A visit to the soup kitchen

For many people today a soup kitchen is their only hope of a daily meal. Soup is just the thing to fill hungry tummies because it is such a powerful source of nourishment.

During the cold winter months in Ceres, where I grew up, Fridays were always bread-and-soup days. On Thursdays my grandma would already start making ‘soetsuurdeeg’, a homemade yeast dough, and by Friday afternoon there would be several enormous pot-bellied farm loaves on her wooden table … one for each of her children and their families.

In our own kitchen, Fridays in winter were bean-soup days. Even as a child, the prospect of Mom’s delicious soup and Grandma’s farm bread was an exciting one. We used to go to Grandma’s house on our bicycles after school to fetch the bread. The loaves were carefully wrapped in clean dishcloths for the journey back home on the bike’s carrier. Sometimes the temptation to cut off a crust and slather it with butter and lovely sour apricot jam was almost too much – supper was such a long way off.

Today soup can be as simple or as elegant as the occasion where it’s being served, and we can travel around the world with many different kinds of soup. Robust, blood-red Russian borscht is served nowadays in the most elegant little glasses as a starter at fancy receptions, and the once velvety vichyssoise dons its farm apparel and becomes a tasty, thick country soup. So all the soup rules have been thrown out of the window and, these days, we make soup to our taste, with all the wonderful fresh ingredients at our disposal.

After all these years, my heart is still filled with gratitude when I can wrap my hands around a simple bowl of vegetable soup!

Cold potato, parsnip and leek soup

The classic French vichyssoise dons its farm apparel – it is refreshing on a hot summer’s day, but still delivers that warm hug we expect from soup. Instead of processing the soup until completely smooth, leave some of the potato, parsnip and leek unprocessed for that lovely farm feeling.

• 50 ml butter
• 15 ml olive oil
• 8 leeks – use only the white parts
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 3 large parsnips, 2 grated and 1 kept for garnishing
• 500 ml good-quality chicken stock
• 500 ml fresh cream
• salt and white pepper
• fresh grated nutmeg
• oil for frying the parsnip
• chives for garnishing

For the soup

1. Melt the butter and oil together in a large pot. Sauté the leeks and garlic until soft but not browned. Add the potatoes, grated parsnip and chicken stock and boil for 30–35 minutes or until the potatoes are soft but not mushy. Pour three-quarters of the soup into the food processor (pour the remaining soup into a separate bowl) and pulse until smooth. Pour the puréed soup back into the pot and stir in the cream. Season with salt and pepper if necessary, as well as fresh nutmeg. Simmer for about 3 minutes and then add the reserved unpuréed soup. Remove the soup from the heat, set aside to cool to room temperature and then cool further over a bowl of ice. Never put hot soup in the fridge. Only refrigerate the soup once it has reached room temperature.

For the garnishing

1. Using a vegetable peeler, slice the remaining parsnip into long strips. Heat enough oil to deep-fry the parsnip. When the oil is very hot, use a slotted spoon to carefully deep-fry the parsnips until crispy and brown. Drain on paper towel. Ladle the cold soup into mugs or soup bowls and garnish with some fried parsnips and chives.

Enough for 6 medium helpings or 8–10 small helpings

Instead of deep-fried parsnip, the following garnishes can be used:

• crispy fried pancetta or bacon
• herbed croutons – cut bread into cubes, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with herbs and salt and bake in the oven until crispy
• a bit of poached salmon and sour cream
• crumbled Blue cheese
• marinated and sliced shiitake mushrooms

Tomato soup with potato dumplings (gnocchi)

This is the most delicious tomato soup, and the gnocchi or dumplings give you that lovely satisfied feeling when you’ve eaten a bowlful. The soup is no trouble to make and is done quickly, but the dumplings take some time – however, they are definitely worth the effort. I suspect you could also make the dumplings with butternut or sweet potato for a whole new experience, but let’s start with the easiest ones.

For the gnocchi (potato dumplings)

• 800 g floury potatoes
• 200 g cake flour
• 5 ml salt
• 1 egg

For the tomato soup

• 30 ml olive oil
• 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 × 410 g cans chopped tomatoes
• 1 × 80 g can tomato paste
• 100 ml white wine
• 15 ml sugar
• grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
• salt and pepper to taste
• a large handful of fresh basil
• 500 ml vegetable stock
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese

For the gnocchi

1. Preheat the oven to 180 ˚C and bake the potatoes for 1 hour or until soft when pricked with a fork. Remove the potatoes from the oven, halve them and scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Press the potato through a sieve or mash with a potato masher – make sure there are no lumps. Allow to cool slightly. Add three-quarters of the flour, as well as the salt, and mix. Add the egg and then use your judgement to decide whether you need more flour. Be careful not to handle the dough too much, because you want your dumplings to be feather light! Pinch off chunks of dough and roll into 30 cm-long thin sausages. Cut each sausage into bite-sized pieces and roll each piece over the back of a fork to form ridges. This is important, because the soup will stick to these ridges. Set aside.

For the tomato soup

1. Heat the oil in a pot and add the onion and garlic. Sauté until soft and slightly browned. Add the remaining ingredients (except the Parmesan) and cook for about 30 minutes. If you want a very smooth soup, pour it into a food processor and pulse. Otherwise you can keep it nice and thick and full of texture. Now place the gnocchi in the tomato soup and cook slowly until they rise to the surface of the soup (this is how you know when gnocchi are cooked). Ladle the soup into pretty soup bowls and serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Enough for 4 people

Poor man’s vegetable soup

This vegetable soup is probably the cheapest but most flavourful soup you’ll ever make. My husband is no soup lover, but even he asks for seconds! I make the soup in my pressure cooker, but it works in the slow cooker, an ordinary pot, or any pot as long as it’s big enough!

