My Cooking Attempts: Abuela's Creamy Pea Soup

I often get lost in the multitude of recipes found in cookbooks or Pinterest. I want to cook everything & try every recipe out there. I'm always challenging myself & trying new recipes, cooking methods, or ingredients.  & then, when I don't know what to make for dinner or am short on time, I always go back to my old favorites. Those recipes my mom or Abuela taught me. The recipes I make without measuring. The recipes I make when I don't want to think too much. The recipes I know will always turn out delicious. This is one of those recipes.
This creamy pea soup is a dinner staple in my Abuela's house. Although I grew up eating this soup I wasn't too interested in making it until I got married. In an effort to impress my husband, who's mom is a notoriously good cook, I asked my Abuela how to make her famous creamy pea soup. This is how our conversation went:
              Abuela: "You will need butter, green onion, frozen peas, tomato
                             sauce, & half & half."
              Me: "How much do I need?"
              Abuela: "I don't know. How much do you want to make?"
              Me: "Enough for David & I."
              Abuela: "Well then enough ingredients for two servings."
I was seriously lost, I had no idea what to do or where to start. I'd never made anything, besides a salad, without measuring. But that's how she cooks, with her senses, by tasting & smelling food. My abuela rarely measures ingredients. *Which is also why she a HORRIBLE baker. Just don't tell her I told you that!*
So I went for it & winged it. I bought the ingredients & used my senses to cook up a wonderful pot of creamy pea soup. Thankfully it was a success! That could have gone in a completely different direction.
Since then I've adapted the recipe to my liking, just don't tell my abuela! Although I've never measured the ingredients, this past weekend I took the time to measure out everything in order to share the recipe with you. I hope you enjoy!

Creamy Pea Soup
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 bunch of green onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 can (8 ounce) tomato sauce
1 lb of frozen or fresh peas
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 cup half & half
1 tsp ground nutmeg
Salt & pepper to taste

Boil water. When the water is boiling add the fresh or frozen peas. Bring back to a boil, cook 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat. Drain water and transfer the peas to your blender. Add chicken stock to blender. (As an alternative you can use the water you cook the peas in.) Blend until smooth.

Meanwhile melt the butter in a soup pot, over medium heat. Add chopped green onion & garlic. Saute 2-3 minutes.

Add the can of tomato sauce and cook out the tin flavor, 4-5 minutes.

Add pureed peas. Follow with half & half.

Season to with nutmeg & salt and pepper. Serve with crusty, buttered bread.

Want to know the best part? Not only is it yummy, comforting, & delicious, it's also easy & inexpensive. The perfect combination!

Note: This recipe is wonderfully versatile. You can sub out the peas for almost any vegetable. I've made this exact recipe with carrots, corn, and broccoli. No matter the vegetable, the soup always turns out deliciously creamy & smooth. You can also add more or less half and half, depending on how creamy you prefer your soup. Bon appetit!

My Cooking Attempts: Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

You know how some people love tomato soup? I'm not one of those. Well, at least I didn't think I was one of those people until I tried this recipe by Two Peas & Their Pod. All of a sudden I understood what all the fuss what about!
I had only ever tried the Campbell's Soup version of tomato soup and, no offense Campbell, but that stuff is HORRIBLE! However, after reading about all the wonderful health benefits of tomatoes I decided to give it another go. Only this time I decided to make the soup myself. I was hoping there would be an immense improvement in the homemade version and I was right. OMG what a difference fresh ingredients and a little TLC make!
I love this soup because, like most of my other recipes, I can make it in large quantities, with minimal effort, and it's healthy and delicious. I've adjusted a few things, here and there, to the recipe, but not much. Honestly, Two Peas & Their Pod hit the nail on the head with this one.

