The Soup Topic (2005–2006)

[ludja]

I just tested a soup that I want to make for a dinner party this weekend and it is very good! Very simple and much bang for the buck!

A nice spring soup for starting out a meal: parsley soup with mixed mushrooms.

It was published in the NY Times Magazine a few weeks back and is adapted from a recipe in "Jean-Georges" by Vongerichten and Bittman.

1 large bunch Italian parsley

3 Tbs butter

1/4 cup minced onion

1 medium leek, white to pale green part roughly chopped

1 medium parsnip, peeled and chopped

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

4 oz mushrooms (mixed of button and reconstiuted porcinin or shitake)

1 Tbs minced shallot

Separate parsley stems and leaves. Bundle up stems to cook in soup base. Saute onion, leek, parsnip in half the butter with a pinch of salt until softened but not browned. Add 2 1/2 cups water, broth and the parsley stems. Season with some s&p, simmer for ~ 40 min, taste and season again if necessary. (Add clean, trimmed mushroom stems to the soup base as well).

Remove parsley stems from soup base, add parsley leaves and cook for another minute or so. Let cool slightly and then carefully (keep top of blender hole open and only fill half way) puree until v. smooth in blender. Taste for seasoning again. If not serving immediately--pour soup into bowl and chill bowl in ice water. (Can make up to 2-3 hrs in advance with no loss in flavor or color).

Before serving, sautee sliced mushroom caps in remaining butter over med. high heat with shallots and some salt and pepper until mushrooms are dry, ~ 10 min. Reheat soup if necessary in double boiler until just hot.

Portion mushrooms into each bowl and ladel hot soup over.

Makes 4 generous portions or six smaller ones.

I think this would be a great start to an Easter dinner with lamb or ham--or any spring dinner with a hearty meat course. Also--it is extremely flavorful but is relatively low in fat (i.e. not cream based). I'm not counting calories for special meals but sometimes other courses are rich and one doesn't want a cream-based soup... This soup is one of the best non-cream based, 'elegant' soups I've made or had.

On the other hand--if one wanted to make this a heartier soup to go with sandwiches, etc., I think the flavor is intense enough to stand up to having thin slices of new potatoes in there as well.

Truc: Try to minimize the amount and/or thickness of parsley stems when you add the leafs. This will prevent stringiness. If you have a coarse enough sieve one might be able to remove strings but keep texture. Puree for a good long time to get the texture smooth. Also, the flavors are so simple in this soup that I think it is a particularly good idea to use a good homemade stock here.

Edited March 18, 2005 by ludja (log)

[suzilightning]

wow that parsley soup is really calling me. how did i miss it? oh, yeah - i was sick. maybe tuesday when i'm off and it is supposed to be 50 degrees and sunny

last night was a use up night so shrimp noodle soup

4 cups chicken stock

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 shallots, sliced

3 carrots, diced

2 thai bird chilis

30 large shrimps

about 1/2 cup frozen peas

3 cups leftover udon noodles

1/4 cup mirin

chili oil

cook the onion, shallot, carrots and chilis in the stock 8 minutes. add shrimp and cook 2-3 minutes. add leftover noodles and mirin. simmer 1 minute. serve with chili oil.

tomorrow i was planning on tomato pasta soup since it is supposed to be raining/snowing

Edited March 19, 2005 by suzilightning (log)

[Anna N]

Lunch for today. Out of my head and the 'fridge. Sausage soup with fresh and dried mushrooms. Had some duck stock in the 'fridge and some mushrooms that were on the far side of still edible so supplemented with some dried shiitakes.

[maggiethecat]

We made Pepin's Chicken Bouillabaise a couple of days ago. The ingredient list ran the length of the page, but we happened to have everything at hand. including chicken thighs, garlic sausage and saffron. It used water, rather than stock, it was on the table in less than 45 minutes, and it had real depth of flavor; that soupcon of Pernod at the end provided the usual anisey savor. Like gumbo, it was a meal. I did depart from St.-Jacques in one respect -- I sauteed the chicken thighs first. I like dark meat browned.

ludja: I'm going parsley shopping!

[amccomb]

I just finished this thread for the first time. I wish I could have gotten in on this from the beginning!

I am currently baking two big batches of turkey stock - one plain and one with herbs and fennel bulb - so I'm planning on a turkey and wild rice soup later this week. I really want to make an asian style chicken stock with ginger and garlic and star anise - maybe next weekend.

I also have everything for a black bean and sweet potato soup that I've been meaning to whip up.

Last night, I made a corn, potato, and ham chowder that came out really well with a drizzle of sherry on top.

Last week I made a lentil, smoked sausage and kale soup that's an old stand by. We always drizzle some fini vinegar on each serving.

I'm looking forward to seeing more posts about spring soups! I've always wanted to make a fresh pea soup, but I have never seen fresh peas in the supermarket here and our farmer's market doesn't start until long after pea season, so I've never seen them there, either.

