The Soup Topic (2005–2006)

[Pam R]

I returned home yesterday to find that winter arrived in Winnipeg while I was out of town. I'm pulling out a frozen bag of roasted red peppers and making a soup with them tomorrow. Sauteing some onions (maybe a little garlic) the red peppers, potatoes, s&p and some stock. Simple, easy and tasty.

[Anna N]

On Tuesday gingered carrot soup and today potato cheese soup. Both delicious. I am on a soup kick as the first snow has decorated the grass.

[bloviatrix]

The other week I finally made my seasonal batch of mushroom stock. Once I've got it in the freezer it allows me to make all my favorite mushroom soups. So, yesterday I put on a large pot of Mushroom-Barley Soup. Perfect for a cold, blustery day.

[maggiethecat]

Obviously, this was a resolution I couldn't keep! I hang my head in shame.

But I have a nice meaty turkey carcass and I'm not gonna screw around. Into a bubbling cauldron with it and some mirepoix, strain, then I'll throw in every good veg and herb that's lolling around the fridge. I hope to make gallons.

[azurite]

Last week I picked up a lovely cheese pumpkin from the greenmarket.  Roasted it and turned it into a lovely soup with ginger and cider.  The seeds got toasted and sprinkled on top.

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bloviatrix what is a cheese pumpkin, I haven't heard of that before??

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Ummm, the photo doesn't look like the cheese pumpkins I used to buy from farmstands when I lived on LI (in NY). The ones I bought looked like small flattened versions of 'standard' pumpkins--generally the hollow inside is much smaller, i.e. more of the pumpkin is flesh--I that's what the stuff you cook/eat is called. In Oregon--where I live now--the same or a very similar pumpkin seems to be called sugar pumpkins, so perhaps you could find them in Seattle under that name as well.

First post, if I made any mistakes, sorry.

[bloviatrix]

This is a better photo of a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin. They are an heirloom pumpkin and received their name because with their buff-colored skin and and rounded shape they resemble a wheel of cheese. Edited November 27, 2005 by bloviatrix (log)

[NWKate]

I like to make Moroccan Root Vegetable soup having gotten the recipe off the NYT cooking & recipe forum.

[amccomb]

I froze my turkey carcass, and I am wanting to make an asian style turkey stock for a turkey noodle soup. I can't seem to find a recipe anywhere! I was hoping for something with ginger, garlic, onion, star anise, maybe lemongrass, something along those lines.

Can anyone give me some hints on what to throw in and how much?

Any ideas for a soup to use the stock with?

[dockhl]

I froze my turkey carcass, and I am wanting to make an asian style turkey stock for a turkey noodle soup.  I can't seem to find a recipe anywhere!  I was hoping for something with ginger, garlic, onion, star anise, maybe lemongrass, something along those lines.

Can anyone give me some hints on what to throw in and how much? 

Any ideas for a soup to use the stock with?

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amccomb~

I frequently make this yummy soup...........it might provide some ideas, at least !

Quick Asian Noodle Soup

8 cups (2 L) beef, chicken, or vegetable stock

1 onion, quartered

4 star anise

1 stick cinnamon

1-inch (5 cm) whole piece of fresh ginger, peeled

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 lb (450 g) thin rice noodles soaked in warm water

for 20 minutes and drained

Optional garnishes:

Lime wedges

Fish sauce* (nam pla or nuoc mam)

Fresh cilantro (coriander leaves)

Fresh basil leaves

Fresh mint leaves

Fresh bean sprouts, trimmed

Hot sauce

Combine the stock, onion, star anise, cinnamon stick, ginger, salt and pepper in a pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes to 1 hour. Add the noodles and serve with desired garnishes. Serves 4 to 6.

Kathy

[ludja]

I made a great turkey soup last night--turkey mushroom barley soup.

I adapted this recipe from the net: click

5 tbsp. butter, divided

1/2 c. chopped onion

1/2 c. chopped celery

1/2 c. sliced carrots

1/2 lb. sliced fresh mushrooms

2 qts. chicken broth (or turkey)

1 1/2 c. chunked turkey (broiled) breast

1/2 c. pearled barley

1/2 tsp. tarragon, dried

1/2 tsp. basil, dried

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsp. flour

2 tbsp. chopped parsley

In a large pan, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Saute onion, celery, carrots, and mushrooms until tender. Pour in broth. Add barley, tarragon, and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, 45 minutes. Cool slightly. In a small saucepan, melt remaining butter (3 tablespoons). Add flour and cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly (roux); whisk roux into soup. Bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer 10 minutes. Serve garnished with parsley. 6-8 servings.

