The Soup Topic (2013–)

[Smithy]

15 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

My lovage in the garden is beautiful and I normally don't use it for much.

Decided to try a 'celery' soup.  No picture because it is just a pureed green soup.

I used onions, confit garlic, celery stalk and leaves, lovage stalks, some green onion, parsley stalks, and brown rice for thickening.  Sauteed the veggies but reserved all the lovage leaves for later.

Then I cooked for 20 minutes with chicken stock and pureed the soup in my Vitamix putting a couple of handfuls of lovage leaves in at the end.  Doing it this way keeps the green colour vibrant rather than army green.

What a delicious soup....tastes of spring.  I will make some crispy garnish....some tortilla strips fried until golden.

 

Thanks for this. My lovage hasn't come up yet, but it's a prolific plant and I need to find more ways to use it.

[Okanagancook]

Glad more lovage will be loved!

I am going to make more but this time I will try using more of the stems.  I thought they might be bitter....maybe I'll just cook them separately and see what that's like...then add some of the other ingredients but the key is blending the leaves at the end.  It is really a beautiful green.

 

Found this nice looking recipe.  https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/herb-bed/lovage-recipes-anyone_63010.html

That looks like a lot of rice.  I will use the lemon zest and juice idea as well as the chives.  I also have some garlic scape puree in the freezer........

Wild Garlic, Lemon & Lovage Soup

Ingredients
1 medium onion, finely chopped 
1 bunch wild garlic, finely chopped (Or, chives finely chopped) 
1/2 head celery, finely copped 
2 stems fresh lovage, finely chopped (Or, 1/2 teaspoon dried lovage) 
1 lemon, grated zest and juice 
200g rice 
1 litre vegetable stock 
salt and pepper, to season 
a little butter or vegetable oil for sweating the vegetables 

Add the chopped onion, wild garlic and celery to a large saucepan with a little butter or oil and sweat over a medium heat for 5 minutes.

Add the rice and stir before adding the vegetable stock, chopped lovage, lemon zest, lemon juice and salt and pepper to season. Cover the pan, lower the heat and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, or until rice is cooked and vegetables are soft.

Check the seasoning before serving in warm soup bowls with crusty bread and/or croutons.

Edited May 3, 2019 by Okanagancook (log)

[suzilightning]

Chicken stock going on the stove.

John got back from England quite sick and ate the homemade chicken noodle soup that was stocked in the freezer in Poughkeepsie for breakfast.  I figure : a) it's cool, damp and yucky here today and b) I figure I'm going to make more chicken noodle soup  for him.  Sounds like a good time to make stock.

[Okanagancook]

I made a batch of lovage spring soup.

The ingredients...the little tubs are garlic scapes from last year and sorrel oil also from last year.  I included fresh chives; the large lovage stalks (these are VERY FIBROUS but not bitter at all), small lovage stems, celery, onion, sorrel leaves and lovage leaves for the end.

The soup before and after cooking.  It gets 'army' green with heat.

In the blender with a comparison of what the soup looks like when it is blended with the raw sorrel and lovage leaves.

Finished product....it will need diluting with chicken stock before eating but will take up less space in the freezer.

 

[shain]

Hungarian mushroom soup, with a touch of cream, hot paprika, toasted dried sweet chilies, dill. Sour cream. Crusty bread.

 

 

[lindag]

I brought home some take-out from a neighborhood restaurant a few days ago.  It was prime rib vegetable soup.  It was SO good I decided to make a pot of my own (using chuck roast).

I bought tons of vegetables, from kale, leek, corn, turnip, green beans, carrots, celery and potatoes.  My gosh it is so good.  Best soup I think I've ever made.  Just hit the spot on a cool day with some homemade bread.

