The Soup Topic (2007–2012)

[abooja]

I made Marcella Hazan's Minestrone alla Romagna this weekend for some guests, and it was incredibly good -- light and rich at the same time. It reminded me of something my grandmother might have cooked, and not the tomato-heavy soup I am accustomed to eating. I was skeptical that cooking vegetables for three+ hours would work, but it absolutely did. Can't wait to eat it again.

[merstar]

Tonight, we enjoyed the Curried Cauliflower with Coriander Chutney discussed up thread (http://livinginthekitchenwithpuppies.blogspot.com/2008/09/curried-cauliflower-soup-with-coriander.html). I've been wanting to make this recipe for ages, and finally all everything fell into place. Delicious, simple soup with just the right seasonings. I've happily added this to my rotation of soups.

Have I mentioned I love soup?

So glad you liked the soup - it's one of my favorites. I usually puree half and leave the other half chunky.

[KatieLoeb]

Tonight I made a test batch of Butternut Squash and Asian Pear soup that I'm thinking of bringing to a Soup Swap party next weekend. I seasoned a sauteed onion with a bit of Chinese Five Spice, then added a carton of chicken broth + one carton of water, 1/2 cup of apple juice and a large peeled, seeded and diced butternut squash. Brought to a boil, lowered heat to medium and simmered for 15 minutes. Add one peeled, cored and diced Asian pear. Simmer for ten more minutes then cooled for an hour. Pureed in batches in the blender with a couple of ounces of fat free half and half. It came out pretty tasty but a little bland, so I jazzed it up after the fact with some chipotle powder and salted with some Alderwood smoked sea salt. It's also a little sweet for me, so next time when I double the batch I'll use lowfat sour cream instead of the half and half and add the other seasonings before blending.

The flavours here sound intriguing, but when I think of an asian pear, I think of more of a textural element, and less of a flavour. In Korea, julienned nashi pear is used as a crispy garnish for cold noodle soup "mul naengmyeon". Have you thought of using the pear more texturally? Like in a cubed salsa-like garnish, maybe mixed with grated ginger, to drop on the top before serving?

What a delightful idea for a soup! I love the thought of using five spice. I find that roasting the butternut squash makes a huge difference, especially when it comes to using it in a soup. The freshness of the Asian pear would contrast nicely, especially if a couple slices are floated on top in addition to using it in the soup itself. Sour cream souds like a good idea too. Yum!

Does anyone have another cauliflower soup recipe?

I only used half of the monster I bought for the Curried Cauliflower soup. If not, maybe I'll just make another batch. I was hoping to have enough for work this week, but I guess we got greedy last night. It was tasty, and no need to feel guilty about another helping of this soup!

Edited because I forgot to say: I think this recipe would also be great over rice.

The Asian Pear idea was merely a substitution for apple in the original recipe. I figured it would add the same sweetness to the soup but in a different way. Turns out it was a bit too sweet for my palate, but I think the sour cream will tame that next time. The Chinese Five Spice was a substitution for what I deemed a predictable and one note grating of fresh nutmeg. I thought the Five Spice might bring a little more to the party and it's one of my favorite spice blends so it wasn't that far off base of a choice. That turned out to be quite delicious with the squash and Asian Pear, for the same reasons that Pumpkin Pie spice is good with pumpkin/squash and an earthy spice mix is yummy with a sweet autumnal fruit.

[kayb]

Chicken Cider Stew, from the Kitchen Parade blog, slavishly adhering to the recipe here: http://kitchenparade.com/2002/10/chicken-cider-stew.php

It was good; would have been better with some paprika or some ancho chile powder, which I'll add next time.

[merstar]

Does anyone have another cauliflower soup recipe?

I only used half of the monster I bought for the Curried Cauliflower soup. If not, maybe I'll just make another batch. I was hoping to have enough for work this week, but I guess we got greedy last night. It was tasty, and no need to feel guilty about another helping of this soup!

