October 11, 2024 • 23 mins
Soup season is upon us! I love how versatile soup can be and want to get into the basics of what makes soup taste delicious, as well as the essential tools you need to make these soups. Stick around for 5 different soup recommendations that I'll be making for my family this fall.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi everybody. I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription,
the podcast you listen to when you don't know what
to make for dinner. Today is episode one hundred and
two Soup Simplified. It's officially soup Season, and I for
one am thrilled. Soup is so awesome because it's the
ultimate one pot meal, providing veggies, protein, and many times
(00:29):
of green all in one pot. It's perfect for meal
prep if you like to cook grass peas in advance
and eat them later in the week. It's cozy. So
whether you yourself need a comforting meal or someone you
love needs, you know, a nice, good comfort food dish,
soup seems to always do the trick. Not only can
soup feed a crowd, but it makes feeding a crowd very,
(00:51):
very easy. So today's episode is not only going to
be a love letter to soup, but we're also going
to break down some of the basics to make the
soup you make taste extra great, plus go through all
of the essential tools I rely on to make soup
a success in my house all fall and winter long.
But before we do that, let's discuss a few recipes
(01:12):
you can throw on your meal plan this week, it's
going to be extra crazy for us as we have
family and friends coming to stay with us back to back,
so we'll have people in and out of our house
all week on top of all of the regular things
like sports and school and work commitments. Needless to say,
I'm keeping it easy. The first recipe on my meal
plan is a slow cooker recipe I rely on this
(01:35):
time of year and I look forward to making it
this time of year, and it is my turkey roast dip.
And the reason I mentioned this time of year is
because right now you start seeing turkey breasts in the
grocery stores and they are such an awesome lean protein
that kind of mixes up your regular habit of chicken.
(01:56):
They're not always available, it's typically like eight September through
the new year. And this is so simple, you guys.
You take the turkey breast, you put it in the
slow cooker, You make a little or butter with some time,
some rosemary salt, pepper, you slather it on top, you
let it do its thing. You add some broth, and
it makes these delicious sandwiches that we add melty cheese
(02:18):
on top of and like an ausu dipping sauce. It's
so good. My family loves it, and I love that
it's one of these recipes I can rely on during
the busyness of the holiday, and yet it feels a
little different. So Turkey roast dip definitely on our meal
plan for the week. Number two is a five ingredient
recipe that my family like. It's honestly the one recipe
(02:42):
when I always have everything to make it and my
family never complains. They all love it. So it's my
spinach tomato tortellini. I use a dry rayos, a splash
of heavy cream. I use some cheese or protein fieled tortellini.
I use a handful of spinach and a little bit
of balsam vinegar and some grated palm for good measure,
(03:02):
a little bit of crusty bread. Dinner is done. Everyone
is full, happy, loves it. So spinach tomato tortellini is
happening on one of our busy nights. And then I
am going to make when we're gonna be feeding all
these friends and family that are coming. So I still
wanted something simple that would be easy to kind of host,
and I'm going to make my skillet chicken pot pie.
(03:23):
I'm actually gonna make two of them. But it really
is so simple because it comes together in a big
skillet and you actually put the biscuits right on top
and bake them in the oven, and it is it's
like a cheater chicken pot pie, but it's so comforting.
It's perfect for this time of year, super delicious. You
can use store bought biscuits or you can make your
(03:44):
own biscuits. We added a buttermilk biscuit recipe to Recipe
Club this month, and it's so it's got six ingredients
in it, so it's really really simple. All right, there
are your recipes for the week. You can find and
print them all in Recipe Club individually or in our
weekly meal plan that includes an easy to follow shopping
list where we break those down by recipe. And while
Recipe Club is an incredible resource of hundreds of recipes
(04:06):
that are specifically developed for overwhelmed parents, it's way more
than just a recipe resource. More than anything, it's a
simple dinner system that you can follow each week to
make dinner feel more manageable. And while we specialize in weeknights,
we also love holidays and so you'll find a specific
holiday menu for every major holiday, and recipe club to
(04:29):
make the memories around the table because that's also really
important to me. And speaking of the holidays, don't forget
that you can pre order our first printed recipe collection.
It's all about Thanksgiving. So a printed collection includes my
favorite classic Thanksgiving recipes, along with a shopping list, a
timeline of tasks to count down to the big day,
(04:51):
the tips that save me every single year, a list
of tools I swear by to make Thanksgiving feel easier
and more manageable. It's like an entire Thanksgiving guide to
support you as you celebrate literally the most iconic meal
of the year. And I just can't wait for you
to get it. Get it, pop it right into your
recipe binder. It's all printed on that heavy, good quality
paper and slipped into those signature sheet protectors so that
(05:14):
you can rely on the guide year after year. So
make sure to check that out on my site Kelsey
Nixon dot com. Now let's jump into the back half
of the podcast and chat about soup. I'm so excited
to spend a few minutes chatting with you about the
(05:35):
magic of soup. We'll discuss my most popular soup recipies,
what to serve with soup, my essential soup tools, the
ones that I use every time you make soup, and
obviously some top notch soup secrets. But first I have
to tell you about my first job and food. So
it was a soup job. Right after culinary school and
(05:57):
being on my Food Network reality show which was called
Food Network Star, I was hired by a local restaurant
in my college town to develop soup recipes for their menu.
