BY DENISE SHAVANDY
There is nothing more comforting than a steaming bowl of soup on a cold winter’s day. Sometimes it’s just an easy meal- open a can and heat it up. But there are some great and easy soups you can make from scratch in just a little more time than it takes to heat up that canned stuff!
Soup can be the most delightfully simple food on earth or the most complex creation of flavor, color, and texture that exceeds all expectations of a comfort food. Most of us enjoy the familiar and comforting flavors of an aromatic Tomato Basil Soup, a rich velvety Lobster Bisque, a piquant Tortilla Soup, or the subtle smokiness of Split Pea Soup with Ham.
This week at TSTC Culinary Institute our students are just getting started on a year long culinary journey. Today they will taste one of each category of soups: cream soup, clear soup, puree soup, bisque, and specialty soup. The last category of “specialty soup” includes those regional specialties that seem to defy the classic categories. Some of my favorite soups are those that defy! A good Sausage & Shrimp Gumbo and a thick and creamy New England clam chowder are rebels of the soup world.
How did this happen, you ask? Well the classic soup categories were defined by the French that elevated cuisine above and beyond household cooking, but many regions of the world had already developed their own traditions, flavors and cooking methods. The classic categories couldn’t cover every type of soup in the world, so they created an “other” category that covers everything other than the soups the French were cooking.
All this talk of warm delicious soups making you hungry? Well get cooking with the recipes below for some steaming bowls of comfort…
Spicy Moroccan Butternut Soup
Butternut Soup
This soup is delightfully rich from the puree of butternut and potatoes. You would swear it is a cream soup but it is a great low fat dish packed with lots of flavor. The recipe uses harissa, a hot Tunisian chile paste infused with spices, to spice it up. You can click here for a great harissa recipe from Clifford A. Wright or substitute another hot chile paste or even Tabasco, but of course it’s not quite the same.
2 Tbsp butter
1 large onion chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 tsp fresh ginger
2 # Butternut squash, peeled and diced
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 ½ tsp cumin seed, toasted, ground
1 ½ tsp coriander seed, toasted, ground
½ tsp cayenne pepper
4 tsp brown sugar (treacle)
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
4 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Tbsp harissa* Tunisian chili paste
Salt to taste
Fresh lemon
Yogurt and fresh cilantro for garnish
Directions
Chop onion, garlic, ginger, and sauté in butter until soft
Add spices, butternut and brown sugar and saute for 3 more minutes.
Add chicken stock and harissa. Cook for 40 min or until soft.
Puree with immersion blender. (You may need to add more stock or water to achieve the proper consistency.)
Add salt and fresh squeezed lemon juice to taste.
Garnish with plain yoghurt and fresh cilantro leaves.
Number of Servings: 10
Adapted from Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user BISCUITMAKER.
Miso Soup
Miso Soup serves 4
This is a quick and easy soup and most of the ingredients last a good long while. I enjoy this as an prelude to stirfry or sushi meal. It makes a great light lunch and the tofu and miso pack some powerful protein for the calories.
1/8 ounce dried wakame seaweed (less than 1/4 cup)
4 ounce soft or silken tofu
14 fl oz ichi ban dashi stock* see recipe below
3 Tbsp miso (Aka miso- red miso, Hatcho miso- all soy miso, Shrio miso- white miso are all good choices depending on personal preference)
2 each spring onions or green onions
Shichimi togarashi or sansho, optional to serve
Soak wakame in large bowl of cold water for 15 minutes. Drain and cut into 1” x 1” pieces.
Cut tofu into small cubes ½” x ½”.
Bring strained dashi stock to a boil. Ladle 2 ounces of hot stock from the pan into the miso and whisk together.
Reduce the heat to low, and add 2/3 of the miso stock mixture to the dashi. Taste and add more miso if desired to taste. Add wakame and tofu. Just before the soup boils add the spring onions and remove from heat.
Serve immediately with shichimi togarashi or sansho sprinkled on top (optional).
Dashi Stock
4 in square kombu
2 ½ cups water
¾ ounce katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) (about 1 cup)
Combine kombu and water in pot and soak for one hour. Heat to near boiling, but do not boil. Remove and reserve the kombu for second dashi or condiment. Add katsuobushi and heat on low without stirring. Just before it begins to boil, remove from heat. Allow flakes to sink to the bottom of the pan. Strain and reserve the katsuobushi flakes for second dashi.
Cream of Celerac & Kohlrabi
Celery Root Soup
This soup was inspired by Creme du Barry, a cream of celery soup named after the countess Madame Jeanne Bécu Du Barry, a famous French beauty. I adjusted it to what was on hand, but you can always revert back to cauliflower.
Serves 6
2 Tbsp butter
2 medium sized leeks, washed, chopped
1 small celery root (approx 1 ½ cup peeled, diced)
1 small kohlrabi (approx 1 ½ cup peeled, diced)
1 small bakers or russet potato (approx 1 cup)
6 cups chicken stock or chicken bouillon
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt and white pepper to taste
chopped parsley or chives to garnish
In a medium soup pot, melt the 2 Tbsp butter, then add the chopped leeks. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes, or until the leek starts to soften (without browning).
Add prepared celery root, kohlrabi, potato, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 40 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Meanwhile, in a small skillet, melt remaining ¼ cup butter and whisk in ¼ cup flour. Cook while whisking over medium heat about 5 minutes. Mixture should have the consistency of wet sand. This is the roux.
Once the vegetables are tender, process with an immersion blender or transfer to a table top blender in batches, and puree till smooth. Return soup to the pot. (You may need to add more stock or water to achieve the proper consistency.) Whisk hot roux into hot soup until smooth and even in texture. Strain the soup through a chinois (fine mesh strainer) for a very refined and smooth effect. Stir in heavy cream and season with salt and white pepper to taste.
Serve warm topped with finely chopped parsley or snipped chives for garnish.
For some additional soup recipes (that can be prepared in 30 minutes!) check out this link to cooking.com