[suzilightning]

John finished off the chicken noodle soup and didn't want me to make more of "that smelly stock since we can't open the windows" the other day(he is afraid the smell of any cooking will get onto his clothes and attract animals if he is in the woods - don't ask).  Fine.  Vegetable stock, star anise, cinnamon stick(half), smashed garlic clove, bay leaf, chopped lemongrass.  Infuse for  minutes or so, strain.  Bring up to a high simmer.  Add chopped shrimp and minced shallot.  Turn off.  Add precooked gluten free rice noodles, minced scallions, and a drizzle of sesame oil.  

[shain]

Quick pressure cooker veggie pho.

 

[lindag]

I've run across a recipe for slow cooker beef barley soup that sounds good but I just don’t care for the texture of barley.

What would be a good substitute?

Something like orzo or other tiny pasta?  

Not sure I'd like quinoa or other grain.

[chromedome]

If you don't care for grains in general orzo is a good option, but you'd be better to cook it separately and add it when the soup is done. Like any other pasta it will expand and get mushy as it sits in the leftovers.

 

 

[suzilightning]

6 minutes ago, chromedome said:

If you don't care for grains in general orzo is a good option, but you'd be better to cook it separately and add it when the soup is done. Like any other pasta it will expand and get mushy as it sits in the leftovers.

 

 

yupper...just what he said.   @chromedome beat me to it

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, lindag said:

I've run across a recipe for slow cooker beef barley soup that sounds good but I just don’t care for the texture of barley.

What would be a good substitute?

Something like orzo or other tiny pasta?  

Not sure I'd like quinoa or other grain.

 

How about adding hominy for a texture like pozole?  I am no barley lover either.

 

[lindag]

25 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

How about adding hominy for a texture like pozole?  I am no barley lover either.

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion, however, hominy is one of the few things I will not eat.  Horrid memories from childhood.

I think I'll go with the (pre-cooked) orzo. 

I also have a box of ditalini on hand, maybe I'll try that.

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2019 by lindag (log)

[suzilightning]

Roasted carrot and butternut squash soup topped with croutons.

[Darienne]

Our neighbors across the road the Jammie Guys, Cheryl and Chris (we call them collectively the Jammie Guys because they've named their farm "Jammies till noon") have turned a Buckthorn wilderness into an amazing farm in only a few years.  Last week they gifted most of the neighborhood with  excess vegetables and I'm delighted to say we were first in line.

 

Two Butternut squashes, now Butternut Squash soup, and a gazillion little mild peppers, which are now Tri-Pepper Salad based on the recipe from My Recipes with some alterations...sorry, I never have the ingredients called for...and most importantly, Leslie's Red Pepper Soup from Epicurious.

 

My first ever pepper soup and it's one of those...I thought I'd died and gone to heaven...moments.  Of course I had to make some changes, but the basic soup of peppers...which I've never had before.  Yummm.

 

(This is only a couple of the vegetables gifted.)

[liuzhou]

Clam and Mustard Green Soup. (车螺芥菜汤  chē luó jiè cài tāng )

 

 

Chicken stock, garlic, red chilli pepper, white pepper (lots*). clams and mustard greens.

 

*by lots I mean what appears to be far too much. I give 25 twists of the pepper grinder.

 

[liuzhou]

Chicken and Mushroom soup with ginseng and jujubes.

 

 

 

Chicken carcase and trimmings including head, feet and the bits that usually get thrown away were simmered for an hour with garlic, ginger, chilli, ginseng and jujubes.  All solids removed and nasty bones and bits removed. Rest, including jujubes and ginseng etc. returned to pan. Sliced white button mushrooms and shiitake added  and cooked for five minutes. Finished with chopped scallions. Eaten.

 

Edited November 4, 2019 by liuzhou (log)

[Owtahear]

Spargelsuppe (White Asparagus Soup) from last night....

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

Heirloom bean and escarole soup from Ad Hoc at Home.  Beans are the Mogette de Vendée Bean from Rancho Gordo.

I have some issues with the recipe but some of it was my own fault.  I made a half recipe but used a whole ham hock as they're terribly not easy to bisect.  As a result, it came out too salty.  I'll go get another head or two of escarole and add more beans.  And have soup for months  🙃.

