Judging by the popularity of canned soups, many of us are intimidated by making our own. Perhaps this is because of our images of long-simmered concoctions that sit all day on the back of the stove. In fact, many soups can be made with 10 minutes or so of actual applied work. True, they may need to cook for 30 minutes or a little more but that’s all. While most of us think of soups as first courses, when served with plenty of bread a typical soup is perfectly adequate as a light main course. Consider a soup and salad to be the perfect dinner.
Here, the first set of recipes uses a base of leek and potatoes, which can be thrown together in minutes and cooks in about 20. In the simplest versions, the leeks and potatoes are left in pieces while in more sophisticated versions, the soup is pureed.
The second set of recipes calls for chicken broth, which you can use out of a can or make yourself—either from concentrated meat glaze or by following the recipe for Chicken Broth. The latter takes only a few minutes of prep but, admittedly, about 2 hours of simmering time. Another trick is to buy chicken broth from the local Chinese Restaurant.
Few recipes are as straightforward as this soup. To make the basic soup you essentially boil potatoes and leeks in broth, milk, or water. When the potatoes and leeks are soft, you can serve the soup as is, or you can puree it (an immersion blender comes in handy here). Cream is typically added near the end of cooking. If you serve the puree cold, it becomes a vichyssoise.
If you want your soup smoother and thinner, work it through a fine-mesh strainer. To make other vegetable soups (see the recipes that follow), simply add the vegetable in question to the leeks and potatoes at the appropriate time. Carrots, which tend to take a while to cook, should be added at the beginning, while spinach, which cooks quickly, should be added at the end. If you like, finish the soup with 1 cup heavy cream.
Makes 4 first-course servings
2 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and sliced (if you’re pureeing) or diced (if you’re not)
4 leeks, white parts only
4 cups milk
4 tablespoons butter (optional)
Salt
Pepper (preferably white)
Homemade Croutons (optional)
1 cup heavy cream (optional)
Put the prepared potatoes in a bowl and cover with cold water so they don’t darken. Cut the leeks in half lengthwise and rinse out any grit or sand. Slice the leeks about ½ inch thick.
Combine the potatoes, leeks, and milk in a pot and bring to a simmer over high heat. Turn the heat down to maintain at a simmer. Simmer gently, uncovered, until the potatoes are easily crushed with the back of a fork, about 20 minutes.
At this point you can whisk in the butter, season with salt and pepper, and serve it as is, passing the croutons at the table. To puree the soup, use an immersion blender, work it through a food mill, or blend it in a regular blender. If you’re pureeing the soup, you won’t need the butter—use the cream instead. Add it at the end of cooking, bring the soup back to a simmer to sterilize the cream, and serve.
HOMEMADE CROUTONS
The problem with croutons is their tendency to become soggy when added to soups. To avoid this, cook them in an abundance of oil or butter (butter gives the best flavor) so that the croutons become saturated. This “waterproofs” them so they don’t become soggy.
Using a bread knife, remove the crusts from four slices of dense-crumb white bread, then cut the bread into ¼-inch cubes. Heat 5 tablespoons butter or extra virgin olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat and toss in the bread. Cook the bread cubes, tossing or stirring often, until the croutons are evenly golden brown, about 10 minutes. Makes enough to garnish 4 servings of soup.
This soup is great hot, and surprisingly good when served cold. To make this soup, start out with the Leek and Potato Soup recipe. Here I add the asparagus stems to the soup at the beginning so they soften and release their flavor. The tips are boiled separately and added to the soup at the end.
Makes 6 first-course servings
1 pound asparagus
Ingredients for Leek and Potato Soup including the cream (not the butter), potatoes sliced
Cut off the bottom 2 inches of the asparagus spears and discard. Cut off the tips, about 2 inches from the top, and reserve. Cut the remaining stems into pieces about ½ inch long.
Prepare the Leek and Potato Soup, simmering the asparagus stem pieces with the leeks and potatoes until all the vegetables have softened, about 20 minutes.
