Creamy Vegetable Soup

This Creamy Vegetable Soup is utterly French in the rich delicacy of its texture and taste. Even those who are generally attracted to the exotic and spicy in their cuisine might occasionally enjoy something so elegant as this soup.

Hard as it may be to get excited about a soup based on cauliflower, squash, and onions, when you want something soothing, try this. A thinner version of this might also be the basis for a cold soup in a different season, although I haven’t tried it and have never actually been served a cold soup in France.

This recipe calls for cream, however, once the soup is pureed, it IS CREAMY, without the addition of actual cream. I had planned to serve it that way, when a bottle of heavy cream came my way, so I added just a couple of tablespoons to give the soup an even richer taste. Normally, when cream is called for I would use Low Fat Evaporated Milk. In this case, if the soup is very thick, even a little milk might work.

Ingredients

4 lbs. butternut squash, peeled and seeded

1 small cauliflower

2 Tbsp. butter

4 medium onions, peeled and chopped

8 cups chicken stock

4 Tbsp. cream

Salt and pepper

¼ tsp. nutmeg

Directions

1.    Bring a medium pot of water to a boil.

2.    Take enough of the squash to make one cup finely diced. Put squash in boiling water.

3.    Remove core and break cauliflower into florets. Take enough of the top florets and break into smaller pieces to make one cup. Add to boiling water. Par boil until JUST tender (Squash takes at least twice as long as cauliflower).

4.    Immediately rinse vegetables in cold water and set aside.

5.    Chop onions and cut rest of squash in chunks.

6.    Melt butter and add onions, squash chunks, and remainder of cauliflower, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cook covered until vegetables are soft, but do not brown.

7.    Add chicken broth and cook until all vegetables are soft. When cool enough, puree vegetables. Return soup to pot and add cream and reserved vegetables.

Curried Cream of Celery Root Soup

Each food group has its own candidate for the ugliest, the least likely to succeed in attracting through appearance. Monkfish are mighty ugly when encountered head on; wild boar are pretty scary; and there are some prickly looking fruits that resemble weapons more than edibles.

Among vegetables, the celery root is right up there when it comes to daunting looks. However, the vegetable has its uses. In addition to celery remoulade, the sophisticated French way with a raw vegetable, celery root can be cooked, often combined with potatoes. Recently I tried out a celery root soup and found it both delicate and flavorful. It was the curry that brought out the taste without overwhelming the flavor.

One problem of dealing with this vegetable is that the weight in the store includes scary hairy protuberances that have to be trimmed, so it is hard to know how much root one will end up with. Some of the bulbs are only baseball size, while others are considerably larger but include a lot more that needs trimming.

Since I like my soup to have a sturdy consistency, this recipe requires a large bulb, or a couple of smaller ones. I find that a peeler works on the top and sides, but the bottom definitely requires knife work.

Ingredients                                                               

4 Tbsp butter

2 leeks, cleaned and chopped or one medium onion

1 Tbsp sliced garlic

1 Tbsp curry powder

2 tsp ground cumin

3 lbs. celery root, peeled and cubed

6 cups chicken broth

salt and pepper

½ cup cream, half and half, evaporated milk or to desired consistency

chopped cilantro or parsley for garnish

Directions

1. Melt butter in a soup pot. Add leeks, or onion, and garlic and cook until soft
2. Add curry powder and cumin, salt and pepper, until seasoning releases its flavor.
3. Add celery root, stir to coat vegetable,
4. Add broth and bring to a boil.
5. Cook until celery root is soft, about 25 minutes.
6. Cool sufficiently to puree in blender.
7. Add cream to desired consistency.

Cold (or Hot) Ginger Beet Soup

Summer is supposed to be a relaxing time, but with gardening, family, and ferociously hot weather, the summer of 2011 has not turned out to be full of down-time. Early mornings, when the house is still cool, there has been plenty of cooking going on, a lot of it having to do with cold soup, since this is one of the few meals people feel like eating when the thermometer zooms in the direction of three digits.

Although my Lemon Artichoke recipe is my signature cold soup, this summer there have been times when Ginger Beet has run a close second. This soup turns out to have an unusually vivid color, and a taste to match: both bold and soothing. My family is divided on beets as a hot vegetable, but they all seem to enjoy the taste of this soup.

As a bonus, we save the beet greens and use them sautéed Italian style, in olive oil with garlic, to serve with pasta or grilled meat. 

Ingredients

1 ½ lbs. beets trimmed

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 leeks, coarsely chopped, and washed

2 cloves garlic

3 heaping Tbsp chopped ginger

1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, cut up

4 cups chicken broth

3 cups water

Juice of one lemon

2 Tbsp chopped dill

1/3 cup Greek style yogurt, sour cream, or crème fraiche

Directions

1.    Put the beets in a pot with water to cover and boil until tender. Run under cold water and slip off the skins, and any remaining stalks and stems. Cut into quarters.

2.    In a soup pot, heat the oil and cook the leeks, garlic, and ginger until just soft.

3.    Add the beets, cucumber, broth, water, dill, and lemon juice. Cook 20 minutes.

4.    Cool and puree. The yogurt can be added at this stage, which will turn the soup PINK, or added as a dollop to the chilled soup when served.

