Italian Wedding Soup

 While its still cold out, here's one more soup - Italian wedding. The basics of Italian wedding soups are chicken broth, meat(balls), and green vegetables. Its a hearty and healthy soup that can almost be a meal by itself.

Quick Noodle Soup

Soup is no one's favorite food in 80 degree weather, but this preparation is left over from winter... which only ended two days ago. I'm sure there will be a few more chilly days coming through for this to be useful. The soup is made with buckwheat noodles and topped with some Teriyaki Beef. The key is, as always, homemade broth which keeps well in the fridge or freezer.

Potato Leek Soup

I wasn't originally planning on posting this, so there's only one picture. This is a delicious potato leek soup made with asparagus-mushroom broth. Normally a potato leek soup is mixed so that the potatoes give the soup some body, but I took a different approach, and it worked!

Risotto Noodles

When rice is cooked risotto-style, the liquid is added slowly until the rice  has absorbed just the right amount of liquid, giving you perfectly al dente grains in a starch-thickened sauce. The same technique can be used with noodles to get just the right amount of doneness. This approach also lets you use a flavorful liquid, like broth, to cook the noodles without wasting the excess when you drain the noodles.

Homemade Vegetable Broth

Making homemade broth has a reputation for being a long and difficult process.  This is true for meat broths, as it takes a lot of time for the collagen and other proteins to break down.  You don't have to worry about this in vegetable broth, and you only need to simmer for about an hour.  By making your own, you can control the flavors, the amount of salt, and whether the ingredients are organic.