The Soup Topic (2007–2012)

[suzilightning]

took some leftover baked sweet potatoes and heated with some chicken stock, mashed it up and heated until warm. finished with a bit of orange juice and served with some sauteed bacon and crusty bread.

have a version of cincinnatti chili made with beef and buffalo on tap for next week when we are supposed to cool down.

[suzilightning]

hey - am i the only one making soup around here??!!

made a vegetarian soup on wednesday - it was dreary, rainy and cold here. veg stock, shallots, leeks, carrots, a plum tomato about to get wrinkly, bay leaf, some fresh oregano, chiffonade of fresh spinach and tiny little egg noodles. finished with a splash of white balsamic vinegar and a poached egg. some good peasant bread to finish.

[patti]

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.

I made a roasted cauliflower soup recently with extra sharp cheddar. Actually, I attempted it a week before, but made the mistake of tasting a piece of the roasted cauliflower and then couldn't stop eating it. Poof! All gone! None left for the soup. I tried again a week later and showed more restraint. The soup was delicious.

[heidih]

I generally make a big pot of soup on the weekend for the following week; often using up items in the fridge or garden and other times planning and shopping for it. Today's quite tasty pot combines home grown butternut squash, firm and meaty portabellas from the 99 cents store (2/99), remainder of a green cabbage from the fridge, stems from Tuscan kale destined for a raw salad, caramelized onion, and shirataki noodles. The liquid was a combination of homemade chicken stock and water. Seasonings included Dijon mustard, fresh oregano, dried cayenne and ancho chiles, and fresh red jalapeno and cayenne peppers. I had some coconut milk in the freezer, but the squash brought the flavors together with no need to smooth things out.

[LizD518]

Made some wonderful tomato soup last weekend - used the Cooks Illustrated recipe, which came to me via Smitten Kitchen's blog. Probably going to do some sort of chicken soup or stew later this week, as I am roasting a chicken for dinner tomorrow night. I'd like to do a nice chicken tortilla soup - can anyone point me to a good recipe?

[plum tart]

I made fabada today - big huge dried limas from Spain and a dried Spanish chorizo which I got as a freebee for ordering over $60 of olive oil (and the beans) from latienda. I used wild boar porkbelly and a tamshire ham bone as well as morcilla. I mostly followed Penelope Casa' recipe which finishes the soup with garlic and paprika heated in olive oil. There's a name for that treatment but I forget what it is. I also added some caldo nero which is not authentic at all but I wanted some greens and it seemed meaty enough to accompany the heavy duty meats. The fabada tastes good, looks good (I wish I were a better photographer) and sticks to my ribs which is important in cold weather. The beans are incredible - very creamy and buttery. The recipe makes a large amount so will try freezing some.

[kayb]

I made sherried tomato-basil soup last weekend, and a big pot of red beans and rice (for which the rice never got made) during the week. Both fall favorites.

[helenjp]

Taro and Watercress soup from Fuchsia Dunlop's Hunan book, but made with daikon greens as she suggests. Easy and reassuring chicken broth with body from the taro and lots of flavor from the greens.

Just about to dig out my recipe for Hungarian white bean soup. Nothing specially unusual about it, but so much favorite thick winter soup.

Serbian Bean Soupis a bit similar.

[Beebs]

I've been craving Chinese broth-style soups lately, so last week was a pork bone & chicken broth soup with daikon. Tonight's dinner will be leftover soup with noodles thrown in. I like Chinese soups because there's minimal prep involved - nothing much more than hacking up a daikon and slicing a bit of ginger.

Next weekend will be pork and lotus root soup. I've been seeing some lovely lotus roots in at the grocery store lately.

[Katie Meadow]

Speaking of Asian style soups, the other day I made a Chinatown run for fresh pot-sticker skins and thin egg noodles. On a whim I bought a half of a roast duck, chopped. It comes with a little container of some kind of dark soy/duck juice thing that is always useful for something. At home I picked off most of the meat and set it aside (of course I ate one of the crispy skin legs right away.) Then I threw all the skin and bones into a pot with a little lemon grass and a modest amount of water and simmered it for close to two hours. After separating out most of the fat, voila, duck soup--about three good portions, mild but pure tasting. I cooked the thin wheat noodles separately and then poured the broth over them, adding a few tsps of the salty juice from the little container (which maybe I could have added at the beginning), tossed in some shredded duck and sprinkled on some scallions. Not bad for very little effort--that is, for not prepping and roasting a duck myself.

Next time, if I wanted to dress it up a bit, I would buy a whole roasted duck, and save out the best, least fatty parts before adding the rest of the bones, etc. Then I would add back those pieces to the finished bowls. There's just something about the flavor of duck broth.

[Rover]

Sometimes, only tomato soup will do the trick, so Sherried Tomato Soup - recipe found here Sherried Tomato Soup. So simple and delicious; I reduced the amount of sherry and cream and blended with a stick blender for a semi-smooth finish, the sherry I used has quite an assertive flavour which probably wouldn't appeal to children. It would never have occurred to me to use tomato juice in a hot soup, but it works really well here. I topped the steaming soup with a handful of coarsely grated cheddar.

I harvested the last of the garden leeks yesterday and I sense a leek and potato soup in the near future.

[Dejah]

Katie: Make duck congee next time.

I've beenfinding bags of mushrooms on sale for half price at our Superstore, so it's been Hungarian Mushroom soup from Moosewood Cookbook Recipe #135215.

This seems to freeze well with adding some fresh dill and the cream when heating up to serve.

