Soup

Potato, Leek, and Kale Soup

December 21, 2020 by Melissa Leave a Comment

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This Potato, Leek, and Kale Soup is the perfect creamy comfort food to warm you up on a cold, blustery day.

One of my all-time favorite meals is potato soup. Creamy and rich, it’s comfort food in a bowl. This recipe uses golden potatoes, leeks, and kale for a super creamy and comforting bowl of soup on a cold, blustery day. Let me walk you through how to make it!

Close up of potato, leek, and kale soup with sour cream, bacon, and chives on top.

Ingredients for Potato, Leek, and Kale Soup

Bacon: The bacon is used as a topping, and some of the bacon fat is used for sauteing the vegetables.

Onion:I used a medium yellow onion for this soup.

Leeks: As leeks grow, they can get a lot of sand and dirt stuck inside. I give them a good wash before chopping, and I also rewash them in a strainer after chopping to get any remaining bits of dirt cleaned off.

Garlic cloves: You can use fresh garlic from either the garlic bulb or buy the pre-minced variety.

Golden potatoes: Gold potatoes have a lot more flavor and a creamier texture than some other types of potatoes. Their skin is pretty tender as well, so I don’t bother peeling these. The skins get pureed into the soup anyway, so it’s also easier.

Stock: I prefer chicken stock myself, but feel free to use vegetable stock if you prefer. One of my favorites is Kitchen Basics.

Milk: I’ve only tested this with cow’s milk, so 1%, 2%, or whole would be best. If you’re feeling extra, you can use half and half or heavy cream. Skim milk won’t give any creaminess because it has no fat. I have not tested it with any plant-based milk, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work as long as it’s unflavored.

Kale: I usually buy kale pre-chopped, but you can chop it yourself too. If I chop it myself, I usually got with a fine chop so that the kale cooks and wilts faster.

Extra toppings: The sky is the limit, but the go-tos would be crumbled bacon, minced chives, sour cream (or Greek yogurt), and cheese – specifically cheddar cheese works well.

Two bowls of potato, leek, and kale soup on a white background and a blue and white napkin on the side. There is also a pot of the soup next to the bowls.

How to Make Potato Leek Soup

First, you’ll cook the bacon until super crispy (so it can be crumbled later) in a large stockpot and save about 2 tbsp. of bacon fat to saute the vegetables: onions, leeks, garlic, and potatoes.

After sauteing the vegetables, you’ll add the stock and allow the potatoes to thoroughly cook for about 20-25 minutes or until the potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork.

You’ll add the milk and use an immersion stick blender to puree the soup. If you don’t have an immersion stick blender, you can transfer the soup into a regular blender to puree. You may have to work in batches, and you’ll need to transfer the soup back into the stockpot.

Once the soup is pureed, you’ll turn the heat to low if you haven’t already and add in the chopped kale. Let the soup cook with the kale in the stockpot for about 5-10 minutes or until the kale is cooked and wilted.

When you serve the soup, serve with your favorite potato soup toppings. As I mentioned above, I like bacon, minced chives, sour cream, and cheddar cheese.

Can You Freeze Potato Soup?

Unfortunately, potato soup and dairy containing soups don’t freeze that great. When they defrost, it may be separated, or the texture may be off. I don’t recommend it, but if you want to make this soup in advance and freeze it for later. You can make the soup up to step 3 and puree the soup without the milk and the kale. Then, freeze for up to 3 months. When you rewarm the soup, you can add the milk, cook until slightly thickened, add the kale, and cook for additional 5-10 minutes.

Potato, Leek, and Kale Soup

Author: Melissa
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35-40 minutes
Total Time: 45-50 minutes
Yield: 6–8 servings 1x
Category: soup
Method: stove top
Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale

4 slices of bacon
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large leek, cleaned and chopped
3–4 garlic cloves, minced
2 lbs. golden potatoes (about 4 larger golden potatoes), chopped
4 cups of stock (chicken or vegetable)
1 cup of milk
4–6 cups of fresh kale, chopped
Salt + pepper
Extra toppings: chives, sour cream or Greek yogurt, cheese (optional)

Instructions

Cook bacon in a large stockpot until crispy. Drain bacon on towels and set aside. Leave about 2 tbsp. of bacon fat in the stockpot. Add onion and leeks. Season with salt and pepper. Saute 3-5 minutes.
Add garlic and golden potatoes and saute for an additional minute. Add stock and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low-medium to simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes or until the potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork.
Reduce heat to low, add milk, and puree using an immersion blender or transfer to a regular blender to blend in batches if needed.
Stir chopped kale into to pureed soup in the stockpot and keep warm on low heat for additional 5-10 minutes or until kale is wilted.
Serve with your favorite toppings.

