Minnie's Soup Kitchen

"Penny" Soup Today I made my first The Soup Book soup in 2014 - it's also the 169th soup from that book that I've made. Ingredients: a leek, potatoes, carrots, small sweet potatoes, vegetable stock and parsley (from the garden, even though it's January). Preparation: basically, slice the vegetables into thin rounds. Cooking: sweat the vegetables, pour in the stock, simmer until all the vegetables tender; liquidise some of the vegetables with a little of the liquid. To serve: stir in the parsley, pour the soup into the bowls and make a little stack of sliced vegetables in the centre. The bliss of a day off on a weekday! I woke up thinking it was my usual wake-up time: "Oh no! I'm awake! I'll never get back to sleep." Then I discovered it was 8 o'clock, not 6 o'clock. I began the day in a good mood. My friend Bella was coming for lunch and I was pleased to have a new soup taster. I had the soup ready in good time for ...

Samphire Soup with Poached Eggs My one hundred and sixty-third recipe from The Soup Book is by Carolyn Humphries. I'd been looking to making this soup once I realised it was possible to buy samphire . Of course, when I wasn't looking for samphire, I could see it on sale in various shops; but when I wanted to use it, it couldn't be found. Anyway, the spouse found it and bought it for me yesterday: "€8 for 300g is not cheap," said he.  I trotted down to Young Stephen's for a potato and a leek. I asked him if he ever stocked samphire, to which he replied in the negative. Another reason I wanted to make this soup was because of the addition of poached eggs (or "pouched eggs", as they were called on the menu in the Italian hotel I stayed in recently). I love poached eggs and the spouse is becoming quite an expert at making them for me. Carolyn Humphries specifies that white wine vinegar should be added to the water in which you poach your eggs. We...

Soup Review Mixed mushrooms Since my last post on 13th November I have made three soups: mushroom soup (on the 17th), Thai chicken soup (18th November) and garbure (25th November). All that activity has meant I've now completed 149 soups since I started working my way through the recipes in The Soup Book back in December 2009. Nearly three years after I made spinach and rosemary soup I can hardly believe I'm three quarters of the way through the book. I am not sure that I will get through all the recipes and so will change my approach to making soup. I may make it less frequently and try out soup recipes from other cookery books that the spouse and I own. We'll see. Mixed mushrooms: chopped and cooking The spouse and I now have a new favourite vegetable shop . It's not cheap nor is it especially convenient to get to from where we live, but the selection of fresh fruit and vegetables and other produce is impressive. The spouse has been talking about this p...

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...

Waterzooi I hadn't heard of it before but apparently waterzooi is a classic Belgian dish . In her recipe Marie-Pierre Moine lists the ingredients as potato, carrot, courgette, asparagus, monkfish, sole, fish or chicken stock, dry white wine, spring onions, mussels and cream. Oh yes, and chopped tarragon to garnish. A quick internet search tells me that these are not typical ingredients. What do I know? I'm just following The Soup Book 's orders. Ingredients for waterzooi Anyway, I wanted to make a special soup to celebrate the older offspring's presence. We don't often splash out and buy monkfish, sole and mussels. The spouse was assigned to fishing duty. He headed up to his favourite fishmonger 's shop and did the necessary. Mr Fishmonger kindly advised him that the mussels were from a different supplier and that we should give them a good wash. The prep time for this soup was given as twenty minutes and the cooking time thirty minutes. Not for this...

Split Pea and Bacon Soup Last Sunday was another sunny day in Dublin so why did I make a hearty winter's day soup? Partly because I had the packet of split green peas from last weekend and partly because I love bacon-flavoured meals. The other ingredients included smoked streaky bacon, celeriac, carrot, leek, potato, dried marjoram and onion. The first task was to get the peas cooking in water. Then in went the piece of bacon. In the meantime I sliced and diced the vegetables and added them to the peas with some marjoram. When the bacon was cooked, I took it out of the pan, chopped it up and it back in the pan. I fried the onion in a second pan and then I was ready to dish up. I stirred the fried onions into the soup and sprinkled chopped chives over the top of each bowlful. Verdict: Delicious. I'll definitely make this soup again one cold winter's day. Bee is for Baking I've been very busy lately and haven't had much time for doing some of the things I l...

