Soups, basic and tasty
Soup can be a meal in itself. It is a meal to fall back on in an emergency, or to welcome guests for an impromptu dinner party. On this page I will review, with slight revisions, my various soup postings. I'll try to order them from the simplest and quickest, to those that require more advance planning. It is possible to use canned and packaged ingredients and combine them in ways that make them seem home made. The last two on the list, Carrot Soup and Tomato Soup use a blender.
If you want to feed a group, you can simply combine a bullion or stock with canned vegetable juice. Add a little parsley or some grated cheese if you wish, but these are not necessary. This vegetable soup has the advantage that it can be served in cups, with or without spoons. Crackers and cheese or sandwiches make a good accompaniment for a light meal. This is about the simplest soup I can think of.
List of soups with dates they were first posted:
Basic soup—Jan 2013
Greek Lemon soup—Feb 2013
Chowders (2) –July 2013
Leek & potato soup—July 2013
Vegetable soup—Mar 2014
Spaghetti sauce—Jan 2013
Carrot Soup with Ricotta Cheese--June 2013
Cream of Tomato Soup--May 2013
If you want to feed a group, you can simply combine a bullion or stock with canned vegetable juice. Add a little parsley or some grated cheese if you wish, but these are not necessary. This vegetable soup has the advantage that it can be served in cups, with or without spoons. Crackers and cheese or sandwiches make a good accompaniment for a light meal. This is about the simplest soup I can think of.
List of soups with dates they were first posted:
Basic soup—Jan 2013
Greek Lemon soup—Feb 2013
Chowders (2) –July 2013
Leek & potato soup—July 2013
Vegetable soup—Mar 2014
Spaghetti sauce—Jan 2013
Carrot Soup with Ricotta Cheese--June 2013
Cream of Tomato Soup--May 2013
Basic Soup
If you have a little more time to shop and to cook, you can make tasty chicken soup. Your shopping cart should include:
Alternately, you can cut up the celery and onions, sauté them and then add the broth or bullion. Cook until the vegetables are tender.
Another possibility is to purchase the celery and onion already cut up. I see these vegetables prepared and packaged together, and sometimes with carrots. The carrots are a good addition.
- Celery
- Onions
- Chicken broth or bullion
Alternately, you can cut up the celery and onions, sauté them and then add the broth or bullion. Cook until the vegetables are tender.
Another possibility is to purchase the celery and onion already cut up. I see these vegetables prepared and packaged together, and sometimes with carrots. The carrots are a good addition.
What else can you do with Basic Soup?
Once you have made the clear version of Basic Soup, you can use it in many ways. I usually freeze some to keep on hand for making gravy and sauces. Add a tablespoon of soy sauce to a cup of basic soup and then thicken it with corn starch to make a basic gravy.
In order of least to most ingredients, you can flavor with Basic Soup: Most of these recipes follow.
In order of least to most ingredients, you can flavor with Basic Soup: Most of these recipes follow.
- Egg Drop Soup--Beat an egg and stir it into hot soup. The soup should be just below the boiling point. Be careful not to let it boil.
- Greek Lemon Soup
- Vegetable Soup
- Potato Soup
- Corn Chowder
- Potato Leek Soup
- Stuffing (without turkey)
Greek Lemon Soup
Greek Lemon Soup is one of my granddaughters' favorite soups. It is a family recipe adapted from several cookbook recipes. We like it any time of year. We find it is a good comfort food when someone is not feeling well. The lemon adds just enough tartness to enhance the chicken flavor.
You can experiment with these proportions to see what works for you.
Ingredients:
Procedure:
You can experiment with these proportions to see what works for you.
Ingredients:
- 4 cups "Basic Soup"
- 1/4 cup rice
- 2 eggs
- The juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons)
Procedure:
- Boil the rice in the "Basic Soup" for 15-20 minutes; until the rice is tender but not soft. Then remove it from the heat.
- Beat the eggs in a separate bowl until they are light.
- Beat the lemon juice into the eggs.
- Continue beating the egg mixture, and slowly ladle a cup of the "Basic Soup" into it. Be careful to add the soup to the eggs slowly so that you do not cook the eggs at this point
- Whisk the remainder of the "Basic Soup" and pour the egg mixture slowly into it.
- Heat the soup until it almost boils, stirring constantly. Do not let it actually boil. You want the eggs to thicken the soup slightly.
- Enjoy!