Edited because I forgot to say: I think this recipe would also be great over rice.

Here are two that sound interesting:

Curried Butternut Squash and Cauliflower Soup

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/curried-butternut-squash-and-cauliflower-soup

Creamy Broccoli Cauliflower Soup With Blue Cheese

http://www.recipezaar.com/Creamy-Broccoli-Cauliflower-Soup-With-Blue-Cheese-156415

[Corinna]

Does anyone have another cauliflower soup recipe?

I only used half of the monster I bought for the Curried Cauliflower soup. If not, maybe I'll just make another batch. I was hoping to have enough for work this week, but I guess we got greedy last night. It was tasty, and no need to feel guilty about another helping of this soup!

Edited because I forgot to say: I think this recipe would also be great over rice.

Here are two that sound interesting:

Curried Butternut Squash and Cauliflower Soup

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/curried-butternut-squash-and-cauliflower-soup

Creamy Broccoli Cauliflower Soup With Blue Cheese

http://www.recipezaar.com/Creamy-Broccoli-Cauliflower-Soup-With-Blue-Cheese-156415

Yum! They do sound interesting. I ended up making another batch of the Curried Cauliflower, because it was so good and a little piglet I know ate most of it, leaving none to for lunches that week.

I like the combination of vegetables in these soups. I look forward to giving them a try. Thanks for sharing the links!

[merstar]

Does anyone have another cauliflower soup recipe?

I only used half of the monster I bought for the Curried Cauliflower soup. If not, maybe I'll just make another batch. I was hoping to have enough for work this week, but I guess we got greedy last night. It was tasty, and no need to feel guilty about another helping of this soup!

Edited because I forgot to say: I think this recipe would also be great over rice.

Here are two that sound interesting:

Curried Butternut Squash and Cauliflower Soup

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/curried-butternut-squash-and-cauliflower-soup

Creamy Broccoli Cauliflower Soup With Blue Cheese

http://www.recipezaar.com/Creamy-Broccoli-Cauliflower-Soup-With-Blue-Cheese-156415

Yum! They do sound interesting. I ended up making another batch of the Curried Cauliflower, because it was so good and a little piglet I know ate most of it, leaving none to for lunches that week.

Yeah, I know what you mean about that Cauliflower Soup - it's freakin' delicious.

I like the combination of vegetables in these soups. I look forward to giving them a try. Thanks for sharing the links!

You're very welcome!

[thock]

It's nasty, rainy and cold, here, and I just finished straining a batch of chicken stock, so I put the solids in some water for a remouillage, then found some chicken carcasses I'd missed in the freezer, and some frozen veggies intended for stock, and threw in some celery and a bit of garlic and simmered for a few hours. I strained it, then added some dried celery, carrot, onion and mushrooms, a bit of Tabasco, a little soy, and some peppercorns. I ended up adding some sriracha, too, to add a little character. I threw in a 1" piece of Parmesan rind and some cut-up raw chicken. I'm cooking up some AmyLu andouille, which I will throw in when it's a little less fatty, and then I will put in some fideo noodles. I think it's gonna be good. And of course, I'll never be able to recreate it.

[jgm]

Here's a cauliflower soup recipe I made from the Williams-Sonoma website:

Cheddar-Cauliflower soup

It's one of those recipes that just begs for riffing. The cauliflower content keeps the calories lower than one would expect for what's essentially a cheese soup.

[kayb]

I made butternut squash soup with chile recently -- it was excellent. I sauteed a small, diced onion and a couple of cloves of garlic, peeled and cubed two small butternut squash (maybe 3 pounds total) and tossed those in to saute as well, and added a tablespoon of ancho chile powder, two tablespoons of Santa Cruz chile paste, and two teaspoons of diced chipotle in adobo. When the squash began to soften, I added two cups of chicken broth and simmered until the squash was completely done. Pureed it in the pan with my immersion blender (you could do in batches in the blender or food processor if you wanted a smoother consistency). Then I added two ounces of crumbled goat cheese, stirred that until it melted, and a cup of half-and-half.

