Chicken Salad with Greens

I apologize for the lack of posting in the last week.  Unfortunately, we caught the flu that has been lurking around, and there hasn’t been much cooking in this kitchen.  But we’re all better now and excited to share some delicious meals.

As I’ve mentioned before, Sam and I like to make our own vegetable and chicken stock.  It’s healthier- you know what ingredients you’re putting in, especially the amount of salt.  Throughout the month I save odds and ends of various vegetables, and add them to a bag in the freezer.  Using up these scarps (asparagus ends, broccoli stems, celery ends or parsley) also helps with less garbage, and better use of all of your groceries.  The broth or stock is then frozen, and can be defrosted any time we need it for soups.

My favorite part is actually taking the chicken meat, and making something with it.  The last time I posted a recipe like this it was the Indian Chicken Soup, which is a top 3 most viewed post on this blog.  To make the Indian Chicken Soup, or this Chicken Salad, you can also use cooked chicken breasts or leftover rotisserie chicken.

This is a perfect recipe for an easy lunch, or dinner.  And with the weather getting nicer by the day (spring, where are you?!?) hopefully you’ll be attending cookouts and get together with friends soon enough.  Eat it with a fork, or enjoy it between two slices of fresh bread.  It’s light, refreshing and it’s got a little crunch.

Chicken Salad with Greens
A Fifth Floor Kitchen Original

4 cups of shredded chicken
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 cups of fresh spinach, chopped
1 cup green peas
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Add all of the ingredients into a large bowl, then stir together.  Taste test if the salad is wet enough for you, if not add a little more mayo/yogurt mixture.  Also, check on the salt and pepper amounts if they are to your liking.

*The wetness and salt amounts will differ on what kind of chicken you’re using- rotisserie or fresh, or one that has been used to make broth.

Broccoli-Edamame Soup with Goat Cheese

I’m not sure this is the best soup, visually-speaking.  I’m not going to lie, when I took it to work, I felt a little weird putting it into the fridge.  If anyone would look down, amongst the lunch boxes, sandwiches and salads… there was my neon-green soup.  Fortunately, no one commented on it, phew!  What could I say…delicious green soup?

I don’t think I have ever tried to warm up goat cheese, and I wish I had!  It is ridiculously delicious: cheese, soft and warm.  I smeared some of it on each of the bread slices, and then once I took it out of the oven, I pressed it down a bit more- smushing it all over the piece of bread.  Yum!  Definitely not just for this soup, I will have to try it out with more recipes.

Broccoli-Edamame Soup with Goat Cheese
Adapted from: Vegetarian Times (March 2011)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
6 cups broth (veggie or chicken)
3 cups frozen shelled edamame
1 lb frozen broccoli
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 oz goat cheese
4-8 slices from a baguette

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the onion, garlic and nutmeg, sauté for about 10 minutes.  Add the salt and pepper while it’s sautéing.  Then stir in 1/2 cup of broth, scrapping the bottom of the pot for the brown bits.  Once scraped, add the remaining broth.  Finally, add the edamame and broccoli.  Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 20 minutes.

While the soup cooks, preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Place the baguettes on a baking sheet, and arrange the cheese over the toasts.  Bake for about 6 minutes, or until the cheese has softened.

Once the soup is cooked, transfer the soup to a blender and blend until smooth (or to your liking, we prefer ours to be a bit chunky).  Return the soup back to the pot, and warm over low heat.

Finally, ladle soup into soup bowls, and float 1-2 cheesy breads on top of the soup.

Tomato Soup with Basil

As the days get warmer, and the sun shines longer, no one wants to be stuck in the kitchen.  Especially with the oven on…too hot!  As I mentioned before, I try to search out recipes that are fast, simple, and require very minimal cooking.  But just because you want a simpler recipe, does not mean that flavor has to be lost.

This is a very simple soup, although I’ve noticed I say that quite a bit!  Nonetheless, it’s hearty enough to fill you up (thanks to the rice)- but not too much that you feel stuffed.  And, it’s easy since I cooked it between going for a run.  Once all the ingredients were boiling, I grabbed my shoes for a quick run around the Mall.  By the time I came back, the soup was done cooking.

We let it cool off a bit before we ate, a bit more “gazpacho” style.  And even though it was cooler, it still had the great flavor.  Tomato season hasn’t started yet, but this would be a great one to do with fresh tomatoes rather than the canned.  It would give the soup more flavor.  But that’s something we’ll have to wait for, and enjoy over the summer.

We bought some bread from the Farmer’s Market, and ate it with the soup.  The bread was dense, and it absorbed some of the liquid from the soup, giving it a little more flavor.  Yum!

Tomato Soup with Basil
Adapted from: A Chow Life Blog

4 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cans whole tomatoes (28 oz each)
1/4 cup basil, finely chopped
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
1 chicken bouillon
2 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1/4 cup rice

In a large pot, warm the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic, let it sauté for about 8 minutes, until the onions are translucent.  Then add the tomatoes, basil, sugar, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  Cook for about 1 minute.  Then add the bouillon, broth and water.  Stir in the rice, and cover the pot until the soup is boiling.

Let it simmer for 15-25 minutes.  Remove the tomatoes from the soup and add them to a food processor (or blender).  Blend until it turns into smaller chunks (choose the consistency to your liking).  Pour back into the pot, cover, and simmer for another 10 minutes.

When serving, feel free to sprinkle some basil as a garnish.