Old-Fashioned Chowder
Three key ingredients in chowder are potatoes, onions and milk. Old recipes for chowder start with salt pork and include plenty of cream. These would make a delicious, rich chowder, but today we aim to reduce the amount of salt and fats in our diet. So, my modern take on this old favorite uses a little bacon instead of salt pork and skim milk instead of cream.
Chowders come in several varieties—corn, fish, and clam—are probably the best-known. The New England version of these chowders starts uses milk, as I have mentioned. A New York style of clam chowder omits milk and adds vegetables.
Without corn, fish or clams, your chowder is simply a potato soup. That is what I’ll explain today. This potato soup is good for a Saturday lunch or a vacation meal. It is simple to prepare and does not require many ingredients or much equipment. One does not need to measure carefully, but to provide a sense of proportions that work, I measured my ingredients today.
Choices: If I have dried milk on hand, I use that as listed below. If I don't have it, I reduce the quantity of basic stock and add liquid milk. I aim to keep the same total of liquid. The liquid milk should not boil, it should be added at the end, and just heated to serving temperature.
Note: For pictures of the preparation of chowder, see the blog of July 4, 2013.
Ingredients for Potato Soup (Serves three):
- 2 slices bacon
- 1 small onion (about 100 g.) chopped
- 3 potatoes (about 400 g.) cut into chunks
- 3 ½ cups basic soup stock* (825 ml.)
- 3 ¼ ounces of dried skim milk (90 g.)
Procedure:
Cut up the bacon into small pieces (about ½ inch.) If you don’t have a good sharp knife available, you can skip this step and wait until the bacon is crisp, then break it into pieces. The crisp bacon is going to be used as garnish on top of the soup.
Cook the bacon slowly in the pan in which you will make the chowder. This will leave bacon fat in the pan ready to flavor the chowder. After the bacon is crisp, remove it.
Sauté the onion in the bacon fat over gentle heat until it is translucent, but not browned. Add the potatoes, then the soup stock.
Bring the soup to a boil and cook it until the potatoes are soft. Test for done-ness by piercing a piece of potato with a fork.
Remove the soup from the heat. Use a whisk, fork or spoon to stir in the milk powder. Return the pan to the heat and re-heat the soup to serving temperature. Your chowder is complete.
Ladle into bowls and garnish with the bacon pieces.
Crackers are a traditional accompaniment to chowders. Hard crackers like oyster crackers, pilot crackers or milk crackers work well. I like to break crackers into my soup and let them soak up the liquid.
Happy Cooking,
Ruth Ann
Note: * I make basic soup (Blog of 01/05/2013) at my convenience and keep some on hand in my freezer. If you do not have basic soup, you can substitute your favorite bullion or purchased stock. You could enhance the flavor by adding some chopped celery along with the onion, and putting in a bay leaf while the potatoes are cooking.
Variations on Chowder
Corn Chowder is essentially Potato Chowder with corn added. You can add canned corn or cooked frozen corn. If you have served fresh corn on the cob and have some left over, you could cut off those kernels and put them into chowder.
To make fish chowder, you need to start a little earlier in the process. Cook the fish along with the potatoes. What kind of fish? Cod or haddock are old standbys for chowder. If you have access to a knowledgeable person who is selling fish, ask for advice. With fish, it is especially important not to overcook it. You want to end up with bite-size pieces of fish, but you can start with larger chunks and break them up after they have cooked.
For New England clam chowder, the easiest way is to use canned clams. Bottled clam broth can also be used instead of basic soup for the liquid in which you cook the potatoes. Older recipes call for using fresh clams, but if you are not near the shore, that is not an option.
The same accompaniments go with all these chowders--crisp bits of bacon and crackers. Put the crackers right in the soup, then add the bacon as a garnish. Here I have used small oyster crackers, sometimes called oysterettes. Plain saltines could work too. I could not find my old favorites called milk crackers. Experiment with what you have available and see what works for you.
Happy Cooking,
Ruth Ann
PS I have found that Royal Lunch Milk Crackers are no longer made by Nabisco. They were a good accompaniment to chowders. Vermont Common Crackers are still available though from the Vermont Country Store. These are the old-fashioned cracker barrel style crackers.
To make fish chowder, you need to start a little earlier in the process. Cook the fish along with the potatoes. What kind of fish? Cod or haddock are old standbys for chowder. If you have access to a knowledgeable person who is selling fish, ask for advice. With fish, it is especially important not to overcook it. You want to end up with bite-size pieces of fish, but you can start with larger chunks and break them up after they have cooked.
