Chicken & Potato Florentine Soup

Not much to write about this week.  Last week at the boat was mostly leftovers.  We spent this weekend in Orlando, driving up on Friday, taking in Epcot on Saturday and driving home yesterday. Disney has a Florida Resident special package where you get 3 days/parks essentially for the price of one.  Earlier this year we did Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom in one marathon weekend.  This time we did the more adult Epcot.  LOTS of walking, beautiful flowers, and interesting rides like Soaring and the Epcot globe.  Special thanks to our new friend Christine, who is a real Disney-holic and arranged a great tour of all the best of the Flower and Garden Festival with its fabulous blooms and exquisite topiary of Disney movie characters.

We stayed with Sally's PharmD friend of many years, Melinda, and she gave me an interesting recipe for a soup she'd found that sounded wonderful to all of us. When we got home yesterday I thawed out a couple chicken breasts and dashed off to the megamart for a couple ingredients.

Chicken & Potato Florentine Soup

This came originally from an Olive Garden tm copycat recipe site. Of course, this is my simplified version of things with the essential flavors but not the complex original ingredient list. The copycat recipe, like the OG original, I'm sure, called for a ton of added salt (which I avoided, as you'll see).  Something you don't really need.  Sally declared this one of the best soups I've ever made.  It's only a moderately complicated recipe, as you do want to do things in three stages.

2 Chicken Breasts, boneless, skinless

16 oz low sodium Chicken Broth

2 tsp Italian Seasoning

1 Shallot, sliced

1/8 tsp fresh cracked Black Pepper

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2 cans Diced Tomatoes - Italian spiced or Garlic & Onion spiced, with juice

2 cans low sodium Great Northern Beans, rinsed & drained

6 oz Carrots, shredded or thin rounds (I used two 'snack packs' of mini carrots, cut into small disks)

3 Potatoes, medium  (I used half a dozen small white 'new potatoes')

2 cups water

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8 oz bag fresh Spinach

4 oz shredded Mozarella

4 oz Cream Cheese, onion & chive flavor, softened

Season the chicken with half of the Italian seasoning and pepper, and saute until browned slightly. Add the broth and sliced shallot, and simmer about 15 minutes until the chicken in barely pink inside. Remove meat, cut into pieces and return to the broth.

Add the rest of the Italian seasoning, tomatoes, beans, carrots and potatoes, and simmer 30 minutes or so until potatoes until the potatoes are just done. 

Add the spinach in a couple of handfuls, stirring and cooking until it is completely wilted. Add the cheeses, slowly, and stir-cook until they are combined in the liquid and not sticking to the bottom.  Ladle into bowls and serve with a lightly toasted slice of a black or kalamata olive bread.

Makes about 5 quarts

YYUUUUUMMMMM!

Falafal

While at Epcot, we ate a late lunch at the Tangerine Restaurant in the Moroccan 'village'. Sally and I got sampler sorts of plates, and she had never had Falafal. I'd had it before, but she'd didn't have any idea. When she first bit into that crispy croquet, she though it was 'mystery meat' -- unidentifiable ground lamb/pork/beef. Much to her surprise, I told her that it was essentially a ground chickpea/fava bean fritter. So next week or the week after, expect to see some explorations of falafal after I pick up some mix from the local health food market, or soak out some dried chickpeas and make my own 'fresh'.  I may opt for the mix as we don't have a food processor -- just a blender -- and working from a ground mix will be easier. If we're lucky I'll make something that looks as good as this:

Stay tuned....

Tamarind Gelato

Attention Norman Love Gelato Shops in Fort Myers!!

The other interesting food discovery of our trip came when we stopped at Mel's favorite gelato place for a cool after-Epcot treat. Among many interesting flavors, I discovered Tamarind gelato! Wow!! Tart-sweet and thirst quenching. My new favorite flavor of all time. Knocks my old favorite Baskin Robbins Daquiri Ice tm flavor right off the top of the list! Of course you have to like the unique tart-sweet flavor of tamarind, which Mel didn't, but Sally and I exclaimed over!  

Now if we can just get our favorite local gelato shop  -- Norman Love -- to make this flavor!!