Gluten-Free Creamy Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Cheddar Cracker Melts

Ingredients:

• 24 Crunchmaster® Tuscan Peasant Fire Roasted Tomato Basil Crackers
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh chives, divided
• 1 cup chopped prepared roasted red peppers
• 3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup 35% heavy cream
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt, divided
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• Pinch chili flakes
• 1 can (28 oz) no-salt added diced tomatoes
• 4 cups organic no-salt added vegetable broth

Directions:

1. Heat oil in Dutch oven or large saucepan set over medium heat; cook onion, carrot, garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, paprika and chili flakes for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are slightly softened.
2. Stir in broth, tomatoes, roasted peppers and bay leaves; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Discard bay leaves. Let cool slightly. Transfer to blender; purée in batches until smooth. Stir in cream, remaining salt, half of the chives and vinegar.
3. Cheddar Cracker Melts: Meanwhile, preheat broiler to high and position rack in center of oven. Arrange crackers on parchment paper–lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with cheese. Broil for 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese is melted.
4. Divide soup among 6 bowls. Sprinkle with remaining chives and serve with Cheddar Cracker Melts.

Tip:Use mild, medium or aged Cheddar, or substitute smoked mozzarella if desired.

Delightful for frosty afternoons and evenings, this aromatic soup is full of flavor. The diced EverRoast Chicken, cubed winter squash and chopped vegetables blend wonderfully for a complex, distinctive taste.

Gluten-Free EverRoast Chicken & Winter Squash Soup

Ingredients:

• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 2 cups onion, chopped
• 4 fresh thymes, chopped
• 4 cups winter squash, seeded and cubed
• 4 cups gluten-free chicken broth
• 3 cups EverRoast Oven Roasted Chicken Breast, finely diced
• 1/2 cup Fresh parsle stem, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Directions:

1. In large saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter. Add the chopped onions and garlic and sauté until soft. About 10 minutes.
2. Once garlic and onion are softened, add the cubed squash and chicken broth to the pan. Bring all ingredients to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat and simmer until squash is very soft.
4. Remove the saucepan from the cooktop, do not turn off stove.
5. With a potato masher, mash the squash into the soup until pureed.
6. Add the chicken and chopped parsley and stir to combine.
7. Return the saucepan back to the stove and heat for 1-2 minutes.
8. Serve hot and enjoy.

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

This is a warming soup, both in the fact that it is a hot soup but also the curry provides additional inner warmth. It’s a good starter for people not sure of curry since it adds just a lift of a different flavor to a soup that is very mild. The squash, apples and carrots make a sweeter soup.

Gluten-Free Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

• 20 oz bag frozen squash cubes, preferably thawed (about $1.20 a bag in my grocery store)
• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 Granny Smith apples peeled, cored and chopped
• 2 ribs/stalks celery, washed and chopped – older outside stalks of celery can be stringy even when puréed
• 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 tbsp gluten-free mild tikka masala curry paste – (if you really don’t want the curry flavor, I have made a similar variation of carrot ginger soup with butternut squash and vegetables by adding 2-3 tablespoons of freshginger to soup instead of curry paste. Or perhaps some red pepper flakes or hot peppers and cilantro)
• 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
• 6 c water with 1 tbsp gluten-free chicken stock concentrate (I use Orrington’s labeled gluten-free, $4 for 12 oz container) or chicken stock
• fresh nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 c half and half or light cream, fat free half and half, evaporated skimmed milk or Asian brand of coconut milk
• 1/2 c (2oz) grated Swiss cheese or strong cheddar (optional)

Directions:

Make an herb packet (bouquet garni) of 1 bay leaf, some parsley stalks and1/2 tsp dried thyme in a small coffee filter bag tied shut and let it cook with vegetables for the half hour. Remove for puréeing and return to soup if you are not yet ready to serve soup or will be refrigerating leftovers.

Note that the smaller you chop the vegetables, the quicker they will cook. Chop all the vegetables the same size. But note that if you chop vegetables in food processor they tend to be too small to be puréed by the immersion blender and need to be puréed in food processor. Squash cooks down quite quickly since it is frozen and then thawed.

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add apple and raw vegetables, stir well and cook, covered, gently for about 10 minutes until softening, this is known as sweating and brings out the natural sugars in the vegetables. Add squash and stir well.

2. Stir in curry and cook for one minute. Add stock, bring to boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. The length of cooking time will depend on whether the squash was frozen to start with and how large you cut all the fruit and vegetables. Obviously frozen squash and large pieces of vegetable will take longer.

3. Remove herb packet and use an immersion blender in the pan or purée in a processor.

4. Add half and half/cream and cheese. Then once cheese has melted, season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg. I often just offer shredded cheese on the side so people can add their own.

5. For an individual serving. Mix 1 tablespoon sour cream with chopped parsley, celery leaves and green of green onions, all finely chopped and spoon into a Ziploc bag. Cut off tip and pipe little dabs of mix in a circle on soup. Draw a knife through sour cream dabs to make a pattern or pipe sour cream in a whirl.

