What Are you Cooking Now? Soup Edition.

The fall cool-down has come here, and it is time for soup.  My kids' current favorite is Portugese style Chick-pea, Garlic, Potato and Sausage, although they liked the vegetarian lentil version I made yesterday when we were out of chicken broth, chick peas and sausage ;-).

It is a simple soup - I'll give it to you in smaller quantities than we make for our 10 person home.  Sautee 3 onions and two heads (yes, that's heads) of garlic until softened.  Add sliced up sausage and cook ( a small amount is fine, for flavor, or you can add more) until browned, add rosemary and smoked spanish paprika (regular paprika is ok if you don't have it) and cook for a minute.  Throw in 6 cups of chicken broth.  Add three diced potatoes, some carrots or whatever other roots appeal to you, 2 cups of cooked chick peas and a little salt and pepper.  Simmer until everything is yummy and tender and serve.

I've posted my Laotian chicken (or turkey) soup before, but just in case you haven't tried it.  Take a chicken or turkey carcass and cook down for stock with ginger and white pepper.  Reserve any cooked meat.  Take 3 quarts of stock and Add chopped onions, shallots and leeks, 3 cups of lemon juice, a half a cup of soy sauce or fish sauce (more authentic), some keffir lime leaves and/or chopped lemongrass (although I've made it without either and it is still good), two cans of pineapple with the juice, hot chiles or siracha to taste, enough brown or palm sugar to balance the flavor so it is hot, sour, salty and sweet, and extra chicken meat if you like.  This is THE BEST soup on earth when you have a cold.  It is also just plain delicious.  Amend to your tastes, though.  We like to cook rice separately and add it to the soup to give it more "stuff" in it.

I'm a big fan of this soup as well, as are my kids: http://www.owlhaven.net/2010/08/13/west-african-sweet-potato-soup/

So what's in your soup pot?

Sharon

 

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We recently made a potato, kale and sausage soup. We used the broth we had on hand which I believe was turkey. We put in onions and garlic and salt and pepper. It was very delicious. The original recipe calls for quite a lot but the person who posted it said that it freezes well. We are planning to make this for a family get together.

I have a childhood fondness for minestrone with fresh herbs (lots of basil, parsley, garlic, a bit of oregano...).

If you leave out noodles and potatoes, it also freezes really well into lunch-sized portions, which is quite handy to avoid food waste and have workday lunches.

Straightforward leek & potato here today - I thought I'd made enough for a few days, but my nine year old seems to be preparing for a growth spurt - four bowls at dinner, and another before bed!!

Three cups of lemon juice? Wow - that's a whole big bottle from the store, or a bag of lemons.

I made a large batch of vegetable soup with tomato, mostly to use up some leftover boiled wheat -- right before husband went out of town for a week ... would freeze the rest but it has potatoes in it, and they tend to turn nasty. So I'm trying to finish it. It's very good soup, but I swear it's replenishing itself.
... And, to the tune of 99 bottles of beer on the wall -- many, many bowls of soup in the fridge, many many bowls of soup ...

I must remember not to tell my husband what I put in the soup :) I made a wonderful chicken vegetable soup last week, with leftover baked chicken, organic carrots, green beans, corn, celery, bell peppers, potatoes, onions, and napa cabbage. I shouldn't have told him it had cabbage. He suddenly didn't like my soup anymore :(

We've moved from gallons-of-gazpacho-season to Faux Pho (Minnesota version) to split pea. Winter is known as soup season in our home. A couple of yers ago, my daughter informed me at the begining of this season that she didn't like soup. Needless to say, she got over that pretty fast.

We're still eating the last of the zucchini here. It's more of a set of guidelines (to paraphrase Captain Jack Sparrow) than a recipe.

Saute and inch of onions in some olive oil and/or butter in the bottom of a big pot. Add enough zucchini, cubed up, to fill the pot. Then season with either a big handful of dill seed or a tablespoon (or two, or more) of good curry powder.

Either way, serve with a garnish of yogurt or buttermilk.

It looks way too simply, but it's VERY awesome, particularly if you use a zucchini like "romanesco," which actually has a flavour of its own, rather than regular zucchini . . .

Chowda, runsas, empanada pie, and bibimbap with the very last of the garden holdouts.

The chowder recipe is really easy: Preheat oven to 400F. Cut up potatoes (with skins on) and leeks or onions - in whatever ratio you have or prefer. Add garlic if you want to. Put these in an ovenproof cooking pot, patting them down so they are packed fairly closely. Put a piece or two of fish on top of these. Pour in a half cup of dry white wine (or vermouth). Add salt, pepper and a good hunk of butter. Pour boiling water in the pot just so the ingredients are barely covered. Cover and bake for an hour. After that, break up the fish into bite-sized pieces. Add milk and cream in whatever ratio you prefer. This cools the soup nicely so that it can be eaten pretty much immediately, though the flavor improves if there are leftovers the next day or beyond. Oh, don't overfill your pot - it simmers in the oven and will spill out if the liquid is too high.

Generally we're trying to use up potatoes, leeks and cabbage before they go off. The runsas are a big kitchen project, but they use up cabbage nicely and can be frozen for easy later meals. The empanada pie could probably be frozen too. Google for "Galician pork and pepper pie", but keep in mind that: it turns out fine without saffron, wine or prosciutto, canned tuna or any ground meat can be used, and you can sneak in a few cooked potatoes to extend the meat. I used tomato sauce instead of tomato, and lots of poblanos instead of bell peppers.

I'm so happy that you are blogging again! I have been checking back over the last few months crossing my fingers because I missed your writing so much. Now I get to catch up on your fascinating and inspiring life. Speaking of "catch up" -- here is our ketchup soup (tastes much better than it sounds):

Combine in soup pot: 1 med onion coarsely chopped; half a head of cabbage, coarsely chopped; half a cup of barley; 2 cubes veg bouillon; half cup of ketchup; enough water to cover everything. Bring it to a boil, simmer 30 min and add 2 cups frozen mixed veg. Cook 15 min more. Serve with hot sauce on the table and a pan of cornbread. Oh my yes.