It's soup season!!
Get a big pot and a big ladle and let's dig in to some soup recipes.
At least twice now, I have had extremely vivid dreams where I am eating soup. I’m talking dreams where I can taste and smell everything, dreams that I remember for days. In the first one, I was eating French Onion Soup, and I couldn’t get the taste of those caramelized onions out of my mind for days. The second dream was actually just a couple days ago, where I went through the entire process of making my tofu noodle soup again, and also ate it. My grocery store has been out of the noodles I want, so I couldn’t make it!! But…you can!
Because this newsletter is all about SOUPS! Winter is a lovely time to throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and simmer it all together and snuggle up with a big bowl of love you’ve made for yourself. When I make soup, I make it with the intention of having leftovers, at least three meals’ worth. It takes at least an hour to make most soups, so why not get the most out of your time?
Yes, leftovers can get tiring. (Stay tuned for a newsletter on how to love your leftovers!!) But soups are really forgiving if you want to create some new flavors with your leftovers, but you still have this giant pot of soup staring at you in the fridge. You could make croutons and add them on top. You could melt different types of cheese onto some toast and put it on top. You can change around the toppings and the sides so that you’re not just eating the same thing for a week.
The process of making soup is also really forgiving. Soup is basically done when you say it’s done. You can taste throughout, and adjust the flavors to how you like them—they’re pretty forgiving, if you have a fair amount of time to spare.
Below are some of my go-to soup recipes! Most of them are my own or adapted, but the one for French onion soup is by Mary Berry and it’s a beautiful perfect thing that doesn’t need any adaptation (except to make the portions smaller). Keep in mind that the portions I describe will make about four servings. So this is still cooking for one, but with leftovers in mind!! A couple of these recipes are for the Instant Pot, but you can easily make them on a stovetop as well, you’ll just have to stir them around more and pay more attention. I’ve also added a recipe for kheer, an Indian cardamom rice pudding that gives you the same warm, happy sensation you can get from any good soup.
Check out the recipes below, and as always, let me know if you try any of them! And below the soup recipes are a few of the new things you can find on my site. Happy souping!
Tofu Noodle Soup
Time: 1.5+ hrs | Difficulty: 1/5 | Recommendation: Weekday meal or dinner
This soup is so delicious. It’s spicy, briny, has a ton of different textures, and is really great for when you’re feeling under the weather, or when outside is a blizzard and you just want some coziness in your tum. The “mushroom water” takes the place of water or vegetable stock here, and makes a sort of ramen-esque broth. You can add other things to this too, like maybe some fresh mushrooms, water chestnuts, or onion slices, or…I don’t know, you’ll think of something! Tip: leave those hunks of ginger pretty big! They actually soften and take on a lot of nice flavor as you simmer them.
Ingredients/Tools:
2 cloves garlic
About an inch of ginger
Two slabs of firm tofu
1 bag of dried shiitake mushrooms
1 packet of curly noodles
Soy sauce
Rice vinegar
Sugar
Chili flakes
A big pot and another smaller pot
Method:
Get some super hot water into a pot and pour in the mushrooms. Cover and let them re-hydrate (this will take a little while, so start this long before you make the soup.)
Chop the ginger and garlic. Press the tofu and chop into cubes.
In a big pot, add olive oil, the ginger, garlic, and a lot of chili flakes. Add in the tofu and stir it all around until the ingredients are browning. Add in the mushrooms when they’re squishy and hydrated (don’t throw away that water), and sauté it all.
Remove the tofu from the pot and set aside. Add soy sauce and rice vinegar to the pot and stir. Then pour in the steamy mushroom water, cover, and simmer.
Once all the flavors are blended (taste it to be sure), add the uncooked noodles straight into the pot for them to cook in the soup. Cover again and simmer more.
Taste the soup—it’s ready when you think it’s ready! Add the tofu on top when you’re ready to serve.
French Onion Soup
Time: 2ish hrs | Difficulty: 1/5 | Recommendation: Slow weeknight meal
What French guy years and years ago said, I want a delicious, perfect soup, but I want to be in searing pain as I prepare it? You have to suffer for this soup, but that makes it even better in the end. This recipe is not mine, it’s adapted from Mary Berry, which is a pretty perfect recipe (it’s just too big, so I’ve pared it down to be for one person plus leftovers). Make sure you give the onions a really long time to caramelize, because that’s where all the flavor comes from. You can also use either chicken broth or beef broth, whichever you can find that’s better! And if you don’t have an oven-proof bowl, you can toast the gruyère-bread separately and just put it on top at the end.