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

I gave Lithuanian cooking classes demos for about 10 years at our local ethnic library and spent July 2005 in a Lithuanian language course at the University of Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. And no, I am not of Lithuanian descent, but I was given so many old and new Lithuanian cookbooks, tried the recipes, made them for class and was told they brought back memories of grandmother making them. This particular recipe is a mix of two cold beet soup recipes. One is taken from the Lithuanian Heritage magazine and the other is from ‘Treasures of Lithuanian Cooking.’ The recipes are almost identical as to ingredients. Now I give talks with vibrant photos of Lithuania with history, culture, and a gluten-free Lithuanian buffet to libraries, clubs etc.

Chilled Beet Soup

Makes about 12 half-cup servings

Ingredients:

• About 1 lb raw beets, cooked, peeled, and shredded in food processor
• Half a European cucumber, peeled, quartered lengthwise and finely diced
• 2 eggs, hard boiled, peeled and finely diced – optional
• 4 green onions, leaves only finely scissored
• 2 c buttermilk (I buy Kate’s of Maine that is genuine buttermilk, labeled gluten-free, not from a culture)
• 1 c cold water or beef broth
• ¼ tsp sugar or honey or more to taste once chilled
• salt and pepper
• ¼ c sour cream (or more)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill – dill is a strong flavor, so don’t add too much at first

Directions:

1.Mix all the ingredients together and chill for 1-2 hours or overnight. The flavor does improve on chilling as everything melds together.

2. Taste after chilling and add more salt, pepper or herbs to taste.

Traditionally this soup is served with a dollop of sour cream (100% of course – Friendship brand is most authentic) in the middle of each bowl and an individual plate of slices of hot, plain boiled potato. You take a spoonful of hot potato from the plate and dip the spoon into the cold soup so you get the contrast of hot and cold in each mouthful. It tastes really good this way.

From Cindy Gordon of Vegetarian Mamma

Who doesn’t love an easy meal? This comfort meal is perfect served up on a cold day! But honestly, any time of the year will be just right!

You’re taking some pretty basic ingredients, then dumping them into your slowcooker. Then once you give it a stir to mix it, set the timer and forget it!

While this isn’t a breakfast recipe, it does come from my love of breakfast. You know that I love lazy weekend breakfasts.

Most of those breakfasts include potatoes of some sort and typically hashbrowns. I was trying to come up with ways to incorporate more hashbrowns into my life! YUM!

Such an easy recipe! I am telling you, this is such a creamy and delicious comfort food meal. You’ll be begging for seconds!

• 1 (20 oz) bag of frozen gluten-free hashbrowns (the shredded kind)
• 32 oz of gluten-free vegetable broth
• 1 cup of water
• A dash of salt and pepper, to season
• ½ c white onion, diced
• 2 T All-purpose gluten-free flour blend
• 1 c heavy cream
• 1 block of cream cheese, softened
• 2 c gluten-free shredded cheese (I used a blend)
• Garnish: green onion (diced) and Parsley

GET THE FULL GLUTEN-FREE RECIPE ON VEGETARIAN MAMMA

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

This is a great comfort soup recipe for the wintertime. It’s also quite low in fat, so good for watching your waistline, and also suitable for Friday Night Football or the Super Bowl. Add more blue cheese as desired and use cream instead of milk and half and half for an amazing creamy taste, but also huge increase in calories. Do this for parties, but stay with low fat for family meal.

I saw a two-line description in an online menu of this soup “chicken breast in a creamy sauce with hot wings sauce, cheese and topped with blue cheese.” So I took the idea and created my own version. It only has a slight bite from the peppers and a mild blue cheese taste. I don’t like the raw taste of most buffalo chicken dishes, just raw heat with no depth of flavor makes no sense to me. Adjust the amount of heat to suit yourself and use whatever bottle, ground chili, hot sauce you are used to using that is also gluten free. Just remember the hotter you make soup, the more people will drink at a party to cool down their mouths, and you could be liable for any car accidents. I have a girlfriend who lived in San Antonio, Texas for several years and I always have to remind her that not everyone likes or can tolerate 10-alarm dishes. Make this 1-2 days in advance of party and reheat and serve in slow cooker.

