UPDATE, 9/21: The international soups' recipe link was broken over the weekend
and has been replaced with Pinterest pins to the Food Goddess board.
Soups are
great meals and they don’t always have to be complicated 50-step ordeals –
though some benefit from this process. I share recipes for people who do not
have the time or inclination to stand around for 3 hours to make soup. That’s
another kind of foodie altogether.
As a kid, I
had a love/hate relationship with soup. But as my palate matured so has my
appreciation of what soups can bring to the bowl, as it were: from pure
simplicity to elegant complexity. After all, soup at its very best is the
perfect comfort food.
Everybody has a favorite tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich memory, don't they?
When I
started writing a food column back in ’06, my second column on writer Barbara
Bretton’s website was a double whammy that combined eggs and soup and provided
recipes for three
great dishes: the Chinese egg drop soup, the Spanish Castilian garlic soup
with poached eggs, and the Greek lemon-egg soup (avgolemono).
Greek Avgolemono Soup
I’ve known
people who were afraid of making soup. Soup is the simplest meal in any
cuisine. Two factors determine how well it will taste: the base and the seasonings.
For the
base, you need more than just water. These days you can purchase stock
(chicken, beef, and vegetable) in a variety of forms from low sodium to fat
free. Whatever you need has been packaged and some of it is not only tasty but
minimally processed. From cubes to powders to actual stock, you can shop around
and find a product that meets your taste and dietary needs, if any.
Serious
Eats did a review a while back on chicken stocks that is worth reading.
For the more
experienced or discerning gourmand, there is a certain Zen-like grace that
comes from preparing your very own stock. It’s aroma therapy taken to a whole
new level because it includes a tactile component and, eventually, it will
result in pure oral-gratification.
In The Soup Book, Louis DeGouy, legendary Waldorf-Astoria chef for 30 years, said that soup “breathes
reassurance, it offers consolation; after a weary day it promotes sociability.
There is nothing like a bowl of soup, its wisp of aromatic steam teasing the
nostrils into quivering anticipation.”
The man
apprenticed with Escoffier, a man who used the words “delicate perfection” when writing about the subject.
“Soup puts the heart at ease, calms down the violence of hunger, eliminates the tension of the day, and awakens and refines the appetite.”
Click for a great version of Escoffier's Cream of Mushroom Soup
My Gastronomy
board on Pinterest has a few infographics that may be helpful in your quest
to make the perfect soup (whether you are an amateur or expert cook):
10 Easy Homemade Soups,
from Shape Magazine
Creamy, Brothy, Earthy
and Hearty Soups for the Fall Season, from Gourmandia
UPDATE: If you enjoyed this article and the recipes in it, you can link to its companion piece, a dedicated Pinterest board you can refer to any time.
