Category: Soups and Stews

Homemade Salmon Stew

Few things go better with a cool, rainy night than stew of some kind. Salmon stew is one that we haven’t made for a while – so that is what we landed on.

There are just a few simple ingredients – milk, butter, potatoes, corn and of course canned salmon. Speaking of canned salmon, have I just been out of the loop or has canned salmon gone up in price, tremendously? I think it was like $4.50 a can.

I didn’t get pictures throughout the process, but I’ll just walk you through it. You’ll want to start by prepping your potatoes and onions. When choosing your potatoes – you need to decide if you want a starchy potato (it will make the stew a little thicker), like a russet or a waxy potato (it will hold his shape more), like a red potato. I, personally, prefer a more starchy potato – but, to get rid of the red potatoes we had – we used those in this stew.

In order to amp up the fragrance and flavor of the onions, they were sauteed in 1tbsp of the butter and set aside, while the cubed potatoes were being boiled. This is also a good time to pick the bones and skin out of your salmon.

Once the potatoes were nearly done, they were drained and added back into the pot – along with the remaining ingredients. At this point, in order to keep the milk from scorching, you’ll want to ensure that you’re not on high heat and that you’re stirring constantly.

Once the stew has been brought up to a boil, without scorching your milk, you’ll want to turn the heat off, cover the pot and let it sit for about 30 minutes. This will finish cooking the potatoes and ensure that everything is perfectly warmed through.

Serve with saltines or oyster crackers and a little hot sauce, if you like!

Homemade Salmon Stew

2 cans salmon (remove any bones and skin)
2 cans corn, drained
3-4 medium potatoes (Russet potatoes are best, as they are more startchy)
1 small onion, chopped
5 tbsp butter
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2/3 gallon of milk

  • Dice potatoes
  • Cut up onions
  • Boil potatoes until nearly done
  • Saute onions in 1 tbsp butter, set aside
  • Drain potatoes and return to pot
  • Add remaining ingredients to potatoes, bring to a boil – over medium heat – stir constantly so the milk doesn’t scorch
  • Turn off heat, cover and allow to sit for about 30 minutes
by Michelle

Creamy Chicken and Cannellini Bean Soup (Instant Pot)

This is a super quick recipe for a busy weeknight. And, that is just what I needed after arriving home late from work!

The first step is to cook your chicken. I cook mine in the instant pot and shred it in the same pot. I detailed how to do this, in this post.

As the chicken was cooking, I prepped the poblano pepper, shallot and cilantro and set it aside.

Once the chicken is done, and you’ve safely released the pressure, you just need to dump the remaining ingredients into the instant pot. Replace the lid and set the instant pot to the soup/stew setting, low pressure and 5 minutes.

Shallot, poblano and green chilis
Fresh cilantro

After your 5 minutes are up, do quick release and remove lid. The final step was to add in the cream (you can totally skip this part if you don’t want a creamy soup).

Easy peasy – a quick and delicious weekday meal!

Creamy Chicken and Cannellini Soup

2 chicken breasts, shredded
8 cups of chicken stock (including stock used to cook the chicken)
3 cans cannellini beans
1 – 7 oz can green chilis, medium
1 poblano pepper, diced small
1 shallot, diced small
1 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup heavy cream or half and half

  • Cook and shred chicken in the Instant Pot (use 1 cup of chicken broth to cook the chicken)
  • Chop poblano pepper, shallot and cilantro
  • Once chicken is cooked an shredded, add in the remaining ingredients, all except the cream, and put lid back on instant pot
  • Set instant pot to soup/stew setting, low pressure and 5 minutes
  • Once the timer goes off, release pressure and add in cream and stir through
  • You can add jalapenos, more lime juice, cheese or chips, if you like
by Michelle

Potato Soup

I adore a good, creamy soup on a cold day. One of my favorites has always been potato soup. I find it comforting for some reason. I guess you could say that if I were to list my favorite ‘comfort foods’, potato soup would be in the top 5.

I like to top my potato soup with grated cheddar and bacon. Knowing that I’d need a roux to thicken the soup, I chose to cook the bacon in the same dutch oven that I intended to make my soup in (then I had the bacon fat to make my roux and all the yummy bits that were left in the pan to help season my soup). I used thick sliced bacon, cut into smaller pieces (I think this is easier than frying it whole and then crumbling it, if you know you want it crumbled. And, the bacon gets crisper).

You can use any potatoes, of course, but I like russet potatoes the best. I use 6-8 potatoes, chopped to similar sized cubes.

Once my bacon was done, I removed it from the dutch oven and set it aside. The bacon I used left about 4 tbsp of oil. To that I added the same amount of flour to create my roux. I did a light roux, so I only cooked it for a few minutes.

After the roux was done, I added in the chicken stock. This was the time that I was able to deglaze the dutch oven. I stirred the mixture through and let the roux combine with the chicken stock, prior to adding in the milk. And, finally the potatoes. Once it was all warmed through, I added in the salt, pepper and butter. I turned down the heat (because my dutch oven holds heat so well, I can’t have it up too high or it will boil over), covered the dutch oven and cooked the soup for about 30 minutes – stirring occasionally.

