Concept cooking: Soups

I'm having teeth issues, and the next couple of months will having having more. So this is going to be a soup winter!! Let's concept cooking brainstorm soups!!

Last night for dinner I made an awesome soup. I can't have dairy, and had a lot of the last of the sweet potato leaves that were harvested when I dug the potatoes. I looked up spinach soup recipes for ideas, and hit a lot of cream based soups, that I can't have, and some boring sounding non-dairy ones. So I got creative.

Gumbo is traditionally made with a heavy roux (wheat flour browned in fat) then liquid is added, and potato peel soup is based on the idea of boiling the peels in water or broth to brown the starch off them to make a soup base. Hmmm.....
I started onions and garlic going, then diced up a couple of raw potatoes and put them in the blender with water, blended them to mush, added them to the alliums, and let it simmer a couple of hours (stir it a lot, it wants to stick!) until it was wonderfully browned deep flavored base. Added a lot of fresh parsley from the garden, salt, a bullion cube, spices, a can of really lame split pea soup, ham, then all those sweet potato leaves chopped up. Oh wow. Cream of awesome soup!! With no dairy!  I'm liking this one.

What weird things that you don't see in the standard recipes do you like to do? I'm looking for ideas, I'll be doing a lot of soup this winter.

:D

I like your idea of starting a soup by making a roux. That's kinda how I've been making these Indian-style lentil-and-mushroom soups for my wife. I like to deglaze after a roux with white wine, too.

You can do creamy stuff, by the way, just substitute coconut milk when it calls for milk, and canola oil or coconut oil or vegetable oil when it calls for ghee. Or even olive oil if it's not being used to fry/sautee.

That can of split pea soup might be lame, but made from scratch split pea soup isn't, and it's ridiculously easy too:

1. Bring a big pot of water to a boil, then dump in about 1 teaspoon of salt or 1 boullion cube for each cup of water. (I approximate this.)
2. Dump in a bag of split peas, a cutting board full of well-diced onions and carrots (and whatever other vegetables you have lying around), a tablespoon of bacon fat, and grind a bunch of black pepper on top. Stir. (If you don't have bacon fat, use olive oil.)
3. Let it come to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally for 90 minutes or until the split peas have disintegrated completely.
4. Adjust salt and pepper (I think it tastes better when it's nice and peppery), and good luck having the patience to let it cool enough to serve and not scalding your mouth on it like me and my kids do every time.

You mentioned you have a stick blender, well now you're in the black bean soup game and the butternut squash soup game!

i'm a big fan of roux as well. we also tend to avoid dairy so to "round out" soups and make them more creamy i'll often add:
-mashed sweet potato
-mashed squash
-mashed potato
-cornmeal (just a bit--even better if it's parcooked, like for polenta, or the best is masa harina)
-amaranth or quinoa flakes/flour, gives a bit of a nutrition bump as well
-a bit of red/yellow lentils, which if you're going to simmer for a while will disintegrate completely

rice porridge is one of my staple and comfort foods, and i make it out of pretty much any grain, and add whatever i'm making- either as side dishes or mixed in. you can have it sweet or salty (I prefer salty, a bit of chicken broth powder, some scallion and cilantro, maybe sesame oil). It's good on the gut (pretty much regardless of what grain you use, I like sorgum) and easy on the teeth and very nice on a cold day. The best part: throw it in the crockpot and let it do its thing all day. Just make sure you have enough water in there, usually at least 1:8 ratio for rice

Not necessarily super innovative, but for most of North America, now's the time to get the last herbs and greens out of the garden and make salted herbs. Salted herbs are a staple in all Quebec traditional soups and stews.

The salt ratio varies from one recipe to the other, but typically anything around 1:8 by volume or 1:4 by weight is reasonable. You simply chop finely all the greens and herbs (including carrot leaves, radish leaves, onion greens, limpy celery, whatever you have really), mix with the salt, pack tightly and keep in the fridge. It keeps forever and makes a perfect base for soup, as a replacement for using salt alone (of course you remove salt from the ingredients).

The beauty of the recipe is in its flexibility. I just made a batch that was just chives, because they needed to be processed in a hurry. Others I'll layer a little at a time as I prune my garden, and eventually mix all together for a big mystery blend. It will elevate any recipe, and generally you end up using less salt than you would use alone.

Kena Landry wrote:Not necessarily super innovative, but for most of North America, now's the time to get the last herbs and greens out of the garden and make salted herbs. Salted herbs are a staple in all Quebec traditional soups and stews.

Oooh! That's what I can do with all the herbs etc I haven't gotten out of the garden yet! I've been assuming I was  just going to have to accept the loss when it freezes again. I  can do that quickly!  Thank you!!

Stirring in nut butter or tahini makes for a luscious “creamy” soup without dairy. Or simmer sunflower seeds/pumpkin seeds/peanuts in broth with veggies, then purée.

I also like to add brine from sauerkraut or other ferments to the soup broth, which gives an umami flavor boost.

Was thinking about some of the weirder stuff I do in soup, besides odd spices (Indian Bay leaf is AWESOME!!)

I do a lot of squash. if you have seen my threads on decor pumpkins, you know I use a lot of types, and bake them then toss them in the freezer or canner for future use. I freeze them in cupcake pans, so I have what I call pucks, easy to toss one into soup as needed. I do some other things, parsley etc, that way too, I can do quick dinner by using them.

My neighbor called me yesterday to see if I was going to want her decor pumpkins this year when she's ready to get rid of them. Yes ma'am! She has some good ones out there right now. Couple of years ago my Thanksgiving pies were from a Blue Hubbard she had in her yard.

Fall Decor Pumpkins/squash that are excellent eating
Cooking Fall Decor pumpkins/squash

Anyways. Squash soups. I usually mix squash with either beans (white beans go with any squash, blackeye peas are quick cooking, black or cranberry beans work with heavier flavored ones) or peanut butter. Both add protein, texture, and flavor. To add peanut butter I put it in the blender with any spices that appeal to me and water, then pour that into the soup. Keeps chunks of peanut butter from scorching on  the bottom if it's dissolved well. Cooked or canned beans (leftover seasoned beans work great!) I might blender up or leave whole or smash them a bit, depending on my mood and other ingredients.

I have yet to meet a squash or pumpkin that can't be part of soup. It's REALLY rare for me to do "squash soup" that is mostly blended squash with a bit of broth and spices, that's not interesting to me. I mix it in with other things to add texture, flavor and nutrients. I just added a puck in what will be broccoli soup in a bit, as part of the back flavor. I label the pucks by variety, so I know what kind of flavor I'm adding. Mild white pumpkin gets used differently than a heavy flavored butternut, or a sweet pie pumpkin. All have their uses. Sweet pie pumpkin is good for lighting up overly dark flavors (I'm looking at you, toasted onion powder that got spilled!) White pumpkins are great for adding creaminess, good flavored Blue Jarrahdale or Blue Hubbard are my workhorse types, I put those into anything, they add body, smoothness and a burst of yum!

There is also the ‘perpetual soup’ idea where you make a big soup and add things as it runs out. My wife is going to try it with the slow cooker today using the soup she made the day before yesterday which was delicious but didn’t have an exact recipe since it’s got so much in it.