I've been obsessing over veggie soups a little.. You know, the creamy, comforting, luscious kind. The kind that sticks to your soup spoon and makes you scrape off the sides and bottoms of the bowl to get one last half spoonful.
So I went to look for a couple of ideas, and I thought about it a lot. And guess what? There are TONS of recipes, all just a LITTLE different from one another.. by an eighth of a teaspoon of salt, by the proportions of ingredients, by the cook time and the prep time.. all silly differences, in my opinion, cuz when you read the commenters' take on the original recipe, their alterations actually make the recipe someone else's recipe. You know what I mean?
I figured it's about time we put an end to all these cross-referencing how to make a bowl of pea soup, or edamame soup, or carrot soup, or whatnot. With a bit of common kitchen sense, taste sense, and a sense of adventure-- oh and sensibility haha-- you can make your own damn recipe.
So instead of just giving you yet another recipe (I lie-- there are recipes at the end of this post), I thought the most sensible thing would be to dissect it and explain why these ingredients, why this step. I must warn you gravely that the measurements will be absolutely imprecise, but that's the whole point. Wouldn't it be lovely to waltz around the kitchen stirring away here, adding a sprinkling of salt there, with the music on and no freakin' STRESS? Yepp, it's possible. But you need to tune in to your senses of smell, taste, and intuition. And you start building it up here.
BASICS
You need at least item from each class:
FAT
vegetable oil (olive, canola, sunflower. Neutral tasting, it will allow the taste of the vegetable to shine)
butter (salted/unsalted. If salted, obviously taste before adding more salt when seasoning! Adds oomph)
flavored oil EG: garlic oil (my favorite, it adds tons of flavor and for this reason will also go under seasoning)
reason: you will need some fat to add some richness to the soup, and the fat will add depth to the flavor profile when sautee-ing the vegetables, thus resulting in a more robust, full-tasting soup.
VEGETABLE
edamame (try mixing in a teaspoon of miso. It's fantastic)
carrot
asparagus
pea
corn
celery
cabbage (yes! even cabbage!)
etc
AND
onion (I recommend vidalias over yellows)
AND
potato
reason: you MUST have the onion to add depth of flavor. The onion, caramalized in the fat, will set the outline to the soup. The potato adds the backbone, the heartiness and calorific oomph that your tastebuds and stomach will appreciate, and together, these two humble vegetables will allow your chosen vegetables to shine through the soup. Some will say that the potato is not mandatory, but I say it is. Just choose to put in less if you are wary of super thick, rib-sticking soups (as I am).
LIQUID
water (neutral tasting, very important when thinning in the end)
chicken stock
vegetable stock
THICKENING INGREDIENT
milk (will definitely get you closer to the "cream of xxx" taste)
creme fraiche (can only imagine good things this will do to your soup!)
potato (it truly is the thickening ingredient, and enables the meal to be vegan or vegetarian. Like I mentioned earlier, play with the amount of potato to get to the right consistency)
reason: you need this to bind the soup together, or else the taste of the soup will not come together and it will just be a thin-tasting, insipid, oliver-twist-eque-"please, may I have some more"- mess.
SEASONING
salt (sea, kosher, smoked (eh,) pink, etc)
cracked black pepper
garlic oil (I recommend)
miso paste (for vegans or vegetarians who need more umami than what water or veggie stock can offer)
broken up sour cream and onion lays potato chips (my guilty pleasure)
ground cayenne pepper
a spritz of lemon juice (for brightness)
so pick at least one from each class, or mix around to find your favorite balance. Personally, for FATS I like a combination of garlic oil and butter.. Very delicious. For VEGETABLES, I have had great success with frozen peas, a carrot and corn blend, and edamame. I have always also used a mix of chicken stock and water as the LIQUID. The chicken stock adds great flavor, and I top it off with water to prevent the chicken taste from being too overwhelming. Potato has always been my choice for thickening ingredient. I am not particularly fond of milk, and have my fair share quantity wise in the form of ice cream and yoghurt. For SEASONING, always salt and pepper and garlic oil. I've found that miso paste is particularly good in the edamame soup. It just taste so.. right. Like they belong together.
METHOD
Heat up fat in a medium sized pot. If you are using butter, take care not to let it brown.
Add diced onions first, sweat over medium heat.
reason: releases the sweetness.