While the soup is simmering, bring a pot of about 4 quarts of water to a boil and toss in the asparagus tips. Boil them for about 5 minutes until bright green with the slightest hint of crunch, drain in a colander, and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
Puree the soup with an immersion blender, a regular blender, or a food mill. Return the soup to the saucepan and reheat. Add the asparagus tips and serve. Pass the croutons at the table.
Peas are the one frozen vegetable that usually tastes better than the fresh equivalent. But if you can find fresh baby peas in season, be sure to use them.
Makes 4 first-course servings
Ingredients for Leek and Potato Soup, including cream (not the butter), potatoes sliced
1 pound fresh peas in the pod, shelled, or one 10-ounce package frozen baby peas
Prepare the leek and potato soup. When the leeks and potatoes are softened, add the peas to the hot soup. Simmer until the peas soften slightly, about 3 minutes, and puree the soup with a blender, immersion blender, or food mill. Strain, reheat, and serve. Pass the croutons at the table.
Cauliflower soup has a wonderful subtlety, unlike the vegetable, which can be aggressive. It also makes a soup that’s perfectly white, making for a striking presentation. Don’t start the leek and potato soup until you’ve prepared the cauliflower.
Makes 6 first-course servings
1 small head cauliflower
Ingredients for Leek and Potato Soup, potatoes sliced
1 cup heavy cream (optional)
Turn the cauliflower over and cut out the large middle stem to which all the little florets are attached. Then pull away the florets and chop coarsely.
Prepare the leek and potato soup, simmering the cauliflower with the leeks and potatoes until all the vegetables have softened, about 20 minutes. Puree the soup with an immersion blender, a regular blender, or a food mill. you want the soup to be perfectly smooth, strain it. Add the cream, reheat, and serve. Pass the croutons at the table.
To guarantee a successful lentil soup, include something smoky. Here I use bacon, which is gently rendered before the onions and lentils are added. It helps to have good chicken broth, but it is by no means essential. Most lentils these days are free of debris, but—especially if you’re using red lentils—you should sort the lentils by spreading them out on a baking sheet and looking for rocks and such.
Makes 8 first-course servings
⅓ pound bacon slices
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced and then crushed to a paste
8 cups chicken broth or water
7 sprigs fresh thyme
1 imported bay leaf
1⅔ cups brown or red lentils, sorted and rinsed
Salt
Pepper
Butter (optional)
Cut the bacon crosswise into ¼ by 1-inch strips. Cook the bacon over medium heat in a pot large enough to hold the soup, stirring every minute or so, until the bacon renders its fat and just begins to turn crispy, about 10 minutes. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion turns translucent, about 10 minutes more.
Add the broth. Tie the thyme and bay leaf into a small bundle with a piece of string. Add the bundle to the soup along with the lentils and simmer, uncovered, for 40 minutes, or until the lentils have completely softened.
Remove the bundle of herbs and puree the soup with an immersion blender, regular blender, or afood mill. If you want the soup to be perfectly smooth, work it through a strainer. Reheat the soup, season to taste with salt and pepper, and, if you like, whisk in 3 or 4 tablespoons of butter.
The basil mixture contains Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, which gives a lovely richness and flavor. (In France, the mixture is called pistou; in Italy, pesto.) It’s good to have enough pesto on hand for guests to dollop it onto the soup themselves.
Makes 6 first-course servings
1 large carrot, peeled
1 turnip, peeled
3 leeks, white parts only
8 cups water
Leaves from 1 large bunch basil
1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (about 2 ounces)
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
One 10-ounce package frozen peas
6 slices crusty bread, toasted
1 clove garlic, peeled but left whole
Halve the carrot lengthwise. Cut each half lengthwise in thirds, cutting toward the center at an angle. Slice the strips so you end up with triangle-shaped pieces of carrot about ⅛ inch thick.
Slice the turnip about ¼ inch thick (a vegetable slicer is handy for this). Cut the slices into sticks about ¼ inch on each side. Slice the sticks so you end up with ¼-inch cubes.