Notes

To freeze this soup:

You can make the soup up to step 3 and puree the soup without the milk and the kale. Then, freeze for up to 3 months. When you rewarm the soup, you can add the milk, cook until slightly thickened, add the kale, and cook for additional 5-10 minutes.

Keywords: potato soup

Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup

September 3, 2020 by Melissa 2 Comments

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This Creamy Chicken Enchilada soup is warm, slightly spicy, and so comforting. It’s loaded with veggies and chicken in a creamy enchilada broth.

I love making soups. They’re fabulous for meal prep because they’re so easy to double and save some for leftovers for later. They freeze well too! Sometimes when I’m strategizing with my clients, we talk through practical ways to plan for the week ahead. We’ll discuss what’s on the schedule and what barriers there might be in making sure that they have satisfying meals for the week ahead. One of those ways is to make something once and eat it multiple times throughout the week. Soup like this Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup is perfect for this type of challenge. Plus, it only takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Close up of creamy enchilada soup with a spoon in the bowl

Ingredients

Onion and garlic: These are the basis for all good soups. If you’re really short on time, buy the pre-cut onions and minced garlic to save some extra time chopping.

Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce: These are my favorite thing to add to Latin-inspired dishes. They’re smoked jalapeno peppers in this rich, smokey sauce. You can buy them in a can or jar – I like the resealable jar personally because you can close them back up easily and put them in the fridge for when you need more. A little goes a long way with these peppers.

Chicken stock: My go-to stock brand is Kitchen Basics Unsalted Chicken Stock. I posted about it recently on my weekly grocery finds on my Instagram account.

Enchilada sauce: If you have homemade, that’s fine, but I used a canned variety from the grocery store. It was perfect.

Black beans: Just one can will do, but you could add two to pump up the protein and fiber. If you want to help cut the sodium, give the beans a good rinse before adding them to the pot.

Corn: I used a small can of corn, but you can also use frozen corn.

Seasonings: I used cumin, chili powder, and oregano for flavors. I skipped adding salt since there was plenty in the canned enchilada sauce and black beans.

Cooked, shredded chicken breast: I like to make shredded chicken to have on hand throughout the week, and this is a perfect way to use it up. If you’re in a hurry, you can buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and shred it to add to the soup instead.

Cream cheese: This is what gives it the creaminess. Adding things like cream cheese to dishes may not be seen as “healthy,” but adding fun ingredients like this can help us feel more satisfied with our food. Finding satisfaction is one of the principles of Intuitive Eating. Grab my free ebook on this topic to help you discover a more satisfying way of eating and approaching health.

Toppings: This is another way you can add satisfaction and variety to this soup. Pick your favorites: crunch tortilla chips, fresh cilantro, creamy avocado, or tangy sour cream all go really well in this soup.

How to Make Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup

This soup is on the table in less than 30 minutes, thanks to the pre-cooked chicken. First, you’ll saute the onions for a few minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients except for the cream cheese and 1 cup of the stock. About 5 minutes before the soup is done, you’ll blend the remaining stock with the cream cheese and add it to the soup to simmer for the last 5 minutes. Boom. Dinner is less than 30 minutes.

Overview of creamy enchilada soup with a spoon in the bowl on a white countertop

Creating Satisfying Meals

One of the reasons that I love this recipe is that it combines so many of the flavors and textures that I love. It’s a great recipe to have in my back pocket when time is tight, and I need something satisfying quick. Learning how to do that is a skill that has been so helpful in Intuitive Eating – listening to my body’s desires and preferences for food while still giving myself the nutrition that I need.

Close up of creamy enchilada soup with a spoon in the bowl on a white countertop

Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup

Overview of two bowls of creamy enchilada soup with a spoon in the bowl on a white countertop

Author: Melissa
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Category: Soup, Tex-Mex, Chicken
Cuisine: Soup

Ingredients

Scale

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. chipotle peppers in adobo, chopped
3 cups of chicken stock, divided
1 (10 oz.) can of enchilada sauce
1 (15.5 oz.) can of black beans
1 (8.5 oz.) can of corn
1 tbsp. cumin
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 lb. of cooked, shredded chicken breast
½–1 block of cream cheese
Toppings of choice: sliced jalapenos, cilantro, avocado, sour cream, tortilla chips

Instructions

Heat olive oil in large soup or stockpot over medium-high heat. Saute onion in olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add garlic and chipotle peppers and saute for 1 minute longer.
Add 2 cups of chicken stock, enchilada sauce, black beans, corn, cumin, chili powder, oregano, and cooked/shredded chicken breast. Bring to a boil, then lower heat, and cook for about 20 minutes.
About 5 minutes before ingredients are done, blend cream cheese and remaining 1 cup of chicken stock together in a blender. Add to soup and cook for about 5 minutes longer. Serve with your favorite toppings.

