Shrimp and Garbanzo Beans with Tomatoes and Pesto

It's already been a few days since I made this, but it's important that I share it with everyone. For "refrigerator clean out" day I threw together a keeper. We had a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer so I let my imagination wander and came away with a simple and fantastic meal that is probably closest to the Italian dish Gamberi con Ceci e Pomodorini Secchi al Profumo. I know you're thinking I sound like a legitimate chef after name dropping that one, but I looked up shrimp and garbanzo beans recipes to see if what I did had ever been done before and of course my Italian ancestors apparently have.

I sauteed onion and garlic and added the shrimp. After 5-10 minutes, I set this aside and sauteed diced tomatoes (in a can). I wasn't very excited about the tomato juice that was in the can so I rinsed them in a strainer. I added a small amount of garlic and basil seasoning to the tomatoes and then set them aside, too. Finally, I sauteed the chickpeas in olive oil. Since it was refrigerator clean out, I pulled out a jar of pesto and added two large spoonfuls to the chickpeas. Once the pesto was fully incorporated, I added the garlic shrimp and tomatoes and mixed them together.

We couldn't believe how well this turned out. I kind of looked like a genius putting this one together on short notice and using only the things we had in the kitchen. I'm planning on making this the next time we have visitors. It can be a main or side dish. I would imagine more vegetables could be added, however, there was something about the simplicity that made it as good as it was.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 16 oz bag of frozen shrimp (cooked)
1 8 oz can of diced tomatoes in juice (rinsed)
1 8 oz can of garbanzo beans/chick peas (rinsed)
2 "spoonfuls" of pesto
seasoning to taste

Sunday Soup Day: Edamame and Sauteed Vegetable

Welcome back! It's been way too long since I've written about the things that have happened in my kitchen. It took until the 3rd week of the NFL season before I was able to get back to what we love most about Sundays: soup.

To start the Sunday Soup Day season, I chose to be creative and made an edamame and sauteed vegetable soup topped with Parmesan cheese and freshly baked bread. It was a splendid choice for today and it set a very high standard for the soups that will follow.

To start, I cooked some vegetables in olive oil using my Dutch oven. Oh, I've missed using my Dutch oven. After the vegetables were cooked, I strained, put on the cutting board and finely chopped them. I combined 9 cups of vegetable broth and the chopped vegetables and brought the soup to a boil before taking it off the burner and letting it cool so I could puree it in the blender.

I put the base back into the Dutch oven (which was a great soup by itself). I added pasta rings and the edamame and cooked it until the pasta was soft. Of course, I topped each bowl with Parmesan cheese, which happened to be a key component to the finished product. The fresh bread helped, too.

On Friday, I decided I was going to go with edamame soup. I visualized something light green (like split pea). I even thought about trying to include coconut milk, but ended up going in an entirely different direction. When the tomatoes were cooking, I was a little scared because it was clearly not going to be green. The pureed mixture was close to orange, but the edamame was perfect despite the color. I really enjoyed this soup and I'm excited to try a few other things with edamame in the near future.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 28-oz can of diced tomatoes (drained)
1 large onion
3 oz carrot
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 oz baby bella mushrooms, chopped
9 cups vegetable broth (Trader Joe's organic)
4 large fresh Italian parsley sprigs
6 oz pasta rings
3 cups frozen edamame
seasoning to taste
fresh grated Parmesan chesse