It's thick, so if you want a thinner soup, use more chicken broth or more cream. I freeze it in single-serving bowls and take to work, or use it for a sauce over pasta or rice as an entree for two. It's excellent like that if you add some crisp crumbled bacon or diced ham.

[LizD518]

Yet another cauliflower soup recipe here - I was led to it when I saw the post on Tastespotting.com.

Cauliflower and Sweet Potato soup with light coconut milk. Sweated onion and garlic, added the cauliflower (whole head of florets) and diced sweet potato (1 small) and stock of choice (veg or chicken). Puree when vegetables are tender, and add light coconut milk to thin to desired consistancy. Recipe called for turmeric as the only seasoning. I added salt & pepper, of course, and a little sweet cury powder for more depth of flavor. I think toasted cumin would work instead of the curry powder for people who don't like curry.

So good!

[jenc]

My favourite soup happens to be chicken. But being Chinese, the chicken soup I grew up with had little to do with making a mirepoix and is closer to broth – with the addition of ginger, salt, and sometimes, pork. I tend to have this plain usually, but I have dropped in some pasta shells for lunch.

This is a pretty clean-tasting soup, but I do like to simmer it for hours to get all that lovely gelatin out and intensify the flavour. My best results usually involve deboning a bunch of legs (reserving the meat to do some hainanese-style chicken later on) and using those bones instead of chicken carcasses.

- chicken bones/carcasses

- a little stump of ginger

- salt, to taste

- stump of pork

It's literally, dump ingredients into a pot, cover with only just enough water and simmer on low heat for hours. I do a second and third round of boiling to get stock(ish) for use with other meals (like the hainan chicken). Just careful on the ginger - it's pretty potent usually, so something less than an inch for a large stock-pot is fine.

I've managed to amalgamate my mother's "recipe" (I believe she said the pork should be "about the size of your fist") and a few techniques from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home book (to make things more complicated). You know: parchment lid, straining, and more straining. But the results are good! So this is now my updated standard of chicken soup.

• My mother's Chinese chicken soup post with (more) photos
  

[C. sapidus]

Snowed in today, so I improvised a scary-looking green soup from leftover bhaji (spinach and fenugreek greens braised with tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, chiles, and turmeric). I started by frying onions, garlic, cumin, nutmeg, cloves, and black pepper in ghee (quoth elder son, “Hey, Pop, smells good.”). Added the leftover greens, chicken broth, and coconut milk; heated through; buzzed everything with a stick blender; and finished with lemon juice.

Elder son, not a big fan of spinach, came back for seconds.

[santo_grace]

I can't believe it took me this long to discover garlic soup. Sooo delicious. I've tried two versions, with eggs added or with diced potatoes. I'm amazed a soup with so little in it seems so hearty and filling.

If interested, scroll down for photos for the garlic soup in the first post. http://jimandjules.posterous.com/

[suzilightning]

have been a soup fool lately. cooking and freezing to send to my mil and bil in poughkeepsie. we each get a bowl or cup then the rest is frozen in 1/2 cup, cup or 2 cup sizes for individual eating. so far there is in the freezer:

tomato, potato and basil

corn chowder

ratatouille

garden vegetable

making mushroom soup later

also sending up some leftover boeuf a la mode that they can heat up and put over noodles. also some sweet and sour meatballs.

[kayb]

Making my first beef stew of the season today; cubed round steak, floured and browned; onions and garlic, sauteed; carrots and potatos, chunked up; two cans of petite diced tomatos and 2 cups of beef broth, all dumped in the slowcooker. Leaving town this afternoon and that should keep the thundering herd fed until I get back Monday evening. Thinking while I've got the slow cooker out, I'm going to do a pork butt in barbecue rub later this week.

