Minnie's Soup Kitchen

White Bean Soup Two milestones achieved yesterday (22nd February): soup number 170 from The Soup Book and the last of the soups from the Pulses and Nuts section. I'm getting there, slowly but surely. Finishing touches: pancetta and shallots   Ingredients:  onions, garlic, cannellini beans (I used canned rather than dried), celery, a bay leaf, parsley stalks (no leaves!), lemon juice, vegetable stock, shallots, pancetta and Taleggio cheese (you could also use fontina). Cooking method:  I first fried the onions over a low heat then added the garlic. Next into the pan were the cannellini beans, celery, the bay leaf, parsley, lemon juice and stock. I left the mixture simmering for about an hour before blending. I then left the soup sitting while I watched the Low Charioteers beat the Boys in Green (13-10). Separated at birth? The younger offspring signalled that he would be home by 7 o'clock so I went back to the kitchen to finish the soup. I had sliced t...

Harissa and Chickpea Soup A couple of week's ago the spouse expressed an interest in making this soup from The Soup Book . Well, it's my blog and I make the soups. That said, I let him make the harissa that's needed to flavour the soup I made last Saturday (10th November). The recipe is by Roopa Gulati so I expected spice and richness. We weren't disappointed. The spouse is becoming a collector of harissa pastes and enjoyed making this one, which called for a red pepper, olive oil, seeds (coriander, cumin and caraway), tomato puree, garlic, red chillies, smoked paprika and lemon juice. I don't know how this was made as the spouse was the boss of the harissa. I needed only a couple of tablespoons for the soup, but we can use the rest with couscous (a favourite with the younger offspring). By the way, we now have three jars of smoked paprika due to inadequacies in our spice filing system. I hope that binding them together with a rubber band will help prevent any m...

Chicken and Pork Gumbo Chicken, pork and lardons simmering in stock It's been almost a month since I last made a soup from The Soup Book . It's a bank holiday weekend here in Dublin and the older offspring is home, so I thought I'd make a meaty soup for his delectation. Chicken and pork gumbo would be the very thing, I thought. The recipe is by Carolyn Humphries , whose Cuban black bean soup I made in March. The ingredients include chicken leg and thigh portions (Carolyn suggests substituting duck), smoked lardons or pancetta, belly pork, chicken stock, a bay leaf, red peppers, onion, garlic, celery, beefsteak tomatoes, green beans, okra, thyme, paprika (two types - sweet and smoked), Tabasco sauce and cooked rice. Vegetables simmering in stock The spouse kindly went shopping and bought most of the ingredients. All we needed was the okra (or ladies' fingers as I called them when I was growing up). We were going into town to take part in the Dublin Zombie Wa...