Sweet Potato Chili Puree

One way to cut the sweetness of vegetables such as corn and sweet potatoes is to overdose on the spice side. This combination accounts for a smooth, rich sweet potato and chile recipe I made recently.

I discovered this recipe when the combination of ingredients ended up in my refrigerator at the same time. Next, I decided to try them in the same pot. The result was a rich, smooth soup that might also be tasty if served cold in summer, although sweet potatoes don’t naturally come to mind in summer.

Since the soup will end up in the blender, the vegetables don’t need to by finely chopped.

Ingredients

4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks

I medium onion, cut in quarters

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp chili powder

4 cups chicken broth

4 cups water

1 cup heavy cream, or one can condensed evaporated milk

Directions

1. Cook onion and jalapeno in oil until wilted.
2. Add chili powder until it is moistened and gives off scent.
3. Add broth and water and cook until vegetables are soft.
4. Puree vegetables in blender, adding cream.
5. Adjust seasoning so soup has a spicy tang.

Corn and Crab Soup Mexican Style

Although it is usually some rare leftover cream that prompts me to make a fish or seafood chowder, there are also spicy fish soups south of the border. Some of these achieve a similar creamy effect, but by pureeing vegetables instead of adding cream. This corn and crabmeat soup gets that kind of result.

The ingredients include the usual Mexican mix of flavors, but without the addition of tomatoes, the crabmeat, a mild mannered food, is able to hold its own against the stronger flavors in the pot. The result makes a nice change from the usual fish or shrimp soup because the crabmeat shreds up, adding to the texture of the soup, along with the tortillas.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 large or two small onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ tsp minced, seeded jalapeno chile

1/3 tsp chili powder

3 15 oz. cans low salt corn

2 8 oz. bottles clam broth

4 cups water

2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro or 1 Tbsp cilantro pesto

1 6 oz. can crabmeat, picked over

Grated peel of one lime

Juice of one lime

6 fried tortillas cut into strips or 2 cups large white-corn chips

Directions

1. Heat oil and cook onions, garlic, and jalapeno until onions wilt.
2. Add chili powder and cook to blend.
3. Add 1 and ½ cans corn, clam broth, water, cilantro and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes.
4. Puree remaining 1 ½ cans corn in blender. Add to soup along with crabmeat, lime peel, and limejuice. Cook 15 minutes more.
5. When ready to serve, put handful of corn strips or chips in each bowl and ladle soup on top.

Yellow Split Pea With Hot Dogs

Split pea soup never appealed to me until I discovered yellow split peas. They are a more subtle cousin of green split peas. Usually this simple soup is made with a ham bone of some sort, but our family likes it with thinly sliced all beef hot dogs.

The chopped vegetables can be cooked in bacon fat or with cut up pancetta, but vegetable oil is also fine. Since hot dogs are actually already cooked, they can be added at any point, but if part of the soup is going to be pureed, then that should be done first. Pea soup thickens up as it stands, so a cup or more liquid may be needed when the soup is reheated.

Chicken broth will add flavor, as will curry powder, but is not necessary. However, since Mr. What’s For Lunch is on a low salt diet, curry powder does duty for salt in some recipes.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 medium onions, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

1 bay leaf

1 bag yellow split peas

6 cups chicken stock or water

6 all beef hot dogs, thinly sliced

salt, pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat oil in soup pot and cook onions and carrots  on low heat for 10 minutes.
2. Add liquid, bay leaf and peas. Cook about 45 minutes or until peas have become very soft. Remove the bay leaf. If a smoother consistency is desirable, then puree part of the soup in a blender.
3. Add the hot dogs.

  

Spicy Moroccan Lamb Soup

Sometimes the bags of bones in our freezer compartment, compliments of our farmer son, get confused when I forget to label them. So when he stopped by one day I asked him to ID some of the mystery bones.

The big flat ones turned out to be lamb and ended up as a spicy Moroccan soup. But to get to that point, I had to first roast them. They made the house smell savory while they were roasting on a bed of carrots, celery, and onion. After a couple of hours at 400 degrees, the bones were ready to go into a soup pot.

The next step was to put everything from the roasting pan into the soup pot, deglaze the pan, and cover the bones with water. They cooked for several more hours; then I put the pot out on the screen porch so the broth could chill. Once it was cool enough to scoop off the fat, it was time to make the soup.

The bones did not contribute significant meat to this dish so they were discarded in favor of the stock. This recipe can also be made starting with 1 pound of lamb (shank, shoulder, or stew can work, in which case the meat would be browned first in the soup pot). If starting with meat, then the soup will need to be skimmed of fat and the meat taken off the bone before the final steps. In place of the above, bones leftover from a lamb dinner can also be turned into soup-base by simmering them with an onion, carrots, and celery to create stock.

The painting is of Longmeadow Farm sheep before they became soup.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp butter

2 onions, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped fine

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp chopped ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 19 ounce can chick peas, drained

¾ cup dried lentils

1 large can chopped tomatoes

8 cups lamb stock

½ cup chopped cilantro, or two Tbsp cilantro pesto

salt and pepper

1 cup yogurt

Directions

1. Melt butter and cook onions and celery with turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon until vegetables are slightly wilted and spices give off scent, 5-10 minutes.
2. Add chick-peas, lentils, tomatoes, and lamb stock and cook until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.
3. Add cilantro and yogurt, adjust salt and pepper.