And the soup aspect is important because it was a
soup restaurant. Specifically they did soup, salads and sandwiches. But
(06:17):
it was right after my husband and I got married,
and there was a joke about how I always came
home from work every day smelling like soup. But crazy
story about this company. It's called Cafe zupas you may
have heard of it, and they now have over seventy
locations in eight different states, and I was with them
at the very, very very beginning. They have done so
(06:39):
well and I'm just so proud that I had a
very small chapter with them. Anyways, I digress. Anytime I
think about soup, I think about Zupas I mentioned at
the top of the episode how I love that soup
really is the ultimate one pop meal. It's really great
for meal prep, it's perfectly cozy for crisper cold days.
But I want to place an emphasis on how the
(06:59):
fact that you should think about soup for hosting this
time of year. Don't forget that super recipes can almost
always be doubled to either feed a large group or
to make an extra batch and freeze it. You really
can't beat it if you are doing anything from hosting
a girls night, maybe you're in charge of making the
(07:20):
main dish for a neighborhood pot luck, maybe you have
house guests for the holidays, make soup. Soup is so
good in all of those situations. In fact, I just
saw on social someone do like a super Bowl like
soup soup er bowl, and everybody brought their own super recipe,
shared it, and they had like a soup off, and
they gave a golden ladle to the winner, which I
(07:42):
thought was so fun. Definitely earmarking that for another year
when stuff doesn't feel so crazy, but super Bowl how fun?
Is that. One of the reasons it's so great for
simplifying hosting is that you can prep it way ahead.
Of time. You can make it the day before. You
can store it in the fridge right in the pot
you cooked it in with its lid on. Then you
(08:03):
just simply reheat it on the stove. Or you can
cook it in a slow cooker and use the keep
warm setting until it's time to eat. Or you can
cook it in the afternoon and keep it on the
lowest of low settings on your stovetop with the lid on.
There's just so much about it that's great. You can
chop all the veggies in advance and throw it together
right before. But I want to start with my greatest hits,
(08:24):
the most popular soup recipes in Recipe Club and from
my show that I did with Food Network for seven
seasons in my cookbook, like these are the recipes when
it comes to soup that I returned to over and
over again. The first is a Caeso chicken chili. This
is what you should make when you are hosting people
(08:47):
for the big gang. This is what you should make
if you are entering your church or community chili cookoff.
This is what you should make if you have a
bunch of teenage boys coming over to watch post season baseball.
This is this is what you should make if you
just need a really hearty soup on a cold day.
(09:09):
It's so good, like flavor is next level, so queso
chicken chili your market for a noodle soup. My Thai
coconut ramen is hands down the most popular. And you
might have expected me to say something like chicken noodle
or you know, and we've got plenty of those, but
the Thai coconut ramen is really really delicious, and it's
(09:31):
nice that it's not as traditional as soup flavors. We
kind of get some made with coconut milk and there's lime,
and it's really really good chunky soup. Maybe herty is
a better word for that, but my Italian sausage in
white bean is really popular and popular for good measure.
My most popular creamy soup is my tomato basil soup
(09:53):
with orzo. Fun fact, for anyone who knows of Cafe Soup,
as I worked on this recipe back in the day,
that is one of their signature recipes at the restaurant,
if not still the most popular, and it's very similar,
so tomato basil soup with orizo. In fact, I think
the restaurant has taken the orizo out, but the orzo
is so good in there. And then my most popular
(10:16):
vegetarian soup is my coconut corn chowder. So if you're
a member of Recipe Club and you're feeling soup but
you don't know where to start, I suggest starting with
one of these five. The Queso chicken chili, the Thai
coconut ramen, the Italian sausage and white bean, the tomato
basil with the orzo, or the coconut corn chowder. All
(10:37):
are bangering like delicious instant hits. Now I want to
do a brief rundown of what I serve with soup
to make it feel like a full meal, because for
many years my husband is like, it's nope, nope, soup
is not dinner. I was like, yes, it is, it is,
and we add all of these things to it. So
some soups and stews like my green chili, chicken and
(10:57):
rice soup, or my beef and furrow soup, or my
creamy chicken toortorini soup or my lemon chicken soup with
couscous I file under the complete meal category. They have protein,
veggies and a grain, so nothing else is needed for
it to be a perfectly filling meal with others, especially
(11:19):
chili recipes like the Queso chicken chili that I just
tried to convince you to make, the pumpkin chili or
my cookoff chili. I like having a delicious corn bread,
buttery corn bread or sliced crusty bread like sour dough
to have kind of on the side, And let me
be clear that the boxed Jiffy corn bread is one
hundred percent passable, especially if you're making the soup from scratch.
