Roasted carrot soup with dukkah spice and yogurt

Believe it or not, tomorrow is the first day of spring. If you live in the Boston area, then you probably know better than to get too excited about that fact. Although this week last year brought us temperatures in the 70's and trees blooming with flowers, this year brought us snow and freezing rain. Winter is certainly not over, and as anyone around here will tell you, it's not unheard of to get snow well into April. With the weather being so cold and wet, I thought it would be appropriate to post about soup (and I'm not the only blogger who felt this way). This carrot soup recipe came from Bon Appetit - the base soup is simple, just carrots and broth, but the carrots are roasted to give it extra depth of flavor. The toppings are what really make the soup special though. The yogurt adds some nice acidity, and the dukkah spice (an Egyptian spice and nut blend) gives the soup complexity. The soup is thick and filling and will definitely keep you warm while you wait for spring to arrive!

Red lentil and pumpkin soup

I saw this recipe in the November issue of Cooking Light and the lentil-pumpkin combination really appealed to me. I have always enjoyed lentil soup and the addition of pumpkin just seemed like it would work well. I ended up making this soup for dinner tonight and was really happy with it. This is a great soup for fall/winter - it's healthy, filling, and flavorful, and also happens to be quick and easy to make. The pumpkin adds creaminess and a hint of sweetness to the soup, and the spices are well balanced. The recipe uses mostly pantry ingredients, so this is something that you can easily whip up when you're looking for a warm satisfying meal on a winter night.

Beet and coconut soup

What are your thoughts on eating hot soup in the summertime? I know some people stay away from soup when the weather gets hot, but I actually don't have a seasonal preference for soup. Frankly, I don't eat soup that often, no matter what season it is. I generally only make soup when I come across a recipe that I can't resist - this one is a perfect example. I found this recipe in The Accidental Vegetarian and tagged it immediately. I've had it in the back of my mind for weeks, but today was the first time that I had beets in the fridge and time to try a new recipe. This soup combines roasted beets with coconut milk, cumin, lemongrass, garlic, chiles, and ginger - I've never combined beets with those ingredients before, but the idea appealed to me right away. The beets work beautifully here, contributing a nice earthy note to the otherwise Asian-inspired soup. The beets also contribute their color, turning this soup a shocking magenta color, which is a little weird, but mostly awesome. In spite of the kooky color, the soup is actually quite elegant - the flavors blend well and if you go through the trouble of sieving the soup, the texture is silky smooth. It is spicy though, so reduce the chiles if you are sensitive to heat. I'm really glad I finally got to make this recipe. It's such a fun new way to use beets - definitely a soup worth trying in any season.

Broccoli-almond soup

I was feeling mildly sick yesterday, and that combined with the rainy weather made me feel like having soup for dinner. I wasn't sure what type of soup I wanted so I turned to my cookbooks for inspiration. I came across this recipe in Soup For Every Body, a cute little cookbook that I had picked up at a yard sale a year or two ago but had never actually cooked from. Joanne's recent post on cashew-tomato soup got me interested in soups using nuts, and this broccoli-almond soup seemed like the perfect way to use the broccoli I had bought at the market that morning. You may remember that I tend to think of broccoli as a boring vegetable, so I'm always happy to find interesting new ways to use it. This soup was very good - the toasted almonds thickened the soup and gave it a nice nutty flavor, and ground coriander added a warm spiced note that I really enjoyed. It made a perfect healthy but filling meal - give it a try if you're looking for a lighter alternative to cream-of-broccoli or broccoli-cheddar soup.

What is your favorite fall soup?

Hot and sour cabbage soup

Cabbage is one of the only non-root vegetables that is available right now, and it's cheap, so I'm trying to get it into our dinner rotation more often. This weekend I wanted to play around with cabbage soup, and thought that the flavors of Chinese hot and sour soup would work really well. I've eaten hot and sour soup plenty of times at restaurants but had no idea what ingredients gave it its unique flavor, so it was fun to learn how to make it. It's really not that complicated - the ingredients are fairly basic, and the signature hot and sour flavor mainly come from white pepper and vinegar.

I started with a recipe from Gourmet Today and adapted it quite a lot, simplifying the ingredients (e.g. shiitakes instead of more obscure Chinese mushrooms), adding cabbage, using only 1 pot, and making it vegetarian. It came out really good - way, way better than the downright bland version I got last time I ordered Chinese takeout. How on earth did they make a bland hot and sour soup? I can't understand it. Anyway, I'm definitely glad I don't need to depend on restaurants anymore to get some!

French onion soup

Happy New Year! Starting this blog was one of the best things that I did in 2010 (not the very best thing I did though - that would be marrying Andrew). It's been a wonderful experience so far - this space has truly helped me focus my interest in food, explore new recipes and ingredients, and develop my own ideas about responsible and healthful eating. I'm very much looking forward to this new year of cooking and blogging. I want to take a minute here to thank everyone that has visited this site. I was really nervous about putting myself out there in this way, and your comments and encouragement have meant a lot to me. I wish you all a happy and healthy year, filled with good things to eat.

