Fall weather has swept in, a little too quickly if you ask me;). I turned on my perpetual broth recently launching us into our 9 month/year soup season. With that, I thought it would be a good time to share five tips to making good soups.
There are so many reasons I love soups. Soups can easily feed a crowd. We can add more ingredients to soups to make them stretch in a pinch. They warm us up on a cold day. We can learn a basic soup recipe and then flex and add ingredients as desired to make them our own. During the fall and winter I tend to shed a few pounds to which I attribute the results to our abundant soup consumption. AND soups aren’t just a way to eat frugally; soups made with care are delicious and nutritious.
Do you ever end up with vegetables that will turn into compost in a hot minute if they aren’t used soon? Soups end up being a great way to incorporate some of these veggies that are past their prime.
My husband likes soups, and we eat a variety of soups. There is one thing he doesn’t like about soups though. If not made with sufficient substance, he often feels hungry a couple of hours later. Well last month to combat this, I thickened the soup a bit unconventionally. I didn’t use your typical cornstarch slurry to thicken it. We had some zucchini and yellow squash that needed to be used pronto, so I coined and roasted them in the oven at 450 degrees with a dash of olive oil, salt, and pepper, scooting the veggies around every 10 minutes or so until slightly browned (btw, this is a fabulous way just to eat the veggies, and I roast veggies for every Sabbath dinner we have). Anyway, I took the roasted veggies, threw them in our Vitamix with enough broth to blend. Then I threw the thick, blended squash in our tortilla soup. These types of squash have such a subtle flavor, that they can take on the flavors of the foods around them. Both my husband and I remarked how hardy the soup ended up.
So hot tip numero uno: thicken your soups to make them hardy. Besides thickening soups with zucchini and the like, I’ve also used potatoes, white beans, and pumpkin blended with broth or water. Of course the old standbys like cornstarch and flour work as well.
Number 2, salt and flavor to taste. Seems easy enough, but it’s essential, and it sometimes gets overlooked. Or people just don’t know or think that they can add more. Sometimes people are so married to a recipe that they don’t trust their tastebuds. So taste your soup, and taste again. Ask yourself, ‘what would make this better?’ Then do it! Add more garlic. After salt, it’s usually more garlic that is needed, so add it or Italian seasonings, or whatever is lacking.
Number 3, whether or not you are using a crock-pot (but DEFINITELY do this if you are using a crock-pot), sauté your onions in a cast iron skillet. They bring a depth of flavor that enhances your soups that is unequalled. Since I started doing this about a decade ago, I haven’t skipped this important step. I used to just throw all of the ingredients in the crock-pot, including the raw mirepoix (onions, celery, and carrots), turn the crock on, and go. I don’t know what got me started on cooking the onions, but I haven’t looked back. For awhile I was sautéing all of the mirepoix but found that it got too time consuming, and I often wouldn’t watch the carrot and celery well enough which left me with burnt veggies too many times. But browning those onions a bit is totally worth it! You don’t even need to do this important step at the beginning of cooking. I’ve sautéed the onions the night before, at noon the day of, and even right before serving. Just throw those onions in when you are ready.
Tip Number 4, a healthier alternative to pastas and rice in a soup that will also give you more protein is quinoa. I love that it give just a little different texture yet still satisfies my carb cravings.
Number 5, scan the fridge and freezer to see if there are any odds and ends leftover you can throw into the soup (I’m really into throwing, I guess:). You’ll feel like a winner if you use up foods that tend to get shoved back and lost in the vortex we call a refrigerator. Jonathan happened to make a chili last week and found browned ground beef in the freezer along with some raw chicken and mirepoix I had just pre-sautéed, some additional leftover chopped onions from tacos and threw those into a crock. He’s a winner!
Did I forget anything? Do you have any tips or tricks to add about making a great soup? I’m sure there are a lot more great ideas out there. Let me know what you do to make a great soup…
Want some ideas for soups, chilis and stews? Check out our list here.
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