How to Make Vegetable Soup

Soup-bowl

How to make vegetable soup.

For four servings:

Take whatever *vegetable you fancy, preferably one in season. Wash it, cut it into large pieces.

Peel an onion, chop it in fourths (Saute golden for extra taste if you so desire.)

Add the vegetables and the onion into a pot, barely cover the vegetables with water.

Bring to a boil, then turn the burner down to a simmer point.

Simmer until the vegetables are tender but not mushy.

Add a tablespoon or two of seasoning (depending on the vegetable and flavor you are after.)

A half cup of cream,

A half a glass of white wine.

Let set for ten minutes, simmer lightly… then,

Blend slightly to have a creamy texture but with a few pieces intact to chew on.

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Serve hot in a bowl with a dollop of cream fraiche.

Old-French-bowl

Leek Potato Curry soup for Migraines and other not so feeling good days:

One leek sliced into halos,

Four potatoes in their red jackets diced,

One long narrow carrot chopped to add color,

Put the halos, the carrot, and the red jackets into a pot barely cover the vegetables with water.

Bring to a boil, then simmer until the vegetables are tender (but not mushy)

More but not less add:

Three tablespoons of cream cheese, or ricotta, I used cream fraiche.
One tablespoon and a tad more of curry powder,
A dash of celery salt,
The last bit of the white wine in your glass,

Salt and pepper to taste.

Blend briefly so there is a mixture of creamy wonder-ness and yet some chunky goodness.

Serve hot.

bowl

* Vegetables to use with seasonings to match:

1/4 a pumpkin with nutmeg.

– One leek, one turnip, two potatoes, three carrots, and one celery stock, with a bay leaf.

Six carrots and ginger.

– Eight tomatoes and mint.

– Several handfuls of mushrooms, with garlic and Roquefort cheese.

– Three zucchini, two tomatoes, and one celery, season with oregano.

Thirty or so chestnuts and cognac

*******************

What is your favorite soup?



Comments

43 responses to “How to Make Vegetable Soup”

  1. Those are my kind of recipes. I think I can handle it. I hope you are feeling better.

  2. jend’isรจre

    well-timed comfort food

  3. Now I’m hungry! I hope you’re feeling much better, Corey. ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. Baby Spinach soup
    Saute an onion in olive oil, add chopped garlic
    and sliced mushrooms, saute until soft (not mushy)
    Add 3-4 cups of baby spinach and 3 cups of chicken stock.
    When spinach cooks down, slowly add a cup of cream, gently stirring it in. Salt and pepper to taste and top with crumbled bacon, or fakin’ bacon if you are vegan.

  5. Oh I love homemade cream of tomato soup, chicken and rice soup, southwest harvest soup (vegetarian), cream of crab soup, cream of mushroom soup, creamy wild rice and mushroom soup, lentil soup, etc.
    Hope that you feel better!

  6. Hope you are feeling better, Corey. Great recipes, I will print this out. It is actually rainy and cool here, soup weather for sure. Absolutely adore the “Souvenir” bowl.

  7. What you lacked to mention is, serve in beautiful, old French cafรฉ au lait bowls ;P
    My favorite soup — Sweet Potato & Leek with Bacon.

  8. Natalie Thiele

    I love soups, bouillabaisse, gazpacho, potato leek, roasted red pepper, etc.
    I will try your leek, potato, curry soup. It sounds very different from mine and quite delicious!

  9. I love tortilla soup but it tends to be a bit complicated. My husband makes Fish Soup but that too tends to have way too many ingrediants. Will try your Leek Potato Curry soup. I love curry.

  10. Corey, dont want to be annoying but Love your blog!
    All the commenters- Thank you for your great comments!
    So much wisdom, caring, love, support, humor.
    Thanks Corey, hope everything is well.

  11. Thanks for sharing these wonderful recipes.. I was admiring the bowls more than reading the recipes though. Lovely bowls.

  12. Kristin Wight

    Well, I have a few favorite soups…. Chicken Tortilla soup…. Mmmmmm….. and a new one, Mustard potato soup! Might have to make one of those soon! I’m going to try a leek mustard soup I think… not sure how that will play into my weight watchers that I am starting tomorrow!

  13. Kristin Wight

    Candace, I have an uncomplicated tortilla soup…. and I love it! It comes from a Texan… good tex-mex! Crock pot 4 hours high or 8 hours slow..
    2 frozen chicken breasts, 48 oz of chicken broth, 2 cans of rotell tomatoes (I do one spicy one regular), can of beans (your choice) I usually use kidney or black, half a bag of frozen corn, a generous dash of cumin. Cook. Serve with cheese, crunched up tortilla chips, sour cream, and squeeze a slice of lime in each bowl!
    I absolutely love it! I have cooked it for many people and always get compliments!

