Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

Posts Tagged ‘better than bouillon’

Chinese Dumpling Soup – Super Easy Soup

Posted by terrepruitt on November 12, 2011

I have been slowly learning a new Nia routine.  I worked on it this morning then right before dinner I decided to do a few of the katas that I are challenging me.  I knew that dinner would be easy because it is FINALLY soup weather in San Jose, California and I made Chinese Dumpling Soup last night and I was just going to add a little more broth.  Well, I ended up adding a little more than that.  After I first had this soup, which I first mentioned in my Ginger post, I wanted it again.  I made it once and I wanted to post about it then because it is so good.  But normally I only like to post recipes when I made adjustments so it can be more like my own and not like I am just copying someone else’s recipe, but I really haven’t made any adjustments to this soup.  It is so good.  This time I did add some mushrooms.  Ya know, have you ever had that soup at a Chinese food restaurant with paper-thin mushrooms in it?  That is what I was thinking of so I sliced some mushrooms and put them in the original cooking and them more tonight when I added more broth and more spinach.  This soup has so many flavors going on it is really a wonderful thing.  I am going to make it and eat it without the dumplings (pot stickers).  My hubby doesn’t want me to omit the pot stickers, but it is such good soup he will forgive me.  I know he will.

Chinese Dumpling Soup

Ingredients
8 cups water
8 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon low sodium chicken bouillon
2 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar (although you can use sherry, which I am sure I will have to do one day)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
sprinkle of salt
about 1 cup Julienne baby carrots
24 frozen Chinese dumplings
3 scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced
4 cups bag baby spinach

Directions

Heat the eight cups water, stir in the 8 teaspoons of bouillon.  Add the ginger, soy, wine, vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar.  Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the dumplings and cook for about 5 minutes.  You might want to adjust the heat up a bit since the frozen dumplings will bring the temperature of the liquid way down.

Add the carrots (I like them crunchy).  Turn the heat down a bit and cook for about two minutes.

Then add the spinach, sprinkle the salt in, and add the scallions.  Let the spinach wilt, about a minute.

Get your taste buds ready for some super yumminess and serve.

dance exercise, Nia teacher, Easy Soup, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia classes, Nia classes in the Bay AreaWell, now that I have typed it up, the directions on the site are a bit different than mine, I am sharing with you the way I do it.  But basically it is from the Food Network Cookbook and website.  I don’t like my carrots really cooked so I add them after the dumplings where the site and the book say to add them before and cook them longer.  The site also suggest cooking the soup without the pot stickers and just have them on the side.  That is what I am going to do.  If my hubby wants them in the soup he can put them in there.  The way I cook them added them to the soup would add ANOTHER layer of flavor and probably make it better anyway.

The soup is really, really, really easy and without the dumplings is has to be really low in fat.  With the spinach you are getting a good amount of greens.  YUM.  This soup is really good.  One of those foods that has you thinking about it.

Well, the recipe this book came from is from a book I bought for my friend and she has made a few recipes in it for me and they have been really good.  I would recommend this book to anyone that likes to use cookbooks.  What made me get it for her is that there were simple recipes in it (she has kids) and because it shows “additional uses” for some of the ingredients you might not know what to do with.  If you buy a can of tomato paste and use two teaspoons, it shows you other recipes in the book that also use tomato paste.  I thought that was so cool because I often end up with leftover ingredients.  As it turns out I love this book because it has this soup recipe in it and I love this soup.

I hope you will try it and enjoy it too.  If you do let me know what you think.

Posted in "Recipes" | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Stock, Broth, Bouillon Cubes

Posted by terrepruitt on September 27, 2011

I have posted a lot about soup because a friend showed me how to use the stick blender to make soups.  I fell in love with blended vegetable soups.  Recently I posted about soup that my friend had made me.  In addition to sharing that wonderful recipe with me she also shared a broth secret.  I used to buy the bouillon cubes.  They are so convenient because they are always there when you need them.  Then due to the ingredients (partially hydrogenated oil) I started buying the boxes of broth.  But those are somewhat very inconvenient because what I have experienced is that the box is one measurement and I usually need a different measurement to make the soup.  So basically I often need only a portion of the box for soup.  It is unfortunate to have a half used box of broth in the fridge.  When I was at my friend’s house she asked me if I knew about “Better Than Bouillon”.  I had not.

Nia class, Nia teacher, Nia workout, Nia dance, Nia cardio dance workoutIt is a jar of bouillon concentrate.  Just like juice concentrate you mix it with water.  It is brilliant because you can make as much as you need.  I was so happy to learn of this.  I know, I know, I am probably late in this lesson, but I didn’t know.  I purchased the chicken base which has:

Chicken Meat with Natural Juices, Salt, Organic, Cane Juice Solids, Maltodextrin (from corn), Chicken Fat, Yeast Extract, Natural Flavors, Dried Onion, Potato Flour, Spice Extractives, and Turmeric .

I know a lot of these ingredients would not be found in fresh homemade chicken stock, but stock is not one thing that I am inclined to make.  I know it is easy and I know many people do make it, but I’m not one of them.  Maybe eventually if I continue to make a lot of soup I will start making my own stock, but not at this point in time.

I was happy to see “Better Than Bouillon” chicken base has turmeric in it.  Remember turmeric one of the anti-inflammatory foods.

I do still like the box broth so I will continue to buy it and use it.  But now I can use a combination of stocks and broths which will enable me to keep my fridge empty of a half used box of stock.  With the jar of bouillon, one teaspoon combined with 8 ounces water equals 8 ounces of liquid broth or one cube (which is added to 8 ounces of water also).

My husband and I have been waiting for the cold weather to come so that we can have soup.  When I first met him his thought was, “Soup is not food.”  But I once made a really hearty potato cheese soup that made him change his mind.  He also likes all the other soups that I have been making even though they are pureed vegetables.  I am fortunate that he is so kind to let me experiment with different veggies and combinations.  So far he has eaten them all.  So, c’mon cold weather, get here so we can eat soup!

Did you know about this jar of bouillon?  I am really excited about it.  You know by now when I learn something and I get excited about it, I have to post about it!

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »