Kale and Lentil Soup with Ham

Lately, I have been wanting hearty soups that warm the mind and body.  I normally make a classic split pea and ham soup from the popular Canadian cookbook, Eat, Shrink & Be Merry.  To change things up, I used a combination of red and green lentils instead of split peas.  This soup needed something fresh, green and vibrant, so I added a bunch of bite sized pieces of kale.    

Last summer, I grew kale for the first time.  The nursery only had ornamental flowering kale seedlings instead of the edible garden variety.  I bought the ornamental kale for fun and put it with my flowers.  I guess I had gotten what I wanted after all, as it turned out to be the kind that we normally eat!  My children love snapping off the kale leaves for a yummy meal.

Whenever I have a baked bone-in ham, I always freeze the bone for making soup later.  The smoky flavour of the ham bone is what makes this soup amazing.  Boneless ham does not taste the same, although it is much easier.  For a quick short-cut, I have also used a bone-in ham steak with great results.  

I had enough kale to make some hearty soup and a side dish of sauteed kale with garlic and chicken broth.  What a shock to hear from all the kiddies, "Mom, can I please have more kale?"  Whoa...

Kale and Lentil Soup with Ham 

2 tsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup each chopped celery and chopped carrots
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced fresh thyme, or 1 tsp dried
1/2 tsp dried oregano
4 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
1 whole meaty smoked ham shank, ham hock (About 2 lbs) or bone-in ham steak
1 cup dry red lentils, rinsed
1 cup dry green lentils, rinsed
2 bay leaves
1/4 to 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 bunch (about 1/2 pound) kale, stems removed, torn into bite-sized pieces
salt to taste

Heat olive oil in a large non-stick soup pot over medium heat. Add onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Cook and stir until the vegetables begin to soften, about 6 mins. Add thyme and oregano and cook 1 more minute.

Add remaining ingredients except parsley, vinegar and salt. Bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for an hour.

Remove ham from soup. Add kale to soup and bring to rapid simmer, cover and cook until kale wilts, about 5 minutes.  

Cut meat from ham shank and return meat to pot. Discard bone. Stir in parsley and vinegar. Taste soup and add more pepper and salt if desired.

- Adapted from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry (Dinner Dates: Ham and Split Pea Soup with Lentils) and Food.com: Sausage Lentil and Kale Soup

Enjoy!

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Easy Chinese Cream Corn Egg Drop Soup

Chinese corn egg drop soup is very easy to make.  You can find this soup in Chinese restaurants and Chinese households. Growing up, my mother would make this for us on a regular basis.  It is one of those comfort dishes I fondly remember.  When I finally ventured to make this, I didn't realize how quick it is to whip up.   

Recovering from the stomach flu, this hit the spot.  The children adore the sweetness from the corn, the savory chicken soup base and swirls of cooked egg throughout the soup.   

A simple soup with basic ingredients:  a can of cream corn, an egg and chicken or vegetable broth.  I don't always have chicken broth on hand, so I usually use about 1/4 tsp chicken bouillon base with water.  I always have chicken bouillon cubes in my pantry.

Empty 1 can of cream style corn and add 1 can of water or broth in a medium pot. If using water, add about 1/4 tsp chicken bouillon cube.  

Crumble the chicken bouillon cube into the corn and water mixture.  Bring contents to a boil.  

While waiting for the soup to boil, beat 1 egg in a bowl, as if you are making scrambled eggs.   

*Important tip:  When the corn soup is boiling, turn the heat element off and take the pot off the heat.  Mix in a clockwise (or counter-clockwise, if you prefer!) and slowly pour the beaten egg in a thin stream.  Mixing in a circular fashion helps distribute the egg into pretty swirls through the soup.  The heat from the boiling soup will quickly cook the egg.  

Previously, I forgot to take the pot off the heat and the vigorous boiling broke the egg swirls into an "unappetizing egg mess".  The soup was still very tasty, but the eggs did not look pretty... they were pulverized from the rapid boiling.      