I added 2 split thai chils after the vegetables were sauteed and I substituted fresh parsley and thyme for the other herbs.

Also made it into a light cream soup by blending in ~ 1 cup of milk with a little half and half to the roux before adding it to the soup.

This is definately going into my files to be made again next year--great flavor and lots of vegetables.

edited: I just added my adapted recipe to egullet here.

Edited December 6, 2005 by ludja (log)

[suzilightning]

sunday's dinner was an amalgam of several recipes...

i had some rosemary chicken sausage that i baked off along with butternut squash. in the meantime i sauteed onions and garlic, added carrots, a bay leaf and veg stock from the freezer. when the carrots were tender in went the roasted sausage and squash and dinner was served.

[Pam R]

sunday's dinner was an amalgam of several recipes...

i had some rosemary chicken sausage that i baked off along with butternut squash.  in the meantime i sauteed onions and garlic, added carrots, a bay leaf and veg stock from the freezer.  when the carrots were tender in went the roasted sausage and squash and dinner was served.

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That sounds amazing.. I don't have rosemary chicken sausage.. but I'm thinking I can sub some oregano/basil chicken sausage? My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

We're freezing here. The high is about -12C - so it's definitely soup weather. I made another batch of carrot dill yesterday, my go-to fast,easy & delicious soup. Today I'm prepping vegetables for two batches of borscht - 1 vegetarian, 1 with meat.

[Kim D]

The first time I had lentil soup was in a small restaurant in the back of a jewelry store. Very cheap. Very good. And I've been trying to find the right recipe ever since. But none of them had the right spice mixture. Until, I searched RecipeGullet.

Indian-inspired Lentil Soup was exactly what I was looking for. I made it for the second time last night and I'm looking forward to having it for lunch all week. Thank you Carolyn Tillie!

The spice mix is Panch Phoron. Equal parts fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, mustard seeds and kolonji (aka nigella).

- Kim

[suzilightning]

pam - glad you like the idea since one of the recipes i was sampling was from your book!!

10" of snow on friday, work yesterday and today some light snow showers while sitting here watching the cardinals, juncos and downy woodpeckers have their dinner. it's -.5C so of course - soup!

another amalgam - onion garlic beer soup

2 lb of onions sliced thinly and 5 clloves of garlic also thinly sliced. in a pot with olive oil over medium heat until browned - about 20 minutes.

add 2 tins of beef broth(im trying to empty the freezer so i can clean it therefore no frozen stock), rinse the tins with water and add that as well as one bottle of Ithica Nut Brown Ale - dark in colour but a lighter beer in taste and i think it will complement the onions and garlic. add a few cloves of roasted garlic from the fridge and few sprigs of thyme. taste - hmmmmmm some salt and white pepper. 45 minutes at a simmer and in about 4 minutes i'll taste again. remove the thyme sprigs serve with croutons

[JAZ]

The year is almost up. How did we all do, soup-wise? I didn't come close to a soup a week, but I made some new ones -- some from recipes, some on my own.

My accomplishments:

I got a pressure cooker, so I made split pea soup with smoked pork shank several times -- 20 minutes start to finish. (The pressure cooker and I also produced goulash, but I think that's more of a stew than a soup.)

I made a new recipe for gazpacho from La Cocina de Mama. Made it twice before the great summer tomatoes faded from sight.

I worked on pureed vegetable soups -- and made roasted red pepper and caramelized onion, asparagus and leek, and corn and chile.

I discovered that half a can of green enchilada sauce, a can of chicken broth, some frozen corn, leftover rice and the insides from a chicken taco from the neighborhood taqueria (grilled chicken, black beans and salsa) make a pretty good soup, if one is so inclined.

I made a lot of chicken stock, so I made several chicken soups. I believe I mentioned upthread that I stumbled on a fabulous new (to me, at least) way to thicken chicken soup -- making a buerre manie-type mixture with chicken fat and flour and stirring that in.

With Ronnie Suburban and other Pig Pickin volunteers, I prepped pounds of vegetables for the VD stew, which I think counts as a soup. At least I'm counting it.

There were other soups, I'm sure; but those are the ones that stand out for me.

Does anyone else want to recap their Year of Soups?

