5 fall soups to keep the chill off because nobody wants to sit by the fire with a big bowl of salad.
I know you're thinking this is going to be a super-boring post about soup, because how interesting can soup be? But you'd be wrong in thinking that. Very, very wrong. Soup, as it turns out, has a very interesting history; none of which I know about.
I think there's something in there about nomads and broth and the invention of crackers but you don't need to know about the interesting history of soup to enjoy it so why even bog yourself down with that kind of information?
Table of Contents
The Soups
I have 7 soups that are in constant rotation in my kitchen from October to March. All of them are hearty enough to be an entire meal and all of them are easily adapted to be either vegetarian or vegan.
I always start with a chicken broth base for my soups. So that's the major change you'll have to make if you're going the whole no meat or animal products route. Just change up the chicken broth to vegetable and you're done.
Also you might want to omit the sausage from the Fire Broth soup, but that's totally up to you and how dedicated you are as a vegan. You might be one of those sausage eating vegans for all I know.
Pumpkin Soup
This pumpkin soup recipe is one I stole from an episode of Masterchef Australia years ago.
TIP: Don't even think of making this soup without making the bacon and pumpkin seed topping. Just don't. Also when you're at the grocery store pumpkin seeds might be labelled Pepitas.
Lions Head Soup Bowls are a classic restaurant ware soup bowl. And I love a classic.
Smoked Tomato Soup
This Smoked Tomato Soup recipe I stole from a cooking class I went to many years ago. I like to steal soup recipes whenever possible. It's a very inexpensive hobby. This tomato soup has KICK. It's smoked tomatoes and roasted red peppers with a huge hit of hot peppers. It is not meek. It is not for the meek. This is the kind of soup that a) takes a bit of time and b) is worth it.
You can smoke tomatoes in a regular BBQ. Just add some wood chips that have been soaked in water and then wrapped in foil. Punch a few holes in the tin foil so smoke can escape and lay the packet below the grill and above the grill burners.
Or you can buy a hand smoker which is the most fun cooking gadget in the world.
Potato Leek Soup
If you know me you know I like my potatoes. I grow hundreds of pounds of potatoes. Actually people who don't even know me know I like potatoes. I've never been told but I'm sure I smell like them. In a good way.
This is a NO MEASURE potato leek soup recipe. You cut up some potatoes, a couple of leeks then add enough broth to cover everything. The potato soup recipe has the full details.
Gently. Very gently. Always blend potato soup for a small amount of time on the lowest blender speed possible, otherwise you'll end up with glue soup.
If possible use a potato ricer and hand blend. (I've been using a cheap Fox Run potato ricer for over a decade and am still happy with it)
For fall soups I like heavier, more complex soups made out of wintery ingredients like squash, potatoes, carrots and other rooty stuff
I eat soup all season long but I definitely eat more of it during the fall and winter because a big bowl of soup just seems to warm you from the inside out. Like heartburn with flavour.
Szechwan Carrot Soup
Carrot soup can be bland and boring. Szechwan carrot soup is not. This soup has carrots of course, but it also has hot pepper flakes, a lot of ginger and peanut butter to give it more flavour than any other carrot soup you've had.
If you rarely use ginger but sometimes do, grab a hunk of it the next time you're at the grocery store and freeze it. Ginger freezes perfectly and you'll never say CRAP ... I have all the ingredients other than fresh ginger! Freeze it and you'll always have fresh ginger.
Fire Broth Soup
This sausage and vegetable soup is one I stole from a moment in time when I was doing a Paleo challenge with a Crossfit group. I've since denounced both insanties but continue to enjoy the soup. While sitting quietly. Eating hunks of bread chased with a mashed potato milkshake.
TIP: If you don't want to eat Fire Broth soup for the rest of your life half this recipe.
Curried Cauliflower Soup
This Cauliflower soup gets extra warmth from the curry and extra flavour from coconut milk.
Brazilian Black Bean Soup
I can't even begin to tell you how many black bean soup recipes I tried before finding one that was really, really great. THIS the final soup on my fall soup list - Black Bean Soup is really, very great. It's easily one of my favourite fall soup recipes. It's base is an Epicurious recipe that I played with a few times before deciding I didn't need to play with it anymore.
It has a deep, dark, black bean flavour with hits of cumin, lime and a base of orange juice.
TIP: This is not a first date soup. It's made entirely of beans. It may not even be a first anniversary soup.
I need not worry about that. Tonight ... it is Black Bean Soup.
