Another recipe!

My roommate decided to make curry beef and veggies today and that inspired me to make curry of my own! I have yellow curry paste sitting in the freezer (it doesn't freeze, just gets very cold and the fridge is pretty full) and way more lettuce than I know what to do with (it was on sale and I told myself to buy more veggies), so I wanted to get those both into it somehow. I've never really seen or heard of lettuce being used in a hot dish, but I figured it wouldn't be too bad since I just made the soup with spinach in it. I completely forgot that lettuce, especially the romaine that I used, is a lot more bitter than spinach and I REALLY don't like bitter tastes, which is why I tend to load up on salad dressing. Anyway I forgot about this until I was part-way through the soup when I took the lid off the pot and it smelled... quite bad, really. Anyway, it all worked out in the end since the bitterness went away almost completely, the curry took over (as I wanted it to... I used more than I put in the recipe below, but mine's pretty spicy), and the lettuce got nice and tender. To steal Campbell's catchphrase, mm mm good. So here it is:


Curry Chicken and Veggies Soup

5 cups water
3 cups milk
28 oz chicken broth (two 14 oz cans)
a bunch of lettuce (about a 12" circle piled about 4" high, maybe 4-6 cups)
1 cup broccoli
1 large chicken breast
2 tbsp yellow curry paste
2 tsp chopped garlic
3 tsp garlic salt
1 piece of bread chopped fine (or 1/2 cup bread crumbs)
1 cup rice


Cut chicken into bite-size pieces. Brown chicken in oil (of your choosing, I used olive oil) with chopped garlic in a large pot (doesn't have to be fully cooked). Add curry paste and stir to distribute. Chop up lettuce into ribbons (as thin as you want, mine were between 1/4" and 1/2" wide). Add the water, milk, and chicken broth to the pot as well as the lettuce and broccoli (do yourself a favor and don't taste it for the next few minutes... the bitterness in the lettuce and the curry taste don't really mix well at this stage). Also add the bread, rice, and garlic salt (everyone in the pot!). Bring to a simmer for a while (about 30-40 minutes, until the lettuce has sunk to the bottom and the soup tastes good basically). If you want a slightly thicker soup, add about 1 tsp of corn starch dissolved in 1 tbsp of warm water.


Comments on the recipe: So, honesty time. There are some things in there that only made it in because I wanted to use them up. The bread is one of those things. Really the only thing, actually. The rice (and cornstarch if you want) should do a fine job thickening up the soup and all the bread does is dissolve anyway. You could probably put in about twice as much lettuce as I used if you want too, but I wouldn't go much over 8 or 9 cups or else I'm not sure how the flavor and texture would work out. It might be fine, though. Also, final honesty comment -- I make these recipes up on the fly by experimenting, so the amounts are rough (except for the liquid measurements on this one, since I wanted to know how much actually went into it). You'll probably have to experiment with them yourself, but they shouldn't be far off. And there's a very good chance your tastes are different from mine anyway, so you'll want to make adjustments, like with any other recipe.