You couldn’t ask for a better excuse… it is going to be a crisp sunny fall weekend, and my wife has a chipped tooth that she can’t get fixed until Monday, so I absolutely positively need to make some soup! Probably even a few batches. Oh, and did I mention that I love soup?
Anyway, I’ve got several recipes, but I’d love to add some new ones to my rotation. No dietary restrictions, and we are fairly adventurous eaters so share your favorites please. I’ve got a well equipped kitchen and a well stocked pantry and also access to most ingredients (maybe not exotic things like Malaysian Rhino Left Testicle) but most things should be doable.
• 1 large squash (butternut, acorn, etc.; I used a kabocha), peeled and cut into 8 pieces
• 1.5 onions, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced
• 5 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 64 oz chicken/vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp ground sage
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• salt to taste
• green onion
• slivered almonds
1 Bake squash 1 hour at 375 degrees.
2 Dice cooked squash.
3 Place all ingredients in pot.
4 Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer about 20 - 30 minutes.
5 Blend until smooth.
6 Serve topped with green onion and slivered almonds.
1lb Italian sausage (I use hot)
Onion, diced cup
Carrot, diced cup
Celery, diced cup
2 garlic cloves, minced
Bunch of kale, well washed, chopped up
6 cups chicken stock
Box of small pasta (I use ditalini, or orzo)
Good white wine
Heat a bit of oil in your large Dutch oven. Roll the sausage into small meatballs (half inch balls). In two or three batches, brown the meatballs and then set aside. Dump the onions, carrots and celery in and sauté for five minutes. Add the garlic and the kale, and sauté until the kale just starts to wilt. Add a few glugs of wine to deglaze. Throw the meatballs back in, add the chicken stock and simmer for 30. Add the pasta in and simmer until it reaches your preferred doneness.
1# 8oz roasted pumpkin, or equivalent amount of canned pumpkin
2 cups veggy stock (or water, or chicken stock. Whatever you have handy)
2 onions
curry powder
olive oil
salt & pepper
Greek yogurt for serving
Saute onions in oil, add salt, pepper, curry while sauteing. Let 'em go for 20-30 minutes. Add pumpkin, stock, cook for 20-30 min. Blend, add more curry, salt, pepper to taste, serve with dollop of Greek yogurt.
The yogurt adds a nice acidic touch to the soup; if you don’t want to do that, I’d probably add some lemon juice to the soup. It needs a bit of an acid to balance it.
This is just a link - Tomato-Fennel Soup with Brie Toasts. It’s basically tomato soup to die for; the Fennel doesn’t at all take away from the tomato flavor, it just adds some depth, and I don’t think that you’d even know there was Fennel in it if you didn’t know. But whoa, does it ever add some depth and complexity. I’m never making Tomato Soup without it.
You don’t have to make the brie toasts, but they’re really nice. Even if you just do the floaty crouton it’s nice. It gets all tomato-y and soggy/crisp and is yummy.
I grill the sausage in the casing and then put slices into the soup.
I use potatoes instead of pasta. I put about half the potatoes in as very small chunks and let those get cooked first; I break them up a little with a spoon so that they give the broth a little thickening. Then I add the other half of the potatoes along with the celery, carrots, onion, etc. so that I’ll have nicely cooked chunks.
I often substitute whatever greens are on hand. Collard greens and mustard greens both work well in place of kale.
Unfortunately, I can’t offer any measurements. When it looks right and tastes good, then I know I’m done.
My other standby soup is a sort of simplified minestrone:
8 oz can of diced tomatoes
8 oz of either chicken or beef stock (they’re both good, but different)
Italian sausage (grilled and sliced, as before)
Carrots, Celery and Onion (about equal portions. I use a large celery stalk, but otherwise don’t measure precisely).
Shredded cabbage (about equal to the amount of tomatoes).
Optional ingredients that we sometimes add for variety:
Potatoes or pasta
Garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
Zucchini
Green beans
It’s not at all exotic, and it’s mostly a post-Christmas type dish, but if you end up with some leftover ham including the bone, save the good meat, and simmer the rest like you’re making stock.
Take it out, and add in carrots, cut red potatoes, a little bit of garlic, celery and whatever other soup vegetables you like, along with the reserved ham meat, simmer for a while to cook everything. Season before the last 20 minutes of simmering with salt, pepper, fish or soy sauce and vinegar to taste (a tad bit of vinegar helps a lot of soups)
I made this potato soup a couple of weeks ago, and good god! it was delicious. We fought over the leftovers. It has a lot of different vegetables in it, so they cancel out the cheese and bacon that you put on top. Right?
I made a potato leek soup today mostly from the America’s Test Kitchen Slow Cooker book.
Leeks and onions-- cook in butter (I did olive oil, because I’m sharing with a vegan friend) until they are starting to brown and caramelize.
I roasted the potato and carrot cubes in the oven (tossed in olive oil) to add to the flavor.
Put all in crock pot with vegetable broth (recipe calls for chicken broth)
On low for 4-6 hours.