[suzilightning]

cold and about to get windier here. back from the gym and cut up about 4 onions. into the dutch oven on low to carmelize with some duck fat and butter. some leftover beef stock, some leftover chicken broth and some pheasant stock will join them in the pool in about 35 more minutes along with some white wine, a bay leaf and a bit of thyme and a bit of tarragon.

[plum tart]

Started yesterday to make a large pot of borscht. Combined methods and ingredients from 2 recipes - Ukranian borscht from Time Life Russia and the same from The Good Cook Soups edited by Richard Olney. Used a ham bone, brisket, beef shank, salt pork and beef short ribs for the meats; grated beets, carrots, parsnips, celery root and some fresh horseradish in addition to onions, garlic, cabbage. i didn't ferment the beets so used vinegar from my pickled beets, a squirt of lemon juice, some liquid from some kosher pickles, and some sauerkraut wine juice.

Yesterday, the soup was a beautiful clear ruby; today somewhat muted but still beautiful. Took hours to braise the meat, make the stock and then cook the vegetables very briefly.

I debated as whether to eat the meat as a separate course but instead cut some of it up in very small dice and added it back to the soup.

Ate it with sour cream of course, with a beer and my Danish rye bread. Great for a day that is 14 below zero. And I have 6 quarts so can freeze it for the deep winter days in January and February.

The house smells beefy and beety with whiffs of vinegar. Lovely. I can rest now.

[heidih]

I am combining the benefits of Thanksgiving with the bounty in the garden - simmering mustard and radish greens in turkey stock along with a fresh hot pepper (just picked), carrot, a sprinkling of frozen peas and fire roasted corn (Trader Joe's), and some shirataki noodles. The peppery bite of the very young greens along with the heat of the chile, combined with the comfort of the gelatinous stock, is a treat on this overcast day.

[Anna N]

Have a pot of this almost ready. We had our first dusting of snow today and a warming soup seems perfect. I subbed shrimp for the chicken. We had a late lunch so this followed by some fresh fruit will suffice for dinner tonight.

[C. sapidus]

Tortilla soup with smoked turkey stock, chicken, queso fresco, lime wedges, and fried pasilla chiles. Details on Making Mexican at Home (clicky)

[Pierogi]

Bruce (C. sapidus) - Oh yum. Tortilla soup (*good* tortilla soup) is one of my favorites, and your's looks outstanding. I need to make some again soon.

heidih - As you know, our overcast day turned pretty nasty right around dinner time. I *had* planned to make deep-dish pizza today, but got caught up in some Christmas baking and housecleaning, and was WAY too tired for all that rig-a-ma-roll by the time dinner rolled around. The other dish I had provisions for, and had planned for tomorrow, was Chiang Mai beef, but that didn't seen suited for a cold, damp, rainy, stormy night. So I got the brilliant idea to use some rice vermicelli in an Asian beef broth to go with.

Ohhhh, man. The Asian beef/noodle soup was better than the Chiang Mai beef (the dogs got about half of that....). I used about 1&1/2C of leftover TJ's boxed beef broth, with about 3/4C water. I augmented that with some beef flavor Better Than Boullion (about 1/2 tsp), a drizzle of Maggi, a couple of fat slices of fresh ginger, a couple of smashed fat cloves of garlic, about 4 sliced green onions and a sprinkle of MSG/Accent (hanging head). That simmered while I made the Chiang Mai. The rice vermicelli (sai fun???) soaked while all that was going on. In went the drained noodles to heat up again in the broth, and right before serving, I splashed in some soy sauce, sesame oil and just a hint of lemon juice left over from the Chiang Mai. It need a touch of salt, amazingly enough, and that took it to umami heaven.

Just what I needed on what was, as I said, a nasty night. Well, nasty for Los Angeles. Warmed me from the inside. The Chiang Mai was good, but the imprompteau soup was way better.

[Rover]

Leek and Potato Soup (Potage Parmentier) made with the last of the leeks from the garden. Based upon the recipe from Patricia Wells' Bistro book. This soup is one of those often overlooked gems that's almost too simple; it's tasty, elegant and good for what ails you. Today it became heavenly with the addition of a little truffle salt judiciously sprinkled just before serving.

[Shel_B]

Hi Gang,

In January we're going to a soup party. Everyone that comes has to bring a soup, and there are usually about twenty people at the party. I have many, many soup recipes, but by now they all seem old and cliché. Any ideas for an interesting,perhaps out-of-the-ordinary, soup would be appreciated, or a new twist on something more common would also be nice.

This will be the first time attending, and my GF suggested that split pea soup, chicken soup, and typical vegetable soup, are all too basic for this group.

Thanks

[Dejah]

Hungarian Mushroom Soup - Moosewood:

http://www.food.com/recipe/Hungarian-Mushroom-Soup-from-the-Moosewood-Cookbook-135215

Great stuff!

[Kerry Beal]

Caldo verde.

[merstar]

This is great and different:

CURRIED CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH CORIANDER CHUTNEY (I puree half the soup and leave the other half chunky):

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

Another good one: (I use 1 yellow and 1 red pepper):

YELLOW PEPPER SOUP

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

Check out this thread - lots of great soups here:

[janeer]

I absolutely love the corn soup made with milk from Diana Kennedy's first cookbook--it is very successful with frozen corn, garnished with rajas de chile poblano and cheese.

[baroness]

From Carol Field's "The Italian Baker":

Florentine onion and pea soup - vivid colors and delicious to boot.