  14. my favorite home*made soup
    is the one
    someone
    makes for Me
    when i am feeling
    sickly.
    ๐Ÿ™‚
    {{ it usually has lots
    of extra Love stirred in }}

  15. Love soup and love your choices of bowls. I find the bowl must match the soup you are eating. My Irish husband would say I am fussy. I am!
    Potato soup with little egg dumplings goes into my inherited brown-eyes susan bowls and is one of my favorites, adapted from my mother-in-law’s soup in her bowls, is one of my favorites. Chicken soup with whatever I have on hand for the noodles and tomato, spinach and cheese tortellini soup is great for a crowd, but, the Greek in me always has room for some egg/lemon soup – avgolemeno.
    I’m hungry. I think it is okay to have soup for breakfast, is it not?

  16. What great ideas. For some reason I only started making my own soups about a year ago – I love it. All these recipes from you and the comments are getting printed – we might be having soup WEEK at our house. When you say “blend” – you mean in a blender right? Seems so, just wanted to be sure.

  17. Nancy from Mass

    Creamy Irish Potato Soup, Vegetarian Tortilla Soup and Soupe l’Oignon (did I spell that right?) Back when I used to eat meat, a simple chicken rice soup with chopped tomatoes was my favorite.

  18. Great recipes, hope the soup made you feel better!
    Soup made of potatoes, carrots, leek/onion and garlic has always been the favourite soup of the family. Personally, I like thick, creamy spinach soup.

  19. I seem to love all soups fairly equally and feel ready to share some love with your recipes…thank you! But I have tasted a soup at a local eatery here that does knock my socks off….sweet/savory/smoky/hot: Sweet Potato Jalepeno soup…mmmmmm.

  20. Potato Leek is my favorite comfort food soup but I can’t ever get away without making Great Bay Seafood Chowder regularly in the fall and winter. Easy, peasy and delish. I am going to try these recipes soon. Spring is prrking up here, thank goodness!

  21. Gazpacho, or Scottish vegetable and lentil soup for me.
    Oh do I love those bowls!!

  22. How did you know I have a headache? Once it stops pounding I’ll try that leek soup.
    I usually make organic vegetable soup: three onions, as much garlic as you can stand, 8 chopped carrots, 8 chopped celery stalks, kidney beans, corn frozen last summer, tomatoes Dad helped me freeze last summer (pureed). Sautee in a huge pot (the one my 90-year-old neighbor Ethel gave me works well), add oregano and basil, add 3 quarts of vegetable broth. Simmer for an hour. Enjoy with fresh, moist bread and butter. Freeze the leftovers and you’ll have enough for the rest of the week and through the weekend.

  23. Jeepers..I woke up with a screaming headache..could be because I ate nothing else but homemade chocolate cookies yesterday..yeow..
    I Love soups..they are one of my favorite things to cook..I use a vegi broth base, always onions,little garlic, carrots, love sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, sometimes coconut milk, clean out the fridge basically..I think I’ll make one today..Should have done that yesterday instead of those dang cookies..I think it would have soothed me better..When in the heck an I ever going to learn!! Hugs from across the big pond..Cynthia

  24. Oolala, Corey, those bowls are pure eye-candy!!! I love soup – all kinds – but my favorite is chicken-rice with lots of sliced carrots, thick-cut celery and onions. My grandaughters (all three) love this soup and I’m the only one who can make such magic… and it’s my grandmother’s recipe. If there are leftovers I freeze it for whenever someone has a cold is is feeling poorly…after all Home Is Where Your Mom Is (or at least her soup).

  25. Favourite soup? – where to start? last night we had Mediterranean Bean Soup – small white beans, olives, tomato paste and artichoke hearts mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Pacific (split) pea and ham with coconut milk is divine too and on a whole different level for a whole different occasion – Cioppino! Sounds like you’re a bit under the weather, Corey, ๐Ÿ™ give yourself permission to lie low for a while ๐Ÿ™‚

  26. Best soup? I think most beautiful bowl is the more appropiate question and number one wins for me. So nice….
    And ofcourse the soup tastes so much better whem served in one.
    greetings from the netherlands…..

  27. Corey, here’s my family’s simple, authentic Azorean Watercress Soup recipe, from the archipelago’s westernmost island of Flores. I suspect it’s not coincidental that the main ingredient, watercress, is a commodity for which even the most impoverished peasants could go foraging on the island for free, as it grows wild in/along riffles that feed the Flores’ west-coast waterfalls — and that it’s also the reason the recipe calls for water (free, clean and abundant there) rather than stock, which requires other ingredients.
    * * * * *
    FLORES-STYLE WATERCRESS SOUP
    1 bunch watercress, washed very thoroughly
    4 cups water
    1 – 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil or butter
    ยฝ cup onion, peeled and chopped
    1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
    ยฝ pound potatoes, washed and peeled
    Salt and pepper to taste
    Crusty bread, torn in chunks
    1. In a medium-large non-corrosive saucepan (I use a 4-quart pan), sautรฉ the chopped onion and garlic in oil or butter over low heat till translucent.
    2. Add the 4 cups of water to the onions and garlic, then heat to boiling.
    3. While the liquid is heating, finely chop the stems of the watercress and thin-slice the potatoes โ…›” thick, then add them to the boiling liquid and cook till done, about 15-20 minutes (test by gingerly forking a slice of potato — when pierced, it should not fall apart).
    4. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
    5. Serve the soup in individual bowls, poured over chunks of crusty bread.