    

Look at the swirls of egg.  The egg also thickens the soup nicely.

Chinese Corn Egg Drop Soup

1 14 oz (398mL) can Cream Style Corn

1 equivalent can of water*, chicken broth or vegetable broth

*1/4 tsp chicken bouillon cube or powdered chicken stock, if using water

1 egg, beaten

Salt & pepper, to taste

In a medium pot, empty 1 can cream style corn and add 1 can of water or broth.  If using water, about 1/4 tsp crumbled chicken bouillon cube to the corn and water.  Bring soup mixture to a rapid boil. 

Beat 1 egg in a bowl.  Take the saucepan off the heat element when the soup has reached a rapid boil.  While mixing in a circular motion, slowly pour a thin stream of the beaten egg into the hot soup.  The mixing motion helps cook and swirl the egg into the soup. 

The soup is ready to serve when the egg is cooked.  

Season with salt and pepper, if needed.  

[Edited to add - Dec. 13, 2012] I'm so excited to share that this recipe has been featured on SayItCanada.ca!  Very happy to contribute this wonderful Canadian site.  They have a really neat Kids Corner with lots of neat activities and recipes!    

Enjoy!

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Simple Chicken Broth Congee

Comfort food for an Asian family should include a hot steaming bowl of congee (or jook in Cantonese).  Hubby had a medical course down in Vancouver for the weekend and somehow, the baby got the stomach flu.  I wasn't sure if it was something bad she ate or a bug, but the next two days, she was fine.  On the day we left, she had diarrhea and vomiting during our 7-ish hours of driving back home.  Not pretty.  Actually, it was downright nasty.

We were very happy to come home!  Then the next day, the middle child got sick with a bad cold bug.  To replenish everyone's fluid loss, a nice hot comforting bowl of congee is what *Dr. Michelle* ordered.  

Congee is a rice porridge.  Much like making oatmeal porridge, rice and water is used instead, along with some savoury add-ins.  Chinese restaurants offer this with different kinds of meat, dried oysters, preserved duck egg and peanuts.  The possibilities are endless.  

I noticed that every Chinese family has their own version.  It depends on what tiny village from China they come from and the condiments they use.   There are so many different tricks and tips used to make a smooth, velvety bowl.  For example, some mix washed rice with some vegetable oil and then soak overnight before cooking. Some people like theirs thick, some runny.  It is all a matter of preference.  I haven't tried using brown rice, but I'm sure that would be good too.  I just made this simple as the children were sick and I didn't think far ahead to soak the rice the night before!  

In our case, I made it on the runny side to increase fluid intake.  Rice is also part of the BRAT diet:  Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast, which is good for those with tummy issues.  

I decided to document this recipe for my kids, as I should have asked my parents how to make it but always forgot.  Besides, they would end up telling me to put rice and water together and cook until done!  

I like using a 1L box of chicken broth, as it always comforting when feeling under the weather.  I prefer to use organic low sodium chicken broth, but I tried no salt chicken broth, as it is a relatively new product in the stores and it was on sale. 

My recipe is pretty straight forward.  I washed 1 cup of white long grain rice (I used jasmine rice), added 1 box of chicken broth (roughly 4 cups) and then added 3 boxes of water (about 12 cups).  Yes, 16 cups of total fluid!  

Let it come to a boil and simmer for about 2.5-3 hours, covered.  After an hour or so, the rice grains will look fat and bloated.  Eventually, they will break up and then look smoother and thicker, like oatmeal.   It takes time.  I'm sure there is a quicker way.  

Season to taste, as the salt content is dependent on the brand of chicken broth used.  With Campbell's No Salt Added Chicken Broth, I added about 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt.  You can always add more salt when serving.  This recipe can be easily halved, as it makes a lot and it is pretty runny, like thin oatmeal.  I would have liked to add an extra 1/4 cup rice, but it will thicken as it sits.  In retrospect, better to make it thicker and then add more water to thin it out than to have it too runny.  