(11:42):
Other bready items to accompany your soup biscuits like those
buttermilk biscuits that I'm gonna do with my skillet chicken
pop pie. Those are awesome and come together really quickly.
Garlic knots or bread sticks, a really good loaf of
bread with really good butter, even crushed tortilla chips over
the top of the bowl, especially if you're doing some
(12:03):
sort of taco ish soup. Sandwiches are also great to
go soups. Obviously, grilled cheese, but don't sleep on my
grown up grilled cheese that has fig and pear, especially
if you're entertaining. It's slightly more elevated or the Kapra
sae grilled cheese in recipe club Ooh, that's really good
for a heartier sandwich. My turkey avocado mils are great,
(12:26):
or even the honey baked ham and Swiss sliders. Both
of those would be grew really delicious served alongside soup.
Now oftentimes they want something green, and I'm gonna be honest,
a lot of my soups I toss in a couple
handfuls of shredded kale. Now it used to be spinach.
That used to be my spinach, but I find that
(12:46):
the spinach is more delicate and it kind of wields
a little easier. Kale is so so good in soup.
It doesn't get slimy. It soaks up the broth in
like such a delightful way, and it takes on the
flavor and it's hardy enough. So kale is my new
go to green in soup. But if it doesn't make
sense for you to add kale to the soup, I
typically like to serve a simple salad on the side.
(13:11):
But I'm talking very simple, like either a salad kit
or maybe you just get a bag of mixed greens
and you use a store bought balsamic oh or even
just a rugola dressed with olive oil, some lemon juice,
a pinch of kosher salt. That all works great too,
and it can be a really nice contrast to the big,
hardy soup. And don't forget that when it comes to
(13:33):
chili or any sort of taco soup, bring the fixens
on like sour cream or creek yogurt, shredded cheese, tortilla chips, scallions,
pickled onions, all of those things I tend to pull
out when we're doing that. We're actually we're doing nut tonight,
actually for my green chili chicken soup, and it's gonna
be delicious. Now, let's talk about tips for a few minutes.
(13:55):
Sometimes you need soup to be dinner because it's easy.
And sometimes that looks like just dumping everything into a pot,
seasoning with some salt and pepper and adding a bunch
of broth or stock over the top. Simmer, let it
do its thing, and it's done. Bonus points if you
stir in some sort of pre cooked protein like shredded
(14:15):
or tissery chicken, this is fine, especially if it's a
crazy Tuesday night and putting a pot of soup on
the stove is the alternative to another taco bell run
like This is great and it's actually a great way
to use up extra veggies that are gonna go bad.
Another tip is you can definitely buy a pre bought
(14:37):
mirror pois which is also known as onions, carrots and celery.
Lots of times it's all chopped up and ready for
your soup. Trader Joe's has been selling this product for years.
It's like under three dollars and it is an awesome
soup hack for this time of year. Other grocery stores
I've seen sell it in a frozen version as well,
So don't if that would help you think about that
(14:59):
and keep thinking about having that stocked in your fridge
and don't forget it. Pretty much every soup can actually
be made near slow cooker. You can either sautee the
veggies or the sauteate ingredients first and then add it
into the slow cooker, or you can just add them
all in. You might get a little bit more depth
of flavor if you saute those first. I mean you will,
(15:20):
but you know, go with what you got. You want
to use a little less liquid, so like if you
were going to use eight cups of liquid, you might
want to use six cups of liquid because you're not
going to have it reducing and simmering off. Throw it
in the slow cooker on low for six hours. If
there's a step where you kind of stir and cream
(15:42):
or greens or something like that, you want to wait
till the very end. So just before you plan to
serve dinner and you're gonna set the table, stir all
those things in. Let it cook for about thirty more
minutes with the lid off to maybe allow it to
thicken up a little bit, and you're good to go.
Also works at the instant pot or a pressure cooker.
(16:02):
You're gonna cook recipes where the meat is already cooked
for ten minutes on high pressure with a natural release,
cook through recipes with raw chicken for fifteen minutes on
high pressure with a natural release, and cook recipes with
rob beef or pork for thirty minutes on high pressure
with a natural release. So just slightly different timing there.
We've got a really great reference chart and recipe club
(16:24):
to help you take any soup recipe and convert it
to both slow cooker or an instant pot. And now
for the soup accessories, so you're gonna want a big
old soup pot. I love my late Crusee seven and
a half court pot that I got literally when I
got married. I've had it forever. I plan to have
it forever. I plan to pass it down. But it's pricey,
(16:46):
Let's be honest, it's close to four hundred dollars. The
Lodge seven and a half court enameled cast iron has
amazing reviews. I actually own it, but there's I think
they have like over fifteen thousand and five reviews, so
I'm not the only one who thinks it's great. And
it's about a quarter of the price. So if you
don't care about the Lake Crusader or Stop brand, which
(17:09):
are lovely brands, don't get me wrong. The Lodge is
it's gonna function. Every bit is good, so keep that
in mind. When it comes to like the tools, I'm
gonna use Epicurean, which is my favorite cutting board brand,
also makes some tools and they have this it's literally
called the Sate tool, and it's flat and wide, so
(17:31):
it's a little easier to scrape off stuff off the
bottom of the pot because there's so much flavor in that,
and that's what I always reach for when I'm making soup.