Recipe
3 lbs Roma tomatoes
Note: You can use other types of tomatoes. Just remember, the smaller the tomato the sweeter the tomato. So in this case, smaller is better!
5 cloves of garlic
EVOO
1 medium onion
Dash of red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cup freshly chopped basil 
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper

First things first. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. As it heats up rinse your tomatoes and quarter them (cut them in half and then half the halves). Spread the tomatoes on a baking dish or casserole dish. Add the whole garlic cloves. Drizzle with about 2 -3 tablespoons of EVOO. Season with salt and pepper and roast for about 45 minutes.

Relax a little as they roast. When they have finished roasting, remove from oven and set aside.

Now go ahead and start on the second part of the recipe. Gather your next set of ingredients.

Roughly chop your onion and basil. In a large pot, heat the about 2 tablespoons of EVOO over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Stir in the red pepper flakes. Add the canned tomatoes, fresh basil, and chicken broth. Cook for about 10 minutes. Stir in the oven roasted garlic and tomatoes. 

If you have an immersion blender, more power to you! Puree the soup in the stockpot. An immersion blender is still on my "list of things to buy for the kitchen." Until then I use my good ol' blender. 
If using a blender, transfer soup to your blender and blend. Careful, it will be hot. 

Return to pot. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook for about 40 minutes over medium-low heat. This will help meld the flavors together, remove any tin flavor from the canned tomatoes, and reduce some of the liquid, which is crucial since this soup uses no cream.

It's now ready to eat! Serve a large bowl with a side of warm and gooey grilled cheese (recipe to follow in another post) and enjoy. 

My Cooking Attempts: Sopa de Albóndigas

I grew up eating warm bowls of albóndigas for dinner. I would so look forward to the cold weather because I knew my mom would soon be making albóndigas.

Funnily I never knew albóndigas meant meatballs. I just thought that was the name of the soup, like menudo or pozole. However, albóndigas specifically refers to the meatballs, not necessarily the soup. Weird, right? Once I asked a friend for her albóndiga recipe and she gave me the recipe for meatballs and nothing more. When I asked her for the rest of the recipe she said "Oh, you mean sopa de albóndigas?" Confused? Yeah, so was I! Don't despair! If you say I'm eating albóndigas most people (my friend excluded) will understand you mean the soup. Just in case you're still confused, this recipe is for meatball soup, not just meatballs!

Meatballs
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground beef
1 egg
2 green onion
1/2 bunch mint
1/4 cup rice
1/2 tomato
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Soup
1/2 brown onion
1 tomato
7 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
2 carrots
2 cups of diced potatoes
1 zucchini
2 celery stalks
Salt to taste

Start with the rice: Rinse the rice and soak for 30 minutes. Just enough time to prepare your other ingredients.

Dice your brown onion and tomato. Add a little oil to a soup pot, medium heat. Add onion and tomato. Cook down for a few minutes.

Add water and chicken broth. Season with salt. Bring to a boil.

Meanwhile prepare your meatballs:

Finely dice the green onion and mint. Seed the tomato and finely dice.
Note: If the dice is too large the meatballs will fall apart. So, although it may seem like a bother, finely dice the veggies! It's an important step.
Drain the water from the rice. Add the veggies into a large mixing bowl with the rice, ground pork and beef, egg, and seasonings. Mix all the ingredients together, don't over mix. Form into balls.

I tend for smaller meatballs. They cook more evenly and are less likely to fall apart. Also, they don't feel overwhelming in your soup bowl. I don't want you to experience this:

LOL

Once the water is boiling, lower to medium heat and gently drop the meatballs into the broth. Allow to simmer about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile prep your other veggies:

Peel and evenly slice your carrots into bite-sized rounds. I don't peel my potato, but feel free to. Chop the potato, zucchini, and celery into even, bite-size pieces.

Once the meatballs have cooked for about 30 minutes add the veggies. First add the potatoes and carrots. Allow to cook about 10 minutes. Next add the celery and zucchini. Allow to simmer about 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning, adjust accordingly.
It makes a big ol' pot of soup!

Serve!

My mom always serves our sopa de albóndigas with a side of slightly charred corn tortillas and some Tapatio. I skip the tortillas and enjoy as is.