Simple Chicken Broth Congee

• 1 1/2 cups washed white, long grain rice (I used 1 cup rice for thinner congee)
• 1 (900ml, 1 L, 4 cups) box low sodium chicken broth
• 3 boxes water (3L, 12 cups equivalent)
• salt, to taste

Wash white rice, add chicken broth and water.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 2.5-3 hours. Season to taste and ladle into bowls.  

I'm sure this recipe would be good in the slow cooker.  

  

Finished product.  Notice that it's almost half eaten in one sitting!  My oldest and the baby had three helpings!  

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Easy Hamburger Soup

After the kids' piano lessons this morning, they were happy to be home. It was almost noon and I needed something hot, quick and easy to feed the kids on a snowy, dreary, winter's day.

Sounds like a day for soup.  Scrambling around all morning, I didn't really feel like chopping a whole bunch of vegetables.  Just wanted to open a can of soup and be done with a meal. 

But then I'm not satisfied with the cans of soup we have in the stores these days.  I find that they are pretty skimpy, especially if I am used to making my meals from scratch as much as I can.   

With a bit of compromise, I was able to use the frozen vegetables and meat in my freezer and pantry to come up with a pretty tasty soup that the kids like! 

I didn't have a chance to defrost a pound of ground beef, so I just fried the frozen chunk of meat and scraped the cooked bits off.  Eventually, it was cooked.  The meat looked pretty greasy, so I drained the meat, scooped it into a metal sieve and rinsed it off with hot water.  Yes, it is an extra step, but it's personal preference.  I don't like greasy soup. I wiped the pot of excess grease and then dumped it back with chopped onion. 

Luckily, I have some frozen onion in the freezer.  (I bought a 10lb bag of onions for $2.99, chopped some of it up, placed chopped onions on a parchment lined baking sheet, froze them for a few hours and placed them into ziplock baggies.)  I dumped about 1/2 cup frozen onion into the beef.  This trick saved me more time!   

Then I dumped everything in the pot, except the pasta.

I recently discovered the beauty of tomato paste in a tube.  A lot of recipes ask for 1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste.  I find it a pain to open up a can for that small amount and the rest of it is unused in the fridge.  Surprisingly, I stumbled across this product at my local supermarket chain and German deli!  I squeezed some into the soup for extra body.  I never expected that a tube of tomato paste would be so convenient!  This is optional, but I thought it would be a nice addition, as traditional hamburger soup recipes call for a can of tomatoes. 

I covered the soup, brought it to a boil and added the small pasta or whatever cooks fast to thicken the soup.  I found some organic alphabet pasta at the store the other day but next time, I will try barley. 

I simmered it covered for 10-15 minutes and stirred it around several times to keep from sticking to the bottom.  The soup is done when the pasta is done to your liking. 


Easy Hamburger Soup with Lots of Veggies

1lb lean ground beef (thawed or frozen)
1 small onion (I used 1/2 cup frozen onion)
1 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
2 cans  vegetable soup (I used Campbell's) plus 3 cans water
2 Tbsp. tomato paste (optional)
1 can mushrooms (optional)
2 handfuls small shaped pasta (alphabet pasta, baby shells, orzo) or barley

In a soup pot, brown hamburger over medium heat. Rinse meat or drain off fat and return to pot.  Add onions and sautee for a few minutes.                 
Continue to add vegetable soup, water, mixed frozen vegetables, mushrooms and tomato paste and bring to boil.  Reduce heat, add pasta and simmer covered for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally, until pasta is cooked and soup has thickened nicely.  

If serving hot soup to (very) anxious, hungry kiddies, add 1-2 ice cubes.  The children love seeing the ice shrink and disappear into the soup as they mix it.  By the time it has disappeared, it would be cool enough for them to eat.  This is great tip for eating out at restaurants! 

The kids would rather eat than pose for the camera! 

[Edited to add - April 12, 2013 ] I am so pleased to announce that this recipe is being featured on SayItCanada's series of recipes for "Parents Who Hate to Cook".  SayItCanada.ca is a rich lifestyle resource for communities across Canada.  

Enjoy!

 
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