Gluten-Free Buffalo Chicken Soup Recipes

Ingredients

Makes about 6-8 servings

• 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 5 slices of bacon, finely scissored
• 1 tbsp (15ml) olive oil not extra virgin
• 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into small dice.
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely crushed
• 1+1/2 -2 lb of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.(750 g -1000g) Take off excess fat, then cut chicken in half lengthwise and then cut into thin strips – I do this all with scissors. Chicken breast becomes too dry and chewy.
• 2 tsp (10ml) Penzey’s smoked paprika – don’t bother to substitute Szego brand.(Penzeys.com or Arlington, Ma store for New Englanders. Penzey’s have other stores in different States.)
• ¼ tsp of Penzey’s ground chipotle or about 1 tsp (5 ml) pureéd canned chipotle or to taste or other hot sauce you like.
• 4 c (880ml, 1+1/2 pts) gluten-free chicken broth, fresh black pepper
• 1/4c (60 ml) gluten-free cornstarch – I use Argo brand that is labeled gluten-free. Corn is very easily contaminated in processing.
• 1 c (8 oz, 220ml) 1% milk
• 1/2 c (4 oz, 110 ml) half and half. For less calories either substitute fat free half and half or use whole milk. Heavy Cream is wonderful. Or even Asian style coconut milk.
• ¼ c (60ml) blue cheese crumbles. You can buy small plastic packets of crumbled blue or Gorgonzola cheese at about $2 for 4 oz/125 g. There are many varieties of blue cheese out there and they will all give a different flavor and strength. This amount of blue cheese is very mild since I am not a blue cheese lover, but you do know it is blue cheese. You can also serve additional blue cheese in a bowl for people to help themselves. Please don’t get over enthusiastic adding the blue cheese. I had about 1 extra tablespoon left in packet and added it. Then, even my husband wouldn’t eat the soup and he loves blue cheese.

Instructions

1. Put onion, bacon and oil in large pan, and gently cook until onion is soft and turning golden.
2. Add carrots and cook gently for about 5 more minutes.
3. Stir in chicken strips, smoked paprika and chipotle, stir well so chicken is covered in spice mix and let cook for about 5 minutes until chicken is seared on all sides.
4. Stir in garlic, chicken broth and freshly ground black pepper, bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer and cook covered for about 30 minutes until carrots and chicken thighs are tender.
5. Blend cornstarch with 1% milk, and add this mix to pan. Cook stirring occasionally until soup thickens and then let cook for about 3 more minutes to ensure cornstarch is cooked out with no raw flour taste left. Add fat free half and half at this stage, it has a tendency to break up if it is cooked too long.
6. Taste soup and see if you want more pepper or hot pepper. You probably won’t need salt since the blue cheese will add salt.
7. Add blue cheese, turn off heat and allow soup to stand for a few minutes. Then stir well to mix blue cheese throughout the soup.
8. Serve and enjoy.

Note: the mold for blue cheese was traditionally grown on wheat bread, so you have to check that the blue cheese available to you is gluten-free. I telephoned ‘President’ brand of cheeses in December 2010 to check that their cheeses were still gluten-free. They won’t clearly state that their cheeses are gluten-free, but they said that no wheat, rye or barley is used, there is no gluten in the plant and they use white distilled corn based vinegar. They also do not test for gluten. So your choice. However, January 2013 their website stated: “Many of the cheeses we manufacture are from ingredients considered to be gluten-free, but since we do not confirm this with testing, we refrain from making any such claims. We understand how important this subject is to many of our customers. Please check back with us from time to time. This is something that we are presently working on. (I haven’t checked, and FDA guidelines changed many companies labeling policies.)

• 1 c Chobani Non-Fat Plain Greek Yogurt

• 2 medium carrots, chopped

• 1 green bell pepper, chopped

• 1 onion, chopped

• 1 jalapeño, chopped

• 2 T canola oil

• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 1½ t ground cumin

• 1½ t dried oregano

• 2 t kosher salt

• 2 green plantains, peeled, chopped

• ½ bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

• Lime wedges

Directions:

An easy-to-prepare gluten-free squash soup that’s just perfect for chilly days ahead.

10 minute prep time, 6 servings, 300 calories

Ingredients:

• 1 c Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt
• 8 c chopped butternut squash
• 1½ t ground cinnamon
• 1 t ground nutmeg
• 1 t kosher salt
• 8 T extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 c vegetable or chicken broth
• ¼ t cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

• 1/2 package Schar Gluten Free Spaghetti or soba noodles (Note: buckwheat is a gluten-free grain)
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 Tbsp ginger paste
• 1 Tbsp miso paste
• 1/3 cup green onions
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1/4 cup gluten-free soy sauce or tamari
• 2 cups shiitake mushrooms
• 3 cups bok choy
• 2 eggs
• Sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Cook noodles according to package.
2. In a medium 6 to 8 quart saucepan, warm the vegetable and sesame oils on medium heat. Add in the garlic, ginger, miso paste and finely sliced green onions. Cook for 2 minutes while stirring frequently.
3. Add the stock, soy sauce and de-stemmed and sliced mushrooms to the pan. Turn the heat up to high and bring to a gentle boil. Cover and boil for 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, bring a small saucepan of water to a rolling boil on high heat. Add the eggs in and cook for exactly 6 ½ minutes, using a timer. Drain under cool water once cooked to stop the eggs from cooking further and set aside till plating.
5. Uncover the stock, turn down the heat to low and cook 5 more minutes, simmering.
6. Add in the well-rinsed baby bok choy with trimmed ends and cook until the greens are slightly wilted, about 3 to 4 minutes.
7. Carefully peel the soft boiled eggs and gently cut them in half.
8. Assemble by evenly dividing up the noodles, broth, and vegetables into deep bowls. Place one egg per bowl on top of the noodles and greens.
9. Garnish with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and a bit more sliced green onions. Enjoy!