The New Red Plate

I have wanted to make this cooking "blog" a cooking "website", but hadn't found the right place to make that happen yet. Well, now google has "google sites", so I can finally turn The Red Plate into a cooking website! I hope everyone who looks at The Red Plate will now move their bookmarks to the new location:

http://sites.google.com/site/theredplate/

*Effective immediately, I will begin making all my new posts on the website and will no longer post new posts here. I have many new foods to add, but I am also going to work on moving all my previous posts to the new location as well.

I am very excited about the move!

Fall is Here!

Soups

Fall is approaching, if it’s not already here, so here are some soups I have made.

Ratatouille Soup

I was inspired to make this soup after watching the movie Ratatouille. It is a very tasty soup, and I especially liked how it didn’t require a stock because the vegetable’s juices make the soup! This is a fun soup to make because it is very enjoyable to cut all the vegetables and see all the colors and watch the soup grow – not to mention the smell!

Recipe for Ratatouille
2 large onions
1 red pepper
2 sticks of celery
1 eggplant
1 medium zucchini
1 medium yellow squash

4 garlic cloves
2 large tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
1 tin chopped tomatoes
basil
thyme
parsley

Add olive oil to a soup pan and turn it on med-high heat. Begin chopping the vegetables and adding them to the pan in the order it’s written on the ingredients list. After you added the fresh tomatoes, then decide if you need or want to add the canned tomatoes. Then add seasoning, cook covered for 20 minutes. Add cheese or bread on the side to your soup when you serve it.

Olive Garden Minestrone Soup

I love this soup. It is one of my favorites. This definitely tastes similar to the Olive Garden minestrone soup, but maybe a little better! Here is the recipe that I found online. Note: When I make soups, I have learned never to “just add water.” I always add broth if I need more liquid, or I add water with a bullion cube. Now that I do that, I never have a flavorless broth!

Recipe for Olive Garden Minestrone Soup

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup minced white onion (about 1 small onion)

1/2 cup chopped zucchini

1/2 cup frozen cut Italian green beans

1/4 cup minced celery (about 1/2 stalk)

4 teaspoons minced garlic (about 4 cloves)

4 cups vegetable broth

2 (15 ounce) cans red kidney beans, drained

2 (15 ounce) cans small white beans or great northern beans, drained

1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup carrot, julienned or shredded

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

3 cups hot water

4 cups fresh baby spinach

1/2 cup small shell pasta

Heat three tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot.

Sauté onion, celery, garlic, green beans, and zucchini in the oil for 5 minutes or until onions begin to turn translucent. *Adding garlic in at the last 2 minutes.

Add vegetable broth to pot, plus drained tomatoes, beans, carrot, hot water, and spices.

Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

Add spinach leaves and pasta and cook for an additional 20 minutes or until desired consistency.

Makes about eight 1 1/2 cup servings.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Who doesn’t like chicken noodle soup? This is the first time I made it rather than buying it in a can, and now I can never go back. It not only tastes better when you cook it, like so many other recipes, but it is also a pretty easy soup to make to.

Lentil Carrot Sweet Potato Soup

This recipe my mother-in-law sent me from a magazine. It was good, but I did encounter problems with it. First, I went overboard with the spices, and it dried my throat out every time I ate it, and second I somehow didn’t put enough water in there, or the lentils soaked it all up and in a day the soup dried up to a paste. Joel then spread it out on a tortilla and made a little tostada on the stove. That was pretty good!

Chickpea Veggie Red Soup

This soup I just threw together, I don’t even remember all the things I put in it. It was an “ok” soup, but not one worth repeating.

Also, don’t forget the soups I have posted about before in the archives:

Vegetable Wild Rice Soup

French onion soup

Carrot soup

Cilantro soup

Potato soup

Butternut squash soup