Smooth Chickpea Soup MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 3 to 4 hours, largely unattended Starting with dried chickpeas is important here, because their cooking water becomes an essential ingredient. The basic idea is to extract as much flavor as possible from the beans, strain...
Simplest Split Pea Soup MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 11/2 hours Meat-eaters automatically associate split peas with ham bones, so many vegetarian versions of split pea soup add a smoky taste through smoked chiles like dried chipotle or ancho. Tossing a piece of...
Simple, Easy, and Fast Vegetable Stock MAKES: about 1 quart TIME: 40 minutes, somewhat unattended Within reason, any stock you make is going to add more flavor to your soups and sauces than water. If you don't have all the ingredients listed here it's a pretty minimal...
Sauerkraut Soup MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 1 hour, mostly unattended Surprising things happen when you base a soup on sauerkraut: it instantly creates a complex broth that mellows its distinct sourness and emphasizes its crisp texture and bright flavor. The first...
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 ingredients not...
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 she...
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, then,...
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...