Karen in Niagara
'Chased with a mashed potato milkshake' and I believe I will steal that line. Thanks.
E
Yummy!
Looking forward to trying some of these when lingering summer (not complaining!) finally gets bored and moves on.
From a 1%-er who now has to write down (with a pen in a notebook made of paper) the sentence:
"Eating hunks of bread chased with a mashed potato milkshake."
Because...yeah.
Gretchen Sexton
Can't wait to make these! But...it's still 90 degrees in Alabama...it might be awhile.
DId not know you can FREEZE GINGER!!
Off to the grocery store now!
Thanks!
Terri
You can also grind the ginger up in a food processor, scoop it into little portions, freeze little portions on a sheet pan, then toss into a freezer bag so it’s always ready to use.
Eileen
or put into ice cube trays (yeah, I think there are two of us in the world without ice cube making fridges, so you can find the trays at thrift stores).
Theresa Daugherty
Make that three of us
Alena
I love soups, so no worries that I would find the post boring. Granted, if I had to choose between the taxidermy and the soup posts, I would click the taxidermy first but I would still read the soup post after. I love soups, and in winter, I often them as a meal (a kind of an Eintopf dinner). My stomach does not like too much spice so I may have to tone some down in order to survive though.
Thanks for the recipes.
Dave
I loves the soup! Here are my two faves that I've been making for years. I normally do a double or triple batch. They both freeze well and are very company-worthy.
Sherried Tomato Soup (stolen from Pioneer Woman)
6 Tablespoons Melted Butter
1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
1 bottle (46 Oz.) Tomato Juice
2 cans (14 Oz. Cans) Diced Tomatoes
1 to 3 Tablespoon Chicken Base
3 to 6 Tablespoons Sugar
1 pinch Salt
Black Pepper to taste
1 cup Cooking Sherry
1-1/2 cup Heavy Cream
Chopped Fresh Parsley
Chopped Fresh Basil
INSTRUCTIONS
Sauté diced onions in butter until translucent. Then add canned tomatoes, tomato juice, chicken base, sugar, pinch of salt, black pepper and stir. Bring to a near boil, then turn off heat. Add in sherry and cream and stir. Add in parsley and basil to taste.
If you like a smoother soup, give it a whirl with an immersion blender.
Adjust other seasonings and serve.
Curried Coconut Sweet Potato Soup (Stolen from LCBO Food & Drink magazine)
1 tbsp (15 mL) butter
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbsp (25 mL) finely chopped peeled ginger
2 tsp (10 mL) mild or medium curry powder
½ tsp (2 mL) each ground cumin and ground coriander
2 cups (500 mL) Sweet Potato Purée (recipe follows)
1 ripe pear, cored, peeled and chopped
400 mL can coconut milk
1 cup (250 mL) chicken broth
1 to 3 tsp (5 to 15 mL) lemon juice
Salt to taste
Strips toasted coconut or coriander leaves
1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, until nearly soft, about 3 minutes.
Stir in curry, cumin and coriander. Cook until fragrant, 1 minute.
2. Whisk in Sweet Potato Purée, pear, coconut milk and chicken broth. Increase heat to medium-high, then reduce heat, cover and simmer gently to allow flavours to blend, 10 minutes.
3. Purée in a food processor until smooth. Then turn into a sieve set over a clean saucepan. Using the bottom of a ladle, press mixture through sieve into pan. Stir in lemon juice and add salt to taste after sieving. Reheat and garnish with strips of toasted coconut or coriander leaves if you wish.
Makes 4 cups (1 L)
Sweet Potato Purée
3 sweet potatoes, about 1¾ lb (875 g)
3 garlic cloves
½ cup (125 mL) milk
2 tbsp (25 mL) butter
¼ tsp (1 mL) ground ginger
Generous pinch ground nutmeg
¾ tsp (4 mL) salt
Pinch cayenne pepper
1. Preheat oven to 400ºF (200ºC).
2. Prick potatoes a few times. Place whole unpeeled potatoes on a baking sheet in centre of preheated oven. Bake 30 minutes. Place whole unpeeled garlic cloves on sheet and continue to bake until potatoes and garlic are tender, 15 to 25 more minutes.
3. When cool enough to handle, peel potatoes and garlic. Place both in a large saucepan set on low heat. Add milk, butter and seasonings. Mash until as smooth as you like.
Tip
If you're in a rush, peel and chop potatoes into chunks and set in a large saucepan along with peeled garlic. Cover with cold water, then add salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are very tender, about 20 minutes. Proceed as above. The texture isn't quite as good, but they are still delicious.
