These days I rarely use cookbooks, but when I do it’s for inspiration. As a longtime chef I’ve developed a culinary skill set and intuition. Cooking is faster and easier with a knowledge of techniques and skills.
If you yearn to be freed from the shackles of recipes, soup is a great place to begin. Soup offers much and requires little.
The father of French chefs, Georges Auguste Escoffier in his “Le Guide Culinaire” classifies soups into two categories: “clear” and “thick.” Thick soups are puréed, thickened or stew-like soups and creamy bisques. Clear soups consist of clear broth and a winning combination of ingredients.
Good stock or broth underlies the best soup. Whether it’s vegetable, fish, meat or poultry, don’t resort to cans and dry packets. Homemade stock will grace your soups with a clarity and integrity that no factory-made facsimile can match. Stocks (a base for many dishes) or broths (intended for soup) may be light or dark. Generally, light stocks contain light-colored ingredients such as chicken and fish and sweated vegetables, dark stocks use roasted or browned foods and darker meats.
If you have limited time prepare mini-stocks or infusions with roasted vegetables, dried mushrooms or the leftover bones from a grilled chicken breast or roasted turkey or shrimp shells and diced onion, celery, carrot and parsley stems. Cover with cold water and simmer 30 minutes. Japanese cooks prepare the surprisingly flavorful dashi, a quick stock, from shaved, dried fish and kelp, which they use as a base for miso soup, sauces and noodle dishes.
Soup doesn’t always require stock or broth. Water, mushroom-soaking water, wine, beer, cider, cream, milk or coconut milk can all step in as willing substitutes. Boost the flavor of stockless soups with sautéed, grilled or roasted aromatic vegetables and highly flavorful ingredients like clam juice, sherry, miso, dried mushrooms, legumes, shallots, roasted garlic, infused oils, fish or soy sauce, ground nuts and nut butters, olive paste, spices and herbs.
Clear soups with thoughtful combinations send a well-defined flavor message. With a Mexican theme in mind you might layer diced tomato, roast pork or turkey, avocado and corn chips into a bowl of hot chicken stock. Garnish with cilantro. Rich stock and classic combos of ingredients can result in an endless parade of terrific soups.
Thick soup draws on a large vocabulary of thickeners: roux (flour and butter cooked together), potato flour, cooked grains like rice and barley, cooked beans, puréed fruit, cooked vegetables, cream, coconut milk, egg, cheese, bread, crackers, ground nuts and nut butters, herb pastes, cornstarch, arrowroot and duck’s blood. The most successful imbue a soup with flavor while adding body.
All soup benefits from a base of the aromatic vegetable combination known in French as mirepoix — that humble mixture of onions, carrots and celery (and sometimes leeks). Sautéing intensifies their flavor. Include other aromatics like mushrooms, shallots, ginger, garlic, chilies, lemongrass or tomatoes.
The French may have codified, primped and tidied soup, but it will always retain a certain marvelous, unruly and earthy character. Create a pot of soup from homemade stock and whatever is in your refrigerator. Invite company to share it. Allow soup to speak its universal language of comfort and connection as we inhabit winter.
Soup Skills
Sauté or brown base ingredients like mirepoix, meat, mushrooms or just onions in olive oil or butter or coconut oil to bring out flavor. Infuse spices and dried herbs into this base.Prepare homemade stock from leftover bones and mirepoix vegetables.Add umami-rich ingredients like tomato paste or a Parmigiano-Reggiano rind to simmering soup for deep, rich savoriness.Use pre-roasted meat or vegetables for richer flavor.Enrich and thicken soup with puréed cooked legumes, heavy cream, coconut milk, ground roasted nuts and nut butters.For more complexity, vary textures: garnish a creamy soup with crunchy nuts or a clear soup with dumplings and bits of roasted chicken, cooked carrot and chopped parsley.Garnish soups to brighten flavor: fresh lemon juice, a drizzle of yogurt or olive oil or chopped herbs.Serve hot soups hot, cold soups cold.
