Turkey Kale and White Bean Soup →

This easy to make soup uses left-over cooked turkey or chicken, canned white beans, and pre-made chicken stock flavored with a smokey sausage like linguiça or chorizo, garlic, leek, and onion. The secret ingredient is Portuguese Red Pepper Paste which is a staple condiment in Portuguese cooking. The soup will still be delicious, hearty, and healthy without the red pepper paste, but this condiment gives the soup its distinctive flavor. I highly recommend you take a few minutes to make a small batch of this delicious flavoring condiment to keep in your fridge. Use it in soups, sauces, or to flavor meat, fish, or poultry.

Turkey Kale and White Bean Soup
Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1-2 cups kale middle rib removed; torn in pieces

• a 10-inch leek sliced white and pale green parts only

• 1 medium onion chopped (add another onion if you don’t use the leek)

• 4 cloves of garlic chopped

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• a 6-inch piece of linguiça or chorizo sliced thin and chopped

• 1 cup cooked turkey or chicken cut into 1-inch pieces

• 2-15 ounce cans of cannellini or white navy beans

• 2 tablespoons Portuguese Red Pepper Paste

• 2 quarts of low-sodium chicken stock

• ½ teaspoon black pepper

Preparation:

1. Sautee the linguiça for a minute or two then add the leek, onion and garlic and sautee until the vegetables become soft.

2. Add the torn kale and sautee until it begins to wilt.

3. Add the red pepper paste and black pepper and stir for a minute before adding the chicken stock, turkey, and beans.

4. Simmer for a half-hour if you’re in a rush or preferably an hour to meld the flavors. Serve hot with a crusty bread.

Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta and Bean Soup) →

This dish came to me from my grandmother and falls into the category of “cucina povre” which literally means “poor kitchen” in Italian. It was a staple in the poor immigrant Italian community my grandmother lived in for much of her life. Simple, flavorful, and nourishing, it epitomizes “country” or “peasant” food. True to its humble origins, it is very adaptable to what you have on hand in your fridge or pantry. If you omit the pancetta, sausage, and parmesan, and substitute vegetable broth, it becomes vegetarian friendly. You can also throw in some chopped kale or spinach. Start by wilting the sofrito of onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. Add the tomatoes, beans, rosemary, and chicken (or vegetable) broth and bring to a boil. Add the ditalini or other small pasta shape and cook until “al dente” tender and you have a delicious one pot meal in about a half hour. Serve with a crusty bread to sop up the hearty broth.

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

• ½ slice of pancetta

• 1/2 lb. spicy (or sweet) Italian sausage (or a smokey sausage like Portuguese Linguiça)

• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

• 2 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped

• 2 ribs celery, finely chopped

• 2 cups chopped kale or spinach (optional)

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• kosher salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 2 15-ounce cans Great Northern Beans (or Cannellini Beans)

• 1 15-ounce. can diced tomatoes

• 1+ 32-ounce box chicken broth

• 1 Bay leaf

• 2-3 sprigs rosemary, leaves finely chopped (2 tsp. dried rosemary)

• 1/2 teaspoon ground fennel seed (optional, but recommended if you don’t use Italian sausage)

• 1 cup ditalini or small elbow pasta (or other small shape)

• Freshly grated Parmesan, for garnish

• Freshly chopped parsley, for garnish

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large, deep pot over medium heat. Add the pancetta and sausage and cook, breaking up the sausage with a wooden spoon, until cooked through, about 5 minutes.

2. Stir in the onion, carrots, and celery and cook until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute more.

3. Add the beans (with their liquid), diced tomatoes, chicken broth, Bay leaf and rosemary and any leafy greens you want to add.

4. Bring to a boil, then stir in the ditalini. Reduce heat to medium and cook until pasta is al dente tender, about 8 minutes.

5. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper to your taste. Serve in bowls garnished with Parmesan and parsley.

**Note: If your cooking a big pot of soup, you might prefer to cook the pasta in the amount of soup for each meal. Reheating the pasta in the soup multiple times results in over-cooked pasta that has absorbed a lot of your broth. Ladle out the number of serving for your meal and bring it to a boil. Add about a ½ cup of dried pasta for two people.

Similar to a recipe at: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/pasta-and-beans-pasta-e-fagioli-recipe-1939374

West African Diaspora Peanut Stew →

Years ago, I discovered and then lost a wonderful recipe for West African peanut stew with chicken. In my search for the original recipe, I found the recipe for West African Peanut Stew by Mark Bittman @nytcooking and that provided a starting point for me to reconstruct the original recipe and channel some of my love of West Indian-African inspired cooking. Full of warm flavors like ginger, garlic, and curry powder; along with tender kale, red tomatoes, and bright orange sweet potatoes or yams, this fragrant, sweet-and-savory, hearty stew can be made vegetarian without sacrificing flavor by leaving out the chicken. If you’re like me and love the flavor combination of peanuts, coconut, garlic, ginger, and curry and want a stew full of colorful, healthy veggies, this one’s for you.

Serves 6
Ingredients:

• ¾ cup roasted and shelled peanuts

• 2 tablespoons peanut or other neutral oil, like canola or corn (*Note: I wanted to include more coconut flavor, so I used coconut oil.)

• 1 medium red or white onion, chopped

• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

• 1 tablespoon minced garlic

• 2 teaspoon curry powder (use 1 teaspoon if you want less curry flavor)

• 1 ½ pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts or thighs cut into chunks

• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded, and minced finely (If you want to “kick-it-up-a-notch”add ¼ teaspoon of cayenne along with the jalapeño, or substitute a Scotch Bonnet pepper.)

• Salt

• freshly ground black pepper

• 5 cups chicken stock + 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

• 2 sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut into thick slices

• 8 plum tomatoes, cored and halved (canned are fine; drain and reserve liquid for another use)

• 4 packed cups of kale, stems removed, torn into pieces

• ½ – 1 cup peanut butter, chunky or smooth

• ¼ cup cilantro for garnish

Preparation:

1. Chop the peanuts or pulse them in a food processor to chop coarsely.

2. Put oil in a heavy bottom pot over medium heat; a minute later, add onion, ginger, garlic and curry powder and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, 3 to 5 minutes.

3. Add chicken and continue cooking for another 3 or 4 minutes, until the pink surface color disappears.

4. Add 1/2 cup peanuts and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

5. Stir in the stock and coconut milk and the sweet potatoes, bring to a boil, and turn the heat down to medium-low so the soup bubbles gently.

6. Stir in the tomatoes and kale, then cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes.

7. Stir in 3/4 cup peanut butter. Taste, adjust seasoning (you may want to add more peanut butter at this point) and serve, garnished with remaining peanuts and cilantro.

Wine pairing: a Chenin Blanc, Viognier, or dry Riesling will pair nicely with this dish.

Adapted from: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1012581-west-african-peanut-soup-with-chicken