[suzilightning]

tomato florentine soup tonight. my neighbor gave me some of her canned tomatoes with herbs from last summer so.....onions, garlic, fresh bay leaf, tarragon, the tomatoes, vegetable stock, saffron sun dried tomatoes, water, pastina, spinach. will see how the proportions work then finish the recipe.

n.b. i have a recipe that i and a few friends have tested for a variation. is anyone interested in giving it a test(a tomato rice soup)? i want to enter the recipe in a contest but want to see if it works/makes sense to someone outside the ne. pm me if you are interested. thank you for your support(and what advertising campaign did that come from?)

[fifi]

It was those wine cooler guys, sittin' on a porch. I am pretty sure it was a Gallo product and there was a story about how they ended up in the commercial. They were great. I can't remember the brand to save me. Do I win anything?

I haven't had tomato rice soup in a long time. I think of most tomato soups as a nice summer dish. PM me the recipe.

[bloviatrix]

It was those wine cooler guys, sittin' on a porch. I am pretty sure it was a Gallo product and there was a story about how they ended up in the commercial. They were great. I can't remember the brand to save me. Do I win anything?

←

Bartles & Jaymes is the brand you're thinking of.

[suzilightning]

Bartles & Jaymes is the brand you're thinking of.

←

[Jensen]

My spicy Thai asparagus soup:

It was very good.

[zilla369]

My spicy Thai asparagus soup:

It was very good.

←

Gorgeous! Sweet job on the garnish.

[bloviatrix]

I've got a pot of black bean soup simmering away as we speak. It has chocolate in it.

[Jensen]

Summer borscht made with beet greens, pea shoots, onion, celery, tomato, and new potatoes.

[lmarshal1]

I made a 5-bean soup from www.beanbible.com a couple of weeks ago: 5 different beans, barley, tomatoes...quite tasty. lkm

[Rachel Perlow]

Restocked my freezer's soup basket with 8 portions of matzo ball. I've got to make some more minestrone soon too.

[maggiethecat]

One of the blessings about driving for three hours to my sister-in-law's for Easter dinner is that I get to drag back the bone from the (pretty good) spiral ham. It's a big mother, that will fit upended in my largest stockpot.

I have a plan, and it may be misguided -- I'll keep you posted. I'm going to throw in a whole lot of celery, onions and carrots, hambone, water and a couple of pounds of white beans. When the beans are tender, I'm going to take out the stick blender, puree a quarter of the volume, and have Bean Soup.

But I plan to tuck away a few quarts unprocessed and save them for minestrone, pasta fagiole, even cassoulet. I'll save the sweet spiral bits clinging to the bone, frizzle them up, and use them for crispy garnish.

A big hambone is better than any number of chocolate Easter eggs. Bonus: on the long drive back from Galena to Chicago I sustained life picking nibbles from the hambome in the back seat.

[snowangel]

Remember to remove bone and pick clean before inserting immersion blender, maggie!

[Rachel Perlow]

Made up my minestrone yesterday. This time I used the immersion blender to puree a bit of it to thicken the broth. Jason's having some with his lunch today. Hey Jason! How is it?

[Osnav]

thanks, maggie.

I'm sitting here in chicago on a cool, gray, rainy day with a hambone in the fridge. Guess I'll mossey down stairs and fire up the soup pot.

Rainy days aren't so bad afterall.

osnav

[suzilightning]

used leftover haricot vert, chicken breast baked with garlic cloves, tarragon, carrots, noodles and thawed stock to throw together a soup from leftovers.

up next is going to be a sweet potato and onion soup but it is too nice and sunny here today to do that - maybe friday when it is supposed to drop another couple of inches on us .

what have y'all been making?

[little ms foodie]

I made 2 soups in the last few weeks. One was a shrimp bisque, it turned out ok flavor wise but I had a hard time getting it to thicken. I also had a hard time finding a recipe in any of my books.....strange!

Last week we made a Carrot Ginger soup which was very nice!

Sweet potato and onion soup sounds awesome....I'm googling now!

Edited April 6, 2005 by little ms foodie (log)

[fifi]

Those of you with ham bones, I may be a bit late. But I did put my Ham Bone Bean Soup in RecipeGullet.

Warning. It makes a lot. Sherman's Army wasn't an option in the number of servings box.

[amccomb]

I made a version of Italian Wedding soup with my homemade turkey stock, turkey sausage meatballs, cheese tortellini, and spinach. Turned out very well!

I'm planning on hungarian mushroom soup next week.

I'd really love to find a good recipe for an asian chicken stock using star anise, ginger, etc. I'd love to make some lighter asian soup, either chinese or thai.

[maggiethecat]

I pulled one of the containers of beans from the freezer (yes, fifi, I could have fed Sherman's Army if I'd made a single cauldron!) added tomatoes, broccoli rabe, potaotes, carrots, zukes. Talk about an easy and fabulous midweek minestrone.

Related note: I took the frozen remainders of the Mushroom Soup I made yonks ago from the Les Halles Cookbook and used it for the base of a mushroom risotto. Words cannot describe how earthy and mushroomy it was.

[suzilightning]

i was cleaning out the freezer over the weekend so made vegetable stock with all those carrot, leek and onion ends i had been squirreling away.

used that as a base for an asparagus with tarragon soup that was yesterdays lunch.

tomorrow carrot dill and i will freeze some to send up to the mil this weekend.