Ten Favorite Soups.
- Al Quie's Lentil Soup. Al Quie was a congressional
representative from Minnesota, 1958 - 1979, and governor, 1978 - 1982. The recipe was included in his campaign literature. I blogged it here.
- Cream of broccoli. Whenever I buy fresh broccoli, I use just the tops of the bunch as a vegetable and make soup from the stems. Slice thinly or chop in a food processor; cook slowly in butter with chopped onion until soft. Puree in the blender with some chicken stock. Return to pan, add additional stock and/or milk and/or cream until it reaches the desired consistency; season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a splash of sherry or white wine if desired, ditto a dash of nutmeg. Heat to serving temperature. I cook the broccoli and onion while we eat dinner and finish the soup afterwards. It generally makes one generous or two modest servings.
- Cream of asparagus. Same as the broccoli, above, except that I garnish it with some reserved cooked asparagus tips.
- Campbell's chicken noodle. Is there anyone in America
who didn't grow up with this?
- Campbell's cream of chicken. My mother always served me this after a dentist's appointment when I wasn't supposed to chew for a day. (I had terrible teeth and lots of fillings, the result of non-fluoridated well water and an aversion to brushing.)
- Split pea with ham. I made up my own recipe years ago,
starting from the recipe on the bag of dried peas but using pretty much every herb and spice I had in my spice rack (except maybe cinnamon). It's pretty darned good, if I do say so myself. You can duplicate it -- just make regular split pea soup and raid your spice cupboard. - Creamy wild rice. My recipe came from (what is now) here,
but it is not on the new site. This recipe at Cook's is the closest I could find; mine also includes 1/2 cup grated carrots, 1 cup of cooked chicken or turkey breast of ham, and is seasoned with ground sage, thyme, and sherry. And mine only has 2/3 cup of Half-and-Half, not 2 (two!) cups. You can find my recipe here.
- Corn, zucchini, and tomato chowder. This is a good late summer recipe, when the corn, zuccini, and tomatoes are fresh. Sometimes I add minced clams and substitute some fish stock for the chicken broth and season it with thyme instead of rosemary. (Typepad refuses to let me link to my uploaded recipe. Shout out in the comments and I will email it to you.)
- Tomato-fish chowder. The recipe for this one is in the cookbook that came with my first microwave, and that is packed away somewhere. It uses canned tomatoes and chicken broth and chunks of cod. Mmmm.
- Vegetable beef with barley. This was the first soup I learned how to make after I moved away from home. When I eventually used a recipe that called for some tomato paste I knew I had found the secret ingredient; up until then the soup always had tallow-y taste from the beef, but the acid from the tomatoes took that away.
- Roasted vegetable. This one is soooo easy. Make roasted root vegetables using carrots, onions, and potatoes (and any others you like). When they are done, puree in the blender or food processor. Add broth if needed. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.
That's just the winter soups. There are gazpacho and cold cucumber soups for summer. Was there ever a food as versatile as soup?