Add the diced potatoes. When the potatoes start to brown along the sides, add in the vegetables, continue to sweat until softened, mixing often. Season with a little salt, and some pepper.
reason: releases the sweetness, allows flavor profile to develop. Mixing prevents the veggies from steaming instead of sweating.
Add in your liquid, bring to boil, simmer until vegetables are tender.
reason: you want soup, right! not a stir fry?? Also, make sure the vegetables are tender by tasting it. How long it will take to simmer depends on the size of the diced veggies, etc. Estimate about 20 minutes. Add just enough liquid to cover all your vegetables and simmer away, topping up with water if necessary. Do not add too much, as you will need to go through trouble-shooting steps to re-thicken. But you can always thin your soup out at the end with more water. There will be minimal if no more cooking after it reaches the blender. This is because the thick soup will bubble and burst in the pan, and can scald you. Very dangerous. So make sure everything is tender so you get a smooth soup, and not a soup full of unpleasant hard grains.
Cool mixture down before pouring into the blender. (I use ice cubes since I am terrible at waiting)You might need to do this is several batches if your total volume is large. This prevents hot liquids from spitting out from the blender, which can scald you badly.
Season to taste, add hot water if soup is too thick (I find through all my soup making that this is most probably so).
Measurements, did you say? WHAT? Even after such a thorough explanation of how things work? You big baby.
A rough measurement would look like this. It depends entirely on how thick you want your soup to be, how hearty, how salty, how rich, and what types of vegetables you use. Naturally, legumes such as peas and edamames will require much less potato, and if you are using a sweet potato as your chosen vegetable, you probably don't need very much potato at all, unless you are hoping to lighten the taste of the sweet potato (not a bad idea). If you are using milk or creme fraiche as your thickener, you obviously will need MUCH LESS total liquids to cook with, duh. Don't get it? IT'S BECAUSE IT'S A LIQUID TOO.
My Edamame Soup
~1 cup edamame (I shelled it from 16 oz of edamame-in-shell)
1/2 russet potato (about 1 cup)
1/2 vidalia onion (about 1 cup)
1.5 cups chicken stock
1 cup water (1 additional cup of water to thin it out after blending)
salt, pepper, and hoba miso (a sweet miso)
1tbs garlic oil
1.5 tbs butter
My Carrot and Corn Soup
~1.5 cups fresh corn kernels (from 1 ear of corn)
2 cups carrots (chopped or diced so that it cooks faster)
1/2 russet potato (about 1 cup)
1/2 vidalia onion (about 1 cup)
2 cups chicken stock
1 cups water (additional for thinning)
salt, pepper to taste
1 tbs garlic oil
1.5 tbs butter
NEW! -- I just made this yesterday and I have to say, this was absolutely delicious. Use a longer simmer time to ensure that the celery is entirely tender.
My Celery Soup
5-6 stalks of celery, strings removed and diced (at least 3 cups)
1/2 russet potato (about 1 cup)
1/2 vidalia potato (about 1 cup)
1.5 cups chicken stock
1 cup water
salt, pepper to taste
1 tbs garlic oil
1.5 tbs butter
My Cabbage and Jalapeño Soup
shit-- I forgot to take photos.. or else this could go up as an independent post. This is what happens when I'm too motivated to eat what I cook, asap.
4 cups chopped cabbage (i used a green cabbage, but i'm sure you could use fancier ones like savoy, maybe even a red cabbage!)
1/2 Jalapeño (it could use up to one whole), diced, seeds and stem removed
1/2 russet potato (about 1 cup)
1/2 vidalia onion (about 1 cup)
2 tbs garlic oil
1.5 tbs butter
2 cups chicken stock (unlike other veggies, cabbage is rather bland, so I upped the chicken stock)
1.5 cups water
salt, pepper to taste
Same method, just make sure to put in the Jalapeño before the cabbage so it can blister and lend its flavor.
I hope this helps! Honestly, a lot of cooking involves trial and error. Your preferences will certainly differ from another's, and you will have to use your own intuition and imagination to come up with a bowl of hot, savory soup that you will be proud of serving.
trouble-shooting tips #1: if your soup is too thin (what did i tell you about not adding too much liquid??) simmer half a diced potato in lightly salted water, drain and mash with a fork in a bowl, then add it to the soup, and whizz in the blender OR add some more creme fraiche. I don't recommend more milk, can't imagine how that could help much since it is in itself so liquid-y.
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