but you don’t have to give up on your bacon dreams in
pursuit of a healthier lifestyle. You want uncured, no filler, gluten free, no
nitrate or nitrite bacon. Yep it exists!! This is the kind I use. If you have
issues with pork, no worries there is a turkey version as well but you still
want to be looking for the same attributes. Again, I digress. So I made the
cauliflower and bacon soup, without the recipe, just from the idea and it was
great!
So that same week I was at the store, with only a few bucks
left in my grocery budget or any budget at all for that matter and I grabbed a
bag of potatoes, which I rarely do. But let’s be honest if you need to feed
people for cheap potatoes are the way to go. I needed a meat to go with them so
I decided to go with ham following the same logic that leads to a cauliflower
and bacon soap. So now I am making soup. But being the neurotic mom about
veggies, I decided it needed to be different than regular potato soap. At least
if I am going to make a soup with a seriously carb loaded base then it at least
needed veggies. So following the same blueprint for the cauliflower soup and
got some frozen squash, frozen broccoli, and onions. Now here is what you will
have to understand and bear through if you want to learn recipes on my blog. I
don’t really do recipes, so I will attempt to explain things the best I can. Hopefully
this is a flaw that will improve over the lifetime of my blogging.
This recipe is naturally gluten free (if your ham is, you could use any meat you want to, even bacon!) You could also make it vegetarian by leaving the meat out and using vegetable stock. It would be vegan if you left out the meat, cream, butter, and subbed vegetable stock. Any or all of these adaptations will work for this recipe. These recipes are not a science, just guidelines! Have fun with it!
Veggie Loaded Potato and Ham Soup
Ingredients:
About 1 ½ lbs peeled washed and diced potatoes
8 oz (half a bag) of frozen squash
½ to 1 diced onion or ½ bag frozen onions
About 20 oz frozen
broccoli (1 ½ bags)
6-8 cups of chicken stock or vegetable stock (I use “Better
than Bouillon” paste it is easier to use it for flavor)
I large ham steak chopped (or any other ham you want to use,
it doesn’t matter)
1/4 to ½ cup half and half or cream (optional)
About 1 stick of butter
1-2 tsp of Thyme
Salt, pepper, and garlic to taste
Oh and I added a can of green chiles to mine, totally optional. You could try some jalapenos
FYI: this makes a ton! I have no power over portions when cooking
Directions:
While you are cutting potatoes have the squash, onions and
about 2 tbsp of butter with salt and pepper going in a small saucepan, lid on.
You want these to really cook down.
Start boiling potatoes in stock, they need to get really
soft, you can add some butter here if you desire
After your squash and onion mixture is cooked way down transfer
it to some sort of food processor and process
Put your squash and onion mixture back in the saucepan, this
is where I added the green chiles. Whats happening here is that you are getting
all your flavors happy together before you add it to the potatoes so you don’t
end up overcooking the potatoes
Then, to the veggie mix add your diced ham, broccoli, more salt and
pepper, garlic, thyme, and cream (you could use a little stock if you wanted to
instead or I added more butter too). You
need enough liquid in there to cover your big pieces so they cook, not too much
though you have a lot of liquid in the potatoes.
At this point I poured in the leftovers from my cauliflower
and bacon soup . GENIUS!
When the potatoes are done transfer half of liquid and potatoes to some sort of food processor and process!
Dump the potatoes back together and when you feel satisfied
that your veggie mix is cooked enough and tasty, add to potatoes.
Soup should be relatively thick and chunky
Serve with shredded cheese and/or green onions on top if
desired
*Feel free to comment with questions, I will definitely
answer them.
Cauliflower & Bacon Soup
Ingredients:
I large head of cauliflower cut up. Don't waste the stems, use them
8 oz (half a bag) of frozen squash
½ to 1 diced onion or ½ bag frozen onions
6-8 cups chicken or vegetable stock (enough to cover cauliflower in pot)
I pkg bacon cooked and cut up (see rant above)
1/4 cup half and half or cream if desired
Salt, pepper, and garlic to taste
1-2 tsp Thyme
2 tbsp butter
Boil cauliflower in stock covered. It needs to get super soft
In a saucepan mix squash, onions, salt, pepper, and butter. Put a top on and let it cook down really well.
Once squash and onions are cooked, run them through a food processor (a mixer works ok for this part, but I recommend a processor, it doesn't matter as much on the potato soup recipe)
Pour pureed mixture into the pot of boiling cooking cauliflower
When the cauliflower is really soft dump most of the water and about half to 3/4 of the cauliflower into a processor.
Pure pureed cauliflower back in with everything else and throw in that bacon and thyme.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, garlic, and cream if so desired and let cook all together a few more minutes so all the flavors get happy together.
*This recipe is gluten free. Just like the potato soup, this is easily adapted to vegan, vegetarian, pork free, paleo, and so on. Also easily adaptable to your own tastes! Have fun with it!
Posts
