Vegetable Soup with Chicken

I wanted to make a mushroom soup with the leftover turkey stock that was sitting in my freezer since Thanksgiving. But I couldn't get any dried mushrooms and didn't want to use only fresh ones (how are dried mushrooms a seasonal thing when you can get fresh ones all year round?).
So I improvised and came up with the following recipe.

1 onion
olive oil
chicken breast
chives, cut into small rings
salt, pepper, cumin, parsley
3 potatoes
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup chickpeas
4 cups broccoli
several stalks celery
white wine
cream
4 cups broth
8 oz of sliced white mushrooms
Cut the onion into small pieces and fry it in some olive oil in a big pot. Rub chicken breast with salt, pepper and spices and fry with the onions until done. Remove the chicken. When the chicken has cooled down a little but, cut it into small pieces. Add chives.
Cut the potatoes into small cubes and add them to the onion. Fry for a couple of minutes while stirring so that the onions don't burn. Add peas, broccoli and celery. Fry for another 5 minutes. Add some white wine and cream and the 4 cups of broth. Cook until the vegetables are done, add spices to taste. Then blend with an immersion blender.
In a frying pan fry the sliced mushrooms for a couple of minutes from both sides. Add to the chicken.
Serve the creamy soup with some of the chicken-mushroom mix and sour cream.

The result was quite tasty, but it made me realize that I need to stock up on my herbs. I only had parsley and basil and would have liked to add tarragon or rosemary.

Chicken Pie

I tried baking mini Chicken Pot Pies in my muffin pan. I didn't actually look up a recipe and the only Chicken Pot Pie that I ever had was the microwave Chicken Pot Pie the day before which led to me thinking "Hm, I bet I can make this myself!"
Apparently I couldn't and the result didn't taste like Chicken Pot Pie usually tastes. So I am calling it a Chicken Pie

For the Crust:
1 cup of flour
1/2 stick of butter
2 eggs
salt, pepper
Mix together, roll out between two sheets of cling foil. Lift the upper foil and use a big cup to cut out circles to press in the muffin pan molds. Safe some dough for sealing the pies. Blind bake at 300 F for about 10 min.

For the filling:
onion, chopped
broccoli, cut into small pieces
peas
carrots, pealed and cut into small pieces
chicken breast
Fry the onion in some oil and add the vegetables. Fry for a couple of minutes, then add the chicken and fry until chicken and veggies are done. Cut chicken into small pieces.

For the sauce:
Turkey stock
corn starch or flour
butter
cream
paprika, salt, pepper
lemon juice
Melt butter in a hot pan, add corn starch or flour and spices. While stirring fast add the turkey stock and cream until the sauce has the desired consistency. Add more salt, spices and lemon juice if needed.

Mix the sauce with the veggies and chicken and fill the muffin pan. Add dough lids and bake until lids are golden for about 20-30 minutes.


I need to learn how to use my seasoning and spices. The pies had too much pepper and not enough salt. But otherwise they were quite tasty.

Quinoa Quiche

After making the eggnog I had a lot of egg whites left over. In the past I have made omelets with left over egg whites by just adding one or two whole eggs (and it was surprising to find that it was not possible to taste the difference!).

This time I found a recipe that sounded a little more exiting. Quinoa Egg White Quiches! These crustless mini quiches looked appetizing and easy to make. (of course I couldn't resist making them with the new found potato crust!)

Using ingredients I found in my fridge and around the kitchen I made three fillings:
- Tomatoes and basil
- Frozen vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower and carrots) with cream cheese
- Meat balls with tomatoes

All in all the result was a little less flavorful than I would have liked it and the mini quiches were hard to get out of the pan in one piece. Best tasting (though I didn't try the meat ball version) were the vegetables with cream cheese.

I'm thinking of maybe doing them again and trying more flavorful options (mushroom, red onion) or just add more spices (more basil, more cheese, always more cheese :D )