More Soup!

Though the weather has turned fall-like twice now, today is the first cold, rainy day, and I wish I could wrap up in a blanket and watch a Katherine Hepburn movie marathon, but I have a long to-do list.  At least I have a delicious bowl of homemade soup for lunch! There is nothing like soup to warm you from the inside out.  I like all kinds of soups, but my favorites are thick and hearty types like navy bean, split pea, barley of any variety, and chowders.  I love chowder!   The definition of chowder, as well as it’s origins are broad and a bit varied; milk, or no milk, seafood, or maybe corn instead, potatoes,  yes, sometimes…  With the exception of Manhattan clam chowder which is tomato based, all other chowders seem to have cream or milk  and potatoes as main ingredients, and all are thick and hearty—meal-like I would say.

I think one of the key ingredients in all homemade soups is love.  Even in you’re just making it for yourself, soup requires just the right amount of attention to make it properly without ever getting complicated or labor intense enough to be annoying.  Measuring isn’t critical, and you should feel free to add your favorite ingredients.  For some reason my dad hated cooked carrots (a genetic predisposition I am happy not to have inherited) so when I made soup for him, no carrots.  But carrots do play a key role in soup; they add just a bit of sweetness and color, so to keep things balanced I would add tomatoes, or extra onions.  Can you make soup without singing to yourself?  I know I can’t.

Even when I made two soups daily, five days a week for the students at The General Theological Seminary where I worked from 1994-1997,  soup making time was the favorite part of my day.  I had to be creative and come up with a lot of different soups, half of which were vegetarian, and so I got to expand my soup repertoire.  I often relied on a dog-eared paperback book given to me when I was fresh out of college called Soups. Chowders & Stews by Georgia Orcutt which you can still get on Amazon for one penny (plus shipping).

One of my favorite soups from that cookbook, and one that I’ve made over and over is a surprising carrot soup, made with beef stock and flavored with sage.  Not a combination I would have thought to put together, but so deeply rich and flavorful, and so unexpected.  You might expect a carrot soup to have a flavor profile similar to a pumpkin or winter squash soup, but this soup, redolent of autumn and the earthy loaminess of fallen leaves transports me.  I wish I had some right now!

Whether you are new to cooking, or have been doing it for many years, good soup isn’t hard to achieve.  And once you’re regularly making good soup, great soup is within reach.  Some things that can infuse depth of flavor are Worcestershire, soy sauce, lemon juice or cider vinegar, sherry, balsamic vinegar, orange peel and powdered mushrooms, just to name a few.  Often when you taste soup, and it needs something, one of these (not all!) can be that missing note.  Don’t wait to get started and please don’t buy one more can of soup!  I will be adding soup recipes as fast as I can, so stay tuned, and if you have a favorite recipe please share it.  And if you’ve always wanted to know how to make a particular type of soup let me know and I’ll get a recipe posted for you!  Until then, stay warm and dry, and keep singing♥