You want to get a good ladle. And if you
don't have a ladle, you can use like a big
measuring cup. But if you're gonna have soup a lot
this fallen winter, get yourself a ladle. Just do it.
(17:53):
And I love serving soup and shallow bowls. That's kind
of my go to. I think it makes them great
for topping because most of my soup I like to
top with something, so shallow bowls are my go to
when it comes to serving soup. All Right, you guys,
there's my love letter to soup, my best recipes, my
best tips, my best product lineup. I love it. I'm
(18:16):
so happy that soup season has arrived. All right, let's
finally finish with five things that made my life easier
or more enjoyable this week. First up, probably should have
been on that list above, but I finally bought a
magnetic trivet. And if you don't know what that is,
let me tell you. If you're making a big pot
of soup, or maybe it's like a pot of shredded
(18:38):
protein or something like that, something big, or a skillet meal,
and let's say you want to serve a family style
at the table. A trivet is something you put under
a really hot pam so that you can set it anywhere.
I don't know why it took so long, but they
make a magnetic one so that if you are cooking
in cast iron, like what I often do with those
(18:58):
types of recipes, it just like you hover the pot
over and it magnetically attaches to the bottom. And it's
the greatest thing ever. I'm so I can't believe it
took so long to buy it. It's such a fun
little gadget in the kitchen and perfect for this time
of year. So that is the first thing. Second is
(19:18):
we're going on year three of using our pumpkin carving kit.
After ruining a couple of knives year after year, I
finally bought a carving kit. It's like twenty bucks and
I anytime because my kids loved carving pumpkins, and the
past couple of years have been like, oh good, We've
got that kit. So I'm glad I've got it. We're
gonna do the pumpkins this weekend and the kit will
(19:41):
come in handy. Also Halloween related. I am telling you
this now because I posted about this black cauldron I
use every Halloween to make my homemade root beer in
and I posted it too late last year and everyone
was asking me where can I get that cauldron? Where
can I get that cauldron? Because you'll want to make
(20:02):
the homemade routier not in a plastic cauldron. And there's
the perfect one at World Market. But it sells out
every single year. I've noticed this because people are always
asking me for the link, and I eject today and
it's in stock. So it is a black cauldron a
World Market. I actually think it's called it's for chilling drinks,
but I actually make its food safe, so I make
(20:25):
my homemade ruper in it. And it's so fun. So
if you're wanting to do homemaide root beer, or you're
wanting to serve like chili out of a cauldron for Halloween,
look at the World Market one. It's awesome. Okay. Another thing,
I spent a lot of time at the baseball field
this week. You guys baseball tournaments fall baseball, and I
am living in this gap sweatshirt. In fact, I gotta
(20:48):
pull up the name for you. It's how did I
not know this existed. Apparently it has a like cult following.
It's not that expensive. It comes in a million colors.
In fact, one thing I did was I bought it
in the colors of my son's team so that I
can wear it to the games and be legs somewhat
of a you know, supportive mom. I'm a supportive mom,
(21:11):
but I'm wearing the team colors. It is called the
Vintage Soft Raglan Sweatshirt. It also has matching sweatpants if
you want to set out of it. But holy moly,
it's like the perfect weight, super soft on the inside.
A lot of them are fifty percent off right now. Anyways,
it's probably just a sale going on. But regardless I
(21:32):
think full price, they're under fifty dollars. So it's check
that out. Vintage Soft Raglan Sweatshirt. I bought three this week. Three.
That's how much I liked it is. I bought it
in three colors, all right. Finally, I bought a pair
of Classic Converse for fall. So I have needed a
few more pairs of sneakers because I live near the beach,
(21:54):
I spend a lot of time in sandals in the summer,
and I got a pair of a titis. I did
the anything I got on board, but I felt like
I needed one more pair of sneakers for the fallen
into the winter, and I went with the classic Converse seventies.
And I went back and forth about high top versus
low top. I went with load top, but I got
them in this cool khaki color that felt a little
(22:17):
warmer than stark white for the fall and winter, and
I'm excited. I also got those on a really great deal.
So there we have it. Five things that made my
life easier when it comes to feeding people in my kitchen,
celebrating Halloween with my kids, and dressing myself for this
time of year. All right, thank you so much for
listening today. Remember you can subscribe to the podcast so
(22:40):
that you never miss an episode. I really love coming
here to chat with you guys every week. Hopefully it
makes your life a little bit more simple. Don't forget
to check out our Thanksgiving printed collection at Kelsey Nixon
dot com. And until next time, happy cooking. I'm Kelsey
and to chat with you next week.
