Year of the Soup: Week 48

Just a few more weeks left in 2010, and now just four more soups to go – I’m going to make it!  Of course, if you know me at all, you probably knew I would make it from the start.  I’m too much of an overachiever to let this project go uncompleted.  (Yes, I’m an overachiever.  It’s why I graduated from high school with higher than a 4.0, and why I edit photos faster than most photographers I know.  I may be a laid-back yogi, but I do have a crazy ambitious side, too.)

A plethora of sweet potatoes in my pantry and the desire for some nutrient-rich greens (which resulted from eating far too few vegetables on vacation) led me to this soup recipe.  This recipe can either be left chunky or pureed.  It’s quite beautiful chunky, with all those lovely colors, and very flavorful.  I opted to puree half of the batch to try it both ways.  When you puree this soup, the flavors become much more subtle.  Both ways are delicious, truthfully, they just feel completely different.  Nutritionally speaking, this soup doesn’t mess around.  Spinach and chard are rich in iron and calcium, sweet potatoes are loaded with vitamins, and ginger has numerous valuable health benefits.  I’m sure it makes a lovely antidote to any holiday over-indulgences….not that you or I would ever do such a thing…

Green Soup with Ginger

• 1 large yellow onion
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, plus more to taste
• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 large leek, white and light green parts
• 1 bunch spinach (8 ounces; 225 g)
• 1 large bunch green chard (12 ounces; 350 g)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2-4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• freshly ground black pepper Continue reading »

Year of the Soup: Week 47

Food in the Philippines was…interesting.  (I think you can infer what I mean by interesting.)  But one dish always brough comfort – a steaming bowl of brothy noodles.  We sampled Filipino versions of this dish, but frankly my favorites were the ones I had at the two Japanese restaurants John and I visited.  In an attempt to recreate this delicious dish while the flavor is still fresh on my tastebuds, I opted to make ramen soup this week.  The broth turned out quite tasty, and I suspect this dish outdoes any packet of ramen noodles you’ve ever had (I can’t say for sure though – never found a Top Ramen that was vegetarian :) )  Best served as lunch, eaten with both chopsticks and a soup spoon.  Enjoy!

Japanese Ramen Noodle Soup

• 3 cups of vegetable stock
• 2 cups water
• 3 garlic cloves
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp worsterchire sauce
• 1/2 tsp chinese five spice
• 1 tsp white sugar (optional)
• 255g ramen noodles
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 cup Chinese cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 sheet of sliced nori seaweed paper, thinly sliced (optional)
• sprinkle of sesame seeds (optional) Continue reading »

Year of the Soup: Week 46

Please forgive me for being so terrible at the whole blogging thing for the past two weeks.  I blame the wedding (can I do that?)  I realized today that I had better make a soup tonight or I would be stuck making 7 soups in less than 4 weeks when I return from our honeymoon.  Hmmm…perhaps the leftover pumpkins from Halloween could make something delicious after all.  So I present to you soup number 46.  Do not skip the garnish on this soup – that’s what makes it delicious.  Without the cilantro and garlic flavors, it just feels like another light squash soup.  With them, however, this recipe has a lot more flair.  It’s light, flavorful, and very fall appropriate.  Enjoy!

Moroccan Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups chopped carrots
• 1 1/2 cups chopped parsnips
• 8 ounces fresh pumpkin
• 3 1/2 cups vegetable stock
• fresh ground pepper and salt to taste
• lemon juice to taste
• 1 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 garlic clove, minced
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley and cilantro
• a good pinch of paprika Continue reading »

Year of the Soup: Week 45

Last week’s soup was complicated.  So I went simple this week.  John’s been requesting Egg Drop Soup for a while now, but I thought it might be a little boring.  Throw in some udon noodles, however, and you’ve got something :)  This recipe makes a hearty, filling soup with a nice flavorful broth.  Next time I’d add some fresh green onions and maybe a bit of sesame oil to give it more of an Asian flavor, but it’s quite good on it’s own.  Only seven more soups to go!

Egg Drop Soup with Udon Noodles

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 6 cups vegetable stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups cooked udon noodles

Directions

Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium head.  Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until soft and golden.  Add the stock, along with some salt and pepper.  Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat to a slow boil.  Add the eggs to the soup in a steady stream, stirring constantly.  Keep stirring until eggs are cooked – just a couple of minutes.  Stir in cooked noodles.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  Serve hot.

Year of the Soup: Week 44

In a perfect world, this soup would have made a beautiful presentation.  Having roasted inside the pumpkin shell for 2 hours in the oven, it would come out steaming hot, and be served straight out of its own squash tureen to the oohs and ahhs of our guests.

Right.  In the real world, the pumpkin shell busted open mid-roasting, the soup didn’t contain enough pumpkin flesh to actually taste like pumpkin (it was more like sage and warm milk), and the pumpkin tureen collapsed into a leathery mass that resembled a football.  So much for best laid plans.  (I took this photo mid-roast, by the way, just in case something went wrong.  Good move on my part.)

I was very excited about this soup because of the novelty factor, but I’m convinced that you couldn’t possibly make it work.  To scrape enough flesh into the soup it is nearly impossible not to damage the structural integrity of the pumpkin shell.  Also, the flesh that gets scraped from the inside comes out in chunks, making it mandatory that you run the soup through a food processor after you take it out of the oven.  Scooping soup out of a super-soft pumpkin without causing it to collapse is not an easy task.  I don’t know how you could actually make this soup work as planned, so, sadly, I don’t recommend it.  But it was a fun experiment, and it made the house smell good :)

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Soup in its Own Shell

Ingredients

• 1 five lb. pumpkin (if smaller or larger, adjust the amount of liquid)
• 1 quart vegetable stock
• 1 quart milk or soy milk
• ½ cup fresh sage leaves (use less if dried)
• 3 tbsp chopped garlic
• 2 tsp. sea salt
• Pepper to taste Continue reading »