Snow, Beautiful Snow... and SOUP.

In honor of this beautiful snowed in Saturday, and I do mean snowed in-- our car looks like a marshmallow ate it-- I am posting my two favorite soup recipes of late.

But first, here is the view out our condo sliding doors (I didn't open the doors to avoid the screen in the photo, but I didn't want to mess with snow getting all up in here):


The view here is much improved from our last bout with Jack Frost in December. It sure is nice to be home, sweet home.

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I should really call this blog post Soup VS. Soup because I am deciding which one of these soups is being served at my little one's Christening party. You could even call this, the SOUPberbowl.... oh good grief.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken Black Bean Soup
So this first soup is from Stephanie Dea's slowcooker blog, A Year of Slow Cooking. You can access the recipe here. I served it to my husband, and I served it to my Mom. Both LOVED it.


It looks yummy, and it really is. The ingredients are all pretty basic-- chicken, one jar of salsa, mushrooms (I used baby bellas because I hate the dinky usual button ones), frozen corn, chicken broth, a zip of cumin, and two cans of black beans, of course. I love using the slow cooker. It makes the chicken so deliciously fall-apart-in-a-second-ish.


Carrot Ginger Soup

This soup is a knock off recipe of Whole Foods' Carrot Ginger Soup sold in their prepared food section. I worked in a Whole Foods in high school and early college, and I looked forward to winter and their scrumptious carrot ginger soup. I found it here.

It's a vegan recipe, though I am not vegan (yet... I am getting a little crazier with the green-minded how-can-you-treat-the-cows/chickens/insert lifestock or produce-that-way? every day. Luckily, my husband finds this interesting and not disconcerting. In his words, "as long as you are going to cook good food for me, I love it."), and it is really great. I did not make the vegan version this time because the food market in all its AAH IT'S GOING TO SNOW shoppers, was missing vegetable stock so I used low sodium free range chicken broth. It definitely altered the flavor from the pure veggie flavors I remember from high school, but it still was simply awesome.

It definitely did not come out quite as thick of a puree as I have had at Whole Foods or as it looks in the picture on the recipe's site, so next time, veggie broth and more carrots than this time!


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As for this soup choice duel, I am taking into consideration that the 'main' meal of the day will be baked ziti, meatballs, salad, and rolls. I want there to be a soup for people to be a little more choosey choosey, especially for those with more adventurous palates. Any votes as to which would be more of a crowd pleaser?