Asparagus and Mushroom Soup It's two years to the day since I made an asparagus soup from The Soup Book  and on that occasion I was a little disappointed. If there's one thing I've learned in the last two and a half years, it's that some recipes work, some don't and some work splendidly. This recipe is by Shaun Hill . The ingredients include chicken stock, potato, leek, asparagus, olive oil, creme fraiche, butter and mushrooms. Well, he actually specifies morels  (fresh or dried) but I had no idea where to find any. There aren't any woods near my house or my office. I did check out the local organic food shop but no joy. They did have globe artichokes, however - maybe there'll be two soups this week.... So, I arrived home from work and unloaded the vegetables. I got changed and then started peeling and chopping. First into the stock was the chopped potato, followed by the asparagus and leek. When they were ready I put them into the blender and whizzed...

Widow's Soup A quick search on the internet comfirms Sophie Grigson 's introductory remarks about widow's soup, namely that it is a Maltese soup. That search also throws up lots of recipes, all with different ingredients, so for now I'll stick with those listed in The Soup Book . You'll need onion, potato, cauliflower florets, carrots, a small lettuce (I used gem), fresh or frozen peas, tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar, red wine vinegar, eggs and ricotta or goat's cheese (I used the latter). There was quite a bit of preparation involved, certainly not the seven minutes Sophie suggests. Who are all these fast peelers, skinners and choppers? Despite nearly two and a half years of soup making, I still haven't speeded up. So, after I had prepared my vegetables, I got cooking. I fried the onions until they were soft. Next into the pan were the potato, cauliflower, carrots and lettuce (if you were using fresh peas, you'd throw them in too at this point). I ...

Allotment Soup  The recipe for allotment soup by Thane Prince is the first in The Soup Book and in the summer vegetables section. I made it last Wednesday (11th April) in advance of visitors coming the next day, one of whom (a friend of the younger offspring) is a vegetarian. The listed ingredients include dried haricot beans (I used canned cannellini beans), leek, turnip (I don't think I've ever cooked white turnip before), carrots, courgette, celery, potato, tomatoes, garlic and green beans. I increased the quantities stated in The Soup Book , just in case there wasn't enough to go around: I wanted a lot of allotment soup. The most labour-intensive part of the preparation was dicing the vegetables and I'm glad I avoided soaking dried beans. The only things I had to do to finish the soup for my guests on Thursday were to reheat the soup and add in the fresh green beans and cannellini beans. Five of us sat down to eat and there was far too much soup. My guest...

Courgette and Potato Soup   I've had a cooking fest this Easter weekend. It began in anticipation of the older offspring's arrival home last Thursday. One of his favourite cakes is banana gingerbread which I make to a recipe by Paul Flynn  cut out of The Irish Times many years ago. I baked the gingerbread the night before he was due home and offered the batter bowl to the younger offspring to lick out. "No, thanks," he replied. "I only like to lick it when [my big brother] is here." When the older offspring arrived home, he complained about not getting mentioned as often as his younger brother in this blog. Sibling rivalry and psychological button-pressing is alive and well chez Minnie. We were having guests for Easter lunch (Juno, Mervyn and Steed) and our menu was to be a shellfish starter, roast beef and trimmings for the main course, and a choice of plum and almond tart and simnel cake for dessert. The spouse took charge of the starter and main co...

