As you know, I started a diet a few weeks ago. Not a "diet" in the traditional sense, but a meal plan. And truth be told ... I didn't start it, my boyfriend did, which means I got sucked along for the ride. And so did my intestines.
It didn't go well the first little while.
But then my guts got adjusted and it still isn't going well. Regardless there are a few really good recipes I've been introduced to. One such recipe is Fire Broth. It's a vegetable and sausage soup that's heavy on the heat. Adam, the owner of Alchemy Crossfit, the devil who has organized this meal plan is big on heat and it shows in this soup. If you don't like heat, just dial down the hot peppers.
And since it's still freezing cold with no sign of it getting any warmer here in Southern Ontario it's still the perfect meal for this time of year. Even though technically the perfect food for this time of year should be hamburgers and potato salad. Which isn't on "the meal plan" by the way.
I hate my life.
Wait! I own chickens! I don't hate my life anymore.
Please enjoy this hot and spicy Fire Broth Soup!
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 5 cups beef broth
- ** if you're vegetarian/vegan you can use 10 cups vegetable stock instead**
- 3 Tablespoons Grapeseed Oil (or Olive Oil)
- 1 package of hot, Italian sausages (5 or 6 sausages)
- 1 yellow onion (diced)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 heads of roasted garlic
- 2 small green chiles (minced)
- 1 medium sweet potato (diced)
- 1 red pepper (diced)
- 1 zucchini (diced)
- 3-4 heirloom tomatoes (diced) **use regular if you can't find heirloom
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon coriander
- 1 Tablespoon Ancho chili powder **can also use regular chili powder
- 1 teaspoon Chipotle puree (just blend the contents of a can of chipotle peppers)
- 4 Tablespoons fresh oregano
- Put your 10 cups of broth into a soup pot and warm it up.
- Dice all your vegetables and chop your oregano.
- Heat your oil in a saute pan then add your onions and ½ teaspoon of salt. Cook until translucent.
- Add garlic, green chiles, spices, sweet potato and half the oregano to saute pan.
- Cook for 10 minutes stirring regularly.
- Add the red pepper and zucchini and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add the cooked vegetables to the warm stock. Also add the chipotle puree, tomatoes and sausage. Simmer for 15 minutes.
To roast heads of garlic, cut the tops off of the garlic, sprinkle with a little salt and olive oil. Wrap them up in tin foil and bake them in the oven at 400° for 40 minutes or until soft.
This is how to easily dice an onion.
This is what a hot green chile pepper looks like. Buy ones that look like this.
If you can't find nice, fresh tomatoes, there's no shame in using canned. No big whoop.
Remove your oregano leaves from their stems before chopping them. Stems are icky.
If you have a red pepper that's starting to feel softish in the fridge, this is the perfect opportunity to use it 'cause it's going to get soft when it's cooked anyway.
By soft I mean soft. Not rotting and covered in mould.
My zucchini seemed a bit small so I used 2. You can do that when cooking soup. Add, subtract ... do whatever you like.
It's the magic of soup.
Cook your sausages ahead of time. I boil mine for 10 minutes then stick them on the barbecue for another 10 - 15 minutes.
These look slightly dried up 'cause they'd been sitting waiting for their photo shoot for a half hour or so.
Sweet potatoes have lots of craters which are perfect little spots for growing bacteria. Make sure there isn't any mould or ick on them.
Dice all your vegetables to about this size.
Serve on a piece of barn board with a hunk of attractive looking bread. Unless you're on this stupid meal plan. In which case you're more likely to be encouraged to eat the barn board than the bread.
→Follow me on Instagram where I often make a fool of myself←
Nope, I'm eating it all... straight through. Seems insanely healthy. And I get two other meals per day. I'll add the zucchini tomorrow.
I gotta get through it. Got your carrot soup lined up right behind it. ;) What kind of birthday cake/true pie/true cookies are you making for Mr. Happy?
I cannot say. It's a surprise and he reads all the posts and comments. But there will be some kind of cake! ~ karen
Ohhhhh! So perhaps the "here's how I handled his birthday" post next week.
Something to live for, no doubt. ;) Have a great weekend!
Blast! I knew I forgot something. I left out the zucchini. And I have to take the soup and go to work. So tomorrow, I will cook the squash and add it. Plenty of leftovers.
