Day 11/30: Soup
- Black Bean Soup (Gluten-free) (Vegan)
- Cheddar and Carrot Chowder with Broccoli
- Creamy Carrot Soup (Gluten-free) (Vegan)
- Creamy Vegan Broccoli Soup (Gluten-free) (Vegan)
- Curried Squash Stew (Gluten-free) (Vegan)
- Faux Pho: Asian Noodle Soup (Vegan)
- Red Curry Coconut Soup (Gluten-free (Vegan)
- Roasted Carrot and Cashew Soup (Gluten-free) (Vegan)
- Southwest Green Curry Coconut Soup (Gluten-free) (Vegan)
- Tomato & Dill Bisque (Gluten-free)
- Miso Soup (Gluten-free) (Vegan)
Once upon a time I hated soup. I found pretty much nothing appealing about a mushy bowl full of overcooked ingredients and salty tasting water. Really, I don’t blame myself, considering that most of the soup I’d encountered up to my teenage years came from a can. I still don’t care for canned soup.
There were only a few exceptions to my teenage soup loathing, my father’s lobster bisque and spaghettio’s being the most notable. My Mom made stew now and then, which I thought was just about the worst stuff possible, and my experiences with chicken noodle had been more or less grotesque.
“Soup”, I thought, “who needs it?”
Around my seventeenth year, when I started picking up shifts at my first sushi restaurant, I began warming up to soup. We had two house soups at Sushi Yoshi, a miso soup, and a clear onion and mushroom soup, both of which I became surprisingly fond of during my years there. One of our weekly family meals at Sushi Yoshi was Fish Head Soup. Of all things, you’d think that would have turned me off of soup forever. Lo and behold, I loved the stuff, a rich stinky broth made from salmon and bonito, garnished with chunks of heads and fins, and peppered with scallions, carrots, and potatoes.
“Maybe”, I considered, “there’s something to this soup business after all.”
Years later, when I moved in with my older sister, Scissorina, she introduced me to Black Bean Soup and Vegetarian chili. I had warmed up to soup quite a bit by then, but I wasn’t fully converted until culinary school. That’s where I learned the secret to really great soup…
Ready for it?
The secret to making really great soup is mind-boggling in its simplicity. Just make it yourself, as much as you can manage. That means that if you have the time and inclination, make the broth at home. The difference between a soup made with homemade stock, and a soup made with canned or boxed is huge.
However, homemade soup with canned or boxed broth is still far superior in flavor to a pre-made soup. It’s one of those foods that thrives on love and attention. By preparing and cooking as many of a soup’s components as possible, you can almost guarantee that it will taste really special.
I make a lot of soup these days. It’s tasty, comforting, and relatively easy to put together. Soup is something that I can whip up from whatever I have on hand, and when I find myself with a surplus, I can freeze the rest. It’s the perfect economy food, feeding as many or as few mouths as you have around your table.
So today, as I pack away yet another batch of soup into the freezer (I’m already socking away food for baby time) I find myself awfully thankful for having opened my heart to soup. Though we may not have always seen eye to eye, it’s now one of my favorite things to eat.
Want some soup recipes? Here’s my entire collection (so far) of vegetarian soups on Mary Makes Dinner. Stay tuned. Later this week I’ll be sharing my recipe for homemade spaghettios!
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P.S. This post is part of my 30 Days With a Grateful Heart series. You can check out the rest of my posts in this series on Mary Makes Pretty, Mary Makes Babies, and here on Mary Makes Dinner. Visit Bless Her Heart to check out other bloggers that are participating in the project.