Anthony Bourdain’s Mushroom Soup
— Adapted from “Les Halles Cookbook”
Yields 4 servings
4 T. butter
1 T. olive oil
2 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 oz. good quality sherry like dry oloroso
1 lb. mixed mushrooms, wiped clean, trimmed and sliced
4 C. chicken stock, more as needed
3 sprigs thyme
In a large Dutch oven, melt two tablespoons butter with olive oil over medium heat. Add shallots and thyme. Sauté shallots until translucent. Pour in sherry and cook until almost dry.
Stir in mushrooms and remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Sweat mixture over medium heat until they give off moisture and soften, about 6 to 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in stock and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature. Simmer soup partially covered 30 to 45 minutes.
Remove thyme stems. Using an immersion blender or blender, carefully purée soup (in batches if using blender). Adjust seasonings. Bring soup to a simmer. Serve immediately with some good bread and a drizzle of lemon juice, crème fraiche or olive oil.
Greek Avgolemono
This is a creamy, luscious and light soup that is the perfect starter to any meal.
Yields 4 to 6 servings
4 C. chicken broth
1/3 C. white rice, rinsed and drained
2 large eggs
Juice of one lemon, to taste
Optional garnish: 2 to 3 T. chopped Italian parsley or 1/4 C. finely sliced escarole
Heat chicken broth to a low simmer and add rice. Cover pot and simmer rice until al dente, about 10 minutes.
When ready to serve the soup, whisk eggs and half the lemon juice together with a little salt in a bowl. Ladle 1/2 cup hot broth into the bowl and whisk. Remove soup from heat. Pour egg-broth-lemon mixture into the soup, while whisking it gently.
Reheat soup before serving. If the soup broth boils the eggs will curdle. Keep soup at a low simmer. Garnish simmering soup with Italian parsley or escarole. Season soup with salt and more lemon juice for a bright flavorful taste. Ladle into bowls and serve.
Roasted Squash and Pear Soup with Fried Sage
Yields 6 to 8 servings
2-1/2 lb. butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
3 T. unsalted butter
16 to 24 sage leaves, finely sliced
3 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 leeks, white only, cleaned and diced
2-inch piece of ginger root, peeled and finely diced
2 pears, peeled, seeded and diced
4 to 6 C. chicken or vegetable stock, more as needed
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place squash on a cookie sheet and bake cut side down until tender, about one hour. When squash is cool, scrape out flesh into a bowl. Set aside. Heat two tablespoons butter in a small skillet until sizzling. Add sliced sage leaves and simmer over moderate heat until tender. Season with salt and set aside.
Heat a soup pot on medium heat, add remaining butter and oil. When fat is hot, add onion and leeks. Sweat (cook with no color) on medium heat until soft. Add ginger and cook 1 minute.
Reduce heat to a simmer. Add pears, reserved squash and stock; simmer 20 to 30 minutes. Remove pot from heat and purée soup (in batches as necessary). A blender or food processor will produce the smoothest purée, an immersion blender the quickest. Season to taste with salt and pepper; adjust consistency with stock or water. To serve, ladle hot soup into bowls. Top each bowl with fried sage leaves plus butter.
Sweet Potato, Wild Rice and Turkey Soup
This is the perfect after-Thanksgiving soup. Prepare a stock from the roasted bones. Toss some remaining meat into the finished soup.
Yields 8 to 10 servings
1/2 C. wild rice
3 to 4 T. olive oil
1-1/2 to 2 C. diced onion
1 C. diced celery
1 C. diced carrot
3 C. peeled and diced sweet potato
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. dried oregano
2 qt. (8 cups) chicken or turkey stock
2 full C. diced roasted turkey breast or dark meat, about 1/2 pound
Garnish: 4 T. chopped Italian parsley
Rinse and drain rice. Pour into a small saucepan with 3 cups cold water. Bring to a boil and lower heat. Cover and simmer rice until the grains pop open, about one hour. Periodically check the water level. Turn off heat and rest rice 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a soup pot. Stir in onion, celery and carrot; cook over moderate heat until soft. Add sweet potato, bell pepper, garlic and oregano and cook a few minutes more.
Add stock and bring soup to a boil. Lower heat and simmer soup 15 to 20 minutes. Add drained rice and diced turkey breast. Heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley. Serve hot.