But here’s the kicker: puree some of the soup with 1/4 cup white miso, then put back in the pot. I used an immersion blender to puree the rest. Yes, I put the crock pot on warm after adding the miso.
The ATK recipe did not call for blendrizing the soup but my miso cookbook did so I opted to do it.
That’s funny… I saw your post and the link looked like I’d already visited it. I clicked on it and realized that it is one that I had looked at a few weeks ago and intended to try. I think this will definitely be one of the ones for this weekend.
I made beans and ham hocks today. Simple, old fashioned and delicious.
*1/2 package of 15-bean soup beans (or use all of it if you have room in the fridge)
Water, about 2-3 quarts
1 meaty smoked ham hock, excess fat trimmed off (or you can use smoked porkchops or smoked sausage, if need be)
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 carrot, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 or 2 diced tomatoes, if desired
salt and pepper
*I like this bean mixture because the different types add texture and flavor. Throw away the “flavor” packet that comes with it.
Rinse the beans in a colander and dump into a heavy pot. Add the water. Bring the beans to a rolling boil, then cover and shut off the heat. Let them sit for an hour. I use this method because I want the soup to simmer for several hours without the beans turning to mush.
Add everything else and raise to a boil again. Keep the soup bubbling for the next 2-3 hours until the ham hock falls apart and the beans are tender. Serve with hot buttered cornbread, of course.
That’s basically the recipe I use, though I don’t use black pepper or Cajun seasoning in my soup. It’s a very comforting soup. Especially with grilled cheese sandwiches. You don’t need cheese in the soup if you have grilled cheese sandwiches.
12 large jalapenos
1 small onion, minced
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
4 cups chicken broth
Salt to taste
Broil the jalapenos in the oven on a cookie sheet that’s been sprayed with nonstick spray. Turn them so every side turns black. Put them in a paper bag for ten minutes. Then remove the burnt skins (this should be easy because letting them cool in a bag loosens them) and remove the seeds and white parts.
Chop up the jalapenos, onion, and cream in a blender. You want them chopped up fine but there should still be visible specks of jalapeno.
Melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour until it’s smooth. Add the chili puree and heat it up. Add the broth and salt. Heat it up and keep stirring. Then turn down the heat and let it simmer for five minutes.
Beef stew last night, starting on Friday night:
-Roast a couple pounds of beef bones at 350 for half an hour.
-Boil them in about a gallon of water along with a couple stalks of celery, a halved onion, a carrot, some garlic, some salt.
-Chill, skim the fat, strain for stock.
-Flour a couple pounds of stew beef chopped into bite-sized chunks, and brown heavily in some of the skimmed fat. Set aside.
-Fry a couple diced onions and a couple stalks celery in more beef fat.
-Add the beef and 6 cups stock back to the pot. Add some sprigs of rosemary, some thyme, some worcestershire, some wine, some salt, some pepper–you know, whatever you think would taste good.
-Cook on very low heat–barely simmering–for a few hours.
-Half an hour before eating, add a handful of diced carrots and a few diced potatoes.
The resulting stew is extremely rich and savory, the broth more like gravy by the time it’s done. Fabulous cold-weather eating.
For a very quick soup, I make a version of minestrone.
Two (2) rashers (slices) of real bacon (rind removed), diced.
One carrot, diced
Two stalks of celery, sliced
One large onion or one leek (diced or sliced)
Two cloves of garlic.
Saute all the ingredients in a little butter or olive oil until softened (5 minutes or so), then add app 500-750 ml of stock (vegie, beef or chicken, doesn’t matter). Bring to the boil.
Add 1/2-1 tin of chopped tomatoes, then simmer for app 20 minutes, top with some grated parmesan cheese and there ya go!
*You can also add other vegies like zucchini, eggplant, pumpkin, whatever you like.
I’ve posted this recipe before, but it is seriously good and deserves to be posted again.
1 avocado - skin removed and sliced
1 large sweet potato peeled and cubed - (I use 2)
2 chipolte peppers diced - (I use only 1)
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp honey
juice of 1 lime
3-4 cups of water
optional toppings
cilantro
tortilla chips or strips
sour cream
sliced avocado
torn baby spinach
shredded cooked chicken
In a medium soup pot or dutch oven add all ingredients EXCEPT the lime juice. Add 3 1/2 cups of water to the pot over medium to high heat bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender - remove from heat and blend to desired consistency with an immersion blender or a stand blender (batch blending with the top vented allowing the steam to escape).
Add the additional 1/2 cup of water if desired (or more until consistency you desire is reached). Add the juice of 1 lime and stir.
Eat as is, or top with whatever you desire. I love it with shredded chicken and a dollop of sour cream.
I just got a pound of baby portabellas for $1.50! So I think I’ll sautee them with lots of garlic and onion and butter, and (if I don’t eat them all) make a chicken mushroom barley soup. I’ll just add whatever vegetables I have in the fridge, but it doesn’t need much…chicken, barley, mushroom, onion, garlic…mmmm!