Slice the leeks in half lengthwise. Rinse any sand out of the leeks with cold running water. Slice the leeks about ⅛ inch thick.
Put the vegetables in a pot with the water and simmer gently, uncovered, for about 25 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened. (Reach in with a spoon and take a bite of a piece of carrot or turnip to test its tenderness.)
To make the pesto, combine the basil and cheese in a food processor. Turn the processor on and slowly pour in the oil through the top. You should have a green puree.
Add the peas to the soup and return the soup to a simmer. (The frozen peas bring down the temperature of the soup.)
Rub each of the toasts with the garlic clove and place each in a soup plate.
Whisk half the pesto into the soup, ladle the soup over the toasts, and serve. Pass the remaining pesto for guests to plop into their soup.
To make wonderful clear chicken broth, brown the chicken before simmering it in water, never allowing the liquid to reach a full boil. Use chicken drumsticks, which have more flavor than the rest of the chicken.
Makes 4 quarts
5 pounds chicken drumsticks
1 large onion, quartered
1 carrot, cut into 1-inch pieces
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 imported bay leaf
Water
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Arrange the drumsticks in a roasting pan just large enough to hold them in a single layer. Add the onion and carrot and slide into the oven. Roast for about 1 hour, or until well browned and until any juices have caramelized on the bottom of the pan.
Transfer the chicken and vegetables to a pot just large enough to hold them. Check the roasting pan to see if the juices have caramelized on the bottom. If they have, you’ll see a brown crust on the bottom and clear liquid fat floating on top which indicates that you should pour off and discard the fat. If the fat is cloudy, it means that juices are emulsified with it. If you pour the fat out at this point, you’ll be pouring out valuable juices. To work around this, put the roasting pan on the stove and boil down the juices until they caramelize on the bottom of the pan and the fat has clearly separated. At this point you can pour off the fat. Once you’ve poured off the fat, add 1 quart of water or broth to the pan and boil it while scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon. Transfer this deglazed liquid to the pot with the chicken.
Tie up the thyme and bay leaf in a little bundle with string and nestle it into the chicken. Add enough water to cover and simmer gently, uncovered, for 3 hours. Use a ladle to skim off fat and scum than float to the surface. Strain. Let cool to room temperature or until just warm to the touch and then refrigerate. Once chilled, pull any congealed fat away from the top. Reserve chicken meat for another use.
Make this glaze when you’re around the house and can keep an eye on the stove. Put 4 quarts of chicken broth in a pot and simmer gently until cooked down by half. Skim off any fat and froth that floats to the top and don’t let the broth boil or you’ll churn in any scum that would otherwise have floated to the top where it could be skimmed off. Strain through a fine strainer into another (smaller) pot and continue simmering until reduced by half again. Strain into a clean saucepan and simmer until reduced by half again. Repeat two more times until you’ve reduced the chicken broth to about ½ cup of glaze. Don’t worry about the small amount; a little goes a long way. Keep in the refrigerator, tightly sealed, for up to several months, or freeze indefinitely.
What a delight to have all the flavor of summer corn distilled into this concentrated soup. If you have an immersion blender, this soup is a snap to make.
Makes 6 first-course servings
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced and then crushed to a paste
2 poblano chiles, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 ears corn, shucked
4 cups chicken broth, milk, or water, or more as needed
½ cup heavy cream, or more to taste
Salt
Pepper
In a medium pot, sweat the onion, garlic, and chiles in oil over medium to high heat for about 10 minutes, or until the onion turns translucent, stirring so the vegetables cook evenly.
Meanwhile, cut the kernels off the ears of corn by setting an ear on one end in a large bowl and then cutting down along the ear with a sharp paring knife. Rotate the ear as you go. Repeat with the remaining ears. Put the corn kernels and any juices you captured in the pot with the onion and chiles and add the broth. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, or until the kernels are completely soft. Add the cream and bring back to a simmer.