There's no particular reason why this post is the first one of the new year. It just happens to be something that I made recently that is fitting for dinner on a cold winter night. Better make it a weekend night though, because it starts out almost 40 minutes of cooking onions...it's worth it though. This soup may not be much to look at, but it is gooood. The soup is tasty on its own, but the cheesy toasts on top really make it special. And locally grown onions are plentiful right now, so it's nice to let them be the star of the show for once.

Thai red curry squash soup

 
It's November (!), which means all my cooking magazines are filled with Thanksgiving recipes. I don't usually get very excited about Thanksgiving, which is a shame for such a food-centered holiday. My family never did a traditional Thanksgiving when I was growing up (my mom is a vegetarian, so roasting a turkey wasn't exactly an option), so I don't have a nostalgic attachment to the food. And although Thanksgiving food is always good, it's usually not that exciting, especially for someone who grew up on spicy Indian food. Which is why I was very happy to see the current issue of Food & Wine feature a series of Asian-inspired Thanksgiving recipes created by Joanne Chang (the chef behind the amazing Flour Bakery + Cafe). I love the idea of giving Thanksgiving food a multicultural twist - maybe I'll be creating an Indian-inspired Thanksgiving feast for my own family one day...

Out of all the recipes in the feature, the red curry squash soup looked especially appetizing, and seemed like the perfect way to use the butternut squash that had been sitting on our counter for about a month. And the soup definitely lived up to expectations - it was totally delicious, creamy, and flavorful. The curry and coconut milk blend really well with the flavor of the squash, without overpowering it. Plus the soup gets even better after sitting in the fridge for a day or two, so you can make it ahead of time.

Recipe notes: The recipe suggests kabocha, kuri, or buttercup squash, but I used butternut, and it was fantastic. I left out the lemongrass, lime leaves, and scallions because I didn't have any, and added a handful of cilantro leaves at the end. Andrew and I both thought the cilantro added really good flavor to the soup. I also added more than the suggested 1 tbs lime juice.

Curried lentil soup with tomato and greens

I just watched an episode of Project Runway, and it had me bawling. What's up with that? This never happened when PR was on Bravo. But anyway,  it seemed like a good time to blog about something comforting, namely soup. This one comes together quickly, and makes a satisfying meal, perfect for these autumn days.

The original recipe (from The Gourmet Cookbook) calls for spinach, but I used radish and turnip greens. Next time I would pick one or the other - both was a bit too much. I also added carrots and potatoes to make the soup a bit heartier, and made a few other minor changes. The final product was reminiscent of an Indian dish that my mom makes often, and was nice to have around for weekday lunches. With a hunk of crusty bread, it makes a great dinner as well.

Garlic soup with poached eggs

I was very excited to find out that Summer Fest is continuing on beyond the original schedule - continuing well into the fall in fact. This event has been so perfect for the theme of my blog, and I love the challenge of exploring a different vegetable/fruit each week. This week's theme is garlic. Garlic is something that I use all the time, but it is rarely the central focus of a dish. I thought about roasting it, or making garlic bread, but decided instead to try something completely new - garlic soup. You might think this sounds crazy, especially if you are imagining the pungent flavor of raw or quickly cooked garlic. But garlic cooked slowly is an entirely different thing. It becomes mellow and warm, and seriously, make this soup next time you're stuck inside on a rainy day. It is just so good. Think poached eggs on toast taken to a totally new level. In spite of the whole head of garlic in there, it doesn't taste garlicky - it just tastes comforting and delicious. The bread soaks up the broth while still retaining a bit of crunch, and when you cut into the egg, the yolk flows out and blends with the soup. And don't worry if you don't know how to poach an egg - I had never really done it before this, but I just followed the recipe instructions and they came out great!

Roasted tomato soup with smoked paprika

For this week of Summer Fest, which features tomatoes, I decided to finally make this roasted tomato soup recipe that I had bookmarked in Super Natural Cooking a long time ago. Andrew loves smoky flavors, so I had a feeling that he would like this one. Plus I knew it would be a great way to show off the plum tomatoes that I had just bought at the farmers' market.

This is a really hearty, tasty soup - perfect for the rainy weather we've been having in Boston lately. I loved the way the various vegetable flavors blended with the smokiness of the paprika to make this taste more complex than the standard tomato soup. I stayed fairly close to the original recipe for this one, but chose to use plum tomatoes (recipe doesn't specify, and plum are great for roasting) and added in a potato to make the soup a bit more thick and filling - this is something that my mom always does when she makes tomato soup. With some crusty bread or garlicky croutons, this soup could definitely be a satisfying main course.