For New England clam chowder, the easiest way is to use canned clams. Bottled clam broth can also be used instead of basic soup for the liquid in which you cook the potatoes. Older recipes call for using fresh clams, but if you are not near the shore, that is not an option.
The same accompaniments go with all these chowders--crisp bits of bacon and crackers. Put the crackers right in the soup, then add the bacon as a garnish. Here I have used small oyster crackers, sometimes called oysterettes. Plain saltines could work too. I could not find my old favorites called milk crackers. Experiment with what you have available and see what works for you.
Happy Cooking,
Ruth Ann
PS I have found that Royal Lunch Milk Crackers are no longer made by Nabisco. They were a good accompaniment to chowders. Vermont Common Crackers are still available though from the Vermont Country Store. These are the old-fashioned cracker barrel style crackers.
Leek and Potato Soup
This simple Leek and Potato Soup comes from the cookbook French Cooking for the Home by Louis Diat. ( See my cookbooks page.) As you can see, it is a simple, straightforward recipe that is similar to American chowders. I am puzzled as to why it is not more common in the United States. As I wondered about the absence of leeks here, I made two discoveries.
First, I discovered that vichyssoise, the puréed version of leek and potato soup that is served cold, is not a traditional French soup, but probably originated in the United States in the early twentieth century. In fact, Louis Diat who was a chef at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel helped to popularize it.
Second, I discovered that there is more than one method of cutting up leeks and removing the dirt from between the leaves. Pictures of two methods of cutting up and cleaning leeks are shown on the orginal blog describing this soup. It was July 16, 2013.
I suggest you enjoy the distinctive, mild flavor that leeks add to soups.
Happy Cooking,
Ruth Ann
First, I discovered that vichyssoise, the puréed version of leek and potato soup that is served cold, is not a traditional French soup, but probably originated in the United States in the early twentieth century. In fact, Louis Diat who was a chef at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel helped to popularize it.
Second, I discovered that there is more than one method of cutting up leeks and removing the dirt from between the leaves. Pictures of two methods of cutting up and cleaning leeks are shown on the orginal blog describing this soup. It was July 16, 2013.
I suggest you enjoy the distinctive, mild flavor that leeks add to soups.
Happy Cooking,
Ruth Ann
Variations on Leek and Potato Soup
Texture can be as important as flavor in how we perceive foods. This is especially true with soups. The same basic leek and potato soup can be served as a chowder with pieces of potato and leek floating in a hot milk broth (my previous blog), or as a smooth, puréed soup as seen above. The basic difference is only the texture.
We can also vary the ingredients. I use ricotta cheese when I make the puréed version. I find that I can be flexible about the quantities, but I try to have about equal quantities of leeks and potatoes.
Leek and Potato Soup, puréed in a blender
Ingredients:
Wash and cut up the leeks. (See my previous blog for how to do this.) In a heavy saucepan, cook them gently in a little butter. While the leeks are cooking, peel and dice the potatoes.
Add the diced potatoes to the leeks and cover with the broth. Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer the soup until the potatoes are tender. Remove from the heat, and stir in powdered milk if you are using that.
Process the soup in a blender. I find that I need to start with the blender only about 1/3 full, process that soup, then gradually add more and process it. When the vegetables are all smooth, add the ricotta cheese and combine that using the blender.
Return the soup to the pan and heat it just to serving temperature. Serve with your favorite bread or crackers.
*Note I flavor it with a concentrated chicken flavoring called "Better than Bullion." This flavoring is recommended by Cook's Illustrated, but they reduce the salt by using only 3/4 teaspoon of flavoring to one cup of liquid.
Quick and Easy Onion and Potato Soup for Two
Have you tried instant mashed potatoes? I use Idaho Spuds brand and find them satisfactory when I need to save time. I have found I can even make a satisfactory soup with them. Here is how I did it:
Ingredients:
In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter and then gently cook the onion. Do not let the onion brown, just let it get translucent.
Add the hot water and chicken flavoring. Bring them to a boil.
Remove from the heat and stir in the potato flakes and then the ricotta cheese. Use a whisk if you have one handy.
Reheat and serve.
Happy Cooking,
Ruth Ann
We can also vary the ingredients. I use ricotta cheese when I make the puréed version. I find that I can be flexible about the quantities, but I try to have about equal quantities of leeks and potatoes.
Leek and Potato Soup, puréed in a blender
Ingredients:
- 2 leeks, cleaned and sliced
- 1½ cups potatoes, diced (Use boiling potatoes rather than baking potatoes.)
