Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Saffron and Thyme Our plan this weekend was to go to the Dublin Food Co-op for something to eat before heading to the market in the crypt of Christ Church Cathedral . As I wasn't sure which soup to make, I decided to bring my copy of The Soup Book with me and to make my choice based on the available vegetables. First, though, the spouse, younger offspring and I made different choices for our lunch - falafel wrap (the spouse), vegetable curry (the offspring) and lentil soup (me). Then I inspected the vegetables. I haven't cooked with Jerusalem artichokes in years and the ones on display looked clean and fresh, so that was my vegetable choice made. There are two Jerusalem artichoke recipes in The Soup Book : one involving scallops by Shaun Hill , the other by Celia Brooks Brown . I had no intention of buying scallops, so Celia's recipe it was. The ingredients include onions, garlic, artichokes, carrots, vegetable stock, thyme, saffron and...

Hot Cucumber and Tarragon Soup   This is my third cucumber soup from The Soup Book and the fifth recipe by Marie-Pierre Moine . She writes that cooked cucumber has a subtle flavour and combines well with the "more assertive but still delicate" tarragon. The ingredients include cucumbers, oil, butter, chopped fresh tarragon, vegetable or chicken stock, cornflour and cream cheese (this is optional and is spooned on top of the soup when serving). I had hoped to use tarragon from my front garden but my single plant has not flourished to the same extent as the parsley, sage, lovage and sorrel growing adjacent to it. The spouse wasn't able to find any tarragon when he went shopping yesterday morning, but while we were out for lunch at the Dublin Food Co-op I had a look around and found some. The Co-op was very quiet yesterday and the spouse, the younger offspring and I had a delicious and very reasonably priced meal from one of the Indian food stalls. Incidentally, the spo...

Roast Tomato Soup There are seven tomato soup recipes in the summer vegetable section of The Soup Book   - classic tomato soup, cream of tomato, tomato borscht, gazpacho, sopa de tortilla and smoked tomato. I chose roast tomato by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton  because it looked simple and reasonably straightforward and today I had a lot to do.  As you might expect the ingredients include tomatoes (plum are specified but I couldn't find any in my supermarket), a red onion, garlic, vegetable stock (not home made, I'm afraid) and sun-dried tomato paste. The recipe involves roasting the tomatoes, onions and garlic, then liquidising them with the stock and and paste. Very simple. The complete mix tastes good and it'll be re-heated for lunch tomorrow. Earlier today I was down at the Dublin Food Co-op where I chatted to one of the co-founders. I can remember going to it years ago when it was located on Pearse Street, but before that it was in Temple Bar. Anyway, I bought a nice ...

African Sweet Potato Soup   This soup is another one from the winter vegetables section of The Soup Book , the second recipe by Angela Nilsen that I have used (see blog of 2nd January 2011) and the second soup I have cooked using sweet potatoes (see blog of 27th February 2010). There are just three recipes that call for sweet potatoes: the two I have already mentioned and one called "penny" soup, so called because the some of the vegetables used are sliced in rounds and stacked in a mound in the middle of the soup bowl when serving. Back to the African sweet potato soup. The ingredients include onion, garlic, root ginger, dried crushed chillies, sweet potatoes, red pepper, a can of tomatoes, cumin and coriander seeds (dry roasted and crushed), vegetable stock (I had to use commercial bouillon today), peanut butter and Tabasco sauce. Yes, I was surprised too when I saw peanut butter on the list (smooth or crunchy), but it "lends a rich, satisfying earthiness", ac...

Mixed Fungi Soup Today The Soup Book opened practically unaided at this soup recipe! I had planned to make a soup using the stock the spouse made last month from the left-over crudites from our party. (Parsimony or good house keeping?) The ingredients include onion, garlic, flat-leaf parsley (I used the curly-leafed variety available in my garden. I'm a rebel, me. It's there, it's free and the slugs haven't dragged themselves out of the compost bin to feast on it yet), mixed wild mushrooms and nutmeg. The spouse had expressed an interest in going to the farmers' market up in Marlay Park (www.dublintourist.com/details/marlay_park.shtml) and I reminded him about the Dublin Food Co-op (see my blog of 4th March; www.dublinfood.coop/). So then a discussion ensued about which market to go to. The spouse, the younger offspring and I ended up heading into Newmarket Square, me armed with my copy of The Soup Book in case I couldn't get a mix of mushrooms and needed t...

Garlic broth Today's choice of soup (Sunday 7th) was made on the basis of looking in the fridge to see what I had most of! Well, there's a lot of garlic and not much else. So I looked in The Soup Book to see what was on offer and it seems that garlic broth is the front runner. The spouse made a batch of chicken stock for me yesterday (thanks, D) and I'll have to see if I can get hold of Gruyere cheese for the croutes, but I have sage, bay leaves, thyme, olive oil (bought yesterday at the Food Co-op; see below) and eggs. Update: I couldn't get Gruyere so had to substitute pre-sliced Emmental. We ate the soup for lunch - 75% of the household expressed approval, so it will be made again. The older offspring has gone to play rugby stinking of garlic. He could single-handedly beat a team of vampires from Transylvania today. Someone else's soup I was at the Dublin Food Co-op (www.dublinfood.coop/) in Newmarket, Dublin 8, earlier today (Saturday 6th) and had a bowl of ...