Archive for the ‘Savory Soups’ Category
On a chilly fall day, the idea of spending a good amount of time in the kitchen preparing a roast or a slow-cooking batch of stew sounds like a wonderful one. The reality is that we don’t always have the time to devote to a project like that – especially when that chilly fall day comes on a weekday when there is a long to-do list to contend with. The solution is a quick cooking soup that is hearty enough to be very satisfying, but takes very little time to prepare, served up with a fresh loaf of homemade bread (and yes, as a baker I find that I do have time to bake some bread even when I don’t have time for the cooking) or a freshly baked loaf from your favorite bakery.
This particular soup is one of my very favorite quick fix soups. The recipe comes from Jacques Pepin, and ever since I saw him make it on an episode of his cooking show, More Fast Food My Way, I have been making it on a regular basis: Leek and Mushroom Soup. Leeks and mushrooms are both chopped up and used for the base of the soup, along with chicken stock, giving it a nice texture and giving it a surprisingly full flavor for such a simple recipe. The Leek and Mushroom Soup is a lot like leek and potato soup, because Pepin uses instant potatoes (which are really just dehydrated potatoes, nothing unusual) to thicken the soup instead of loading it up with cream. The potato trick may sound strange – especially if you don’t typically use instant potatoes at home! – but it really works, and the soup turns out to be satisfyingly creamy, with a great potato and leek flavor, while still being very healthy.
I serve this with chopped green onions or chives and sometimes add a bit of sour cream or yogurt to the bowl for some extra richness. Jacques says that he will sometimes stir a bit of cream or milk into the soup for a thinner consistency if he wants something a bit lighter. Crusty bread is my first choice as a match for this soup, but buttery dinner rolls or even biscuits still complete the meal admirably.
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When I think of gazpacho, I think of a sort of cold tomato soup that features lots of fresh tomatoes and other vegetables. I don’t think about one specific soup because there are many types of gazpacho out there, from sweet to spicy, from chunky to smooth. Salmorejo is one type of gazpacho that is well known in the Andalucia region of Spain, specifically in and around Cordoba. Salmorejo stands apart from other gazpacho-types because it is very creamy, a texture that comes from a larger amount of olive oil than you might find in other gazpachos and from bread that is blended into the soup. The bread might sound like an odd ingredient, but as you process the soup in a food processor, you’ll see that it thickens the soup and also helps smooth it out.
I tried some salmorejo in Spain and couldn’t wait to try it out with some fresh tomatoes at home. This version of the soup is very easy to make and tastes delicious, with a lovely tangy, fruitiness coming from the fresh tomatoes and olive oil. I simply popped all of my ingredients into the bowl of my food processor and blended the heck out of them, stopping a few times to adjust the seasoning with some salt and pepper. I streamed in the olive oil last to make sure that the soup was as smooth as possible before adding it. Since I wanted this soup to be especially creamy, I strained it before chilling it to remove any tomato seeds or bits of tomato skin. This step can be skipped, but it really will give you the silky smooth texture that the soup is known for.
As always, with recipes that get a lot of their flavor from olive oil, choose a good quality olive oil. I used an extra virgin oil that had a really nice fruitiness to it. A good way to see if it will work well in the soup is to drizzle a little bit of oil on a piece of tomato and see if your oil is a good match (it probably is!). Don’t use an oil other than olive oil, or use an olive oil that you don’t like the flavor of when making this soup. And, of course, it should go without saying that you should choose high quality tomatoes for this recipe, too.
Serve the soup with pieces of ham or pancetta and chopped up hard boiled egg if you’re looking for some authentic garnish. Otherwise, some crisp, buttery croutons will be a nice finishing touch.
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Gazpacho is a great hot-weather soup because it uses lots of fresh veggies and is very refreshing. But there are plenty of other cold soups out there than make terrific meals on a hot day, too. Another favorite of mine is Vichyssoise, or Potato Leek Soup. This soup is very simple to make and uses only a few ingredients. It tastes quite light and silky, but since it is a potato-based soup, it is actually quite filling and can easily be served as a main course with some bread or a small salad.
The soup is made by cooking onions, leeks and potatoes together in chicken broth, then pureeing it with some milk. If you want to make it richer, you can use cream in place of the milk. Both the potatoes and dairy add a very smooth texture to the finished soup, which is one of its best features. I almost always serve it cold, but this soup can actually be served hot, as well, if you can’t wait until it cools down in the refrigerator before digging in.
I use an immersion blender, which is basically a small food processor blade on a stick, to puree the soup right in its pot while it is still hot. If you don’t have one, you can cool the soup down a bit, then puree it in batches in a regular food processor. Just like making mashed potatoes, it is important not to over-do the pureeing of the potatoes, as they will get a bit gluey if you turn out the processor and just walk away for a few minutes.
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I like to make soup frequently in the winter. Not only is it warm and comforting, but it also gives me an extra outlet for freshly-baked breads, since just about every soup is better with a bit of bread dipped into it. French onion soup is one soup that bread is essential to because the traditional way to finish off the soup is with a layer of melty gruyere cheese and you really need a toasted piece of bread underneath to hold it up! French onion soup also happens to be one of my favorite soups to make because it is surprisingly easy to put together.
The soup starts out with thinly sliced onions, cooked in a large pot over medium-low heat until they are a deep, golden brown. Caramelizing onions takes quite a bit of time to do, especially with a huge batch of onions, but it is necessary to release all the natural sweetness of the onions and is crucial in producing a good soup. You can use pretty much any kind of white or yellow onion. I often use a combination of sweet Vidalia onions and regular yellow onions. Once the onions are done, beef broth/stock is added in, along with a bit of thyme and some salt and pepper, and all you have to do is wait until it comes together.
I’ve seen recipes that are more involved, or add more flavorings to the soup, but I’ve found that this one is rich and satisfying. Start with a good beef broth, lots of onions, and have bread and cheese at the ready – and you’ll definitely have a satisfying soup on your hands.
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Before Thanksgiving, I usually think about savory foods. This is because I already know what I’m going to do in terms of dessert (pie, of course!), so I need to spend more time working out the other things on the menu, like soups and side dishes.
Last year, the soup course was some kind of potato soup that was uninspiring and perhaps a bit too heavy with the other potato dishes at dinner. I wanted to do something lighter and a little bit different, so I thought back to a very good artichoke soup I had at an Italian restaurant a few months ago and decided to aim for that flavor. I recall the waiter explaining that there was no cream and no potato, which is often used as a filler, in the soup, so I started out with a lot of artichokes. I used frozen because they’re just as good as fresh for soups and other cooked dishes and they take very little prep time. I added in a little bit of rice to help thicken the soup and ended up adding in some milk to smooth it out. You can use any type of milk in the soup, from skim milk to cream, based on how rich you want it to be. I used a combination of skim milk and light cream (half and half), which is pretty much like low fat milk.
Is it the same as the soup I enjoyed this past spring? No, but it does taste delicious. The flavor of artichoke really comes through and you’ll know exactly what it is you are eating. I highly recommend serving the soup with a sprinkle of dill – fresh or dried – and a dollop of sour cream or yogurt, as the dill really blends well with the artichoke flavor.
This soup can be served as a first course in small bowls or as a main dish with bread or half a panini sandwich.
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