Roast Chicken Soup from @MaddieDayAuthor #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here, with an easy, yummy, and flexible soup recipe. 

Hugh and I were eating lunch at one of our favorite restaurants recently, and I noticed the soup of the day featured roasted chicken with white beans and couscous. A little light bulb went off in my head. We had roasted a chicken a couple of days before, and I'd made a flavorful stock out of the bones. We had leftover cooked couscous in the fridge, too. 

March tends to be raw in New England, and has been especially so this year. A hot easy soup on a Friday night was just the ticket. I picked up a can of of cannellini and began recreating the Loretta's special.

Note: we use an herb rub for the roasted chicken, so my stock was flavorful and had plenty of salt. If yours isn't, be sure to add salt and pepper and any other herbs you enjoy.

Roast Chicken Soup

Ingredients

2-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil (not shown)

4 cups chicken stock

2 cups cooked couscous or 1 cup uncooked

2 cups shredded roasted chicken

10 ounces frozen or fresh chopped spinach

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Heat oil in soup pot or Dutch oven. Saute garlic for one minute.

Add stock and bring to a boil. Add other ingredients and simmer half an hour or until all are combined and cooked. 

Enjoy with a green salad and a glass of wine!

Yes, it is that easy. You could substitute kale or any other green for the spinach; throw in chopped carrots at the beginning or frozen peas toward the end; use pearl couscous instead of the tiny grains, or orzo or another pasta; add a dollop of pesto or a handful of fresh herbs; grate fresh Parmesan on top before serving.

I find myself with an extra limited-edition tote bag celebrating my latest historical mystery, A Case for the Ladies, and I'd like to send it to one of you!

Readers: What's your favorite soup?

🐔🍷🕮

A Case for the Ladies is out and available wherever books are sold!

My most recent releases are Deep Fried Death, #12 in the Country Store Mysteries.

And Murder Uncorked, Cece Barton Mystery #1, which released in late October.

Check out all my writing:

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

Herb Pistachio Couscous from @MysteryMacRae

This is couscous transformed. The addition of a fresh herb paste, pickled jalapeños, currants, and pistachios turns plain old couscous into a brightly-flavored dish that we serve as a main course (the measurements below are doubled from the original recipe for that purpose). It also makes a wonderful side paired with other vegetarian dishes or with meat. We adapted the recipe from The Milk Street Cookbook by Christopher Kimball who, in turn, adapted it from Yotam Ottolenghi – two of our favorite cooks.

 

Herb Pistachio Couscous

 

Ingredients:

2 cup couscous (not pearl couscous, which won’t absorb enough water for this recipe)

6 tablespoons dried currants

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Kosher salt and black pepper

1 ½ cups boiling water

¾ cup olive oil, divided

4 cups lightly packed fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems

4 cups lightly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

¼ cup finely chopped pickled jalapeños, plus 4 teaspoons brine

4 ounces baby arugula, coarsely chopped

1 cup shelled pistachios, toasted and chopped

4 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced

 

To make:

In a large bowl, combine couscous, currants, cumin, and ½ teaspoon each of salt and black pepper. Stir in boiling water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes.

 

In a food processor, combine cilantro, parsley, remaining olive oil, jalapeño brine and ½ teaspoon salt. Process until you have a smooth paste, about 1 minute, scraping down bowl 2 or 3 times.

 

Fluff couscous with a fork, breaking up large clumps. Stir in herb paste until thoroughly combined. Fold in jalapeños, arugula, pistachios, and scallions. Season with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature.

 

 

And now, with a tip of my toque to Maya Corrigan who’s been sharing links to Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen recipes from days gone by, here are links for couscous lovers to a recipe for Kale and Couscous Salad from Edith Maxwell, and another for Roasted Squash and Spinach Salad with Walnuts, Cranberries, and Couscous from Lucy Burdette.

 

There’s no arsenic in Herb Pistachio Couscous, but there’s plenty of it in Argyles and Arsenic, book 5 in my Highland Bookshop Mystery series. The book comes out March 1, 2022, and it’s available for pre-order now.

In the latest novel in the beloved Highland Bookshop Mystery Series, a murder at a baronial manor leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse—with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

And for those who like short stories, here’s a collection of my stories, most of which first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The e-book edition of My Troubles is on sale for $1.99

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

 

Welcome Edith Maxwell!

A very warm welcome to our friend, Edith Maxwell. Edith writes three series. Her latest book, MULCH ADO ABOUT MURDER, will be in bookstores on May 30th. Don't miss Edith's giveaway!




 

Kale and Couscous Salad

I’m delighted to be back here to share a taste of my fifth Local Foods mystery, Mulch Ado About Murder, which releases at the end of this month. I’ll send an ARC to one commenter here today, too!

In the book, it’s been a hot, dry spring in Westbury, Massachusetts. As organic farmer Cam Flaherty waits for much-needed rain, storm clouds of mystery begin to gather. Once again, it’s time to put away her sun hat and put on her sleuthing cap when a fellow farmer is found dead in a vat of hydroponic slurry—clutching a set of rosary beads.

Showers may be scarce this spring, but there’s no shortage of suspects, including the dead woman’s embittered ex‑husband, the Other Man whose affair ruined their marriage, and Cam’s own visiting mother, one of the two Drs. Flaherty. Lucky for Cam, her father turns out to have a knack for sleuthing—not to mention dealing with chickens. Will he and Cam be able to clear her mom’s name before the killer strikes again?

Cam orders this delicious and easy locally grown salad for her dinner when she takes her visiting parents to Throwback Brewery in North Hampton, New Hampshire. The actual brewery’s co-owner, Nicole Carrier, was kind enough to share a version of the recipe for my book, which I have modified slightly.

Ingredients

1 cup pearl couscous

4 cups washed and finely chopped kale leaves (discard the stems)

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoons good olive oil

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

Pepper

Directions

Cook the couscous until al dente and drain well. Sprinkle the salt over the kale in a big bowl and rub with your hands for a few minutes until it wilts. Add the cooled couscous, walnuts, cranberries, cheese, and cumin, and mix. Stir in two tablespoons olive oil and one tablespoon vinegar. Adjust oil and vinegar to taste, and grind black pepper over the salad. (The picture shown here omits the cranberries because of a non-fan at the table.)

Enjoy!

Readers, how do you feel about kale? Where is your favorite farmers’ market? Do you have any local-foods based restaurants you enjoy eating at? And remember I’ll send an advance copy to one commenter.

2017 double Agatha-nominated and national best-selling author Edith Maxwell writes the Local Foods Mysteries and the Quaker Midwife Mysteries; as Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Her award-winning short crime fiction has appeared in many juried anthologies and journals, and she serves as President of Sisters in Crime New England.

A fourth-generation Californian and former tech writer, farmer, and doula, Maxwell now writes, cooks, gardens (and wastes time as a Facebook addict) north of Boston with her beau and three cats. She blogs at WickedCozyAuthors.com, KillerCharacters.com, and with the Midnight Ink authors (http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com). Find her on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and at edithmaxwell.com.