WINTER OF SOUPS

i went to a new year's day soup party yesterday. it was good times

i had a really good white bean, escarole and pancetta soup that i want to try to copy. i haven't had the time though, probably this weekend!

i made french onion soup on new year's day, using julia child's recipe.

i'm going to make red lentil soup tonight.

(curried, i think.)

just finished a vegetable and beef broth. never made a soup before, came out very nice.

going to make a thai-chinese roasted duck noodle soup when i get back to l.a. (using sanamluang on hollywood blvd as my inspiration).

What good timing! I have some butternut squash cooking right now which I am going to puree so it will be CREAMY BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP.

god bless the immersion blender.

OMG sweet potato soup is #1.

Recipe (I improvise but these are the main ingredients):

Some sweet potatoes, maybe 4 big ones, cubed or sliced (I slice em so they'll cook faster)
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
Butter/oil
Water
About a cup of milk
Ground nutmeg

Sautee the garlic & onions in a big pot with the butter. Add the sweet potato (the pot should be full) and cook it all together for a while; stir it around occasionally so the garlic/onions get mixed through a bit. Add the water (how much you add depends on how thick you want the soup to be - for a really thick soup, just two cups). Boil the hell out of it for a while, covered, until the potatoes are mushy. Run the whol lot through the food processor, then put it all back in the pot. Heat it up again and slowly add the milk and a little bit of nutmeg, stirring really well. Serve with yoghurt or sour cream on top.

made a pumpkin soup for NYE. success!

I love soup and I like to cook but I don't make it at home. Commercial split pea is probably my favorite.

http://www.sangabrielvalleymenus.com/images/reviews/sodajerks/soup.jpg

bet she makes a mean split pea

http://www.paulnoll.com/Oregon/Canning/soup-split-pea-s.jpg

Haha, convenient -- I just made up a minestrone last night. Recipe (and photo even) here:

http://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2008/01/02/autumn-minestrone-with-squash-and-kale/

V. tasty.

i had "salad soup" at that party!

We've been making stewish dishes in our Slow Cooker. The "three sisters" stew with corn, beans, squash, chorizo and various other stuff came out good. Last night we made a huge black bean/chicken chili from the same slow cooker cookbook that didn't come out so good - the recipe's suggested beer and cocoa amounts were too heavy, apparently, and it just came out tasting kind of *brown*.

ROASTED squash soup is the one for me:

Take 1 (one) large butternut squash, split it in half, discard those seeds, and remove the neck

Splash some olive oil, put salt and pepper, maybe a clove of garlic or two and some herbs in the halved squash's cavity, put it cut side down on foil in the oven at 350F for an hour.

While it roasts, slice and dice: leeks, carrots, onions, or whatever else you have on hand (celery, shallots, etc). Also peel and dice the neck of the squash.

Once yr squash is roasted, let it cool. Put some olive oil in yr pot, and sweat leeks, onions, carrots. After five minutes, put in raw diced squash neck, six cloves of garlic. Then, two minutes later add TWO TABLESPOONS HONEY. This makes for super awesome.

Then scoop out your roasted squash, and add it, +6 cups (or less, usually) stock or water. Bring to a boil, simmer for a half hour. Blend with immersion blender if you have one and eat.

I promise this is what squashes want to be turned into.

i've had grilled cheese + tomato soup about a million times this winter.

it's the SPRING OF SOUPS now, just in time cuz i'm getting sick of squash.

tonight i'm making a spring pea soup w/ english peas, green garlic, prosciutto, etc. very "stuff white people like" food. 85% of the ingredients are from the farmer's market.

No mint?

That sounds awesome!

That butternut squash soup I made...I put SAFFRON in it! It was fucking gnarly.

no, but plenty of parsley (xpost)

I promised and failed to deliver my Guinness potato soup on St Patty's Day because I made mashed potatoes the day before and intended to use them in the soup, but instead I ate them and drank the Guinness. So I guess I kind of made a stomach soup baby.

pls photoshop "stomach soup baby"

Try it with mint, sometime. Peas are somewhat sweet and parsley sounds kind of bitter to go with it for my palate. Anyway, I'm a fan of peas and mint.

I didn't make it, but about a week ago I had some duck soup that had umeboshi and some kind of very fresh chile in it.

My mum made me some toasted hazelnut and jerusalem artichoke soup the other day. Slightly odd but good.

Kind of nutty, eh, chap?

Yeah, nutty and creamy. Interesting combination.

Sounds tasty.

Not spring here yet so made potato+leek+bacon last week. yum.

I had the best tomato basil soup I've ever had in my life today at lunch. It was the perfect meal for a cold and rainy day.

There's a new local place that makes a roasted red pepper soup with gouda cheese in it that is FANTASTIC. The whole premise of the cafe is that it is focused on desserts - which I love - but when I went I actually went back for seconds on the soup.

Heinz have reintroduced pea and ham. Oh yeah.