The Great Broth Experiment
I am not a bad cook. I also live near a Trader Joe's, so I don't cook often since Trader Joe's makes it all yummy, easy, vegetarian, and ethnic for me.
Obviously Trader Joe's is a ways down the timeline now so I'm back in the kitchen.
The first thing I did today was buy a new set of stainless steel cookware (Cuisinart). Tossed out all the old, cheap, non-stick crap.
The next thing I did was take my husband to the international farmer's market we have here in Atlanta (yay!) and bought ingredients to experiment and make some interesting broth soups to hide the flavor of my unflavored Unjury protein powder.
I was going to make three broths but ended up not having time. The first broth I made was basically beef stew without the thickness and without the cow. My husband walked into the kitchen and said "What smells so good?". He had a taste and asked for a bowl of it. Win!
The other broth soup I made was a vegetable broth-based ginger, ****ake mushroom, lemon and garlic one. HOLY CRAP! Awesome. Even my husband who does not like any of those ingredients agreed that he would not pass up a little cup of it with some chicken.
I strained them (so sad to throw out the ****ake mushrooms), let them cool, then filled 4oz Glad containers with the liquid and stuck 'em in the freezer. I'll bring them to work this week. Easy peasy.
Tomorrow I'm going to do Thai Tom Yum.
I had kind of forgotten how much fun it was to actually COOK something. From scratch.
Obviously Trader Joe's is a ways down the timeline now so I'm back in the kitchen.
The first thing I did today was buy a new set of stainless steel cookware (Cuisinart). Tossed out all the old, cheap, non-stick crap.
The next thing I did was take my husband to the international farmer's market we have here in Atlanta (yay!) and bought ingredients to experiment and make some interesting broth soups to hide the flavor of my unflavored Unjury protein powder.
I was going to make three broths but ended up not having time. The first broth I made was basically beef stew without the thickness and without the cow. My husband walked into the kitchen and said "What smells so good?". He had a taste and asked for a bowl of it. Win!
The other broth soup I made was a vegetable broth-based ginger, ****ake mushroom, lemon and garlic one. HOLY CRAP! Awesome. Even my husband who does not like any of those ingredients agreed that he would not pass up a little cup of it with some chicken.
I strained them (so sad to throw out the ****ake mushrooms), let them cool, then filled 4oz Glad containers with the liquid and stuck 'em in the freezer. I'll bring them to work this week. Easy peasy.
Tomorrow I'm going to do Thai Tom Yum.
I had kind of forgotten how much fun it was to actually COOK something. From scratch.
Thank you so much for sharing with us "non creative non cooks". I wish there were more posts like yours vs. whinney rants about how vitamins taste or what someone said to them or how they are tired of waiting for approval or.....and the list goes on and on and on and on and on. So, thank you for a post that is actually informative.
Awww shucks! I appreciate that. Let me share with you my recipes and you can try 'em out! Super easy - you just need access to a few more interesting ingredients, but you can sub with a little adventurousness.
Beef Broth Soup:
2 cups of organic gluten free beef broth + one cup of water
1 Roma tomato sliced or diced - doesn't matter really. My weight on this one was 4.8oz
.3oz organic Turkish sun dried tomato strips (or just plain old sun dried tomato strips - get the dried ones, not the ones stored in oil)
2oz of white onion, chopped into moderate chunks
1oz of organic carrots - you can chop them or if you want a bolder carrot flavor, shred. Don't buy pre-shredded - they're all dried out and flavorless
1/4 teaspoon of onion powder
1/2 teaspoon of Hungarian paprika (it's a smokey spicy flavor rather than a bright hot flavor of the sort of generic paprika you get at the store). You could use less if you fear the bold.
Salt and pepper to taste. I ALWAYS use a sea salt grinder and a pepper grinder.
Start by letting the broth and water come to a light boil, then toss in the sun dried tomatos first and let them stew for about 5-10 minutes. You want them to be soft. Then you can pretty much just throw everything else in there, turn it on to simmer for about 20 minutes maybe - I wasn't really watching the clock. If you're still just on "clear", strain the soup and toss out the actual food bits.
Ginger Broth Soup:
2 cups of vegetable broth (you can add a cup of water if you want something a little less intense)
5 nickel to quarter sized slices of fresh ginger root (FRESH!!! There is no substitute).
4oz of fresh ****ake mushrooms (dried is fine too - I just bought 'em fresh)
Juice of 1/2 small lemon
1 clove of pressed galic
Start with the broth and the ginger. My sister recommended light boil for 5 minutes and then see if the ginger is not strong enough yet for you - it's a taste thing. Once you've got the ginger flavor where it's tasty to you, take out the ginger slices and put them aside. Toss in the mushrooms and the lemon juice and simmer that for about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and add a couple of the ginger slices back in and simmer for maybe 10 more minues. Strain the soup if you're on clear (and yes, it's okay to cry as you toss the ****akes in the trash) and enjoy!
Beef Broth Soup:
2 cups of organic gluten free beef broth + one cup of water
1 Roma tomato sliced or diced - doesn't matter really. My weight on this one was 4.8oz
.3oz organic Turkish sun dried tomato strips (or just plain old sun dried tomato strips - get the dried ones, not the ones stored in oil)
2oz of white onion, chopped into moderate chunks
1oz of organic carrots - you can chop them or if you want a bolder carrot flavor, shred. Don't buy pre-shredded - they're all dried out and flavorless
1/4 teaspoon of onion powder
1/2 teaspoon of Hungarian paprika (it's a smokey spicy flavor rather than a bright hot flavor of the sort of generic paprika you get at the store). You could use less if you fear the bold.
Salt and pepper to taste. I ALWAYS use a sea salt grinder and a pepper grinder.
Start by letting the broth and water come to a light boil, then toss in the sun dried tomatos first and let them stew for about 5-10 minutes. You want them to be soft. Then you can pretty much just throw everything else in there, turn it on to simmer for about 20 minutes maybe - I wasn't really watching the clock. If you're still just on "clear", strain the soup and toss out the actual food bits.
Ginger Broth Soup:
2 cups of vegetable broth (you can add a cup of water if you want something a little less intense)
5 nickel to quarter sized slices of fresh ginger root (FRESH!!! There is no substitute).
4oz of fresh ****ake mushrooms (dried is fine too - I just bought 'em fresh)
Juice of 1/2 small lemon
1 clove of pressed galic
Start with the broth and the ginger. My sister recommended light boil for 5 minutes and then see if the ginger is not strong enough yet for you - it's a taste thing. Once you've got the ginger flavor where it's tasty to you, take out the ginger slices and put them aside. Toss in the mushrooms and the lemon juice and simmer that for about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and add a couple of the ginger slices back in and simmer for maybe 10 more minues. Strain the soup if you're on clear (and yes, it's okay to cry as you toss the ****akes in the trash) and enjoy!
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