Ingredients/Tools:
3 white onions
Butter
1 tbsp sugar
100ml white wine
32 oz of chicken or beef stock (one box if you buy a box)
Herbes de Provence or thyme
Bread
Gruyère
Dijon mustard
A big pot
Method:
Chop the onions into strips.
Melt a ton of butter and a touch of olive oil in a big pot (the olive oil helps the butter not to burn).
Add the onions and coat them in the butter. Let them soften for about ten minutes, then add the sugar and stir well.
On low-medium heat, let them caramelize for a looong time. Check every so often and stir them around a bit, checking so they don’t burn.
When they’re a deep brown and smell all sweet and sugary, add in the wine and reduce it down.
Once the wine has reduced, add the stock, cover, and simmer for a bit to get all those flavors together.
Add in the thyme or herbs, pepper, and salt to taste.
To prepare, put butter and dijon mustard on a slice of bread. Then grate on some gruyère. Toast in the oven at 375 until the cheese is bubbly and melty, then add it on top of the bowl of soup.
Potato Leek Soup
Time: 2+ hours | Difficulty: 3/5 | Recommendation: A slow Monday or Tuesday dinner
Sundays in winter are for stirring and simmering and sipping on some SOUP. Also, did you know you can make your own croutons just by chopping up some bread and roasting in olive oil?! I used brioche and added garlic powder and salt and WOW what a game changer!! I think this recipe the best out of all the potato leek soups I’ve made so far. So here it is, in all its liquid glory!!
Ingredients/Tools:
4 starchy potatoes (russets or Yukon gold), roughly chopped
2 medium leeks (or one huge one), washed well and chopped
Half a white onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves
Dijon mustard
White wine
Chicken or vegetable stock (optional, can replace with water)
Cream
Goat cheese (optional)
Spices/herbs: Dried oregano, dried basil, cumin, coriander, turmeric, chili flakes
Brioche for croutons (or any type of bread—brioche makes it light and buttery)
A big huge pot
A blender or, ideally, an immersion blender
Method:
Heat a good amount of butter and some olive oil in a big huge pot, and add the onion and garlic. Add dried oregano, dried basil, and chili flakes.
When the onions are translucent, add the leeks and stir well, then add the potatoes and salt and pepper. Mix well and let it all cook down, stirring occasionally. Add cumin, coriander, turmeric.
Add some Dijon mustard and mix. Then add some white wine to, as they say, “deglaze,” and scrape all the browned goodness off the bottom. Cook out the wine a bit longer.
Add in two cups of water (or stock, but water is fine if you’ve seasoned enough!) and cover and simmer for like. A half an hour. At least.
When it looks all bubbly and smells nice, remove the from the heat and blend the soup (be careful not to hit the bottom or sides of the pot!). Then stick the pot back on the stove, and add in some cream and goat cheese to lighten it a bit. Add any more salt etc. to taste.
For the breadcrumbs: Chop a piece of brioche, toss in a pan with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder, and put it in the oven at 350° until they’ve browned.
Instant Pot Potato Soup
Time: 1.5 hrs | Difficulty: 2/5 | Recommendation: Weeknight dinner
This potato soup is really creamy and delicious, and can be made in your Instant Pot so you don’t have to do much work yourself! You could also make this on a stovetop, but you’ll just have to watch the pot and stir it throughout the cooking process. Also, swap out any toppings you want for this! I liked bacon, scallions, and cheddar, to make it like a loaded baked potato, but you could do anything you wanted (chives, parmesan crisps, croutons, anything!). This is for a 3-quart Instant Pot (that’s the smaller one), and makes about three to four servings.
Ingredients/Tools:
3 strips of bacon
1 tbsp butter
5 scallions, chopped
1 big garlic clove
3 big potatoes (or 4 small), roughly chopped
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup + 1tbsp of milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
3-quart Instant Pot
Method:
Chop everything that needs to be chopped. Then press sauté on the Instant Pot and add in the bacon. It will stick to the bottom of the pot a little, but that’s okay, you want some of that stickiness. Remove when cooked and chop into bits.
