How To: Build a Soup
16 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
I adore soup. It’s my favorite lunch. It’s what I want when I feel the sniffles coming on. It’s what I want on a cold day — not that there are actually that many cold days around here.
I also adore soup because it’s the perfect way to use up kitchen remnants. I could analogize here to cloth remnants and quilts, but I’ll spare you.
I don’t want to say that there’s an ART to making good soup, that’s just pretentious. However, there is a simple technique to building a soup from remnants that will help you get one made up in no time!
Step 1 - Base Flavors
You can give your soup a great foundation by cooking aromatic vegetables in olive oil or butter for a few minutes. Olive oil and butter are both great, but do give different flavor to a soup. I don’t think one is better than the other . . . it’s a personal preference sort of decision.
Common aromatic vegetables are onions, celery, carrots, garlic, fennel, leeks, ginger, and lemongrass. Think of the classic French mirepoix (onions, celery, and carrot) or the Cajun mirepoix, also referred to as the holy trinity (onions, celery, and green bell peppers).
One thing to note here: if you’re going to have meat in your soup, this is the time to brown it up. Once it’s browned up, you generally can deglaze your soup pot with a bit of liquid and you’ll have all the fat you need to finish off the soup. Continue along with adding the veggies and cooking them up as they need.
Step 2: Seasoning
Your seasonings can be as simple as salt and black pepper or a bay leaf. You can also use spice blends such as curry, vadouvan, or McCormick’s Italian Seasoning. This is all about the flavors you like, and to a greater extent, what you have on hand.
Add the seasonings and then heat them until you can smell their fragrance.
Steps 3 and 4: Add the liquid and your main ingredient.
Okay – these steps interchange depending on what sort of soup I’m making. If I’m making a soup that I’m going to puree, such as a potato soup, I add the potatoes and then just enough liquid to cover. If I’m going to make a chicken soup, I add the liquid first.
Liquids that I’ve used: broth, stock, water, juice, wine and beer (or a combination thereof).
Generally, you want to add your main ingredients with the longest cooking time first. For example: mushrooms, then potatoes; potatoes, then spinach; or uncooked rice, then tomatoes.
Other considerations: veggies that you want to melt into the broth should go in first; fresh herbs generally give better flavor if they go in at the end; and already cooked leftovers should be added at the end.
Step 5: Taste and adjust the seasoning
Don’t be afraid to taste as you go and adjust the seasonings!
