Soups make up the back bone of my cooking repertoire. And why not? They're cheap, filling, and mostly healthy as well as tasty. Reheated or thawed soups also make quick and easy dinners on nights when you don't want to do much other than stir and reheat and have salad or some bread on the side. A lot of good soups can also be fairly formulaic, as well, which makes it easy when you're up for stocking your pantry, a key component of having a simple and fast repertoire.
ShoppingLet's start with the pantry stocking you're going to do for this lesson; you can't go wrong to always have a few onions, carrots, celery stalks, a garlic bulb or two, potatoes, cans of diced tomatoes, and some kale, too, if you can. You can already go in quite a few directions with those ingredients alone, and other than the kale, most of them will last in your pantry, root cellar, or fridge for a couple of weeks if you buy them when they're still pretty fresh.
Next go to the beans. I won't take too much of a stand on canned or dried; dried is cheaper, but can be more time consuming, canned is quicker, but can be over-salted (make sure to rinse them) and possibly over-cooked. I insist that you get your split peas dried; they're so tiny that they cook quickly enough any way. In addition to that, my favorites include lentils (another tiny bean you must purchase dried), garbanzo beans (I rely on canned here usually), and cannelloni (also known as white kidney) beans. I usually have a pound or two of these dried as well as a can of cooked hanging around.
Get a few herbs and spices, too, but let your tastes be your guide. I tend to a lot of Italian-inspired recipes, so my favorites include rosemary, thyme, and oregano. However, I also rely on a variety of spices and herbs in my cooking, so feel free to pick based on your personal preferences. I always think it is fun to try a new one, so my spice cabinet is incredibly packed; make sure to keep them air-tight and date them for when you've opened them. 6 months to a year can mean your spices have gone stale; you can still use them, but they won't pack the same punch after that, you might need more. Take note of which ones you go through regularly, and keep an eye on them.
As far as soup goes, a variety of other things can be useful. I don't have rice in any of my favorite recipes at present, but I would imagine that as well as some type of pasta/noodles for adding to the soup, or possibly quinoa or barley, would also be useful to have around the house for soups. Other greens, such as chard or turnip or mustard, collards, spinach, and cabbage all work really well too. However, I find that cabbage, collards, and kale seem to hold up the longest, so I wouldn't purchase the others unless you have something specific in mind. That goes for a lot of other add ins for soups. If it isn't canned or hearty, be sure you're going to use it fairly soon, but if you have the basics from the previous paragraphs, there is plenty you can do already with non or almost perishables.
MirepoixA lot of good soups start with something known as a mirepoix. It's the trinity of the religion of soups, and most soups start with something like this, with one variation or another. The word is French, but other cultures have names for it as well. It relies on aromatics, or onion, celery, and carrot, to provide a base for the soup. Sometimes you might have a bell pepper instead of a carrot, or a leek instead of an onion. Personally, I almost always add a healthy amount of garlic part of the way through cooking (garlic tends to burn more quickly than the others), but roughly chopped one regular or two organic carrots with one or two celery stalks and an onion all chopped up are a good start.
If I'm planning on a low to no fat added soup, I start with a little bit of veggie broth to saute my mirepoix in. Otherwise, I add a tablespoon of olive oil. Three tablespoons if I'm planning on caramelizing the onions instead of merely sauteing the 'poix. I sautee on medium heat, usually for about ten minutes, and caramelize on low heat, usually about 20-25 minutes. You'll know when you're caramelized when the whole mixture becomes about the same color.
BrothAnother thing you'll want to have around is a good quality vegetable broth. I personally make mine, and have it in the fridge and some frozen in the chest freezer pretty much all the time. When I started, however, I purchased boxed low sodium veggie broths I would be able to leave in the pantry until I opened them. Needless to say, I think my broth is better, and the price is much better as well.
To make your own, put a couple of carrots (chopped once or twice), a potato, an onion, and celery (also chopped once or twice), a handful of smashed garlic cloves into a stock pot mostly filled with water. That works well enough on its own, but I also tend to add a variety of other things. When I use collards or kale, I cut the center ribs out and save them in a freezer bag if my dogs don't steal them off the counter first. What can I say? My dogs love their veg. I usually add a handful of those ribs to my stock.
Also, freeze in that or another bag, any broth-friendly veg that is still good, but looks like it might be headed south. When we get a weekly CSA box from the farm, some weeks there are just way too many radishes or turnips to use, for example. I cut them in half and add them to the pot as well. You can do that with a lot of veggies, though I'd stay away from peppers and broccoli.
Watch the pot, and once it hits a rolling boil, turn a timer on for an hour. Turn off the heat and take off your pot's lid after an hour, and when the broth has cooled somewhat, I use a pasta drainer to strain the broth into a 2 liter pitcher I use for my broth. I usually freeze 2 liters in freezer bags, one liter per bag. I also keep a 2 liter pitcher in fridge. I throw it out of the fridge in a week if I don't use it, but I use it more often than not. That is, unless I also have a pitcher of garlic broth in the fridge as well. Five heads of garlic, separated and smashed with the side of a knife boiled for an hour as well makes a wonderful broth as well, though it won't fit the flavor profile for a number of soups.
Soup it Up!Now that you have your mirepoix,your stocked pantry, and your broth, you're ready to go for it! Split pea involves a pound of rinsed split peas and 2 liters of broth, bring to a boil and then simmer until the peas are falling apart (about 45 minutes). I like to add a chopped up new potato (peeled) with the peas for a little extra creaminess and a splash of liquid smoke at the end. Ta da! Split pea.
Add a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes and a teaspoon each of thyme and rosemary and 2-3 cups broth to the 'poix instead, bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes. Add a layer of chopped kale, minus the ribs (1 regular or 2 small bunches) to the top, and put a lid on the soup, allowing the heat and stem to soften the kale. Add 1/2 cup pasta shapes with the kale, or add a can of rinsed cannelloni beans after softening the kale and bam! Minestrone. I like to caramelize the 'poix sometimes for this soup.
These are just a beginning, and there are so many ways to go from here. Add broth, tomatoes or no tomatoes, switch up a veggie or a bean, add pasta or rice or barley, and before you know it, you'll have a whole variety of basic soups to sustain you. When you've mastered these basics, start deriving inspiration from cookbooks. After you've followed a number of recipes, you'll be able to use the skills, combinations, and ideas you gain from them to put them to the test in a whole new variety of possibilities by creating your own pantry soups. Some of my favorites include Robin Robertson's
Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes which taught me my favorite split pea,
Poor Girl Gourmet by Amy McCoy, which taught me some great skills as well as showed me how to make a wonderful ribollita, and
Color Me Vegan by Colleen Patrick Goudreau, which gave me my favorite version of minestrone. Also, Isa Chandra Moskowitz has been inspiring me lately, as I try out her soup recipes to figure out my perfect lentil soup. I'm not quite there yet as far as my personal tastes go, but she's gotten me close!
In addition to repertoire lessons, I'm planning on trying to cook through as many new recipes as possible this summer so I can start making a dent in the books that I purchased during my year-long cookbook binge which has slowed down, though not yet stopped. Seriously, folks, my cookbook shelf is bowing and I am running out of space.
My goal is to cook 100 recipes from my books that I haven't yet tried over the summer, which is do-able, though it will take some effort, since I already have so many favorites I want to re-make. I made number one yesterday, and made number two today. If I don't lazy it up for the rest of the evening, I'll make number three for dinner. I plan on posting these as well (I've got pictures!)
Until I write you next, happy cooking!