Still on sauté, add the butter, then the white and light green parts of the scallions, and the garlic. When you can smell the garlic, add the potatoes and stir a bit. The potatoes don’t need to brown, just pick up the flavor.
Add in the stock and set it all to pressure cook for 8 minutes.
While the soup is pressure cooking, stir 1 tbsp of cornstarch into 1 tbsp of milk. Then add that “slurry” to the rest of the milk.
Manually release the pressure when the pot tells you it’s done. Press sauté. Then add in the milk mix and the cream, and stir. Get it up to a boil and continually stir until it thickens up.
Add in some of the greens of the scallions, and add salt, pepper, etc. now.
When the potatoes get soft enough, smush them down with the back of your spoon so it gets real soupy and smooth.
Serve with the bacon bits on top, more scallions, and maybe some shredded sharp cheddar!
Kheer
Time: 1.5 hrs | Difficulty: 1/5 | Recommendation: Dessert & breakfast, or make to share
Kheer is a lovely thing!! It’s rice pudding flavored with cardamom and topped with pistachios, so it’s sweet but has a touch of savory to it as well. And it’s lovely when it’s warm but it also makes a great breakfast the next day when chilled. This recipe is for the Instant Pot, but if you don’t have one, you should be able to make it in a normal pot as well, it just requires much more stirring. This makes about three small servings.
Ingredients/Tools:
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups milk
1/6 cup basmati rice
1/4 cup sugar
Cardamom powder
Cinnamon
Saffron threads
Pistachios
A 3-quart Instant Pot
Method:
Press sauté and add the water. When it starts to steam, pour in the milk. (This prevents burning—you should do this even if you make the kheer in a pot!)
When the milk is warm, add the rice, then stir it around.
Add a sprinkling of cardamom and cinnamon.
Cover and set it to pressure cook for 20 minutes. Naturally release when done (do NOT manually release it!! You will end up with rice pudding goo all over your walls!!!). This will take about 20 more minutes.
While the kheer is pressure cooking, put the pistachios in a plastic bag, seal it, and mash them with a wooden spoon.
Remove the lid, press sauté, and add the sugar, more cardamom, and cinnamon. Sprinkle in about a quarter of the pistachios.
Continue to stir on sauté, until it’s getting gooey and coming together. Then turn off the heat and let it sit for a bit before you serve—it will thicken up on its own as it cools.
Sprinkle on more pistachios when you serve!
New recipes on the site
Below are some of the new things I’ve added to the site! You can click on them to get the recipes, or as always, they’ll live in the “Recipe Archive” tab at the top of my page.
Mushroom carbonara
Time: 30 min | Difficulty: 1/5 | Recommendation: Weekday lunch or dinner
Did you know you can make carbonara with like, anything? Obviously bacon bits or pancetta are the classic base, and for good reason because the meat not only tastes great with eggs and pasta, but leaves a nice oily residue in the pan that helps the whole sauce come together. I love a classic carbonara as much as anyone (and it’s crazy easy to make), but you can also make it with sausage, or even asparagus to lighten it up—or king oyster mushrooms! They’re a really meaty mushroom that holds up against high heat and flavor, and when you chop them up small, they can take the place of bacon really well. Basically, this is a carbonara recipe for one, to which you can pretty much add anything you want! Be creative! Just please don’t add cream…
Onion Pakoras
Time: 1 hr | Difficulty: 3/5 | Recommendation: Weeknight meal, or make them to share
I loooove pakoras. And they’re actually super simple to make at home!! It’s just chickpea flour and water and a bunch of spices! You do have to fry them, which was scary to me the first time, but if you use a really big pot, make sure your ingredients are patted dry before adding the batter, and never take your eye off the oil, it’s really not that daunting. Once I discovered how easy (and DELICIOUS) they were, the door was opened and I started to pakora-fy everything! You can make mushroom pakoras, zucchini flower pakoras, green garlic pakoras, paneer pakoras, even apple pakoras!! The possibilities are really endless. And by the way, these are even better the next day as leftovers—they do lose their crispiness, but they gain even more flavor!!