- 2 ½ cups chicken broth (basic home made broth, or your favorite commercial broth*
- 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
- powdered milk (optional)
Wash and cut up the leeks. (See my previous blog for how to do this.) In a heavy saucepan, cook them gently in a little butter. While the leeks are cooking, peel and dice the potatoes.
Add the diced potatoes to the leeks and cover with the broth. Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer the soup until the potatoes are tender. Remove from the heat, and stir in powdered milk if you are using that.
Process the soup in a blender. I find that I need to start with the blender only about 1/3 full, process that soup, then gradually add more and process it. When the vegetables are all smooth, add the ricotta cheese and combine that using the blender.
Return the soup to the pan and heat it just to serving temperature. Serve with your favorite bread or crackers.
*Note I flavor it with a concentrated chicken flavoring called "Better than Bullion." This flavoring is recommended by Cook's Illustrated, but they reduce the salt by using only 3/4 teaspoon of flavoring to one cup of liquid.
Quick and Easy Onion and Potato Soup for Two
Have you tried instant mashed potatoes? I use Idaho Spuds brand and find them satisfactory when I need to save time. I have found I can even make a satisfactory soup with them. Here is how I did it:
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup onions, minced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 1/2 cups hot water
- 1 teaspoon Better than Bullion chicken flavoring
- 1/3 cup Idaho Spuds instant mashed potato flakes
- 1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter and then gently cook the onion. Do not let the onion brown, just let it get translucent.
Add the hot water and chicken flavoring. Bring them to a boil.
Remove from the heat and stir in the potato flakes and then the ricotta cheese. Use a whisk if you have one handy.
Reheat and serve.
Happy Cooking,
Ruth Ann
Vegetable Soup
For a quick and easy vegetable soup, combine equal parts of Basic Soup (see recipe at the top of this page) and tomato juice [about 3 cups each] and cook in a four quart pan. You can add all sorts of mixed vegetables, frozen or fresh. Today I used onions, green peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and kidney beans. I also added elbow macaroni. I recommend putting in the vegetables before the pasta and then cooking the pasta for the amount of time on the box. This is a great and easy dish that's not too time consuming! This recipe was first posted in March 2014.
Spaghetti Sauce
To add more complex flavors to your soup, start with this spaghetti sauce as a base. There used to be a restaurant called "Peter Christian's" in Hanover, NH. They served very tasty simple meals and they also published a cookbook with some of the recipes they used. This recipe for spaghetti sauce came from that cookbook. I may have made some minor changes but nothing major. This recipe was first posted in January 2013.
Heat in a heavy soup kettle:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 Cups chopped onion (2 medium onions)
- 1 cup chopped green pepper (1 pepper)
- 2 garlic cloves. minced
Add and combine well:
- 6 cups crushed or stewed tomatoes (2 28-ounce cans)
- 1/4 cup red wine
- 2 teaspoons basil
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 1 teaspoon sugar or honey
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- I cup tomato puree or sauce
Taste and correct the seasonings.
Use as a base for Italian dishes and soups.
Happy cooking,
Ruth Ann
Carrot Soup with Ricotta Cheese |
I find this a very satisfying soup, good for lunch or with dinner. Since you need to use a blender, I wouldn't call this soup "quick and easy" but it is a simple soup with a short list of ingredients. My personal preference is for a low-salt rather bland version, but you can easily adapt it to suit your taste. Since it is processed in a blender, it is a smooth soup. The original recipe, by Barbara Kafka, was printed in the New York Times. I use her proportions, but vary the quantities and the procedures. The original posting, in June 2013 has pictures illustrating steps in the procedure.
Basic ingredients:
Seasonings:
Procedure:
Step 1. Cook the carrots in the basic soup until the carrots are soft. This may take about 20 minutes depending on the size of the carrots. If you are using whole carrots, peel them and cut them up. I use a 3-quart pan on top of the stove for this step, but you could use a microwave.
Step 2. Use a blender to smooth out the carrot-broth mixture. I do this a little at a time. I put a little broth and some carrots in the blender, process them, then add another batch and process it. I do this about 4 times.
Step 3. Add the ricotta and the seasonings. If the blender is full, pour some of the mixture back into the cooking-pan. Add the ricotta and the seasonings to the remainder and process them until the mixture is evenly colored.
Step 4. Pour the ricotta mix back into the pan and mix it with the soup that is already in the pan. These will combine easily with a spoon or a whisk.
Step 5. Re-heat the soup without letting it boil. Taste it and correct the seasonings. Add more cumin, lemon juice and/or salt to get the desired flavor.
