I know I should be posting about foods that are primarily grilled. But I had to share two recipes I tried yesterday while we watched football. (My husband made chili too…used a chocolate bock/beer to break down the stew meat before adding to the ground beef mixture. Wow, was it good. Gave it almost a smoky flavor along with the dried chipotles.)

Butternut Squash, Spinach and Chicken Soup

This soup has a quite a bit of protein in it: chicken as well as chick peas. It incorporates cumin, curry and coconut milk. All I can say is that it’s probably the best soup I’ve ever made.

My suggested changes to the original recipe (link is below): grill the chicken, then tear apart before adding to the stock. I sauteed mine in garlic and a bit of olive oil first, to sear the edges. Another thing would be to slice the butternut squash into rings, drizzle with olive or coconut oil and grill those too (I roasted mine with onions and olive oil), cutting the skin off before adding to the soup. I did not add raisins, which are in the original recipe.

For added flavor, I think a thick-cut bacon could be fantastic in conjunction with the chicken and coconut milk.

The original recipe: Butternut Squash, Spinach and Chicken Soup

Sweet Cornbread

Rather than bake a loaf of bread, I decided to make cornbread to accompany the soup and chili. I found this recipe and chose it because I’ve used creamed corn in cornbread recipes before; it adds so much natural sweetness and moisture. But this recipe also has a 1/2 cup of sour cream. Well the final product did not disappoint. In fact it was probably the best I’ve had. (Don’t roll your eyes. Seriously, both of these WERE the best versions of soup and cornbread I’ve ever made!) This cornbread really cut down the spicy chili but was so moist it complimented the soup too.

Give it a try. Bet it would be great with stew, too.

The original recipe: Sweet Cornbread