Puree the soup with an immersion blender or regular blender. If you want the soup perfectly smooth, work it through a strainer. Season to taste with salt and pepper and thin if necessary with additional liquid. Serve hot.
Here we make a simple garlic soup and garnish it with poached eggs.
Makes 4 first-course servings
1 head garlic, broken into cloves and peeled
6 cups chicken broth or water
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sage leaves (fresh or dried)
4 eggs
4 slices crusty French bread
Combine the garlic, broth, thyme, and sage in a pot and gently simmer, uncovered, for about 1 hour. Work through a strainer or food mill into a clean pot and reheat.
Poach the eggs (see box on boiling eggs). Put a slice of bread in the bottom of four bowls; place an egg on top. Gently pour the soup over the egg and serve.
GARLIC SOUP
There are a couple of ways to infuse garlic in broth or water. The easiest and most obvious is to boil whole cloves of garlic in the liquid, and then, when the cloves have softened, work the whole thing through a food mill. Another method, which can be used alone or in conjunction with the first, is to whisk broth into an aïoli (garlic mayonnaise) as though making the fish soup. You can also sweat raw garlic in a little olive oil before adding the broth to it. Whichever method(s) you use, avoid contact with all others except those with whom you have enjoyed the soup—you’ll reek for a good 24 hours.
This soup only works if you have super-ripe tomatoes, those that seem to burst with sunshine and, well, juice. You can serve this soup hot or cold, but not in-between. As the season progresses and the air gets a nip, it’s nice to add a little cream. Try stirring in a handful of bacon bits (not the store-bought kind), and you’ll have a soup with much the flavor and effect of a BLT.
Makes 4 first-course servings
Cut the tomatoes in half through the equator. Set a large strainer over a bowl and squeeze the tomato halves so that their seeds and juices splash into the strainer. Work the pulp in the strainer with your fingertips to work out any remaining juice. Chop the tomatoes, either by hand or in a food processor, but preferably by hand (which is only practical if you have a very large knife and preferable because the food processor turns them a funny bland pink). Combine the tomatoes, along with the juices you extracted and put in a bowl (for cold soup) or in a pot and bring just to a simmer (for hot soup). Season with salt and pepper—they’ll require a surprising amount of salt. Refrigerate for about 1 hour if serving cold or reheat if serving hot.
If you like, pass a bottle of extra virgin olive oil for drizzling on top of the soup and plenty of crusty French bread.
Variations:
For a richer effect, add a cup of cream. If you’re serving the soup hot, be sure to bring to the soup to a simmer for a minute after adding the cream (so the cream doesn’t sour). If you add cream to a cold soup, you can serve immediately.
For an even richer effect, add bacon. Cook ½ pound of bacon over medium heat in a sauté pan until crisp, about 10 minutes. Cool, then break into bits and add to your soup, hot or cold, creamed or not.
PEELING TOMATOES
Bring a large pot of water (large enough to hold all the tomatoes with some space leftover) to a boil. Cut the stem ends out of the tomatoes using a sharp paring knife. When the water comes to a boil, use a spider or slotted spoon to lower about a third of the tomatoes into the boiling water. Pull out the tomatoes after about 45 seconds. and rinse them—in a colander is good—with cold water until they become cool enough to handle. When the water returns to a boil, repeat with the second batch of the tomatoes, then the third batch. Using your thumb and a small paring knife, pull the skin away from the tomatoes.
Gazpacho is a Spanish invention, but the idea of serving tomatoes and avocados in a tangy and spicy broth infused with Mexican flavors is too hard to resist. Feel free to experiment with adding different chiles, bell peppers, or cucumbers.
Makes 6 first-course servings
2 ripe avocados, preferably Hass
8 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped (see box on Peeling Tomatoes)
1 clove garlic, minced and then crushed to a paste
1 small onion, minced
3 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, rinsed, seeded, and minced
Juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup ice water, or more as needed to achieve the consistency you like
Salt
Pepper
Peel the avocados and chop the flesh into ¼-inch pieces. In a bowl, toss the avocados with the tomatoes. Stir in the garlic, onion, chiles, lime juice, and cilantro. Stir in the ice water and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve chilled. (If it’s a hot day, the soup may require a half hour of refrigeration before serving.)
