How Do You Soup?

kaneohegirlinaz

kaneohegirlinaz

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Here in Northern Arizona USA, it's coming on to Soup Season.
You know, it's getting cooler during the day, there's a nip in the air and your thoughts drift to a nice warm bowl in your hand of goodness.

I could eat Soup every day of the year, I love a good Soup, but my DH thinks that it should be reserved for this time of the year, colder weather.

I like to make all different sorts of Soups and portion them off to stash in the freezer for whenever I want a soul-satisfying meal.

Split Pea and Ham Hock Soup.JPG


I made a small-ish batch of Spilt Pea and Ham Hock Soup... YUM!

How do you Soup?
 
I can certainly eat soup year-round, but I enjoy it best in Winter, and I like it thick and substantial, with lots of chunky veg in it - maybe I stew instead of soup!

I also like it with heavily-buttered crusty rolls.

My least-favorite soups are probably plain broths and puréed soups - they may look elegant, but I like my soup with stuff in it to bite into. I do make those types of soups, of course, and I eat them and they're fine, but they're not my preference.

My favorite is probably a beef-barley soup, and my wife's is probably that split-pea & ham soup you have there.
 
Soups and gravies are very similar in many respects. They both use the juices of plant and animal ingredients to create them. However, gravies are more often made from the fats and juices of meats. A gravy can come from vegetable, however, - mushroom gravy. Soups, on the other hand, use meats, vegetables and fruits. Yes, that's right, fruits. You can make a fruit soup. Can you make a pineapple soup? Sure. Can you make a berry soup, - a strawberry soup? Yes.

The extracted juices and cell materials that make a soup are always done in heated water. Gravies are not requiring water, except as a later step and are most often combined with flour, milk and possibly butter.

So, to obtain a soup, you heat meats, vegetables and/or fruits in water. Then you add additional seasoning - herbs and spices. Note that the starches from boiled grains like rices and pastas do not constitute a soup by themselves, but may contribute to a soup when rice or noodles are part of it.

The questionable form of a soup comes from the notion of using a puree as a soup. Is, for example, tomato soup a soup from a puree? In adherence to the concept of creating soup by heating in water, a tomato soup should be made by heating tomato in water, not by heating a puree. A puree may be heated in water, however, to form soup.
 
Now that I know what soup is, it turns out I make them. I actually make gumbo more than I make soup. I think that qualifies as a soup, according to the above definition. Chicken and Sausage is my favorite for winter, unless I go hunting and get some ducks. It has been a long time since I went duck hunting. :(

GumboMoneyShot.jpg


I also have a beef and vegetable soup that I make every year that has some red wine in it. My family loves it.

BeefSoup001.jpg


Another favorite is ham and bean soup, which I always make with the ham bone from the Christmas ham.

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CD
 
flyinglentris said:
Soups and gravies are very similar in many respects. They both use the juices of plant and animal ingredients to create them. However, gravies are more often made from the fats and juices of meats. A gravy can come from vegetable, however, - mushroom gravy. Soups, on the other hand, use meats, vegetables and fruits. Yes, that's right, fruits. You can make a fruit soup. Can you make a pineapple soup? Sure. Can you make a berry soup, - a strawberry soup? Yes.

The extracted juices and cell materials that make a soup are always done in heated water. Gravies are not requiring water, except as a later step and are most often combined with flour, milk and possibly butter.

So, to obtain a soup, you heat meats, vegetables and/or fruits in water. Then you add additional seasoning - herbs and spices. Note that the starches from boiled grains like rices and pastas do not constitute a soup by themselves, but may contribute to a soup when rice or noodles are part of it.

The questionable form of a soup comes from the notion of using a puree as a soup. Is, for example, tomato soup a soup from a puree? In adherence to the concept of creating soup by heating in water, a tomato soup should be made by heating tomato in water, not by heating a puree. A puree may be heated in water, however, to form soup.
Click to expand...

Stone soup. I like to start with one from the beach and go from there. :okay:
 
I had a client a few years ago who went on a "fanatical" diet. Only soup.
I made roasted pumpkin soup with red lentils, roasted carrot & tomato soup, morrocan style vegetable soup, pasta e fagioli soup - the whole works.
I like soup, but it´s not something I´d make every day
 
Soups are very interesting. I'm one of these people who don't make soups often, but when I made one, I always tell to myself, I should eat more soups, maybe once a week. Normally my motivation is gone after one or two soups, because at least one of those soups turned out really boring. I've done some really good soups in the past, for example a beef soup with beef leg, giant white beans and string beans, or pumpkin ginger soups, a good pureed soup always hits the right spot for me. My favourite from the kitchens I've worked so far is the asparagus cream soup, followed by mushroom cream soup.
 
There is one modification I need to make to the soup definition that I previously posted. Water is not the only thing that you can heat a soup in. Milk or half n half will work and is often what is used in potato soup or potato based soups like New England clam chowder. A tomato soup made my heating tomato in milk is not to be ignored as a possibility.

Can you use fruit juices? If you are doing a fruit or berry soup, I don't see why not, but fruit juices would otherwise not get appreciable results.

BTW: If you are skeptical about fruit and berry soups, just google for what people are creating as fruit soup recipes. It is being done.
 
Eggs? Can you make an egg soup? That is, not an egg drop soup, but an egg, specifically, soup?

There is such a soup called straciatella, but it has variably been called a Roman egg drop soup or a scrambled egg soup. Straciatella BTW can be three different things in Italy, a soup, a gelato or a cheese.
 
Soups are strongly married to left overs in many cases. The left over turkey from Thanksgiving day, heated in water with vegetables added, often generates a post T-day soup, for example.

But there's more to the left over involvement in soups yet. Leftovers often come close to spoiling. And a soup is the perfect way to salvage and use those items. Many soups have their origins to this purpose.
 
We love soups ..
Made ham and corn chowder last night. Chopped carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, garlic sautéed. Add some salt/pepper and cheated with just a sprinkle of liquid smoke, then added flour to make a rue. Add chicken broth, chopped ham, peas and freezer sweet corn. Turned out pretty good.
 
flyinglentris said:
The extracted juices and cell materials that make a soup are always done in heated water.
Click to expand...

I don't think so (my bold). You can make soup using all sort of liquids: milk, both plant and dairy, stock, fruit juice etc. The flavour from vegetables (for example) can be developed by sautéeing or roasting them first rather than cooking in water.

Also - there are soups that don't require heating at all - notably the famous gazpacho. Also salmorejo, ajo blanco, tarator.

flyinglentris said:
Note that the starches from boiled grains like rices and pastas do not constitute a soup by themselves, but may contribute to a soup when rice or noodles are part of it
Click to expand...

There are some example of soups made primarily from grains. There is Irish oatmeal soup, for example.
 
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