Keywords: Soup, Enchilada, Chicken

Chicken Soup with Buttermilk Dill Dumplings

January 24, 2020 by Melissa Leave a Comment

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Overview of chicken soup with buttermilk dill dumplings on top of a cloth napkin — *This post contains links that pay me a small commission at no extra cost to you*.

Last week I came down with something fierce. So fierce that I canceled my connecting flight home so I could get some rest in a Baltimore airport hotel for the night to regroup for my flight the following day. Eighteen hours later, I was so happy to be home that I could have kissed the ground in Charleston. While it was a balmy 70 degrees in Charleston last week, I was freezing thanks to my neverending low-grade fever, but I wanted soup.

Just like my Italian Wedding Soup, this Chicken Soup with Buttermilk Dill Dumplings is perfect to have around for the long, cold days of winter and all the illnesses that tend to pop up. It’s warm, comforting, and requires minimal effort thanks to my Instant Pot. Before my Instant Pot, a soup like this could take hours to simmer to get the chicken perfectly tender and the broth perfectly seasoned.

Close up of chicken soup with buttermilk dill dumplings on top of a cloth napkin

Not only is my method easy, but I use something special to make my dumplings. Pancake mix. Yep, good ol’ fashioned pancake mix, specifically the buttermilk kind for the fluffiest of pancakes. One day when I thought I had all of the ingredients to make this soup, I was entirely out of flour. However, what I did have is a giant box of buttermilk pancake mix. The mix has leavening ingredients to make them “rise” or “fluff up” when they cook. If you choose a pancake mix that also has dehydrated buttermilk, the dumplings will be super tender in texture. I could technically make dumplings from scratch and include regular buttermilk, but first of all, it’s easier and just as enjoyable to use the mix. And second, I always end up with a half-used buttermilk container, and it always feels wasteful.

Now since the buttermilk makes the dumpling fluffy, what can we add to buttermilk dumplings extra flavor? Why, dill, of course! Buttermilk was made to be paired with dill (hey, any ranch dressing lovers out there?), so naturally, I included some dried dill in the dumplings. A little goes a long way with dill in terms of flavor. The buttermilk dill dumplings add a nice punchy flavor to the soup.

Soups are also a great place to sneak in extra nutrition. For example, I threw in some hearty, winter greens like kale to add a nice dose of vitamins A, K, C, and B vitamins (B6 and B9 [folate]) as well as fiber. You can also up the fiber dose even more by using a whole-grain buttermilk pancake mix for the dumplings.

This recipe is tried and true in my household. So trust me when I say, you can’t mess this one up. It’s indestructible. It also makes a lot, so if you’re trying to do some batch cooking for meal prep, this is a perfect recipe.

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Chicken Soup with Buttermilk Dill Dumplings

Author: Melissa
Total Time: 30-45 minutes
Category: Soup

Ingredients

Scale

1 tbsp. oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves
1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast and/or thighs, boneless, skinless
6 cups of chicken stock
2 cups of buttermilk pancake mix
1 tsp. dill
2 tbsp. butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
1 bunch of kale, chopped, stems removed
salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Heat oil in Instant Pot on saute function. Add onion, celery, and carrots to oil and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and turn off saute function.
Add chicken to Instant Pot. Season with salt and pepper. Add chicken stock and cook on high pressure for 13 minutes. Quick-release the steam and pressure on the Instant Pot. Remove chicken from Instant Pot and shred meat. Set chicken aside.
Add kale to the hot chicken stock and stir. Mix together pancake mix and dill in a mixing bowl. Add butter and milk and mix until just incorporated. Take a spoon and drop batter by the spoonful into the hot chicken stock. Seal up Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for 8 minutes. Quick-release the steam and pressure again.
Add chicken back to soup and serve immediately.