Sit down and enjoy it.
Happy Cooking,
Ruth Ann
Basic ingredients:
- 1 pound carrots (454 gr)
- 3 ½ cups basic soup* or chicken broth (.83 liters, or 828 ml. )
- 1 1/3 cups ricotta cheese (315 ml)
Seasonings:
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin, or maybe more
- 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
- Optional salt
Procedure:
Step 1. Cook the carrots in the basic soup until the carrots are soft. This may take about 20 minutes depending on the size of the carrots. If you are using whole carrots, peel them and cut them up. I use a 3-quart pan on top of the stove for this step, but you could use a microwave.
Step 2. Use a blender to smooth out the carrot-broth mixture. I do this a little at a time. I put a little broth and some carrots in the blender, process them, then add another batch and process it. I do this about 4 times.
Step 3. Add the ricotta and the seasonings. If the blender is full, pour some of the mixture back into the cooking-pan. Add the ricotta and the seasonings to the remainder and process them until the mixture is evenly colored.
Step 4. Pour the ricotta mix back into the pan and mix it with the soup that is already in the pan. These will combine easily with a spoon or a whisk.
Step 5. Re-heat the soup without letting it boil. Taste it and correct the seasonings. Add more cumin, lemon juice and/or salt to get the desired flavor.
Sit down and enjoy it.
Happy Cooking,
Ruth Ann
Tomato Soup Using Thin White Sauce
This soup is called Cream of Tomato Soup. We have made a video of this procedure and it is up now. To view it, go to Videos. This recipe was originally posted in May 2013.
Ingredients:
For the white sauce:
Procedure:
Step 1. Sauté the onion and celery ( in 1/2 tablespoon butter) over low medium heat until the onion is translucent. Add the canned tomatoes and the flavorings and simmer for 10 minutes.
Step 2. Pour the tomato mixture into a blender and process until it is smooth.
Step 3. Rinse out the pan, then make the white sauce. Using the same pan, start by melting the ( 1 1/2 tablespoons of) butter. Stir in the flour. Keep stirring and heating until the butter-flour mixture is bubbly. Let it cook for a minute or two and continue to stir.
Step 4. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the hot milk. Put it back on the heat and continue stirring and heat it until the sauce thickens. It may be hard to recognize this since this is a thin sauce. You'll see steam rising from the pan and the sauce will look slightly thick on the spoon.
Step 5. Remove it from the heat and pour in the tomato mixture. Stir until it is evenly blended, then return the pan to the heat. The soup is finished, it just needs to be heated to serving temperature. Be careful that it does not boil as milk mixtures should not boil.
Note about this recipe: the simplest recipe I found was in an old cookbook that belonged to my mother: America's Cook Book which was published in 1938. Basically, it says that you can make a cream soup with various vegetables if you just match the quantity of white sauce to the quantity of cooked vegetables. I also consulted my Peter Christian's Recipes for ideas about seasonings.
Happy Cooking,
Ruth Ann
Ingredients:
- 1/2 tablespoon butter
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup chopped celery
- 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
For the white sauce:
- 1 1/2 tablespoon butter
- 1 1/2 tablespoons flour
- 1 1/2 cups milk, heated
Procedure:
Step 1. Sauté the onion and celery ( in 1/2 tablespoon butter) over low medium heat until the onion is translucent. Add the canned tomatoes and the flavorings and simmer for 10 minutes.
Step 2. Pour the tomato mixture into a blender and process until it is smooth.
Step 3. Rinse out the pan, then make the white sauce. Using the same pan, start by melting the ( 1 1/2 tablespoons of) butter. Stir in the flour. Keep stirring and heating until the butter-flour mixture is bubbly. Let it cook for a minute or two and continue to stir.
Step 4. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the hot milk. Put it back on the heat and continue stirring and heat it until the sauce thickens. It may be hard to recognize this since this is a thin sauce. You'll see steam rising from the pan and the sauce will look slightly thick on the spoon.
Step 5. Remove it from the heat and pour in the tomato mixture. Stir until it is evenly blended, then return the pan to the heat. The soup is finished, it just needs to be heated to serving temperature. Be careful that it does not boil as milk mixtures should not boil.
Note about this recipe: the simplest recipe I found was in an old cookbook that belonged to my mother: America's Cook Book which was published in 1938. Basically, it says that you can make a cream soup with various vegetables if you just match the quantity of white sauce to the quantity of cooked vegetables. I also consulted my Peter Christian's Recipes for ideas about seasonings.
Happy Cooking,
Ruth Ann