The Infinite Joy of Flexible Soups
I mean, they're ENDLESS
I’m in the land of soup, and I don’t hate it.
Here in Romania, it’s called ciorba and it’s everywhere. I’ve been chowing down on Hungarian-style goulash, chicken soup with semolina dumplings and soups packed full of beans, vegetables and potatoes. I’ve avoided the tripe soup (too rich for my blood I’m afraid) but pretty much everything else goes straight in my gob.
It’s March which means in much of the northern hemisphere, soup is still very much on the menu. And there probably isn’t a more Capsule Pantry-friendly type of dish.
It’s just so flexible.
Mark Bittman recently wrote The Four Truths of Easy, Flexible Soups and point number one was:
You’ve already got whatever you need.
That’s especially true if your pantry roughly follows TCP storecupboard list.
So. It’s time to tackle soups, TCP-style.
First, there are four rules to making banging soups
#1 Most great soups start with a base of onion and garlic.
#2 Roasting vegetables changes everything.
#3 Don’t skimp on the extras - spices, aromatics, herbs, nuts or cheese.
#4 Add texture, always.
Here’s an example of what not to do. My mother, bless her, is not a good cook. She makes broccoli soup on the regular. My dad doesn’t like pureed soups so she overcooks small pieces of broccoli and potato in vegetable stock and serves it up as is.
Here’s what she could do to elevate her broccoli soup using those four rules:
#1 Make the base by frying onion and garlic.
#2 Roast the broccoli.
#3 Add blue cheese towards the end of cooking.
#4 Puree the soup until smooth then add croutons.
For me, point three and four are the most important. Don’t skimp on the extras and make sure you add texture. That is what elevates soup from boring-ass into something delicious. It’s where you can get creative.
Here are some incredibly flexible soup ideas using these four rules. I’m not going to give you specific measurements because, with soups, you don’t really need them. Go with what looks good.
Chicken soup, infinite ways
Get your base of onions and garlic on the go. Make sure you’ve got some shredded cooked chicken nearby. Herbs always go great with chicken - think dill, parsley or oregano - and I love to add some lemon juice for freshness.
Then the world is your chicken soup oyster.
Chicken noodle soup
Add noodles, carrots, and celery to your base. Fry in butter for 5-10 minutes before adding the stock.
Curried chicken soup
Add ginger to your base. Once the onions and garlic are cooked, add spices like cumin, curry powder, turmeric, and / or coriander powder. Fry for a few moments then add some tomato puree, stock, and chicken. Throw in some rice and simmer until the rice is cooked.
Middle eastern inspired chicken soup
Start with the base then stir in ras al hanout and tomato puree. Pour in stock, add the chicken and simmer for 10 minutes before adding a can of chickpeas.
Pureed vegetable soups
This is easy. Roast any manner of root vegetables in any combination you like along with some onions and garlic. Puree, add stock and simmer. Make sure to add those all-important extras like cheese, croutons and herbs to elevate it higher than pureed vegetable water.
Good combinations include:
Add ground cumin and coriander to parsnips.
Add fennel seed to carrots whilst roasting and throw in a squeeze of fresh orange juice at the end.
Roast garlic with courgettes and add oregano or parsley in with the stock.
Bean or lentil soups
My favourite bean soup is Greek-inspired. Start with the base then add a small amount of ground cinnamon - or even better a cinnamon stick. Add canned tomatoes and stock and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add a can of butter beans and parsley. Simmer until the beans are cooked through.
Or make a “Mediterranean” bean soup filled with vegetables like carrots, celery, bell peppers, spinach or similar and white beans. Brighten it up with lemon juice, fresh herbs and a sprinkling of hard cheese like parmesan or grana padano.
With lentils, I like to go Indian or Italian.
Indian - fry spices like ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, chilli powder or curry powder (or a combination) and if you have them, black mustard seeds. Use that base of onions, garlic (and ginger if you have it), and stock. Add lentils and simmer until the lentils have broken down.
For Italian lentils, think Mediterranean flavours like tomatoes, greens and plenty of garlic. You could also add crumbled cooked Italian sausage to the mix.
Tex-Mex soup
The idea behind a Tex-Mex-style soup is to use smoky, spicy ingredients to elevate your base.
You could start with my bastardized huevos rancheros recipe. Just add extra stock to this and boom, you’ve got a soup right there and then.
Or you can adapt that recipe to include some sort of combination of:
Roasted chicken
Canned beans
Bell peppers
Zucchinis
Dried chillies like chipotle or ancho
Add some fried strips of flour tortillas or corn tacos for that all-important texture and some fixins like cheese, soured cream, avocado and lime and you’re done.
Chowders
MAN I love chowders. They’re so comforting.
The basics of a chowder is a roux sauce - flour, butter and milk. Thin it out with extra milk and some stock, then add stuff to it. Chicken, sweetcorn, cauliflower, lobster, roasted carrots, whatever you like.
For inspiration, check out my cauliflower chowder 13+ ways here.
Cold soups
The queen of cold soups is Gazpacho. Grab the TCP flexible recipe here.
Love these recipes-they just seem so easy to make-great for someone who wants to try new ideas. Thanks