Chicken Gumbo

October 26, 2019 by Melissa Leave a Comment

It’s not joke that I love spicy food, so naturally I enjoy cajun spiced foods including this chicken gumbo recipe. If you’re not like me regarding your affinity for setting your mouth on fire, you can completely tailor this recipe by using a milder spice blend.

side view chicken gumbo with sausage and bell peppers

This recipe is so warm and comforting, which apparently I’ve been craving warm and comforting foods as evidenced by this and this. It makes plenty, which is awesome for leftovers for lunch or to warm up on a busy night. This week has been so busy at my office – it’s one of those weeks where eating lunch at my desk is basically required. I’m a fan of taking a full break even just for 15 minutes to eat my lunch and focus on other things, but this that just hasn’t happened because #thatsjustlife. But, at the very least, if I have to eat at my desk while working at my computer, it’s just so nice to have something warm, comforting, and flavorful like chicken gumbo. It’s the little things in life, am I right?

The recipe uses andouille sausage, which is a smoked sausage usually made from pork. My local Costco sells chicken andouille sausage, and it’s so flavorful. I usually will buy a large pack, use what I need for this recipe, and freeze the rest for a future gumbo. I’ve also added in skinless, boneless chicken. I used both breast and thigh, because thighs add a lot of flavor and I also just like the texture of chicken breast. But, if you want to use only breast or only thigh, go for it! It will still work.

Chicken Gumbo

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 80 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Yield: 6 1x

Ingredients

Scale

1/2 cup light tasting olive oil (do NOT use extra-virgin)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 large onion, chopped
3 bell peppers, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 lb. andouille sausage, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp. cajun seasoning
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast and/or thighs, cut into about 3 inch pieces
6 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
Cooked rice for serving

Instructions

Heat light tasting olive oil over medium heat. Once heated, add flour and whisk constantly for about 8 minutes or until about the color of light chocolate milk. Be careful not to burn, adjust the temperature as needed.
Add in onion, peppers, and celery to roux and saute for about 3-4 minutes. Add in andouille sausage, garlic and cajun seasoning and saute for additional 3-4 minutes.
Add in chicken breast/thighs, broth, and bay leaf. Simmer for about 1 hour, skimming the top of any foam as needed. Remove chicken breast/thighs, shred with two forks, and return to gumbo. Serve over cooked rice.

Italian Wedding Soup

October 21, 2019 by Melissa Leave a Comment

Italian wedding soup is the soup of my childhood. I was an incredibly picky eater when I was a kid, except for when it came to Dad’s wedding soup. It’s nourishing with tons of veggies like kale, carrots, onions, and celery, but it’s also nourishing for the soul. This is the kind of soup you want when its cold outside or you have a cold yourself. It’s my “Italian penicillin” when I’m sick. My parents came to visit over New Years a few years back and both my husband and I had horrible sinus infections resulting in a hole in my ear drum. It was miserable. All I wanted to eat was this soup and sleep. Dad made sure to stock our fridge with a huge batch so we could eat on it for days. Mom also may have made orange jello, because truly I’m an infant when I’m sick and insist on all my childhood favorites.

I was promised a cold front in Charleston this week, so I figured it was the perfect time to bust out Italian wedding soup out for the season. It made enough to have leftovers for the nights I was working late at the office. Seriously, I love it when I can come home and either dinner is made or it’s super simple to put together. If you need help figuring out how to use a framework on weeknight meals, check out my free weeknight meal guide. I promise it’ll be super simple to whip together meals straight out of the pantry or fridge.

Italian Wedding Soup

Yield: 6 1x

Ingredients

Scale

3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 tbsp. milk
3 eggs, divided
1 lb. ground beef (I like 88/12 or 90/10)
2 tsp. olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
2 medium celery ribs, diced
7–8 cups kale, chopped
8 cups chicken broth
1 cup pastina or acini di pepe, uncooked
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, milk, and 1 egg until fully incorporated. Add ground beef, mix until just combined.
Roll meat mixture into small meatballs. Heat 1 tsp. oil over medium high heat in a large skillet. Cook meatballs, turning occasionally for about 5 minutes. Meatballs may not be cooked through at this point, they will finish cooking in soup. Set meatballs aside on a paper towel to wick away excess oil.
Heat 1 tsp. oil over medium high heat in a large stock or soup pot. Add in onion, carrots, celery, and season with salt/pepper. Saute vegetables for 6-8 minutes. Stir in kale and cook until kale is wilted, about 3-4 minutes. Add in chicken broth, meatballs, and pastina (or acini di peppi). Bring to boil, lower heat to simmer, and cook for about 10 minutes.
While soup is simmering, whisk together 2 eggs and Parmesan cheese. Once soup is finished simmering, drizzle egg mixture into soup. Wait at least 30 seconds until egg begins to set, then stir to allow egg mixture to break up.
Serve immediately and top with extra Parmesan if desired.