Roasted Vegetable Stock MAKES: 3 quarts TIME: About 2 hours, largely unattended Roasting the vegetables first to brown them well adds a complex family of flavors that you don’t get otherwise. And if you use leeks in place of onions and add a few other…
Roasted Beet Borscht MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 1 hour, plus time to chill if desired; largely unattended Roasting the beets concentrates their sweet, earthy flavor and turns the soup a deep purple. No, it’s not the way my grandmother made hers, but I know…
Rich Zucchini Soup MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 45 minutes Eggs, a handful of raw rice, and grated zucchini instantly turn a simple broth into a luxurious soup, much like the silky soups and sauces of Greece and Italy. The idea is not to see the eggs but to use them for…
Pumpkin (or Winter Squash) MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 1 hour, mostly unattended I call this pumpkin soup but encourage you to experiment with some of the other members of the hard-skinned squash family (see Squash Winter), especially butternut squash. Any (except…
Potato and Leek Soup MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 30 minutes Leek-and-potato soup was once peasant food, but it’s not surprising that the combination is the basis for more elegant soups: both vegetables are available year-round, easy to handle, and flavorful. Here,…
Persian Noodle Soup Reshteh MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 2 hours, largely unattended The traditional version of this Iranian noodle and bean soup calls for a couple hard-to-find ingredients: kashk, a cheese made by drying yogurt and reshteh, the long, thick noodles…
Onion Soup MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 1 hour People think of onion soup as fancy, but the most exotic ingredients you need here are fresh parsley and thyme. Even without those, an onion soup made with just pantry stalwarts”onions, bay leaves, garlic, and oil (for a…
One-Hour Vegetable Stock MAKES: about 1 quart TIME: 1 hour, somewhat unattended There are a few differences between this and the preceding recipe: here you cut the vegetables into smaller pieces, which extracts greater flavor; you pan-cook them first, which browns…
North African Couscous Soup MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 20 minutes The texture of couscous in broth is extremely comforting, so if you have couscous and tomato paste in your pantry, a bowl of this soup should be in your very near future. If you have no fennel or…
Mushroom Stock MAKES: about 6 cups TIME: About 1 hour Mushroom stock has a pronounced mushroom flavor that might compete with other ingredients; for most of the soups in this chapter, you will probably want to use one of the preceding three vegetable stocks or plain…
Mushroom Stew MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 45 minutes I don’t often use flour to thicken soups because there are more flavorful and nutritious ways to give them body (see Giving Soups More Body). But there are exceptions, like the Corn Chowder and this…
Mushroom Barley Soup MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 45 minutes Taking an untraditional approach to the classic Eastern European “grandmother” soup (where the ingredients are usually put in a pot with some beef and boiled), this delivers real heartiness and a depth of…