If you've been part of this farm community for awhile you know I'm in an in-between stage of life still working a full-time day job while we build the farm operation.
It has its positives and negatives, but for today I'll focus on the good parts. Steady income is a plus, health insurance is important, and I haven't had to buy a jacket for myself in about 5 years.
My job can require quite a few nights of overnight travel. It's hard to leave the family and farm, but my coworkers are some of my favorite people ever so we make even the most boring meetings fun-ish. Once in awhile we also eat some truly spectacular food.
On my latest trip we spent a few days in French Lick, Indiana. If I'm being completely honest, most of the food was terrible, but Sunday evening we had dinner at the hotel steakhouse and it was AMAZING.
We enjoyed a fancy meal while one member of our team educated us all on bitcoin, another provided way too many details about breeding basset hounds, 1/2 of us realized we haven't been doing our mileage reports correctly, and all tried to make sure we didn't use each other's silverware.
Don't laugh, but my menu choices were roasted brussel sprouts with pancetta, crab cakes, and potato chorizo soup. The Brussels and crab cakes were good, I was a nice person and shared them around the table, but this soup was perfection and I was a bit more stingy about sharing!
It was just a hint of spicy and creamy perfection and had potatoes and veggies.... I carefully analyzed it because I knew I would need to recreate it at home.
I think I succeeded and Jesse proclaimed it was his second favorite soup beat out only by chicken and rice. It got a little spicy for my typically adventurous 3 year old, or at least that was her excuse when she begged for a bowl of black beans for dinner instead. Yes, she's weird.
Ok so here's my recreation of the steakhouse soup. I’ve seen recipes that include corn too, which I think would also be delicious!
Potato Chorizo Soup
1 pound Grass Powered Pastured Chorizo
4 cups chicken or beef broth
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter
About 4 potatoes
1 bell pepper
1 onion
1-2 carrots
2 cloves garlic
Salt, white pepper, powdered mustard or whatever other seasoning sounds good!
Dice potatoes, pepper, onion and carrots and garlic. Melt butter in the bottom of a Dutch oven or other heavy bottomed pan then sauté potatoes, peppers, onion and carrots. Add more butter or olive oil if needed. Once they are softened, add garlic for the last couple minutes.
Add thawed chorizo and break apart as it cooks.
Once Chorizo is cooked, add broth and any other dry seasonings. Allow to simmer about 15 minutes. A few minutes before serving, add heavy cream.
It’s amazing straight from the pot, but you could also top with sour cream, corn chips, fresh herbs, maybe even shredded or crumbled cheese.
I baked a loaf of quick crusty bread to go with it - perfection.
Hope this soup warms you on a chilly winter evening!
Dana
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