  28. Brother Mathew

    Sopa couves, or kale soup. It’s a Portuguese soup we eat most Sunday’s for dinner.

  29. kennedymf@shaw.ca

    sorry.. I can’t see past the beautiful bowls!!!Wow!!

  30. How funny you should post about soup today! I woke up this morning thinking I would try this new French Onion Soup recipe I recently found online (and it’s vegetarian).
    Ingredients
    1/4 cup butter
    8 onions, sliced
    1 quart vegetable broth
    1 1/2 cups white wine
    salt and pepper to taste
    6 slices baguette
    2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
    Directions
    1.Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Saute onions until deep brown, about 20 minutes. Stir in broth and wine, using a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pot. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until heated through.
    2.Preheat oven on broiler setting. Ladle soup into heatproof serving bowls. Top each bowl with a slice of bread, and sprinkle with cheese. Place under a hot broiler until cheese is melted and slightly browned.
    (Regarding your headaches: I do not suffer from migraines as you do, but often a lack of caffeine is the cause of my headaches and a cup of coffee is a quick remedy. Also, try drinking more water because being dehydrated can cause them, too. Water is also an effective prevention for a hangover if you’ve had too much wine…lol…the secret is to drink a couple of glasses of water before you turn in for the night!)
    I hope you feel better soon!

  31. Apple Cheddar Cheese soup with a dollop of sour cream is my favourite…it has a little maple syrup in it. mmmmmm.

  32. Thanks for the soup recipes, they are very inspiring in deed! So are your beautiful bowls. ๐Ÿ™‚ May I ask you how you manage to chiner such beatiful bowls (is it the magic of being early at the puces/brocante?). I have done lots of puces/brocantes in the Montpellier area, but I haven’t found many beatiful bowls like yours…Also, I have admired the bowls on your breakfast table, and I was wondering if you could tell me whether they are chine or brand new ones? They look lovely, and in such good shape.
    Sorry to bother you with lots of bowl related questions, I tried to write you an email but opening the link with your email adress is impossible on my computer. One last bowl question ๐Ÿ™‚ Are the white cafe au lait bowls that you have shown in several pictures new or chine? If new, could you please tell me which brand they are.
    Thank you so much, Corey, if you have the time to answer my questions! I have written to you a few times before (and been too shy to write a few times), but I’d like to say again that I really enjoy your lovely blog (that I think I discovered in 2007) and it’s nice to read about such a wonderful person as you. ๐Ÿ™‚

  33. I want that first bowl at the top. I love it.

  34. Cousin Chris

    Gotta go with Cousin Matt’s Fav….Portuguese Caldo Verde (Kale with Lunguica). I make it for dinner one evening on the Trail 90 Ride and it’s the only time all 24 Cousins are quiet.
    My second Fav is my Fava Bean Bisque.

  35. YUM. I love that you add cheese and cream to your vegetable soups! Atta girl!

  36. My mom’s knoephla soup is the most divine brothy goodness. It is perfection with lots of cream, potatoes chopped in small cubes, onions, and doughy knoephla dumplings. Yum.

  37. Thanks for the recipes! I am cooking the veggies right now for my soup…wish I was still there to eat dinner with you all! (big smile)Tell Annie Hello.
    Ladelle

  38. Butternut squash cream soup, a touch of nutmeg and 2 teaspoons of honey. Roast the squash first, brings out the sweetness. beautiful white thick cream. Sea Salt, YUM. Also Creamy Tomato, again the honey cuts the acidity, Home made clam chowder. I guess you can tell I love cream soup. I am collecting beautiful silver soup spoons they make any soup taste wonderful. Let me know if you find a beautiful French soup spoon I should not live without.
    Are you planning a trip home in the near future?

  39. Your soup recipes are so fresh. Thank you for passing them along. I make a Creamy Chicken Noodle that’s good but too complicated. I will make the Leek and Potato recipe this week. Just thinking about soup brings calm.

  40. I don’t make soups….but I so enjoyed the pics of your vintage cafe au lait bowls!! I have a strong passion for these lovely dishes ๐Ÿ™‚

  41. Thank you so much! Recipes for soup that do not require opening a can or tomato sauce or chicken broth. Bless you! And the wine, too!

  42. hmmmmm, sounds wonderful my stomach is growling. Yum

  43. Just a note to any who are considering making the French Onion Soup recipe I posted here:
    I just made this soup for the first time and the white wine makes it taste a bit tangy (reminiscent of a mild sauerkraut). I would suggest using water or broth in place of all or part of the wine!

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