[suzilightning]

last night as per johnnybird's request a vegetarian soup-

ceci with kale, thyme and a bay leaf, onion and garlic, some saffron and plenty of carrots

[andiesenji]

Some new soups at soupsong.com

Rain here yesterday and more coming today and tonight. It is cold and a heavy gray overcast.

An excellent day for making soup.

Now I just have to decide which one. When so many varieties are available, it is sometimes difficult to choose. My housekeeper suggested I try a Hungarian cabbage soup that is made with smoked pork butt and I just happen to have one in the freezer and I have plenty of cabbage, both white and red.

It is actually a sweet and sour cabbage - she says her mother also makes dumplings to cook in the broth and bakes a hearty brown bread to serve with it. (I think I will skip the dumplings this time, as both bread and dumplings seems like a bit of overkill carbwise.)

More later on the results.

[Anna N]

Post-holiday comfort food - smoked turkey soup with freshly baked bread.

[Marlene]

I hardly made any soups this year except for French Onion and Post Christmas turkey soup. However, I've discovered my son has a penchant for chilled soups so I'll be trying some of those in the new year.

[Lynnette]

I make bone-broth soups regularly. They might be chicken or other poultry based, or made with various meats and bones. Right now I have a rich, dark, jewel-like lamb broth in the refrigerator made with roasted lamb shanks and neck bones from pastured lambs. Since I make so many bone-broth soups, I am looking for some new ideas. I would rather not cloud the beautiful broth, but am otherwise open to suggestions for the finished soup. Any feedback will be appreciated!

Lynnette

[Jensen]

I make bone-broth soups regularly. They might be chicken or other poultry based, or made with various meats and bones. Right now I have a rich, dark, jewel-like lamb broth in the refrigerator made with roasted lamb shanks and neck bones from pastured lambs. Since I make so many bone-broth soups, I am looking for some new ideas. I would rather not cloud the beautiful broth, but am otherwise open to suggestions for the finished soup. Any feedback will be appreciated!

Hi Lynnette,

I vote for Klöße (farina dumplings)! Okay, maybe I don't get a vote but ...

If you can find the correct farina, the soup ends up looking like this:

(click here for recipe)

I have been able to replicate the dumplings using Cream of Wheat cereal; the dumplings taste the same but they don't look nearly as pretty.

[maggiethecat]

I made the Tomato/Fennel Soup from the Les Halles cookbook last night because it was one of the few things I could think of that my afflicted tummy and appetite would appreciate. Again, I can't praise this recipe too highly. It's laughably simple, uses few ingredients and tastes both fresh and complex.

[KatieLoeb]

I'd bought two pounds of parsnips at the Reading Terminal Market earlier this week thinking I'd turn them into a side veggie. Tonight I got inspired to make soup out of them instead. I Googled up a recipe for Honey Roasted Parsnip Soup and with some minor variations in ingredients and techniques made a delicious soup for dinner.

I used two pounds of peeled and chopped parsnips, one large carrot, half a large sweet onion, two cloves of garlic and a full 32 oz. carton of chicken broth. I used dried thyme, dried marjoram and bay leaves (2) for the herbs. I didn't have regular cider in the house, only the tail end of a bottle of Martinelli's apple-pear sparkling cider. I used 3/4 cup of 2% milk and about 1/4 cup of sour cream instead of the heavy cream in recipe. Since I started with a bit more volume than the recipe called for it needed more thinning down anyway. I blended everything together in two batches. I didn't bother to sieve the soup after I'd blended it. It's really quite delicious. The sour cream took a bit of the overly sweet edge off of the soup and gave it a really creamy texture.

I will definitely make this again in the future. It really shows off the flavor of parsnips, which I think are a much underappreciated vegetable and are one of my favorites.

[BarbaraY]

I like parsnips. They're a very good sub for half the potatoes in a potato leek soup.

[Pam R]

we're having a very weird winter here - temps are about 20 degrees higher than normal... so I haven't been in soup mode as I normally am. Plus, I just haven't had much time. But on Thursday I threw together a meal soup. Simmered chicken stock with some white rice. As it was cooking I sauteed some white onion and butternut squash in small cubes. Once they were golden, I added a couple Tbsp. of za'atar, then a few cups of spinach leaves. when the rice was done, mixed in most of the sauteed veg - keeping some back to garnish the bowl. Very comforting.

Edited January 14, 2006 by Pam R (log)