It's pretty insanely good now. Maybe I'll just remake it next week. :)
Marti - LOL. Yeah, you're so right. It's a LOT of soup. We had it for 2 nights, plus the fella took it for lunch PLUS I gave my mom a HUGE bowl of it tonight. Kay, you can probably cut the recipe in half. It freezes fine, but the veg go soft. They go soft once you reheat the soup a couple of times any way though so ... ain't too bad. That's my vote. Freeze it in a bunch of glass (straight sided) mason jars. ~ karen!
Oh no... I'm actually with you on that. I mean there's NO BREAD IN THE HOUSE! haha! I had about 7 Whhhhhheat Thins and after that, it didn't bother me.
I used jalapenos (instead of those nasty little green things you called for), took all the seeds out, just in case it got ugly. It's still very spicy, but I think I can eat the entire GALLON you had me make of it. Tasty!
YOWZER!!! That is some FLAVORFUL soup! I need bread! Where is the homemade bread????
Heh. Too hot for you?! No bread. NO bread. O.K. You can have homemade bread. But only a little. ~ karen
Thanks for posting this, I'm gonna try it this weekend. We love spicy and one of my New Year's resolutions was to learn to make good homemade soup. Oh, and to learn how to chop an onion. :)
:) I take it you've already seen this, but just in case ... https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/how-to-chop-an-onion/ ~ karen
I was going to make chili today, but this looks so much more interesting, more light, more tasty and LESS BEANY. Thanks! Great menu ideas. I love to know what other people are eating.
What they are eating+recipes? WIN!!
Marti - The Firebroth Soup is delicious! I absolutely love it. If you aren't into hot foods, just leave the green chile peppers out. Or only use 1/2 one. ~ karen!
Keep going, Girlie, and I might even tell you how to make that cake. Or come up to whatever part of that hellaciously cold country that is and make one for you. (I am totally bluffing on a trip to CA. Whew! Thank heavens we've already established lying is ok on this blog!)
I just made this for lunch - minus the sweet potato due to my low carb diet. It turned out so amazingly well I had to invite a friend over to join me for lunch! Great recipe, simple to put together and delicious...thanks
Regards from Norway
Gail
Gail! - I love it when recipes workout for everyone else! That's great. Enjoy! ~ karen
This is our dinner tonite. I'm starting it right now. :)
I've never been to your blog before, it's beautiful!
This soup looks so great...right now it's raining where I live, so this looks rawwwwther a appealing! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Charissa! It's raining here too. It's been raining for months. Therefore, we've had this soup quite a few times in the past few months. :) ~ karen
I tried this recipe last night and it was amazing! You should try this feta and sun-dried tomato bread with it, they went together so well!
http://fourgreensteps.com/community/recipes/bread/feta-and-sun-dried-tomato-soda-bread
Jenny - Well ... technically we're not supposed to be eating bread. My bf adheres to that rule. Me? Not so much. ~ karen
I sent this post to my husband and he made it for dinner. It was amazing. Not only delicious, but surprisingly very filling. We are fans of spicy food!
Beautiful photo by the way, Karen. And, thought you would like to know another person has tried it :)
Thanks for posting!
Linda! That's great. I'm happy you liked it. And you're right! I should have mentioned in the post how filling it is. As you say, surprisingly filling! ~ karen
I made this tonight. It is definitely worthy of falling in love with. I could only find Chorizo sausage and everything was just spicy enough. Delicious!!
Alisha! Thanks for making the soup. I'm so glad to hear it when people make these recipes. I don't put a lot of them up 'cause it's a crap load of work with all those photos, LOL, and I really only want to put up recipes I really think are delicious and foolproof! Yay! Glad you liked it. ~ karen
This looks fantastic - and I have everything except the sweet potato, chile pepper and oregano. Score! It's still pouring down rain and in the low 50's in the Pacific Northwest as well, so I'm definitely gonna have to brew this up for the weekend.
This looks amazing. Too bad it's already in the high 80s here in Florida. ppffttff
Looks delicious. I'm definitely going to try it tomorrow night! Thanks! I love getting new recipes!!! :)
I'm going to try this with chicken. I'm not a fan of sausage.
Liz - Good thinkin'. ~ karen
I am glad to see I am not the only OCD food inspector out there. I have been known to study each and every strawberry under the bright light of my stove hood for moldy ick... :) Few things sick me out more than a moldy flavor in food. Ugh!!
Mmmm... barn board....
Yummmm! I'm all for it! That's my kind of diet!
Good heavens that looks delicious. It's even got an awesome name. Sold!