My Food Heroes – Manny’s Need Lotsa Bread for dipping Spicy Chicken Soup

Coming home from Uni was always wonderful. I got to lie on the couch sipping Milo and watching the food channel all day long. It was absolute bliss. More importantly than the relaxation was getting home and seeing my family and friends. It was sometimes difficult coming back and missing so many things that happened, the birthdays, the parties, the memories but even so was the new friends that had inadvertently become my new friends. I’ll always remember the story Amy told me about this girl she met at her Uni up in Joburg and all the shenanigans they would get up to. They had become instant friends but I never really got much of a chance to meet her or even hang out. When I was home for Amy’s 21st birthday I finally got to meet Tammy. She had planned this beautiful slide show of stunning pics of Amy throughout her childhood and older years. It was a really special thing to see and I realised then and there that Tammy was such a great and caring friend and was excited to get to know her more. We hung out a few times at the ever famous O’hagans and drank way too much but never enough haha. I got to meet and visit her amazing family on a few occasions and finally adopted them as my own lol. Sharing so many similarities and dreams it felt like I had known Tammy my entire life.

It was awesome coming home every 3 or 4 months to such a great friendship group where it felt like no time had passed at all. There was always a glass of wine to be had and a story to be told and one such night embodied all of the above and one delicious bowl of soup. It was probably the months leading up to before I left for Korea that Tammy invited me over for dinner. YAY! I love when people cook for me. I brought enough wine to keep us entertained for the night knowing that her fridge was most probably full of wine already and probably a few bottles of beer too. There is NO such thing as too much wine.

We sat on her couch sipping glass after glass chatting about all of life’s ups and downs. We had really connected as friends over those last few months when I was still in South Africa and it was such an emotional and spiritually important time for the both of us. It’s a time I will always remember and cherish and all around a steaming bowl of delicious spicy soup lapped up with so much bread it could fill a bakery. It was so comforting and hit you like a ton of bricks but represented so much of what our friendship was; an instant kick you in the teeth kinda love with a dash of respect and understanding.

And here is the recipe straight from my wonderful friend herself. It made me chuckle for a good few minutes as I was reading the whole recipe in her voice. haha lol.

Ingredients

You need:
2 x wine glasses (1 for me and 1 for you)
1 x red wine (1/2 for you, 1/2 for me:) )

6 x chicken breasts chopped into cubes or heart shapes, what ever
1 x chicken stock
250ml cream
200ml boiling water
1 x fresh red chili finely chopped (more if your enemy is coming to dinner)
1 x chopped onion, finely chopped
1 x garlic clove crushed
1 x chopped green pepper
– take a sip of wine…
1 x table spoon of marmite or bovril
1 x table spoon curry powder
1 x bowl of crispy bacon (I say bowl as you can never have too much bacon)
– take a sip of wine and cheers your friend to good times
2 x whole tinted tomatoes blended
2 x cups of cooked lentils
3 x baguettes

Now here is the hard part….

Put it all in a big pot and stir on a medium heat until the chicken is cooked and everything smells yummy!
– sip wine every 5 mins

Toast your bread in the oven

Pour soup in bowl, pour more wine and serve!

Love u too much my Manny ❤

My Healthy Kitchen – Vegetarian Quinoa Chilli

On the healthy lunch train for the next couple weeks and I’ve been battling to come up with some delicious one week meals that I’m not going to get bored of too quickly. Eating the same thing everyday can get a bit tedious but with my work schedule it’s such a mission to be making fresh lunches everyday. I’ve made everything from curries to soups and needed a fresh challenge. Recently I’ve been reading a lot of posts on friends walls about Chilli. Now when I first heard about chilli I imagined those little green or red peppers that can cause a hell of a lot of pain if u eat too many. I didn’t realize that “Chilli con carne” or other versions of chilli contain a healthy mix of ground beef, beans, veggies and tomatoes in a spicy/Mexican inspired sauce.

My first bowl of Chilli with Ronnie 😀

I had my first bowl of Chilli on top of Mount Lemon in Tucson Arizona with my uncle Deon’s very good friend Ron Osland. I had no idea what to expect but Ron explained it all for me. It was just a nice big Moorish bowl of delicious meat and sauce topped with cheese and onions. The smell was amazing and the setting of the restaurant was too stunning for words and to compliment the meal I also had my first Root beer. It was the perfect meal for the perfect day. Thanks Ronnie 😀

I chose to recreate this recipe/moment after looking through some old pics. The original recipe calls for ground beef (insanely expensive in Korea) and lots of cheddar (Damn u diet!!) But I wanted to give it a healthy twist. Vegetarian style Chilli with Quinoa is quite a popular winter meal so I decided to make my own.

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, minced

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (I love everything garlicky)

1 tin corn kernels

2 green bell peppers, chopped

1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

4 Tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1/2 cup veggie stock

1-2 tablespoons hot pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Wash quinoa and set aside.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook until translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, corn and peppers and cook about 3-4 minutes.

Add the quinoa, kidney beans, tomato sauce and veggie stock. Season with hot pepper flakes. Simmer for about 10 minutes and add 1 cup of water if it gets dry. Serve warm.

Garnish with avocado slices and cheese if you’re feeling naughty. I had this bowl of chilli for dinner but the rest of the lunches for the week will have no fun toppings.

CHEFS NOTES:

One problem I had with adding the quinoa straight into the sauce was that it didn’t really cook/sprout as fast as I wanted it to. I kept adding water and boiling and simmering a couple times before I got it right. What I would do next time is cook the Quinoa separately and then add it to the sauce once both components were semi-cooked.

I wanted to add some different beans such as black beans or even lima beans (butter beans) but due to the sad fact that down in Daegu we can’t find any of those ingredients easily. I just stuck to the usual kidney beans. I guess you could also add lentils to this recipe for something different. Try it your own way and post any recipes here 😀