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2 Easy Recipes to Get You Started:
Red Lentil Soup |
| This red lentil soup is similar to a split pea soup but not as thick. Red lentils are much smaller than brown lentils and can be found at most organic or Indian groceries. If you like a thicker soup, lessen the amount of chicken broth by 1-2 cups. Double or triple the recipe when making it with a friend. |
- 15 oz. red lentils, rinsed
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 slices cooked and diced turkey bacon
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- Pepper to taste
- 2 quarts chicken broth
- 1 can light coconut milk
Saute onion and garlic until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Add lentils and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then turn heat down to a simmer for approximately 20-30 minutes. Blend soup with a hand blender until smooth. Add coconut milk and bacon. Blend until bacon pieces are small.
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| Curried Cauliflower Soup |
| This cauliflower soup uses a chicken stock but is sweetened with coconut milk. Feel free to improvise with your spices. Vegetarians can substitute vegetable stock for the chicken. Triple the recipe if making it with a friend. |
- 1 head cauliflower, cleaned and chopped
- 2 leeks, cleaned and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 large sweet onion. chopped
- 2 to 3 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 2 quarts chicken broth
- 1 Idaho potato, peeled and chopped (or a few small yukon golds)
- 2 teapoons curry powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 can light coconut miilk
- 1 teaspoon cumin
In a 5-quart soup pot, saute garlic, leeks and onions in olive oil until soft (about 10 minutes). Add cauliflower and potato. Cover with the chicken stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer until the cauliflower and potatoes are tender enough to puree. Add curry powder, salt, cumin and ground cloves. Puree until smooth with a hand blender. After pureeing soup, add coconut milk, blend and serve.
Makes about 3 quarts of soup. |
Please share your recipes with us!
Click below to
go to the recipe sharing page on our site:
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Dear Friends,
We are excited to be launching the Cooking With Friends monthly e-newsletter and hope that you find it to be a useful guide. Cooking With Friends has changed our lives and has become a lifestyle that enables us to not only feed ourselves and our families, but spend valuable time catching up with friends.
Please also check out our new web site at www.cookingwithfriendsclub.com, where you will find more recipes, a discussion group and lots of ideas for Cooking With Friends!
Enjoy the first issue and let us know what you think by e-mailing us at
info@cookingwithfriendsclub.com.
Alison, Shannon and Dana
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Make Soup with a Friend
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 Soup is the perfect food to make with a friend, especially when it's chilly outside. First, it can be made in bulk. Two friends can crank out a large amount together. There is also minimal space required. Two big soup pots always fit on a stove. It's ideal for dividing cooking responsibilities. While one of you does the chopping, the other sautees and seasons. Making soup with a friend is efficient. You can prepare the soup together in less than an hour and then part ways while the soup simmers. A few hours later you've got many quarts of soup -- a big bang for a small amount of effort. Since there are so many varieties of soup, you never have to make the same soup twice, unless of course you want to! Since soups don't usually require a lot of painstaking recipe-following and allow for improvisation, you can have some real conversations while cooking, making it a stress-free project. Finally, soup is freezer- friendly, making a great in-a-pinch lunch or dinner. |
8 Tips for Making Soup with a Friend
- Decide what kind of soup you will be making in advance.
- Check for ingredients. Often times, between the two of you, you'll already have many of the key ingredients in your pantries and refrigerators. Compare what you have before you shop.
- Make a list of the ingredients you'll need and do your shopping in advance. You can divide your list in half and both go shopping, or just one of you can go to the store. (Just make sure you pay each other back).
- Make sure you have enough tools and equipment. You may need to bring an extra soup pot or, if you're making a pureed soup, a hand blender.
- If your soup will require a chicken or turkey stock, make the stock in advance. You can even start the stock at your friend's house and then come back to make the rest of the soup in about two hours.
- Make sure you have enough storage containers for packing up. Screw-top zip-loc containers in quart-size work well.
- Assign cooking roles. The person who chops the fastest is the one who should do most of the chopping. The person with most patience should tend to the stove top, focusing on sauteeing, seasoning, stirring and simmering. And, both of you should try to clean as you go.
- Sample some soup together. Savor these nice moments with your friend.
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Time-Saving Soup-Making Tools
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There are two must-have (and inexpensive) tools to invest in for soup season.
If you don't have one already, you should invest in a hand-held immersion blender. It is a tool that comes equipped with a mini-blade at the bottom.
It's the perfect tool to use when blending and pureeing soups. Use this blender while your soup is still warm in a pot -- there's no need to transfer the soup to a table-top blender or Cuisinart. Braun, Cuisinart and Deni all make moderately priced ones - in the range of $29.95 - $34.95. Cuisinart also makes a cordless one that can be charged. Check out www.cooking.com to shop for one.
 The other must-have tool is a fat separator, which is particularly helpful for making stock.
It is usually glass or plastic, has a handle and a long spout. When you pour your broth or gravy into the pitcher, the fat will rise to the top and only the "fat-free" part of the liquid will pour through the spout. This will enable you and your friend to make lower fat soups in a shorter amount of time. You can find one for under $10.00 at your local grocery store. |
| How About a Soup Swap with Friends? |
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Tips on Hosting a Cooking With Friends Club Soup Swap
Hosting a CWFC soup swap (or any other kind of food
exchange) is really simple. What makes it different from other swaps is that
most participants will cook and freeze the soup in advance with a friend. The
actual swap is a fun evening (or day) spent socializing, eating and sharing
food with friends.
1. Pick a date and time that's convenient for you, the
hostess.
2. Arrange a group of
friends and post a message with the proposed date and time to the group and see
who is interested. We like using the free invitation service www.evite.com, where participants can post what
kinds of soup they're making and can keep track of who's coming.
3. We suggest capping
the group at 12 people. If it gets too large, you may want to divide into two
swapping groups.
4. Once you have a
group, set some guidelines and decide on a focus for your exchange. Do you want
to concentrate on healthy and low fat soups? meat or vegetarian? Make sure
anyone with allergies or aversions lets the group know. Whatever the rules, ask
people to follow them.
5. Always encourage
people to cook their soup with a friend since that's the whole point!
6. Make sure you specify
logistics ahead of time -
- Soup should be brought frozen (unless it's made the day of
the exchange). Make sure that the soup is cooled before placing in the plastic
containers to eliminate the chance of chemicals seeping into the food.
- If you are donating food to a local charity, ask
participants to set aside a quart or two.
- Each person should bring at least 6 quarts of soup (usually
a double or triple recipe). Everyone leaves with the same amount of soup that
they came with.
- Soup
should be packaged in quart sized containers.
- Containers should be labeled with the type of soup and any
necessary heating instructions.
- Remind
people to bring a cooler to carry the soup home in.
7. Ask people to let
you know in advance the kinds of soup they will be bringing and keep a record
to avoid duplications.
8. It's a nice idea for the hostess to make an extra pot of
soup for tasting. Tea cups are the perfect size for tasting. Shot glasses are
great for cold soups. Ask people to contribute -- a loaf of bread, bottle of
wine, seltzer, cheese and crackers, etc.
9. Encourage people to take pictures while they cook
together and take some at the event itself. You can then post them on the site.
10. Share your experiences with the Cooking With Friends
Club discussion group -- your stories will inspire others to cook together! |
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Alison Bermack, Shannon Henry and Dana Bowen
Cooking With Friends, LLC
Visit our web site at www.cookingwithfriendsclub.com.
Join our Yahoo discussion group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CookingWithFriendsClub/
Email us at info@cookingwithfriendsclub.com
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