Week One: Split Pea Soup with Cilantro, Chicken with Snap Peas, Greek-Style Halibut, and Iced Oatmeal-Applesauce Cookies

This week: Split Pea Soup with Cilantro (you may recognize this from a February 2012 blog post), chicken with snap peas, Greek-style halibut, and iced oatmeal-applesauce cookies. One grocery list, four recipes, three dinners with lunch leftovers for the next day, cookies for dessert, and even extra split pea soup to freeze for later.

First of all, the split pea soup comes from Nordstrom Flavors, a cookbook which continues to impress me and was gifted to me from my mom. And again, see my past blog post (link above) for more information about the recipe. It's a really great spin off of your traditional split pea soup; think, finely diced vegetables like potato, red bell pepper, carrot, celery, and jalapeño. And then add the great flavors of coriander, dry mustard, Tamari soy sauce, and cilantro.

Secondly, Chicken with Snap Peas. I found this recipe through Whole Living; I have this website in my Pulse News favorites on my phone. This is a great weeknight recipe...one pan, 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Heat safflower oil (or vegetable oil as the recipe calls for) over high in a large skillet. Season chicken with salt and fresh ground black pepper. I just used skinless, boneless chicken breasts, but you could use whatever chicken you have on hand. Cook chicken on one side (skin side down if not using skinless), until deep golden, about 8-10 minutes. Flip chicken and remove skillet from heat. Remove any fat with a spoon, then return skillet to heat. Add garlic, vinegar, a little bit of sugar, and crushed red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, then transfer skillet to oven. Bake for 17 minutes, then add snap peas and some fresh basil, baking for 5 minutes more. Remove from oven and sprinkle with more basil.

This dish has really great flavor, which was maybe even better the next day. I also made some quinoa cooked in chicken stock with diced carrots as a side dish.

Next, Greek-Style Halibut (which you may have seen coming if you've read previously about the frozen wild salmon and halibut fillets Zack and I have been getting from Costco). This is a "tear-out" recipe I've been saving for awhile and it comes from the January 2011 issue of Sunset magazine.

It's another easy one with awesome flavor and good next day quality. And this was also my first time cooking with fennel bulb, which I guess is like an onion with some grassy stuff growing out of it...? Uh, yeah. It has almost a licorice-like quality though, which really adds to the halibut.

Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Rub halibut fillets with salt and fresh ground black pepper before browning in the pan on one side. Transfer to a plate. Add a little more olive oil to pan, along with fennel (trimmed and cut into wedges/slices). The recipe calls for adding a little ouzo at this point, but I just used white wine. Cook, stirring frequently, until golden and tender. Add finely chopped garlic. Add diced tomatoes with juice (low-sodium preferred), a little water, chickpeas (drained and rinsed), and fresh oregano. Reduce heat and simmer, lay halibut fillets (browned sides up) in sauce and simmer until fish is cooked through, 5-10 minutes.

And lastly, these amazing cookies. I'm telling you, you can't go wrong with Martha Stewart when it comes to cookies. Zack and I were thinking we wanted to make some sort of iced oatmeal cookie, and when I found these, with applesauce, we were sold. And they were not disappointing. Find the recipe here: Iced Oatmeal-Applesauce Cookies. These are the perfect fall cookie.

Well, that's all for week one of my meal planning, and believe me, week two is turning out to be quite lovely. Stay tuned.

Split Pea Soup with Cilantro

When I think of split pea, I think of the classic American soup: green pea soup with ham. When I saw this recipe, I was intrigued by its unique twist. A pretty darn good twist too.

This split pea soup has great flavor, and finely diced vegetables along with some cilantro and soy sauce add something special. The texture really was perfect and it just tasted so light and delicious. Surprisingly, I didn't miss the ham at all. Which is unusual for me...

This recipe actually comes from Nordstrom Flavors: An Artful Celebration of Food, which is the same cookbook that my Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos came from. I don't think I would have ever picked up this cookbook had it not been given to me. Nordstrom's? As in the department store Nordstrom's? They have a restaurant and a cookbook? This can't be true. But it is! And I can't even begin to tell you how incredible those tacos were, so I had to try another recipe from it.

Combine dried split peas with quite a bit of water, bringing to a boil in a large saucepan. Take care that they do not boil over. Reduce heat to medium-low, simmering until most of liquid is absorbed (about 20 minutes). Remove from heat, letting stand for 1 hour.

Heat extra-virgin olive oil in a soup pot (I used my new Dutch oven of course...thank you, Zack) over medium-high heat. Add finely diced carrot, yellow onion, celery, red bell pepper, and jalapeno (again, all finely diced). Cook, stirring constantly until vegetables soften. Add ground coriander, dry mustard (I just used Chinese mustard because that's what I had on hand), salt, and pepper. Stir in chicken broth, bring to a boil, then stir in peas. Return to a boil, adding diced potato and a bay leaf. Simmer until potatoes and peas are tender (about 1 hour).

Remove bay leaf, then add a little whole milk, soy sauce, and chopped fresh cilantro, heating until hot. Ladle into bowls and garnish with diagonally-cut green onions. And serve with a yummy, crusty (as I call it) bread; we love to pick up something fresh from Trader Joe's.

Tell me this does not sound wonderful...? I love the not-so-American influences in this recipe. It just adds a much needed kick to an otherwise basic soup. And if you're not a big "pea" fan, this just might make one out of you. It's really more like a vegetable soup. A really good vegetable soup. Cheers.

*Remember, I'm happy to share actual recipes with measurements and the sort. Just comment on my post or get a hold of me otherwise, and I'll get it to you.*

Ground Turkey and Vegetable Soup with Split Peas and Barley

There's nothing like a hot bowl of soup during fall and winter; hence, we've been eating a lot of it. And sharing some too. So I decided to double the recipe this time and wowzers. We've got enough soup to last us a lifetime. But it's okay. Because this is good.

This soup is a variation of a recipe from Wholesome Kitchen, as is the Moroccan Harira that I have previously blogged about. Both have been huge hits and I'm excited to try more "delicious recipes with beans, lentils, grains, and other natural foods" from this cookbook.

This recipe calls for basically throwing all ingredients (dried split yellow peas, onion, celery, carrot, potato, pearl barley, ground turkey, fresh flat-leaf parsley, chicken or vegetable stock, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper) into a pot, bringing to a boil, and reducing the heat to a simmer, cooking for 2 hours. However, for soups, I've realized that I really like to sweat the onions in a bit of extra-virgin olive oil and butter before adding the stock and remaining ingredients. Also, since I was using ground turkey as a meat substitution, I browned that in the same pot before adding the stock as well.

 
This soup is hearty and jam-packed with wholesome goodness. The barley and split peas add great texture. I tried extremely hard to keep the soup at a low simmer (didn't want it to bubble too much and fall apart), so it kept shape this time. The chunks of vegetables were cooked to perfection and the ground turkey dominated the flavor.

When making soup, I've found that I kind of have to amplify the flavor with additional spices like curry or ground cayenne red pepper, in addition to bay leaf among others. This necessity may mean one of a few things: it's time for homemade stock. I think this may be in our future. We'll see. Cheers.