• 1 kg beef soup bones
• 6 litres beef stock
• 500 g packet dried split peas, rinsed under cold water
• 4 large potatoes, peeled, grated and placed into cold water
• 4 large carrots, peeled, grated and placed into cold water
• 2 large leeks, finely chopped
• a handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped (optional)
• 1 × 410 g can chopped tomatoes (optional)
• salt and coarsely ground black pepper
• lemon juice or white vinegar (optional)

1. Place the soup bones and beef stock in a large pot and boil until the marrow has cooked out of the bones. Remove the bones from the pot and add the split peas. Boil for about 30 minutes or until the peas are soft. Drain the water from the grated potatoes and carrots. Add the potatoes, carrots and leeks to the soup. Boil for another 30 minutes until the soup thickens (keep your eye on the soup as it can burn quite easily). Add the parsley and tomatoes if using. Season with salt and lots of pepper, and add a squirt of lemon juice or white vinegar, if desired, for that extra tang. Now all you need is Grandma’s bread!

Enough for 8–10 people

Fiery Thai soup with seafood

I only encountered Thai cooking rather late in life, but as the saying goes: ‘It was love at first sight.’ I love the almost aphrodisiac feeling of the ‘wow-this-is-hot!’ curry, the freshness of the ingredients and the thought of travelling to faraway countries, with their exotic flavours, with every bite I eat! This is a very sociable dish. Place a large wok with soup and seafood in the centre of the table and you will spark off much conversation. Scent warm cloth serviettes with lemongrass for that extra-special touch.

• 30 ml oil
• 3 × 15 cm stalks lemongrass, finely chopped – hard outer parts discarded
• 1 onion, peeled and sliced into long strips
• 45 ml fish sauce
• 100 g fresh coriander
• 18 prawns, shells removed and reserved
• 500 ml water
• 1.25 litres good-quality chicken stock
• 1 × 400 ml can coconut cream
• 1 red chilli, deseeded (optional) and cut into strips
• 1 green chilli, deseeded (optional) and cut into strips
• 250 g mushrooms – use several different kinds such as shiitake, portobello, portobellini and enoki
• 15 ml sugar
• 30–45 ml red curry paste
• 18 black mussels
• 500 g calamari rings
• 45 ml lime juice – fresh is always better
• fresh coriander for garnishing
• lime quarters for garnishing

1. Heat half of the oil in a pot or wok and add the lemongrass, onion, 15 ml of the fish sauce and half of the coriander. Stir-fry until the onion and lemongrass are soft but not mushy. Add the prawn shells, water, stock and coconut cream and cook for 20 minutes until the soup thickens slightly. Now pour the soup into a separate bowl through a sieve and discard the shells and roughage. Set aside and keep warm. Rinse the pot or wok and heat the remaining oil in it. Stir-fry the chillies and mushrooms until soft but not mushy. Add the sugar, curry paste, soup, prawns, mussels and calamari rings and cook for about 10 minutes, until the prawns are cooked and the mussels have opened up. By this time the calamari will also be cooked. Season to taste with the remaining fish sauce and the lime juice. Serve garnished with fresh coriander and lime quarters.

Enough for 4 people

Grilled apple and onion soup

I entered this soup in a competition, and when I asked my dad to taste it, his comment was: ‘Strange, but delicious!’ This makes a great appetiser – something about the sweet-salty combination just works. ‘You try to stop, but you simply can’t’ has been the feedback I’ve received. Needless to say, I didn’t win the competition, but according to my family this soup is a winner!

For the caramelised apple slices

• 100 ml sugar
• 100 ml boiling water
• 1 large apple

For the soup

• 15 ml butter
• 15 ml olive oil
• 2 large onions, peeled, cored and chopped
• 4 Golden Delicious apples, peeled and cubed
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 30 ml brown sugar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 250 ml chicken or vegetable stock
• 250 ml cream
• 125 ml milk (if needed)
• 15–20 ml cornflour or cake flour (if needed)
• 125 ml grated mature Cheddar cheese
• 80 g Blue cheese, crumbled

For the caramelised apple slices

1. Preheat the oven to 150 °C and spray a baking tray with non-stick cooking spray. Melt the sugar in the boiling water in a saucepan. Meanwhile, using a mandoline or a sharp knife, slice the apple as thinly as you can (almost transparent). When the sugar is melted, dip each apple slice into the syrup. Arrange the apple slices on the baking tray and bake for 15 minutes or until golden-brown.

For the soup

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Melt the butter and oil in an overproof pot. Add the onions, apples and thyme and place the pot in the oven to roast. When the onions and apples are a lovely golden-brown, remove the sprigs of thyme. Place the onions and apples in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Add the brown sugar, and season with salt and pepper. Pour the purée back into the pot and add the stock and stir through. Cook for about 5 minutes on the stovetop, then add the cream. If the soup is too thick, add a little milk. If it is too thin, mix the cornflour or flour with 40 ml water to form a paste and then stir it into the soup. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Add the cheeses and stir until melted. Serve garnished with the caramelised apple slices and extra crumbled Blue cheese.

Enough for 4 people