Tag: Soup

tomato soup with cheese & garlic toast

tomatoes onions garlic carrots soup

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This tomato soup was a revelation to me when I first made it. It’s based on a recipe in Peter Berley’s book The Flexitarian Table. How can a soup be so yummy, creamy and rich without any cream or butter in it? I think you’ll love it. In the summer, you can use our local carrots and onions to make it, and it’s wonderful, but I make this recipe all year long. I think it makes a difference to use really good canned tomatoes and tomato paste, and I like Muir Glen.

If you serve the soup alongside Rise & Shine Bakery’s toasted Alaskan cheese & roasted garlic bread, it’s like a gourmet flashback to the toasted cheese and tomato soup cafeteria lunches you ate at school long ago… still comforting and warming, but a lot yummier! I always make a double batch of the soup, because it freezes really well!

Serve this soup with any kind of a simple green vegetable or savory salad, like roasted broccoli with garlic, or roasted brussels sprouts, or green cauliflower with parsley and green olives, or grilled zucchini.

1-2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups thinly sliced onions (3-4 medium)
sea salt or kosher salt
1 head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
2 medium carrots (peeled if the skins are tough), sliced
large pinch of red pepper flakes, or to taste
2 tablespoons tomato paste
28-ounce can of whole plum tomatoes or diced tomatoes in juice
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock or water (I use broth left over from cooking white beans with onion and garlic)
two 2-inch strips of orange zest, removed with a vegetable peeler
1 teaspoon dried sage
2 tablespoons chopped parsley, for garnish when serving
Alaskan cheese & roasted garlic bread, or other hearty whole-grain bread

1. I slice the onions and carrots in the food processor—this is especially time-saving if you’re doing a double batch. Just cut off the stem end of the carrots and push them down through the narrow feed tube, pushing with the pusher cup.
2. In a heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and ½ teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until the onions have softened—5 minutes or so. Add the garlic cloves, carrots, and pepper flakes, lower the heat, cover, and cook until the vegetables are sweet and juicy and tender, but not browned, 20 minutes or so. Check and stir occasionally, adding a few tablespoons of water if the vegetables are dry.
3. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice, the stock or water, orange zest and sage and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Remove the pot from the heat and discard the orange zest. Puree the soup with an immersion blender, or in batches in a blender. It’s easiest to do this if you’ve let the soup cool for a while first. Season with salt if you like, but I didn’t find it necessary because of the salt already added to the onions and in the canned tomatoes. Reheat the soup before serving, and add water to thin the soup if it seems too thick.
5. If you’re just serving 1 or 2 people, toast slices of the bread in the toaster. If you’re serving several people, heat the oven to 350 degrees and put the whole loaf in the oven, unwrapped and unsliced, for 15 minutes to heat and re-crisp the crust.
6. Ladle the soup into bowls, sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve with bread or toast on the side.

green soup of sorrel, beet greens, and lettuce

lettuce potatoes soup chard sorrel garlicky croutons beet greens

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Have you always wondered what to do with those lovely long-leaved bunches of sorrel greens you see at the Farmers’ Market? I ran across this recipe last winter, reading Deborah Madison’s new cookbook about soups, and bided my time, waiting for sorrel season. It’s the perfect thing to use the beet greens left over from using the beets in the beet pilaf recipe! One warning: this soup is sort of an army green color—not the most beautiful color—plus it darkens with time, so it’s homelier still when you eat it as leftovers the next day. However, the flavor is fantastic and vibrant, especially with garnishes of garlicky croutons. The crouton recipe is from rebar modern food.

The second time I made this recipe, I didn’t want to do croutons (I was serving this with the eggplant crostini), so I just sprinkled toasted hazelnuts on the top, and then drizzled a little roasted hazelnut oil over the top… Very yummy! You can find roasted hazelnut oil at Summit Spice & Tea Co.

