Last night I decided to make a “Rainy Day Dinner” for when Jesse got home. Pictured is the feast I made for both of us: spinach & garlic-scape soup flavored with fennel, coriander, tumeric and cumin, a simple romaine & dill salad and homemade bread.
I love making these comfort food soups using whatever I have around in the house (we always have leftover CSA veggies). I use the following steps, and one can riff on this with an infinite number of variations. Here are my 6 Basic Steps for Delicious Soup:
1. Sauté some onions and garlic. I like to bring slices, or large chunks, of garlic slowly up to temperature with my oil and/or butter. This helps soften the garlic without burning it. It’s a good trick in general and will avoid nasty, bitter, garlic.
2. Next I like to add some spices, but heartier ones. I don’t know if there’s any real chemical basis for this, but I like to add larger spices, like seeds, seed pods, barks, etc. I find that using powdered or crushed (small) spices at this time just ends up muting their flavor. For this soup I used fennel seeds and cumin seeds at the start. When the onions & garlic started to get a little soft, I added the seeds so they could toast up a bit.
3. After everything has started to carmelize a bit, and the delicious brown bits start accumulating at the bottom of the pan (what the French call “fond”), I add a little something to give more depth-of-flavor. Think umami - I added a bit of oyster sauce, but you could go with anchovy (or anchovy paste), fish sauce, a demi-glace, even a bit of tomato paste.
4. Next, after letting that flavor soak into the onion and garlic, deglaze the whole thing with some wine (I used a red, cuz that’s what I was guzzling while I cooked). This can also be vinegar, or even a bit of stock (although I add a lot more of that later). Scrape all the bits off the bottom and let the wine (or whatever deglazing liquid) congeal a little and get all saucy!
5. Here is where I add the other spices. I put in ground turmeric, coriander and crushed red pepper. The turmeric really mediates color and flavor very well. It turned my reddish-brown mixture (colored from the wine) into a golden shiny delicacy.
6. Add your stock. I had some homemade frozen veggie stock that I defrosted. I used probably 4 - 6 cups. Bring this to a delicate boil. Here is where I added the spinach and garlic scapes (you can add whatever veggies you like: green beans, kale, asparagus, etc. - really, whatever you have around). I covered and let it gently simmer. Taste for flavor and add more water if the flavor is too concentrated. The whole process took about an hour, but the longer you let it simmer, the better. I topped the whole thing off with a bit of fresh dill (complementing the flavors of the accompanying dill salad) and a dollop of plain yogurt, and there you have it! Your own delicious, rich, completely customizable homemade soup. Good for rainy days, sunny days, and everything in between. Serve with bread to sop up the goodness!
Note: if you want to add meat, simply add it to the oil before step one. Brown it lightly and extract some of the juices for that oil, then remove it with a slotted spoon and set aside. Continue with step 1, but now you have some fat to soften those veggies. Add the meat back in at step 5 (before the stock).
Awesome tips for delicious, spur-of-the-moment homemade soup.
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