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Tag Archives: soup

Westport, WA (Plus Clamming, and Chowder!)

01 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Events, Seafood, Travel

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bacon, birthday, chowder, clam chowder, clamming, Otto, razor clams, soup, the coast, washington, westport

What do you do for your dogs 2nd birthday? Take him to the beach…Obviously!

Otto's Birthday

Back in April (yes, this is a super belated post) we went to Westport, WA to meet up with my friend Morgan and her family (her new pup included)! We arrived on Friday afternoon and it was a beautiful day to hang out with Otto on the beach…

Westport

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Pumpkin Soup with Bacon and Croutons

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Entertaining, Events, Holidays, Main Dish, Soups

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

autumn, bacon, carrots, chicken broth, croutons, fall, goat cheese, nutmeg, October, onion, pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, soup

Nothing says Fall like a warm, hearty bowl of soup. Pumpkin Soup with Bacon and Croutons, however, takes Fall to a whole new level.Pumpkin SoupI was blown away with how this soup turned out. Normally I associate the canned pumpkin with sweet treats and desserts, but this soup has changed my mind. I also couldn’t help but think baby food as everything was cooking down (aren’t I super good at convincing you to try my recipes?)…but dammit, it’s a really freakin good adult version of baby food that I would be proud to feed my baby/kids someday (showing them this blog with all the swearing probably won’t be on my list though).Pumpkin SoupAnyways, Pumpkin Soup ended up being a huge success! The bacon and croutons are a must – so was the sprinkling of goat cheese on top. Another thing that blew my mind was the soup was even better the next day. I think this soup will become a yearly October tradition in our house. Next time I will likely double the recipe since the soup is great as leftovers. I also see new versions of this soup surfacing in the years to come, and I can’t wait!Pumpkin Soup

Recipe
Pumpkin Soup with Bacon & Croutons
Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 cup chopped carrots
  • 1 (15 oz) can unsweetened pumpkin
  • 2 cups cooked, diced bacon
  • pinch nutmeg
  • 32 oz (2 lbs) low sodium chicken broth
  • dash thyme
  • dash red pepper flakes
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 – 6 slices day old bread, depending on what size of loaf you are using (I used a few slices of a crusty artisan loaf)

Additional Garnishes:

  • Goat cheese or sour cream
  • Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the chopped onion and carrots and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 – 10 minutes or until softened. Add a few dashes of salt and pepper while the veggies are cooking down.

2. While the vegetables are cooking, dice raw bacon into small pieces and add to a separate pan. Cook on medium until bacon pieces get slightly crisp. Set aside and drain on paper towels. Leave remaining grease in pan for the croutons. To make croutons, cut bread into small squares and cook on medium-low in the bacon pan until brown and crisp. Set aside to drain on paper towels.

3. Add the pumpkin, half of the cooked bacon (about 1 cup), and nutmeg to the carrot and onion mixture, stirring well. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 – 10 minutes.

4. Pour in the chicken broth, increase the heat to medium, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for at least 15 minutes. Add a few dashes of thyme and red pepper flakes, season to taste with more salt and pepper if needed.

5. Remove the pan from heat and let cool slightly. Use an immersion blender to blend up the soup until smooth. If you don’t have an immersion blender, I highly recommend you get one…but transferring the soup to a food processor or blender and blending in batches also works fine. If so, return it to the pan and reheat.

6. Serve soup with the reserved bacon bits and croutons. Soup is excellent with a few sprinkles of goat cheese on top, or sour cream. Toasted Pumpkin Seeds add a nice seasonal flair as well.

I Love Sushi – Lake Bellevue

11 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Restaurants, Seattle

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Tags

bellevue, Crunchy, ginger, I Love Sushi, Lake Bellevue, Rainbow Roll, shrimp, soup, soy sauce, Sushi, Tuna, Wasabi

The Crunchy Roll from I Love Sushi at Lake Bellevue- shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, avocado,flying fish roe with tempura bits

I have now officially been to every location of I Love Sushi in the greater Seattle area. They are all a bit different, and I have to say the Lake Bellevue location is the best. It’s some of the freshest and most innovative sushi I’ve had, while still being classic and simple. I think I avoided going here for awhile because it is pretty pricey, but oh man, so worth it.

Surf Clam, Octopus, Tuna, and Eel.