If you’re using water for the recipe instead of vegetable broth, it might be a little too bitter. The second time I tried this recipe with water, instead of using my very oniony and sweet bean-cooking broth, and it needed a little sweetness. I tossed in some caramelized onions that I had in the freezer, but if you don’t happen to have some of them on standby, try sprinkling a little sugar in the soup to even out the flavors a little.

soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 small potatoes (about 1 cup), thinly sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 bunches of beet greens or chard, stems removed and leaves sliced
1 large bunch of sorrel, leaves sliced (about 2 cups)
4 cups chopped lettuce
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
6 cups of water or vegetable stock (I use the leftover liquid from cooking white beans or chickpeas with onions and garlic)
fresh lemon juice to taste

croutons

5 slices hearty whole-grain bread (preferably whole-wheat sourdough)
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed in a garlic press
¼ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat, then add the onion, 1 teaspoon salt, potatoes, and garlic. Cook for several minutes, then add the greens and parsley. Give them a stir, add the liquid, and bring to a boil. Simmer, partially covered, until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
2. Puree the soup in a blender (let it cool down a bit, first, and don’t fill the blender too full). Taste for salt, season with pepper, and add a few drops of lemon juice to sharpen the flavors, if you like.
3. While the soup cooks, make the croutons. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. With a fork, mash the garlic with the salt in the bottom of a medium-sized bowl. Stir in the olive oil. Cut the slices of bread into ½” cubes and toss them in the garlicky oil until the oil is thoroughly absorbed and distributed. Spread the bread cubes out on a baking sheet and bake for 15-25 minutes, until the croutons are crispy and golden-brown.

Vietnamese-style Napa cabbage soup with shrimp

cabbage soup cilantro mint shrimp noodles peanuts napa cabbage

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Last week at the Wednesday Dimond Center Farmers’ Market, Carol Kenley was giving away a free Napa cabbage if you spent $20 at her stand. Needless to say I fulfilled that requirement… and then came home with a GIGANTIC Napa cabbage, on top of the vegetables from her stand, A&M Farms, and Stockwell Farms. Whoops! I’m still digging out from under that mountain of wonderful vegetables!

So… what’s a good way to make quick work of a Napa cabbage? I’d already eaten that great napa cabbage salad with spicy peanut dressing for several meals the previous week… So I invented this quick soup, inspired by a vaguely similar chicken-noodle soup in Cook’s Illustrated from 1999. I left out the noodles entirely (remember, my main goal here was to use up vast quantities of cabbage—not fill up on noodles!), but you can add them if you like. The broth is really flavorful after just 20 minutes of simmering with the Asian ingredients—I think you’ll love it!

I used fresh shrimp from the Saturday South Anchorage Farmers’ Market, but you could substitute any seafood you liked. This will make 4 big bowls of soup.

Optional noodles

8 ounces thick rice noodles

1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Off heat, add noodles, and let sit until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside until ready to distribute among individual serving bowls.

Broth

8-10 cups vegetable broth (low-sodium, if store-bought), or bean-cooking broth (for example, from the hummus recipe)
8 medium cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
4-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled, cut into 1/8-inch rounds
3 star anise
¼ cup Asian fish sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1. Bring all ingredients to boil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer partially covered for 20 minutes to blend flavors.
2. Strain the broth through a sieve to remove the flavorings and return the broth to the pot. Bring the soup back to a simmer, and season to taste with additional salt if necessary.

Soup

1 pound fresh shrimp, shells removed
1 medium Napa cabbage, rinsed and sliced thin crosswise (about 8 cups)
4 scallions, white and green parts, sliced thin on an angle
½ cup loose-packed fresh mint leaves, torn in half if large
½ cup loose-packed fresh cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons chopped unsalted roasted peanuts
Lime wedges for squeezing at the table

1. While the broth simmers, remove the shells from the shrimp and chop all the vegetables.
2. When the broth is strained, add the shrimp to the simmering broth and cook them until just tender and cooked, for about 45 seconds. Remove them immediately from the soup with a slotted spoon or strainer.
3. Bring the broth back to a boil and add the cabbage. Cook on high heat for 3-5 minutes, or to your taste. The cabbage should be cooked a little bit, but retain a little crunch.
4. Ladle the cabbage and broth into large soup bowls, add noodles if you’ve decided to use them, and top each serving with a pile of shrimp.
5. Sprinkle on all other ingredients and serve immediately, passing lime wedges separately.

pureed cauliflower soup with coriander

cauliflower soup coriander vegetable stock

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I had two heads of that bright yellow cauliflower from Saturday’s market (I think they call it “Cheddar”), and I didn’t yet have a plan for it… I found a recipe for a pureed cauliflower soup in an old back issue of Cook’s Illustrated, but it had milk in it. In my experience, adding milk or cream to a soup can make it taste yummy, but it really mutes the flavors of the vegetables in it—and I want to highlight the taste of the vegetable, since we’ve got such fabulous fresh produce! So I’ve just invented a dairy-free version that I absolutely LOVE!!  It’s sort of a stealthy kind of a soup—who would think it could be SO good and creamy and luscious, without milk or cream? But it is! And great flavor, too, thanks to the onions, roasted garlic, and white wine.  And the color of the orange cauliflower made the soup this delicious light-apricot color! Isn’t it fun? I don’t recommend using the purple cauliflower for this recipe, but it would be interesting to see if you’d get lavender-colored soup—and then, if it would be appetizing. You could serve it with a side of roasted purple potatoes! Let me know if you try it!