The recipe has you first sauté leeks, carrot and onion until tender, then add the smoked ham hock and chicken stock and simmer for an hour, then remove the hock and shred the meat.  I'm not an experienced hock cooker but IMO it takes more than an hour to get truly shred-able meat from a hock and indeed this was true so I strained out the veg and put the broth and hock in the Instant Pot for another hour.  Much better.  But also saltier. 

Secondly, I think using chicken stock to simmer that hock is a bit of a waste as the smoky ham along with the aromatics is more than enough flavor for this soup. 

Not sure exactly what order I'll do things in next time but it will be different from the book. 

 

[kayb]

Rather than make the full recipe or try to hack the hock apart, you might try soaking it in several changes of water for a few hours first. Should cut the salt level.

[blue_dolphin]

29 minutes ago, kayb said:

Rather than make the full recipe or try to hack the hock apart, you might try soaking it in several changes of water for a few hours first. Should cut the salt level.

 

Good idea.  I've also got some smaller hunks of "seasoning meat" that I could have used instead. I was thinking that I wouldn't mind if this soup was fairly meaty and thought I might be OK since my stock was unsalted and I didn't add any other salt.  I was wrong 🙃

[CatIsHungry]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Good idea.  I've also got some smaller hunks of "seasoning meat" that I could have used instead. I was thinking that I wouldn't mind if this soup was fairly meaty and thought I might be OK since my stock was unsalted and I didn't add any other salt.  I was wrong 🙃

 

Well, @kayb is right about soak / rinse ... I’m sorry it turned out so salty for you ... It’s a wonderful soup - I hope you’ll give it another go

[blue_dolphin]

20 minutes ago, CatIsHungry said:

 

Well, @kayb is right about soak / rinse ... I’m sorry it turned out so salty for you ... It’s a wonderful soup - I hope you’ll give it another go

No, I won't be making it again for a while - once I add more escarole & beans, this batch will take me through the next few years! 

But for that distant future time, how long to soak? What volume and temp of water? How many changes? Assume a 1-1.5 lb hock.

Do you use chicken stock when you make it?

[CatIsHungry]

11 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

No, I won't be making it again for a while - once I add more escarole & beans, this batch will take me through the next few years! 

But for that distant future time, how long to soak? What volume and temp of water? How many changes? Assume a 1-1.5 lb hock.

Do you use chicken stock when you make it?

 

I put in a bowl and put in enough water to cover the hock ... I change the water about 1.5 hour and go through 3-4 water changes ... (I keep it in the fridge while I’m doing this, but not everyone does because it’s smoked).

 

Yes - I use chicken stock - always have - I can’t imagine how it would taste without it? It adds a subtle depth of flavor I think you’d miss if you didn’t use it. 

[kayb]

20 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

No, I won't be making it again for a while - once I add more escarole & beans, this batch will take me through the next few years! 

But for that distant future time, how long to soak? What volume and temp of water? How many changes? Assume a 1-1.5 lb hock.

Do you use chicken stock when you make it?

 

I've soaked country ham slices for a couple of hours, and whole country hams for 12, so somewhere in between. I'd say a good 3-4 hours, and like @CatIsHungry I change the water every hour or so. I do mine on the counter, and yes, a bowl-full of water is plenty. I use chicken broth if I have plenty in the freezer, and water if I don't. You can also boil just your ham hock in plenty of water and freeze (I always reduce first) the extra. Ham stock comes in handy from time to time. It does great things for potato soup.

 

I made beef stew last night, using leftover ribeye and sirloin steak I'd sous vided and then grilled on Sunday. It was marvelous. Onions, potatoes, carrots, cubed beef, chicken stock, sage, bay leaves, Chicago steak seasoning. Simmered until the carrots were tender. Thickened with some cornstarch. It was pretty wonderful.