This tangy, spicy soup is great any time of year. Don’t confuse tomatillos with green tomatoes. Tomatillos are actually most closely related to gooseberries and have the same papery sheath, which must be removed before they are cooked.
Makes 6 first-course servings
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced and then crushed to a paste
2 poblano chiles, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
4 jalapeños (or, for more heat, serrano chiles), stemmed, seeded, and chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds tomatillos, sheaths removed, fruit halved through the equator
4 cups Chicken Broth or water
Sour cream, to serve
In a pot over medium heat, sweat the onion, garlic, and chiles for about 10 minutes in oil, or until the onion softens. Add the tomatillos and the broth and gently simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender, regular blender, or food mill. Reheat as needed and serve. Pass plenty of sour cream for dolloping onto the soup.
The most time-consuming part of making a traditional onion soup is the slow sweating and stirring of the onions before any liquid is added. An easier approach is simply to simmer the sliced onions until they are soft. If you slice them with a vegetable slicer, you can make them nice and thin (you can also use a knife, but it takes a little more skill). As for the cheese topping, use the best hard cheese you can find. Gruyère is traditional, but Cheddar (especially English Cheddar or really sharp Vermont Cheddar), aged Gouda, or even a good blue, such as Roquefort, will do the trick. When you slice the onions, it will seem like you have an awful lot, but they shrink to about a tenth of their volume when cooked.
Makes 6 light main-course servings
4 large red onions
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 imported bay leaf
8 cups broth, preferably beef, chicken, or vegetable
Salt
Pepper
1 pound cheese (see above), grated
1 crusty baguette, thinly sliced and toasted
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Slice the onions thin with a very sharp knife or a vegetable slicer. Put the onions in a large pot. Tie the thyme and bay leaf together into a little bundle and add to the pot with the broth. Simmer until the onions are soft to the tooth, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Transfer the soup to six 8- to 12-ounce ovenproof soup crocks or ramekins and put a small handful of cheese in each one. Arrange a layer of baguette slices on top and sprinkle with another small handful of cheese. Finish with another layer of baguette slices and a sprinkling of cheese. Put the crocks on a baking sheet to catch any spills.
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the top is browned and you see soup bubbling over the sides. Serve immediately.
While instant miso soup is sold in most supermarkets, making it from scratch will give you better results in very little time. The only possible difficulty is locating the seaweed (called konbu or kombu) and the bonito flakes essential for making the soup base, a broth called dashi. When you buy miso (it lasts forever in the refrigerator), you’ll see that it is available in different colors. Traditionally dark miso is for the winter and white miso for the summer. While it’s fun to experiment with these different types of miso, I usually stick to an all-purpose brown miso, which is on the dark side of the spectrum, but not so dark as to be considered winter miso. You can garnish miso soup with just about anything (in Japan I once had it with limpets), including mushrooms (cultivated or wild, shiitake are especially good), shrimp, mussels, or clams.
Makes 4 first-course servings
4 cups water
One 16 by 3-inch sheet konbu
1 ounce (2 cups) bonito flakes
3 tablespoons brown miso
1 bunch enokidake mushrooms, or 4 large cremini or shiitake mushrooms
Bring the water to a boil and turn off the heat. Add the konbu (fold it over to fit it in the pan) and the bonito flakes and let them steep for 2 minutes. Strain into a clean saucepan. Discard the bonito flakes and the konbu or use them again to make a weaker broth.
Put the miso in a small bowl and add just enough of the broth (dashi) to make a thick paste. Gradually work in enough dashi to make a thin paste. Stir this mixture into the rest of the dashi.