This recipe is easy, but it’s REALLY easy if you already have a couple of the key ingredients. I had vegetable stock & white bean cooking liquid in my freezer already, so I used a combination of them to make the soup. If you use store-bought stock, make sure you use one you really like the taste of, because the cauliflower is pretty mild—so you’ll want to use stock that won’t overpower it.  But I just want to take a minute and encourage you to try making your own vegetable stock—it’s so easy to do, it’s quick, very cheap, and when we’re able to get such delicious celery and carrots at the market right now, it’s really a no-brainer. I’ll put the super-easy recipe at the end of this recipe, so you can do it if you feel inspired. I always do a HUGE pot of vegetable stock at a time, and freeze lots for future soups.

I happened to have an extra bulb of roasted garlic in my refrigerator, so I squeezed out the cloves, mashed it up and stirred it in, just for fun—and I think it’s very successful—but I wouldn’t have roasted it up just for this recipe. You may already have a pint jar of the “roasted” garlic from the infused olive oil in your refrigerator… use some of that!  Or just leave it out—the soup will still taste great.

And one more thing—a good blender is a great investment. Using a food processor to puree this soup will probably make a huge mess, plus it won’t get it nearly as smooth as a good blender will. I use my blender all the time for salad dressings and soups.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
sea salt or kosher salt
¼ cup white wine
2 medium heads cauliflower, stems discarded and florets cut into bite-sized pieces
8 cups vegetable stock (see recipe below, or low-sodium if store-bought)
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper (you can grind the whole seeds with the coriander)
1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds, lightly toasted in a skillet, then ground in a coffee grinder, OR, 1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
1 head of roasted garlic, or the equivalent in olive-oil poached garlic (optional), mashed
-----------------------------------------
2 teaspoons minced fresh chives , or minced parsley

1. Heat oil in large Dutch oven or heavy soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and ½ teaspoon of salt and sauté until golden, about 5 minutes. Add white wine and stir-cook until the wine evaporates, about 30 seconds.
2. Add the cauliflower, stock, salt, pepper, coriander, and roasted garlic to saucepan; bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer; cover and cook until cauliflower is tender, about 12 minutes.
3. Let the soup cool for a while, then ladle the cauliflower mixture into blender in batches. Don’t overfill the blender as you do this. Then blend until very smooth. Return soup to soup pot and cook over low heat until warmed through. If soup is too thick, stir in a bit of water or stock to thin consistency. Adjust seasonings. (Soup can be refrigerated for 3 days and reheated just before serving.)
4. Ladle soup into individual bowls. Garnish with minced chives and serve immediately.

basic vegetable stock
I always make a big batch of this very easy stock, and then freeze the extra. You can make a half batch if you like, but why would you want to? Don’t be tempted to boil it longer than 30 minutes—it can turn bitter, and it doesn’t need any longer than that, anyway.

2 large onions
6 large carrots
6 celery ribs
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
16 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
16 parsley branches
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 12 sprigs of fresh thyme)
4 bay leaves
sea salt or kosher salt

1. Scrub the vegetables and chop them roughly into 1-inch chunks. Heat the oil in a large soup pot and add the vegetables and herbs and 1 teaspoon salt and cook over high heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently. The more color they get, the richer the flavor of the stock.
2. Add 2 more teaspoons salt and 4 quarts of cold water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes. Strain.

basic vegetable stock

onions garlic carrots soup celery stock

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I always make a big batch of this very easy stock, and then freeze the extra. You can make a half batch if you like, but why would you want to? Don’t be tempted to boil it longer than 30 minutes—it can turn bitter, and it doesn’t need any longer than that, anyway.

2 large onions
6 large carrots
6 celery ribs
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
16 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
16 parsley branches
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 12 sprigs of fresh thyme)
4 bay leaves
sea salt or kosher salt

1. Scrub the vegetables and chop them roughly into 1-inch chunks. Heat the oil in a large soup pot and add the vegetables and herbs and 1 teaspoon salt and cook over high heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently. The more color they get, the richer the flavor of the stock.
2. Add 2 more teaspoons salt and 4 quarts of cold water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes. Strain.