Hi everybody. I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription,
the podcast you listen to when you don't know what
to make for dinner. Today is episode one hundred and
two Soup Simplified. It's officially soup Season, and I for
one am thrilled. Soup is so awesome because it's the
ultimate one pot meal, providing veggies, protein, and many times
(00:29):
of green all in one pot. It's perfect for meal
prep if you like to cook grass peas in advance
and eat them later in the week. It's cozy. So
whether you yourself need a comforting meal or someone you
love needs, you know, a nice, good comfort food dish,
soup seems to always do the trick. Not only can
soup feed a crowd, but it makes feeding a crowd very,
(00:51):
very easy. So today's episode is not only going to
be a love letter to soup, but we're also going
to break down some of the basics to make the
soup you make taste extra great, plus go through all
of the essential tools I rely on to make soup
a success in my house all fall and winter long.
But before we do that, let's discuss a few recipes
(01:12):
you can throw on your meal plan this week, it's
going to be extra crazy for us as we have
family and friends coming to stay with us back to back,
so we'll have people in and out of our house
all week on top of all of the regular things
like sports and school and work commitments. Needless to say,
I'm keeping it easy. The first recipe on my meal
plan is a slow cooker recipe I rely on this
(01:35):
time of year and I look forward to making it
this time of year, and it is my turkey roast dip.
And the reason I mentioned this time of year is
because right now you start seeing turkey breasts in the
grocery stores and they are such an awesome lean protein
that kind of mixes up your regular habit of chicken.
(01:56):
They're not always available, it's typically like eight September through
the new year. And this is so simple, you guys.
You take the turkey breast, you put it in the
slow cooker, You make a little or butter with some time,
some rosemary salt, pepper, you slather it on top, you
let it do its thing. You add some broth, and
it makes these delicious sandwiches that we add melty cheese
(02:18):
on top of and like an ausu dipping sauce. It's
so good. My family loves it, and I love that
it's one of these recipes I can rely on during
the busyness of the holiday, and yet it feels a
little different. So Turkey roast dip definitely on our meal
plan for the week. Number two is a five ingredient
recipe that my family like. It's honestly the one recipe
(02:42):
when I always have everything to make it and my
family never complains. They all love it. So it's my
spinach tomato tortellini. I use a dry rayos, a splash
of heavy cream. I use some cheese or protein fieled tortellini.
I use a handful of spinach and a little bit
of balsam vinegar and some grated palm for good measure,
(03:02):
a little bit of crusty bread. Dinner is done. Everyone
is full, happy, loves it. So spinach tomato tortellini is
happening on one of our busy nights. And then I
am going to make when we're gonna be feeding all
these friends and family that are coming. So I still
wanted something simple that would be easy to kind of host,
and I'm going to make my skillet chicken pot pie.
(03:23):
I'm actually gonna make two of them. But it really
is so simple because it comes together in a big
skillet and you actually put the biscuits right on top
and bake them in the oven, and it is it's
like a cheater chicken pot pie, but it's so comforting.
It's perfect for this time of year, super delicious. You
can use store bought biscuits or you can make your
(03:44):
own biscuits. We added a buttermilk biscuit recipe to Recipe
Club this month, and it's so it's got six ingredients
in it, so it's really really simple. All right, there
are your recipes for the week. You can find and
print them all in Recipe Club individually or in our
weekly meal plan that includes an easy to follow shopping
list where we break those down by recipe. And while
Recipe Club is an incredible resource of hundreds of recipes
(04:06):
that are specifically developed for overwhelmed parents, it's way more
than just a recipe resource. More than anything, it's a
simple dinner system that you can follow each week to
make dinner feel more manageable. And while we specialize in weeknights,
we also love holidays and so you'll find a specific
holiday menu for every major holiday, and recipe club to
(04:29):
make the memories around the table because that's also really
important to me. And speaking of the holidays, don't forget
that you can pre order our first printed recipe collection.
It's all about Thanksgiving. So a printed collection includes my
favorite classic Thanksgiving recipes, along with a shopping list, a
timeline of tasks to count down to the big day,
(04:51):
the tips that save me every single year, a list
of tools I swear by to make Thanksgiving feel easier
and more manageable. It's like an entire Thanksgiving guide to
support you as you celebrate literally the most iconic meal
of the year. And I just can't wait for you
to get it. Get it, pop it right into your
recipe binder. It's all printed on that heavy, good quality
paper and slipped into those signature sheet protectors so that
(05:14):
you can rely on the guide year after year. So
make sure to check that out on my site Kelsey
Nixon dot com. Now let's jump into the back half
of the podcast and chat about soup. I'm so excited
to spend a few minutes chatting with you about the
(05:35):
magic of soup. We'll discuss my most popular soup recipies,
what to serve with soup, my essential soup tools, the
ones that I use every time you make soup, and
obviously some top notch soup secrets. But first I have
to tell you about my first job and food. So
it was a soup job. Right after culinary school and
(05:57):
being on my Food Network reality show which was called
Food Network Star, I was hired by a local restaurant
in my college town to develop soup recipes for their menu.