Cut the ends off the enokidake mushrooms, or slice the creminis, or remove the stems from the shiitake mushrooms (you can save them in the freezer; they’re great for flavoring broth). Add the mushrooms to the miso soup and simmer for 2 minutes to cook the mushrooms. Serve immediately.
The only thing a little bit daunting about this soup is the number of ingredients, but the best thing about it is that it requires no broth. Fortunately not much has to be done to these ingredients to make this soup, and nowadays the ingredients usually can be found in a well-stocked supermarket. Galangal is hard to find fresh but is usually available frozen or dried; opt for the frozen.
Makes 6 first-course servings
6 cups water
3 small red fresh Thai chiles or 4 jalapeños, seeded and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced and then crushed to a paste
2 shallots, minced
¼-inch thick slice galangal (optional)
4 kaffir lime leaves or 4 strips lime zest, cut into very thin shreds
6-inch length lemon grass, very thinly sliced
Juice of 2 limes, or more as needed
¼ cup Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce, or more to taste
1 scallion, green and white parts, thinly sliced
1 bunch cilantro, large stems discarded, chopped
Pepper
In a medium pot, combine the water, chiles, garlic, shallots, galangal, lime leaves, and lemon grass. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes to infuse the flavors of the aromatics. Add the lime juice, fish sauce, scallion, and cilantro. Season with pepper and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes to finish cooking. Taste for fish sauce (if it needs salt, it probably needs fish sauce) and, if necessary, adjust the lime juice.
Once you track down the Thai ingredients, this soup couldn’t be easier to make—it’s essentially an infusion of various aromatics in water or broth that is then finished with coconut milk.
Makes 6 first-course servings
3 cups Chicken Broth or water
4 kaffir lime leaves or 4 strips lime zest, cut into very thin shreds
3-inch length lemon grass, very thinly sliced
Six ⅛-inch-thick slices galangal or fresh ginger (no need to peel)
¼ cup fish sauce, or more to taste
½ cup fresh lime juice
3 fresh Thai chiles or 4 jalapeños, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 by ¼-inch strips
One 15-ounce can coconut milk
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
Combine the broth, lime leaves, lemon grass, and galangal in a pot and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes, or until the ingredients release their fragrance. Add the fish sauce, lime juice, chiles, chicken, coconut milk, and cilantro. Simmer for 20 minutes. Taste and if the soup seems lacking in salt, add more fish sauce. Serve immediately.
Vietnamese-Style Aromatic Soup with Noodles
This soup is known as pho in Vietnam. Essentially pho is a broth flavored with spices and fish sauce, served with noodles and other condiments. When the pho is served, a platter of garnishes is passed for people to add to their soup. You don’t have to serve any garnishes (the soup is perfectly good without them), but the more you serve, the more impressive your feast. One tip for a cross-cultural addition to make the soup more hearty: buy an order of boneless spareribs from a Chinese restaurant and add them to the soup.
Makes 6 main-course servings
7 ounces rice stick noodles
10 cups Chicken Broth
¼ cup fish sauce
4 star anise, crushed
2-inch length cinnamon stick, crushed
2 whole cloves
2-inch piece fresh ginger, cut into about 8 slices
2 teaspoons sugar
1 onion, quartered
Optional Garnishes (use as many or as few as you like):
Mint leaves
Cilantro leaves
Basil leaves
Fresh chiles, finely chopped
Lime wedges
Scallions, white and green parts, finely chopped
Mung bean sprouts
Leftover meats, cut into strips
In a large bowl, cover the noodles with cold water and soak for 30 minutes.
In a medium pot, combine the broth, fish sauce, star anise, cinnamon stick, cloves, ginger, sugar, and onion. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Strain into a pot large enough to hold the soup.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil to cook the noodles for about 30 seconds. Drain in a colander. Distribute among heated soup bowls. Pour the soup over the noodles and serve. Pass the garnishes at the table for guests to help themselves.
Note: Both the star anise and cinnamon stick should be crushed by putting them on a cutting board and rocking a saucepan over them.
