Year of the Soup: Week 28

Enough with the cloudy and cold July days.  I’m over it.  The only plus is that making soup seems less crazy when it’s rainy outside.  But really, I’m okay with seeming a little crazy.  Make with the sunshine, Denver.

The mint in this recipe smacks you in the face at first.  But if you let it sit for a bit, and allow the flavors to settle, this soup is fantastic.  Fresh and crisp tasting, it’s delicious served with warm bread.  Enjoy :)

Fresh Pea and Mint Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts (2 leeks)
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 5 cups freshly shelled peas or 2 (10-ounce) packages frozen peas
• 2/3 cup chopped fresh mint leaves, loosely packed
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup freshly chopped chives Continue reading »

Year of the Soup: Week 27
This soup doesn’t mess around.  When it says spicy, it means spicy.  Clear your sinuses out spicy.  Burn your tongue off spicy.  Set your spoon on fire spicy.  Ok, maybe not that bad, but you get the idea.

The flavor behind this soup is quite nice, but the cayenne is a bit overpowering.  I’d suggest starting with 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon and working your way up to the amount of heat you can tolerate.  And then dilute it with the yummy croutons.

Have a Happy Fourth of July weekend!

Spicy Carrot Soup with Garlic Croutons

Ingredients

Soup

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 3/4 cups sliced carrots
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• salt and pepper Continue reading »

The Year of the Soup is halfway finished: 26 soups down, 26 to go.  What I’ve learned so far from this project:

• Rapunzel vegetable broth powder is amazing.
• I require supervision when using the blender.  (see here and here for evidence)
• Carrots, onions and celery will make just about anything delicious.
• John will eat nearly anything.  He even ate the leftovers of this and this.  Bless him.

My favorite soups to date:

• Chickenless Noodle
• 44 Garlic Clove
• Wonton
• Broccoli Cheddar
• Stracciatella

My least favorite soups to date:

• Borscht
• Creamy Mushroom
• Rhubarb
• Matzo Ball
• Quinoa Vegetable

Do you have a soup recipe to share?  Have you made one of these soups?  Leave a comment – I love comments :)

Year of the Soup: Week 26

I’m a big kid now.  I used the blender all by myself.  And no one got hurt.  And soup did not explode all over the cabinets.  This is progress.

Now that I’ve mastered the whole blender thing, cream soups are getting old.  They’re all the same: boil X vegetable in broth, puree, add cream and a dash of spice.  That’s it.  And then they all tend to taste the same – like cream with a hint of green vegetable.  Even a cool veggie like kohlrabi (which I’d never had before), couldn’t upgrade the cream soup to anything more.

It’s good to know the formula for this kind of soup, in case I need to make quick use of a delicious veggie about to expire, or whip up an appetizer soup last minute.  But unless one of those circumstances arises, no more ‘Cream of X’ soups.  Without the looming threat of impending blender disaster, they’re far too boring.

Cream of Kohlrabi Soup

Ingredients

• 3-4 small kohlrabi, peeled and cut into pieces
• 3 cups water
• 1 vegetable bouillon cube
• salt
• white pepper
• cayenne pepper
• nutmeg
• 1/2 cup cream

Continue reading »

Year of the Soup: Week 25

People who know what fenugreek is tend to be slightly obsessed with it.  There’s something about the flavor that people tend to fall in love with, I guess.  This soup marked my first foray into using the spice, and I wouldn’t say I’d jump on the bandwagon just yet.  Fenugreek does have a rather distinct and interesting flavor, but the longer it cooked the more bitter it became.  It didn’t ruin the soup by any means, but did make me think that next time I’d put in just a bit less.  So my position on fenugreek has yet to be seen.

I made a couple alterations to the original of this recipe.  First off, it had far too much water in it, which caused me to cook it far longer than recommended (so it would cook down.)  That led to bitter fenugreek, so I’m recommending a large cut in the amount of water (and the spice.)  I also prefer this kind of soup to be a bit more substantial, so I smushed the turnips and potatoes with a potato masher to get a thicker consistency.  I also added the lime/lemon juice.  This is another great soup to save for winter, or make now while turnips are turning up fresh at your local farmer’s market. Continue reading »