Makes 4 to 6 servings
Karen
Dave! I've been meaning to search for a good Thai Squash soup for ages. (In this case I'll swap the sweet potatoes for Kabocha sqaush. I'll give it a go. LCBO has GREAT recipes. ~ k!
Dave
Good call! I think that would work brilliantly.
Stacey
My favourite soup of all time is banana curry soup. It is sooooo good.
NinaMargo
Wow. Can't decide. Gotta throw cioppino in the mix along with a ham hock and navy bean. Oh yeah, and don't forget the New England clam chowda. Almost wish I lived somewhere it snows. Almost.
Marie Anne
How did you know I would be planning a soup making bananza to stock the freezer this weekend???
Tarra
Its summers end, been in the high 20s all week with 30C forcast for the weekend; the only conceivable soup is Gazpacho!!!
Jane S
My favourite is turkey soup. I frequently buy a couple of turkey legs for soup and then freeze lovely little bowls of soup. I recently discovered that cooking them overnight in the slow cooker makes incredibly rich broth.
I grate my ginger before I freeze it. I put little piles of about a teaspoon on sticky Glad Wrap and then seal it. Then all I have to do is cut off a square or two whenever I need it.
Sheila
Brilliant! I do that with tomato paste also.
Mary W
Karen, the topping on the pumpkin soup is probably going to be my favorite part. I love pumpkin, always use the seeds, and thank you for this recipe. Make sure to listen to Idris reading the whole story - I certainly understand your attraction.
Terry Brittian
Nothing better than Ellie Kreiger's Minestrone on Food TV site. Quick, easy and so healthy. Intend to give Firebroth recipe a go. Looks good.
Monica
Potato-based soup are my heart's fondest desire. But instead of blending them I use a contraption that looks like this:
http://amzn.to/2jQ5Ib1
This one is called a "hamburger chopper" but I've seen others called potato mashers that are pretty much the same design. You can just go to town stabbing in your soup pot. It won't create glue and best of all (in my opinion) thickens the soup while also leaving the odd chunk of bite-sized potatoes. Also, you won't be blending or mushing your leeks with this so you'll still get pieces of whole leek, which I dig.
Terri
Idris is reading on https://www.projectliteracy.com
Enjoy your soup and a bedtime story.
Mary W
Pleasant dreams, indeed! Loved listening, loved the idea of re-imagining an old story, loved the watercoloring, loved that you shared this, and I subscribed to such a worthwhile channel. Little dreams can grow up into big changes when shared! Thanks!
Kris Schrader
Did you ever try bay leaves in a bean soup? Don't eat them. They are there to save your stomach from gas.
Monica
I've heard this but never had it work. I made a big crockpot of Navy Bean-Carrot-Onion soup the other day and oh, boy... luckily I've been married close to three years so no take-backsies... I hope.
Karen
Interesting. I wonder if it actually works! Thx! ~ karen
Sabina Missana
Bay leaf is one of my "secret" ingredients that is the "I like it but there's something missing" void-filler. It's also very good for the belly. When we were sick (think flu and pukey) our mother would make a bay leaf tea and when my baby (she's 26 now) would have an upset belly I'd maker her "special water"...our Aunt Pat calls that vodka...and put it in her bottle. Turkish bay leaf is the best!
Paula
I love, love, love your pumpkin soup recipe. I haven't made it yet considering we are in the midst of summer, which arrived very late; like after the summer.
Black beans were featured in my veggie garden this year so I will be giving that one a try, too.
Karen
I intend to grow black beans every year and then ... I don't, lol. Next year! ~ karen
Kathleen Aberley
We are currently enjoying a gloriously warm Spring here in South Africa, so soup would have to be a starter here, not the main course at the moment. However, my son always arrives home from work ravenously hungry and eats a bowl of... you guessed it, soup before dinner is served. So these are some delicious alternatives to the boring rut of soup that I find myself in. Once again, Karen to the recipe-rut rescue. Thank you!
KimS
This pampered chef recipe for Zuchinni Chicken Soup is my favorite! https://www.pamperedchef.com/recipe/Main+Dishes/Mediterranean/Chicken+%26+Orzo+Soup/797011
Bethany Jones
Freeze. Ginger. I had no idea. Cheers on the soup recipes, but that little tip really made my day!
Lynneo
French onion please. If that ain't winter, I don't know what is! Is chilli a soup?