Carrot and Orange Soup Yesterday I set out to buy ingredients for spicy spinach soup (from a Roopa Gulati recipe in The Soup Book ) and when I got home I realised that I had already made it about a year ago. So I thought quickly. I knew I had a lot of carrots in the fridge, and on checking the summer vegetables section of The Soup Book , I came across the recipe for carrot and orange soup. The ingredients include leeks, which I had just bought, and orange juice, a carton of which we were slowly working our way through. I also needed ground coriander, cumin, stock, a potato and a bay leaf. The sliced leek and carrots were the first ingredients into the pot, cooking gently until the leek softened. Next in were the potato, the ground spices, orange juice, stock and the bay leaf. About forty-five minutes later the soup was ready to be liquidised. There were just the two of us for lunch - the younger offspring and I. The boy tucked in and was particularly enthusiastic about the soup. W...

Beef and Green Bean Sou p   Just as it says in the title of today's entry, this soup contains beef (shoulder is recommended) and green beans. Why am I stating the obvious? It's been one of those weekends. Beautiful weather but lots of indoor jobs to do.  Anyway, before I went shopping yesterday (the spouse was working) I looked in the fridge to see what we needed and saw a packet of beans on their last day of "best before". "I'll use those up, " I thought. The other ingredients of my 115th recipe from The Soup Book were onion, potato, vegetable stock and thyme. Very simple, very suitable for a weekend with lots going on. I made the yesterday for today's dinner. First the meat had to be sealed, then the onion was fried in the meat juices. I returned the meat to the pan, poured in the stock and continued cooking. After about forty minutes it was "show time" for the potato and fifteen minutes later again, in went the beans. It tasted pre...

Traditional Lamb Broth Just in case you were wondering why there was no new blog entry last weekend, I was away in the Savoie region of France. It wasn't a soup-making-free zone: I made a leek and potato soup for my hosts from a recipe I found on a dedicated leek and potato soup website ! This weekend we've been travelling home, unpacking, washing dirty clothes and trying to get ready for the school and work week ahead. I decided I would try and squeeze in a soup, if only to round the number made up to one hundred and ten! The recipe from The Soup Book for traditional lamb broth is by Marie-Pierre Moine . The ingredients include middle neck lamb cutlets, celery, parsnip, carrot, potato, spring onions, parsley, cabbage and allspice berries. It being a Sunday, the spouse did not have much luck with middle neck lamb cutlets and was rather disappointed by his preferred butcher's lack of interest. Never mind! A couple of packets of shoulder chops have had to suffice.  ...

Minted Pea and Ham Soup I didn't get a chance to make soup at the weekend. Sometimes life gets too complicated to make soup. Not to worry. I made some this evening. Although the recipe is by Roopa Gulati , no spice was used in its making. The ingredients include shallots, butter, potato, stock, peas, mint and cooked ham. When I arrived home from a busy day out, I had a cup of tea then got stuck in to making the soup. We had ham stock in the freezer (I'd left some out to thaw before going out this morning), and the spouse had cooked a piece of ham yesterday so I diced up the leftovers. The chopped shallots were softened in the butter, then the chopped potato was thrown into the pan. When this was tender I poured in the stock. While the stock was simmering I cooked the peas, adding mint for the last twenty seconds. When ready I added them to the stock then whizzed the lot in the blender. I reheated the soup and stirred in the diced ham. The younger offspring and I ate the so...

Since my last blog entry I have made two soups from The Soup Book : smoked cauliflower cheese and black-eyed bean. The former was a mid-week dinner; the latter our weekend dinner.   Smoked Cauliflower Cheese Soup The spouse was going to make cauliflower cheese (love it) but I proposed Sophie Grigson 's recipe as an alternative. He screwed up his face and declined. Then he changed his mind. I thought mind-changing was my prerogative. Anyway, smoked cauliflower cheese soup calls for cauliflower, onion, a floury potato, garlic, a bouquet garni, butter, stock, smoked Cheddar and garnish. Sophie suggests cayenne pepper, chopped parsley or chives, croutons or soured cream to garnish.  I sweated the vegetables, garlic and bouquet garni with the butter before adding the stock. When the cauliflower and potato were tender, I took out the bouquet garni and gave the mixture a whizz in the blender. Next I reheated the soup, jumping back from the bubbles that flew in all di...