The Crunchy Shrimp roll was basically the best shrimp tempura roll I have ever had. The standard sushi was fresh, the tuna smooth and buttery, the surf clam perfectly chewy…

The Jalapeno Bomber Roll and Rainbow Roll

The Jalapeno Bomber roll came with this basil-jalapeno sauce and it was unreal. I never would have thought to pair a pesto-like sauce with sushi…I seriously can’t wait to have it again.

The Ara Jiru Soup

There are many more unique dishes on the menu, like the Ara Jiru soup, which is a sort of Japanese style bouillabaisse. They also had a $75 tasting menu that sounded insanely delicious.

I plan on coming back here on a warm summer day, as the restaurant sits on stilts over Lake Bellevue. Also, better to park there in the daylight since there are signs everywhere saying, “DO NOT LEAVE VALUABLES IN THE CAR” “LOCK ALL DOORS” and there is a huge security camera inside that shows the parking lot. Very perplexing since Bellevue isn’t exactly Sketch-Central.  I am not sure what the deal is with Lake Bellevue either, it seems like a small man-made lake, but I am not sure as I couldn’t really find any info about it. How mysterious.

I Love Sushi Lake Bellevue
23 Lake Bellevue Dr  Bellevue, WA 98005
(425) 455-9090

Chicken and Dumplings

23 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Bloggerific, Chicken, Main Dish, Soups

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

bisquick, carrots, celery, Chicken, chicken broth, cream sherry, dumplings, onion, soup

Ok. Chicken and Dumplings are good. Really good. Even when you kind of screw up the recipe…

This is one of the only pictures I got. The dumplings are boiling to their death...

I went off of an awesome recipe from Culinary Cory – but I should have stuck to it more. I decided I was going to add more veggies, but not add more broth to the recipe…

the mound of extra veggies that I thought was a brilliant idea.

Everything was looking good…I added a splash of cream sherry to liven things up a bit…

Looks amazing right now, right?

Things went downhill as soon as I added the dumplings and brought everything to a boil. First of all, the dumplings soak up a lot of broth while they are cooking, so having enough is important. Then, while the mound of veggies were suffocating under the dumplings, I kind of burnt the bottom of the pan…sigh.

This was the end product. More of a stew than a soup...not the most gorgeous photo or dish. But I swear it still tasted great!

Luckily, the end product still tasted good besides a few burnt chunks that were encountered. The pot I used is pissed though. Thank God the friends that ate this didn’t mind a chicken and dumpling stew…We have coincidentally nicknamed the dish “chicken and dumps.” Not because it was bad – just because it’s hilarious.

Despite my mistake, this all got scooped up pretty fast. I didn't have time to take a picture after it had stopped boiling...mmm doughy chunks.

This is just one of those things I guess – a learning experience. “Winging it” and adding tons of extra veggies wasn’t the greatest idea ever. So, here is the lovely recipe below, and for the love of god, either follow it or DOUBLE it or TRIPLE it…Don’t wing it like I did!

Recipe

Chicken and Dumplings

adapted from Culinary Cory

Serves 2 (with leftovers)

Chicken and Dumplings
Soup:
1 Tbl. olive oil
2 uncooked chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
½ tsp. dried thyme
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. garlic powder or garlic salt
¼ cup butter, unsalted
¼ cup celery, small diced
¼ cup yellow onion, small diced
¼ cup carrot, small diced
3 Tbl. flour
2 (15 oz. can) chicken broth, low sodium
¼ cup frozen peas

splash of cream sherry (optional)

Dumplings:
1 ½ cup baking mix, Bisquick
2/3 cup milk

In a small Dutch oven or heavy stock pot, preheat the olive oil on medium high heat. Dice the chicken breasts into medium sized pieces and slowly add them to the oil. Add the thyme, salt, pepper and garlic powder to chicken. Sauté for 2 – 3 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked though, but not brown. Remove and set aside.

To the same Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the celery, onions and carrots to the butter. Stir occasionally for 4 – 5 minutes or until the onions are slightly translucent. Next, add the flour and stir for 1 minute until the flour has completely absorbed the butter. Stir in the cooked chicken and slowly add the chicken stock. Make sure you stir while adding the stock to prevent the flour from causing lumps.  Add the frozen peas to the broth.

In a separate bowl, combine the baking mix and milk until well incorporated. Bring the broth to a boil. This is important for the dumplings to steam properly. Drop large tablespoons full of the dumpling batter into the boiling broth. Continue to boil for 10 minutes, uncovered. Cover the soup and reduce the heat to medium low. Cook for an additional 10 minutes, covered.

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