I’ve been chatting with a few friends about my recent cooking adventures. Lately, I’ve tried to explore one new recipe each week. When I look for a recipe, I need it to be: (1) high in protein, which usually requires a recipe alteration, (2) loaded with veggies (since they’re hard enough to work in when you’re busy), and (3) something that will be good enough for leftovers, since I usually cook for one.

I’ve been itching to record and review my different experiences, and I guess bringing back my blog is a great place for that! Plus, I was inspired by a friend of a friend posting pictures of his cooking escapades on Facebook. Hopefully my pictures will look half as delicious… =X

On to the recipe!! It’s adapted from one of my old 20/20 packets, which in turn was adapted from Jane Brody’s Good Food Gourmet.

Ingredients

• 4 cups nonfat, low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 medium carrots, peeled & thinly sliced
• 2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
• 2 large cloves garlic, peeled & grated
  This is double the recipe amount
• 1 teaspoon grated gingerroot
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  This is 4x the recipe amount… I like spicy
• 2 fresh roma tomatoes
  The recipe called for plum tomatoes, but WF didn’t have ‘em
• 20oz cooked crab meat
  The recipe called for 8oz, I upped it for protein. Can also use chicken.
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 Tablespoon chopped mint leaves
• 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Instructions

1. In a large saucepan, combine the broth, carrots, celery, garlic, gingerroot, paprika, and pepper flakes. Bring the ingredients to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, and cook the mixture for 5 minutes or until the carrots are tender-crisp.
2. Quarter the tomatoes lengthwise, then cut the wedges in half crosswise. Add them to the soup along with the remaining ingredients. Simmer the soup for 3 minutes or until the mushrooms and tomatoes are heated through.
3. Taste Mods: At this point I tasted it, and added some more red pepper flakes and 2 more tablespoons of lemon juice. The additions made the broth perfect – moderately spicy with a bit of sour.

Pictures

Carrots chopped. Cheated with the celery. Got a pack pre-chopped from the WF salad bar.

My first time using fresh ginger root. It smelled so good!

After step 1. My kitchen starts to smell good!

The tomatoes and mushrooms are chopped and ready.

I heart fake crab. For real. I could eat it every day.

Ack!! Too much crab!! The pot is filled to the brim!

Makes 4 servings… which means 3 helpings of leftovers!

Review

Big Bunny Rating: Scrumptious! [4/5]

Even for someone who is as deficient at veggie chopping as I am, this recipe was pretty straight forward. It took about 45 minutes total (the recipe advertises 25 mins prep time).

As you probably noticed from the picture, the recipe was crab-heavy. It was definitely a chunky soup!! It tasted a bit fishy with all of that crab, but the “hot and sour” nature of the broth definitely shone through. Can’t wait for leftovers!