I’m craving vegetable soup, and I want it thick and full of good stuff, more like a vegetable stew.
I plan to start with reduced sodium chicken stock. And then add onions, celery, garlic, green beans, black beans, carrots, zucchini, corn, peas, and whatever else I find in the freezer/vegetable drawer. Maybe some chopped tomatoes, maybe some green pepper.
Anyway, what herbs (or spices?) should I add? Maybe basil and thyme? Cumin? Chili powder?
Oh, and unconnected thought: has anyone ever eaten or even heard of a dish with cooked radishes?
Definitely thyme. Basil would be okay, but add it at the end, just before serving, or you lose all the flavor. Personally, I’d go with oregano or marjoram (and thyme) instead, with some fresh black pepper after it’s ladled into the bowl.
Or, with that list of veggies, I might go southwestern, using some cumin and oregano, with coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and lime wedges to squeeze in the bowl.
And I’d definitely add tomatoes, probably canned diced ones. I’m more fan of tomatoey vegetable soup than vegetables in chicken broth. I’d probably even swap beef stock for the chicken broth and add an equal portion of tomato juice. That gives an awesome savory beefy tomatoey blend.
I like to add V8 juice at the end of the cooking period. It works well in beef based soups, and in some chicken soups, too.
As for seasoning, you can’t go wrong with the traditional parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme for chicken bases. IF everyone likes cilantro, then add cilantro. If one or more people don’t like it, chop it and put it in a pinch bowl to be passed around and sprinkled on the soup according to taste.
I think it’s better to cook the onion in some oil or stock until it’s limp and transparent before adding the other ingredients.
I generally chuck some of this stuff in, not this particular one as I don’t live in Australia, this is just an example, there are a variety of them with lots of different stuff in them, depends on the brand. I actually have some on the bench in preparation for a batch of soup.
As for other ingredients, often a ready pack of veg from Aldi plus whatever is lying around at the time. Always at least one tin of chopped tomatoes, often passata and tomato past, sun-dried tomatoes (I likes tomatoes) whole garlic cloves, caremelised onion and at least one variety of beans.
Usually vegetable stock as my daughter and grandson often arrive unnanounced and both are vegetarians. Marmite and Soy sauce boost the flavour a bit in that case.
They’re basically small, spicy turnips, so you can prepare them any way you use turnips (though they take less time to cook, because they’re smaller). They’re nice braised, with bacon. Or roasted. Throw 'em in the pan around a roasted chicken and let 'em bask in the chicken fat. They’re pretty good.
They do lose their bright red color when you cook them, ending up sort of pinkish.
Yep, today is absolutely a soup day: when I woke up it was 63 degrees in my room. Brrrrrr.
So, yes, I’ll sauté the aromatics first, add the liquids, add the vegetable in order from hardest to softest, absolutely the canned tomatoes, and maybe I’ll add a second can of beans to what I planned, and I think this time it’ll be oregano/basil/thyme/pepper – and maybe more depending on tasting.
Can hardly wait.
I only wish I’d thought to pick up some mushrooms for a shot of earthiness.
Oh, and Athena? That’s interesting! When a friend brought up the idea that radishes are never eaten cooked at a small party, no one could contradict her. BTW, do the radishes retain their bite/heat when cooked?
StarvingButStrong, if you cook radishes long enough and low enough, like, for instance, in the crock pot with a roast, they taste like potatoes. OK, maybe not 100% like potatoes, but close enough. I eat lower starch and it’s just me to cook for, so when I’m really wanting a roast, I use a small crock pot and put in about half an onion cut up into chunks, a pound of radishes that I’ve washed and cut up into halves (the larger ones I cut up into quarters), two small new potatoes cut up the same size as the radishes, and a 7 oz piece of roast on top. Then I pour onion soup mix & water (just enough for 2 servings, not the entire packet) over all of it and set the crock pot on low. Eight hours later, I’ve got a crock full of yum!
To answer your question to Athena, no, the radishes don’t retain (in my experience) their heat or bite when cooked. But they definitely will become pink (if you don’t peel them first). Their texture is kind of like those canned potatoes from the store, and they do need seasoning (hence the onion soup mix - sometimes I don’t use the mix and just make up my own seasoning mix).
In answer to the OP, I use a lot of oregano in homemade soups if they’re beef/tomato soups. For chicken soups, I use white pepper, sometimes hot sauce, lots and lots of garlic and maybe onion powder if I’m not using actual onions. For things like German cabbage soup, I use lots of vinegar and sometimes ground up caraway seeds. I think your only limit is to try what you think will work.
Predicted high here today is 91 Fahrenheit. Predicted high later this week is 97 Fahrenheit. I really hate the end of summer.
Anyway: I start my vegetable soup with sauteed onions, celery, and carrots. Then I add broth, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, canned tomatoes, and whatever other vegetables are going in.
Sometimes I do an Italian variation with garlic, oregano, and basil.
Yup, like Clothilde said, radishes don’t keep the heat when you cook them. I don’t agree that they taste like potatoes when you cook 'em; to me, they’re much closer to turnips. But I do agree that they go well with potatoes. In fact, I rarely do plain mashed potatoes after discovering that you can do half and half mashed root veggies (radishes, turnips, rutabaga, parsnips, whatever you like) and potatoes and it tastes about a thousand times better and is healthier.
A further note: the pre-made mix that you buy at the store will usually include lavender. This is pretty much an American thing to add, and not necessarily bad.
I don’t use a lot of seasonings in my vegetable soup, letting the veggies themselves do a lot of the work.
I make the soup whenever I get the right stock, Stock is the key. I simmer any vegetable scraps and meat scraps I have. Chicken bones, hame bones? Throw them in water and let them simmer at the lowest temp. Strain the stock and reserve, then do it again at least two or three more times, always starting with the same stock base. Eventually I get a really strong and flavorful stock. Then I add veggies, maybe a handful of rice or pasta, and meat if I want it. Simmer at a medium temperature until the veggies are as I like them, then serve.
Hey Baker! I know you’re here in Portland somewhere. If you haven’t made it down to Gathering Together farms in Philomath (near Salem), you should give it a shot. They have a terrific restaurant there and sell a great loaf of Altamura that has durum flour but also sourdough. It’s liberally laced with poppy and fennel seed: very yummy.
ITA! All you need to add to this is a little salt, pepper, and butter. No more “wallpaper paste” mashed potatoes (I usually add parsnips or turnips). Sometimes I go outside of my low starch diet - I don’t do it often, but this is totally worth it!
Wow, I have GOT to experiment more with root vegetables!
And thanks to all for the further suggestions. Here in New England the cold weather is approaching and I really like to start each meal with a cup of soup … unless, of course, the soup is the meal itself!
For those playing along: the soup was stellar! And it wasn’t just me saying that. I had three other women over this morning to work on a club project, and they kept sniffing the air and looking hungry, so I invited them all to stay for lunch. Everybody raved (over a simple vegetable soup – I guess most people don’t make home-made soups any more) and the only down side is I didn’t have as much left to pack away for future meals as I planned.
Which gives me an excuse to do more soup tomorrow. I’m thinking beef barley this time.
Oh, I wish I was in Portland, I’ve heard so much about it. But I’m more to the southeast, in Topeka, Kansas.
If you are ever coming through(hey, I-70 brings a lot of people cross country!) be sure to let me know. Or, if I ever go northwest again, that would be cool too.
Maybe some chopped tomatoes, maybe some green pepper.