And the soup aspect is important because it was a
soup restaurant. Specifically they did soup, salads and sandwiches. But
(06:17):
it was right after my husband and I got married,
and there was a joke about how I always came
home from work every day smelling like soup. But crazy
story about this company. It's called Cafe zupas you may
have heard of it, and they now have over seventy
locations in eight different states, and I was with them
at the very, very very beginning. They have done so
(06:39):
well and I'm just so proud that I had a
very small chapter with them. Anyways, I digress. Anytime I
think about soup, I think about Zupas I mentioned at
the top of the episode how I love that soup
really is the ultimate one pop meal. It's really great
for meal prep, it's perfectly cozy for crisper cold days.
But I want to place an emphasis on how the
(06:59):
fact that you should think about soup for hosting this
time of year. Don't forget that super recipes can almost
always be doubled to either feed a large group or
to make an extra batch and freeze it. You really
can't beat it if you are doing anything from hosting
a girls night, maybe you're in charge of making the
(07:20):
main dish for a neighborhood pot luck, maybe you have
house guests for the holidays, make soup. Soup is so
good in all of those situations. In fact, I just
saw on social someone do like a super Bowl like
soup soup er bowl, and everybody brought their own super recipe,
shared it, and they had like a soup off, and
they gave a golden ladle to the winner, which I
(07:42):
thought was so fun. Definitely earmarking that for another year
when stuff doesn't feel so crazy, but super Bowl how fun?
Is that. One of the reasons it's so great for
simplifying hosting is that you can prep it way ahead.
Of time. You can make it the day before. You
can store it in the fridge right in the pot
you cooked it in with its lid on. Then you
(08:03):
just simply reheat it on the stove. Or you can
cook it in a slow cooker and use the keep
warm setting until it's time to eat. Or you can
cook it in the afternoon and keep it on the
lowest of low settings on your stovetop with the lid on.
There's just so much about it that's great. You can
chop all the veggies in advance and throw it together
right before. But I want to start with my greatest hits,
(08:24):
the most popular soup recipes in Recipe Club and from
my show that I did with Food Network for seven
seasons in my cookbook, like these are the recipes when
it comes to soup that I returned to over and
over again. The first is a Caeso chicken chili. This
is what you should make when you are hosting people
(08:47):
for the big gang. This is what you should make
if you are entering your church or community chili cookoff.
This is what you should make if you have a
bunch of teenage boys coming over to watch post season baseball.
This is this is what you should make if you
just need a really hearty soup on a cold day.
(09:09):
It's so good, like flavor is next level, so queso
chicken chili your market for a noodle soup. My Thai
coconut ramen is hands down the most popular. And you
might have expected me to say something like chicken noodle
or you know, and we've got plenty of those, but
the Thai coconut ramen is really really delicious, and it's
(09:31):
nice that it's not as traditional as soup flavors. We
kind of get some made with coconut milk and there's lime,
and it's really really good chunky soup. Maybe herty is
a better word for that, but my Italian sausage in
white bean is really popular and popular for good measure.
My most popular creamy soup is my tomato basil soup
(09:53):
with orzo. Fun fact, for anyone who knows of Cafe Soup,
as I worked on this recipe back in the day,
that is one of their signature recipes at the restaurant,
if not still the most popular, and it's very similar,
so tomato basil soup with orizo. In fact, I think
the restaurant has taken the orizo out, but the orzo
is so good in there. And then my most popular
(10:16):
vegetarian soup is my coconut corn chowder. So if you're
a member of Recipe Club and you're feeling soup but
you don't know where to start, I suggest starting with
one of these five. The Queso chicken chili, the Thai
coconut ramen, the Italian sausage and white bean, the tomato
basil with the orzo, or the coconut corn chowder. All
(10:37):
are bangering like delicious instant hits. Now I want to
do a brief rundown of what I serve with soup
to make it feel like a full meal, because for
many years my husband is like, it's nope, nope, soup
is not dinner. I was like, yes, it is, it is,
and we add all of these things to it. So
some soups and stews like my green chili, chicken and
(10:57):
rice soup, or my beef and furrow soup, or my
creamy chicken toortorini soup or my lemon chicken soup with
couscous I file under the complete meal category. They have protein,
veggies and a grain, so nothing else is needed for
it to be a perfectly filling meal with others, especially
(11:19):
chili recipes like the Queso chicken chili that I just
tried to convince you to make, the pumpkin chili or
my cookoff chili. I like having a delicious corn bread,
buttery corn bread or sliced crusty bread like sour dough
to have kind of on the side, And let me
be clear that the boxed Jiffy corn bread is one
hundred percent passable, especially if you're making the soup from scratch.