[Baron d'Apcher]

Hure de Cabillaud

Cod’s head soup (beta version).

A resourceful stew of cod collar, cheeks & tongues

with handsomely turned potatoes, turnips, leeks and shallots.

Tongues & cheeks

Cod’s head soup (2.0, special lobster edition)

With some smoked guanciale, lobster roe and claw scraps here and there.

More potatoes, pickled carmen peppers and fennel pollen.

[percival]

Made some chicken stew tonight and wanted to share, as it ended up being ridiculously good for looking so simple. Sauteed cabbage, celery, onion, carrot, tomato, pressure cooker chicken. Sorry for the ridiculously huge photo -- it's the smallest I have online. I don't actually eat it like in the picture -- more broth makes it less purdy, though. The toddler ate two bowls and wanted more, even though he had eaten leftover okonomiyaki a few hours prior. If you're interested, the recipe's at my blog here.

Edited September 19, 2010 by percival (log)

[nakji]

It's still too hot out for soup, but I don't care. I'm pushing into soup territory early.

I had a big bag of vegetables from my CSA that I didn't want to waste, so I ran the particulars through my EYB index and came out with a Marcella Hazan recipe for Vegetable Soup - now I'm reaping the rewards for lunch this week. Who would have thought that cooking carrots and cabbage for two hours would leave you with a sublimely rich, flavourful soup, rather than just a bowl of mush?

[Baron d'Apcher]

Soupe de pistou à la mode de Sète

Late summer squash, squid and ink crozets.

Pistou

[psiweaver]

HI guys,

So its starting to get to the cloudy, grey, somewhat rainy season in the Pacific Northwest and being that I lived in Los Angeles the last 4 years, and there was little call for making hearty soups for the winter down there I need some suggestions. I will eat anything so I'm looking for some great soup recipes, I've done Dukobour Borscht which was fantastic, but I really need a great Chicken Noodle recipe, and perhaps 5 or 6 other great recipes. I have a chili recipe that I'm not thrilled with but does work. Thanks for your help in advance.

Alistair

[merstar]

Here's a long, long thread on soups. It's 33 pages, so I've linked you to the most recent page. Lots of great soups listed, including the Curried Cauliflower Soup I posted. (Will post the specific link to this soup below):

Curried Cauliflower Soup With Coriander Chutney (I puree half and leave the other half chunky):

http://livinginthekitchenwithpuppies.blogspot.com/2008/09/curried-cauliflower-soup-with-coriander.html

More great ones:

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup:(I add a can of corn, use low sodium chicken broth instead of vegetable broth, increase the garlic, onion, and black beans, top it with extra sharp cheddar, etc):

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/4421

Yellow Pepper Soup (I use 1 yellow and 1 red pepper):

http://www.food.com/recipe/yellow-pepper-soup-22104

Curry-Lentil Soup

http://cookingwitheva.blogspot.com/2010/01/curry-lentil-soup.html

Edited October 9, 2010 by merstar (log)

[psiweaver]

thanks so much for the help.

[Mikels]

Try mushroom barley with mushrooms other than white ones. I prefer Shiitake. There are many recipes, most take almost no time, but are great. If you put in enough vegetables (carrot, celery, onion as well as other root vegetables) and bits of meat, it is a meal in its own right.

[nakji]

Late summer squash, squid and ink crozets.

What's an ink crozet?

Perfect rainy day Saturday soup:

A green pumpkin/zucchini hybrid, sauteed with a half onion, chili, cumin seeds, fresh ginger and allspice. When it was limp, I threw in two tomatoes. Cooked that down until the tomatoes were soft and floating oil, then added in 500 ml good chicken stock. I simmered for ten more minutes, then added in a half cup of coconut milk. Whizzed 3/4 of the pot in the blender and left the rest chunky, seasoned it with some citric acid and sugar, and garnished with cilantro.