To help make the soup ‘souper’ (see what I did there?) creamy, I used my immersion blender to blend some of the potatoes. I do like some chunky potatoes in my soup, so I only blended some.

I served the soup topped with cheddar cheese and the bacon I cooked earlier.

Potato Soup

6-8 russet potatoes
6 slices of thick cut bacon, cut into small pieces
3-4 tbsp flour
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups milk
2 1/2 tbsp butter
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Grated sharp cheddar cheese

  • Cook bacon, until crisp (reserve bacon grease)
  • Remove bacon, set aside
  • Chop potatoes into smallish cubes
  • Depending on how much bacon grease is left (should be around 3 tbsp or 4 tbsp), add same amount of flour and create a roux
  • Once your roux is done, add in chicken stock and stir though to incorporate
  • Add milk and potatoes
  • Add in salt and pepper
  • Cook until potatoes are soft
  • For a creamier soup, use an immersion blender to blend some of the potatoes
  • Serve with cheese and bacon

by Michelle

Easy Black Bean Soup

I love cooler weather, partly because I love soup and stews and cooler weather makes it more ‘acceptable’ to cook soups and stews more often. I would, honestly, eat soups year round – but, they do taste better when there is a little nip in the air.

For black bean soup, you could certainly start with dried black beans – but, this is a recipe for a quick and easy black bean soup. That said, I used canned black beans (the picture shows 3 cans, but I actually used 4). Along with the black beans, I added in some carrots, onion, celery and a jalapeno. As far as seasonings, I kept it simple – just cumin and salt. I diced all the vegetables pretty small.

I actually used 4 cans of black beans

In a large pot, I warmed a bit of olive oil. To that, I added in the chopped vegetables and seasonings.

I allowed the vegetables to cook until the vegetables started to soften.

Finally, I added in the black beans and beef stock.

I also remembered that I had a jar of roasted red peppers in the refrigerator (it was about 3/4 full). I drained them and threw that in.

Since I chopped the vegetables pretty small, it doesn’t take long to cook this soup – but, it is good to let it simmer long enough for all the flavors to meld. I would say let it simmer for at least 30 minutes.

This soup is great on it’s own – but, you can add any variety of toppings if you like. I topped mine with a little bit of sour cream.

Also – this recipe is super easy to make vegetarian – just use vegetable stock, in place of the beef stock!

Easy Black Bean Soup

2 carrots, chopped small
1 stalk of celery, chopped small
1/2 onion, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced small
1 tbsp minced garlic
4 cans black beans, undrained
6-8 oz roasted red peppers
1 carton (4 cups) beef stock (or vegetable stock, if you want it to be vegetarian)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil

  • Prep vegetables
  • In large pot, add olive oil and heat
  • Add in onion, garlic, celery, carrots and jalapeno
  • Add in seasonings and stir through
  • Add in the stock, black beans and roasted red peppers, bring to boil
  • Once boil is achieved, cover and reduce heat.
  • Let simmer for at least 30 minutes

Soup can be served with various toppings: sour cream, cheese, avocado or chips

by Michelle

Corn Chowder

I think that I’ve made it very clear that I love a soup, stew or chowder (well, I’ve never said, on the blog, I love a chowder – but, suffice it to say, I do – now you know!). When I decided to make corn chowder, I got to wondering what makes a chowder a chowder – why isn’t it a stew, for example. In my research, I found that a chowder uses a roux to thicken – perfect, I was planning on using a roux for this dish! I was making a chowder! Go me!

For my corn chowder, I used chicken stock and some bacon – but, you could easily make this a vegetarian dish by foregoing the bacon and using vegetable stock.

Since I wasn’t planning this to be a vegetarian dish I knew I was going to put bacon in it. So, I started by frying a few slices of bacon.

I prepped the potatoes, onion and carrots.

Then I made my roux. For the roux, I used 2 tbsp butt we er (and the bacon grease that was left over) and 3-4 tbsp flour. For a roux, it should be equal parts fat and flour, I just guesstimated on the amount of bacon fat that was left in the dutch oven. I then added in a bit of the chicken stock, brought up to a boil and whisked well, picking up any stuck on bacon pieces from the bottom of the pan.

I added in the remaining chicken broth and 3 cups of skim milk. I added in the vegetables and dry seasonings and brought the broth up to a boil.

I added in the heavy cream last and then stirred everything through. I added in 1/2 of the bacon, crumbled, to the dutch oven.

I reduced the heat, added in a bay leaf, covered and cooked the chowder for about 45 minutes.

Serve topped with crisp bacon.

Corn Chowder

1 large bag frozen corn (32 oz)
4 carrots, chopped
4 russet potatoes, diced
1 onion, diced
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups milk (I used 3 cups skim and 1 cup heavy cream)
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp Umami seasoning
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

2 tbsp butter
3-4 tbsp flour

  • Prep vegetables
  • Fry bacon and remove from dutch oven
  • Make roux, using remaining bacon fat, butter and flour
  • Once roux is done, add in chicken broth and then milk
  • Add in vegetables and seasonings, bring to a boil
  • Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes
  • Serve with crisp bacon, if desired (I also added a few pieces of cooked, chopped bacon in prior to simmering)

** If you want to make this vegetarian, use vegetable stock and don’t add bacon

by Michelle