(11:42):
Other bready items to accompany your soup biscuits like those
buttermilk biscuits that I'm gonna do with my skillet chicken
pop pie. Those are awesome and come together really quickly.
Garlic knots or bread sticks, a really good loaf of
bread with really good butter, even crushed tortilla chips over
the top of the bowl, especially if you're doing some
(12:03):
sort of taco ish soup. Sandwiches are also great to
go soups. Obviously, grilled cheese, but don't sleep on my
grown up grilled cheese that has fig and pear, especially
if you're entertaining. It's slightly more elevated or the Kapra
sae grilled cheese in recipe club Ooh, that's really good
for a heartier sandwich. My turkey avocado mils are great,
(12:26):
or even the honey baked ham and Swiss sliders. Both
of those would be grew really delicious served alongside soup.
Now oftentimes they want something green, and I'm gonna be honest,
a lot of my soups I toss in a couple
handfuls of shredded kale. Now it used to be spinach.
That used to be my spinach, but I find that
(12:46):
the spinach is more delicate and it kind of wields
a little easier. Kale is so so good in soup.
It doesn't get slimy. It soaks up the broth in
like such a delightful way, and it takes on the
flavor and it's hardy enough. So kale is my new
go to green in soup. But if it doesn't make
sense for you to add kale to the soup, I
typically like to serve a simple salad on the side.
(13:11):
But I'm talking very simple, like either a salad kit
or maybe you just get a bag of mixed greens
and you use a store bought balsamic oh or even
just a rugola dressed with olive oil, some lemon juice,
a pinch of kosher salt. That all works great too,
and it can be a really nice contrast to the big,
hardy soup. And don't forget that when it comes to
(13:33):
chili or any sort of taco soup, bring the fixens
on like sour cream or creek yogurt, shredded cheese, tortilla chips, scallions,
pickled onions, all of those things I tend to pull
out when we're doing that. We're actually we're doing nut tonight,
actually for my green chili chicken soup, and it's gonna
be delicious. Now, let's talk about tips for a few minutes.
(13:55):
Sometimes you need soup to be dinner because it's easy.
And sometimes that looks like just dumping everything into a pot,
seasoning with some salt and pepper and adding a bunch
of broth or stock over the top. Simmer, let it
do its thing, and it's done. Bonus points if you
stir in some sort of pre cooked protein like shredded
(14:15):
or tissery chicken, this is fine, especially if it's a
crazy Tuesday night and putting a pot of soup on
the stove is the alternative to another taco bell run
like This is great and it's actually a great way
to use up extra veggies that are gonna go bad.
Another tip is you can definitely buy a pre bought
(14:37):
mirror pois which is also known as onions, carrots and celery.
Lots of times it's all chopped up and ready for
your soup. Trader Joe's has been selling this product for years.
It's like under three dollars and it is an awesome
soup hack for this time of year. Other grocery stores
I've seen sell it in a frozen version as well,
So don't if that would help you think about that
(14:59):
and keep thinking about having that stocked in your fridge
and don't forget it. Pretty much every soup can actually
be made near slow cooker. You can either sautee the
veggies or the sauteate ingredients first and then add it
into the slow cooker, or you can just add them
all in. You might get a little bit more depth
of flavor if you saute those first. I mean you will,
(15:20):
but you know, go with what you got. You want
to use a little less liquid, so like if you
were going to use eight cups of liquid, you might
want to use six cups of liquid because you're not
going to have it reducing and simmering off. Throw it
in the slow cooker on low for six hours. If
there's a step where you kind of stir and cream
(15:42):
or greens or something like that, you want to wait
till the very end. So just before you plan to
serve dinner and you're gonna set the table, stir all
those things in. Let it cook for about thirty more
minutes with the lid off to maybe allow it to
thicken up a little bit, and you're good to go.
Also works at the instant pot or a pressure cooker.
(16:02):
You're gonna cook recipes where the meat is already cooked
for ten minutes on high pressure with a natural release,
cook through recipes with raw chicken for fifteen minutes on
high pressure with a natural release, and cook recipes with
rob beef or pork for thirty minutes on high pressure
with a natural release. So just slightly different timing there.
We've got a really great reference chart and recipe club
(16:24):
to help you take any soup recipe and convert it
to both slow cooker or an instant pot. And now
for the soup accessories, so you're gonna want a big
old soup pot. I love my late Crusee seven and
a half court pot that I got literally when I
got married. I've had it forever. I plan to have
it forever. I plan to pass it down. But it's pricey,
(16:46):
Let's be honest, it's close to four hundred dollars. The
Lodge seven and a half court enameled cast iron has
amazing reviews. I actually own it, but there's I think
they have like over fifteen thousand and five reviews, so
I'm not the only one who thinks it's great. And
it's about a quarter of the price. So if you
don't care about the Lake Crusader or Stop brand, which
(17:09):
are lovely brands, don't get me wrong. The Lodge is
it's gonna function. Every bit is good, so keep that
in mind. When it comes to like the tools, I'm
gonna use Epicurean, which is my favorite cutting board brand,
also makes some tools and they have this it's literally
called the Sate tool, and it's flat and wide, so
(17:31):
it's a little easier to scrape off stuff off the
bottom of the pot because there's so much flavor in that,
and that's what I always reach for when I'm making soup.
