Chicken Dumpling Soup

I made this for the church on Sunday night; it was really good. It's not as thick as most Chicken & Dumplings, which is what I really dislike about that dish. Try this one.

2 to 3 Tbsp. cooking oil
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 stalk celery, diced
Meat from 1 chicken, cooked and shredded
4 to 6 cups chicken broth
1 cup green beans
2 teaspoons celery seed
2 teaspoons basil
1 Tbsp. parsley
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Dumplings:
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup flour
3 eggs

Soup:
In a small amount of cooking oil, sweat the onion, carrots and celery. Add chicken, broth, green beans, celery seed, parsley and bay leaves. Simmer about 30 minutes.

Make dumplings:
Bring the milk and butter to a boil, add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Remove from heat and immediately add flour, stirring until the dough leaves the sides of the pan. The batter should be slightly thinner than play-do at this point. Incorporate the eggs, one at a time, forming a sticky dough.

Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper. Add spoon sized (I used small kitchen spoons) balls of dumpling dough and simmer until dumplings float. This just takes a few minutes.

All in all, you can cook this soup, start to finish, in about an hour. It's really, really good!

Everything But ... Soup

Yesterday was one of those days that I was freezing cold and looking to spend some time with friends. So at lunchtime I threw together a soup, and it was WONDERFUL! The best thing about it? There's not really a recipe and virtually no salt at all. Here's how to do it:

1. Open the freezer.
2. Pull out random vegetables, paying particular attention to those that rarely get eaten. I used spinach, lima beans, peas, corn, onion, zucchini, squash, green beans.
3. Open two cans of diced tomatoes and dump them (juice included) into a crock-pot.
4. Add a pinch of basil, parsley, and salt. Add about a teaspoon of black pepper and two bay leaves.
5. Put 1-2 frozen chicken breasts (still frozen) on to boil on the stovetop with bay leaves and parsley. While they cook, dump the frozen vegetables in the crock-pot.
6. Cut any "dangerously close to the trash" vegetables from the fridge and put in crock-pot. I used mushrooms, carrots, potatoes.
7. When the chicken finishes, shred it and throw it in the crock-pot.
8. Leave the crock-pot on high until everything is cooked and smelling great. I let it cook about 3 hours or so. If you use potatoes, you might want to add them in the last 45 minutes or so to prevent them from getting too mushy.

mmmmm....

I love this soup with grilled cheese or cheese and crackers. It's hearty, filling, and very good for you. It's also a great way to smuggle veggies to those that don't like them as much -- like the spinach, which cooks down so much you don't even notice it. For a little extra "girth" to this soup, add cheese tortellini, rice, quinoa, or barley.

ENJOY!