You want to get a good ladle. And if you
don't have a ladle, you can use like a big
measuring cup. But if you're gonna have soup a lot
this fallen winter, get yourself a ladle. Just do it.
(17:53):
And I love serving soup and shallow bowls. That's kind
of my go to. I think it makes them great
for topping because most of my soup I like to
top with something, so shallow bowls are my go to
when it comes to serving soup. All Right, you guys,
there's my love letter to soup, my best recipes, my
best tips, my best product lineup. I love it. I'm
(18:16):
so happy that soup season has arrived. All right, let's
finally finish with five things that made my life easier
or more enjoyable this week. First up, probably should have
been on that list above, but I finally bought a
magnetic trivet. And if you don't know what that is,
let me tell you. If you're making a big pot
of soup, or maybe it's like a pot of shredded
(18:38):
protein or something like that, something big, or a skillet meal,
and let's say you want to serve a family style
at the table. A trivet is something you put under
a really hot pam so that you can set it anywhere.
I don't know why it took so long, but they
make a magnetic one so that if you are cooking
in cast iron, like what I often do with those
(18:58):
types of recipes, it just like you hover the pot
over and it magnetically attaches to the bottom. And it's
the greatest thing ever. I'm so I can't believe it
took so long to buy it. It's such a fun
little gadget in the kitchen and perfect for this time
of year. So that is the first thing. Second is
(19:18):
we're going on year three of using our pumpkin carving kit.
After ruining a couple of knives year after year, I
finally bought a carving kit. It's like twenty bucks and
I anytime because my kids loved carving pumpkins, and the
past couple of years have been like, oh good, We've
got that kit. So I'm glad I've got it. We're
gonna do the pumpkins this weekend and the kit will
(19:41):
come in handy. Also Halloween related. I am telling you
this now because I posted about this black cauldron I
use every Halloween to make my homemade root beer in
and I posted it too late last year and everyone
was asking me where can I get that cauldron? Where
can I get that cauldron? Because you'll want to make
(20:02):
the homemade routier not in a plastic cauldron. And there's
the perfect one at World Market. But it sells out
every single year. I've noticed this because people are always
asking me for the link, and I eject today and
it's in stock. So it is a black cauldron a
World Market. I actually think it's called it's for chilling drinks,
but I actually make its food safe, so I make
(20:25):
my homemade ruper in it. And it's so fun. So
if you're wanting to do homemaide root beer, or you're
wanting to serve like chili out of a cauldron for Halloween,
look at the World Market one. It's awesome. Okay. Another thing,
I spent a lot of time at the baseball field
this week. You guys baseball tournaments fall baseball, and I
am living in this gap sweatshirt. In fact, I gotta
(20:48):
pull up the name for you. It's how did I
not know this existed. Apparently it has a like cult following.
It's not that expensive. It comes in a million colors.
In fact, one thing I did was I bought it
in the colors of my son's team so that I
can wear it to the games and be legs somewhat
of a you know, supportive mom. I'm a supportive mom,
(21:11):
but I'm wearing the team colors. It is called the
Vintage Soft Raglan Sweatshirt. It also has matching sweatpants if
you want to set out of it. But holy moly,
it's like the perfect weight, super soft on the inside.
A lot of them are fifty percent off right now. Anyways,
it's probably just a sale going on. But regardless I
(21:32):
think full price, they're under fifty dollars. So it's check
that out. Vintage Soft Raglan Sweatshirt. I bought three this week. Three.
That's how much I liked it is. I bought it
in three colors, all right. Finally, I bought a pair
of Classic Converse for fall. So I have needed a
few more pairs of sneakers because I live near the beach,
(21:54):
I spend a lot of time in sandals in the summer,
and I got a pair of a titis. I did
the anything I got on board, but I felt like
I needed one more pair of sneakers for the fallen
into the winter, and I went with the classic Converse seventies.
And I went back and forth about high top versus
low top. I went with load top, but I got
them in this cool khaki color that felt a little
(22:17):
warmer than stark white for the fall and winter, and
I'm excited. I also got those on a really great deal.
So there we have it. Five things that made my
life easier when it comes to feeding people in my kitchen,
celebrating Halloween with my kids, and dressing myself for this
time of year. All right, thank you so much for
listening today. Remember you can subscribe to the podcast so
(22:40):
that you never miss an episode. I really love coming
here to chat with you guys every week. Hopefully it
makes your life a little bit more simple. Don't forget
to check out our Thanksgiving printed collection at Kelsey Nixon
dot com. And until next time, happy cooking. I'm Kelsey
and to chat with you next week.
Host
Kelsey Nixon
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