Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Root Vegetable Soup Chopped vegetables coated in oil and ready for roasting What else would you do on a cool May bank holiday weekend except make soup? This roasted root vegetable soup from Complete Comfort Food looked interesting. Lots of vegetables to be prepared: butternut squash, onions, leeks, turnip (swede), parsnip (yes, I hate them but surely one parsnip would be overwhelmed by the other ingredients) and carrots. Prep work done and bay leaves, rosemary and thyme interspersed, I popped the vegetables into the oven to roast. I had to leave the house for a few minutes and when I re-entered, the aroma of rosemary rose to greet me. Mmmm!  Roasted vegetable soup with creme fraiche and cayenne When softened, I simmered the vegetables in stock and then liquidised them. The soup was a little too thick. We ate it with a dollop of creme fraiche sprinkled with cayenne pepper. A little bland, I thought, but the spouse and younger offspring were very pleased.  Pea...

Kitchen Notes Has it really been over four months since I last wrote up my soup-making activities? Oh dear. I've only made soup three times in the that time: cabbage, tomato and meatball soup, wild salmon chowder and brandied lobster chowder. Preparing brandied lobster chowder (2015) I first made the cabbage soup from The Soup Book  five years ago in January 2010 . On that occasion the tasters were the younger offspring (then aged ten), his cabbage-hating pal and myself. I made it again on 8th November 2014, the husband and younger son having booked their places in front of the TV to watch Ireland vs South Africa, so I was on cooking detail. I've made the salmon chowder three times: twice for the sister J-Zo and brother-in-law G-Cro. Always a pleasure. Most recently I made the brandied lobster chowder again (cheap lobsters in the local supermarket: duty calls) without setting fire to my hair. Cherry marmalade muffins and pamperato I still enjoy cooking and bak...

Roast Squash Soup Soup number 164 from The Soup Book was made from butternut squash roasted with tomatoes, garlic, rosemary, thyme and red onion. They smelt deliciously rich as they roasted away until ready to be whizzed in the blender with some hot stock. Sophie Grigson suggests that winter squash such as onion squash, red kuri, crown prince or pumpkin can be used for this recipe. I knew that I would be lucky to find any of those so I plumped for butternut. Nothing wrong with that. Having blended the soup, I made the rouille to be spread on croutes. This rouille was made from saffron soaked in warm water, garlic, a red chilli, egg yolk, red wine vinegar, and olive and sunflower oils beaten together. Not all together at the one time, just a little at a time. I prepared the croutes, re-heated the soup and set the table. Then I called whichever male persons were still in the house, ie, the spouse and the younger offspring. I ladled the soup into warmed bowls and left everyone t...

Puy Lentil Soup I am very pleased with myself. It's three years since I started this blog and I have made 150 soups from the 200 recipes in The Soup Book . The latest recipe is by Marie-Pierre Moine . I made it on Monday (3rd December) with the assistance of the spouse. While I was on my way home from work he chopped the onion and crushed the garlic. When I arrived home I took over, rinsing and draining the lentils and gathering the herbs. The other ingredients included gammon steaks, thyme (from the garden, of course) and fresh parsley. I can't remember when I last ate gammon and I wondered if it was still available. Obviously it is! So I fried the onion and garlic, then stirred in the lentils. I have to admit I couldn't find canned puy lentils so I used green lentils. Having seasoned this mixture I lay one of the two gammon steaks on top of the lentils and added the herbs. A covering of water and I was ready to leave the pot simmering. About twenty minutes later ...

Turnip Soup White turnips: what greenery? For some time now I've been keeping an eye out for turnips (red- or white-skinned ones, not swede turnips) as there are a couple of recipes for them in The Soup Book . I haven't seen them around very often. I did the shopping on Saturday (6th October) but didn't see any turnips in the supermarket. The spouse tried down the road in Young Stephen's - no luck. I brought the younger offspring into town and chanced to go down Moore Street. None of the stalls had the sort of turnip I was looking for and I was about the give up. Fortunately, my curiosity drove me into an Asian shop where among all the more unusual vegetables were a few white turnips. "They'll do," I thought to myself despite their rather flaccid appearance. And so to my kitchen. Alice Waters ' recipe instructs the reader to remove the greens from the turnips and keep them for a later stage of cooking. There wasn't much greenery to remove....

Traditional Chicken Soup The weekend just gone was another busy one but for happy reasons. The younger offspring has just become a teenager. Fortunately there were no tantrums, no sulks, no studied indifference. The excitement was occasionally muted but for the most part he was unselfconscious in his enjoyment of the celebrations. I made him white chocolate brownies which are one of his favourite home bakes. The celebrations meant delaying the preparation of the soup. It was a two-staged recipe anyway which meant I could make stock in advance. We had lemon-roasted chicken for dinner yesterday so I saved the carcass to make stock for the soup. The ingredients for the stock were the chicken carcass ( Marie-Pierre Moine suggests this as an alternative to using a whole chicken), carrot, leek, garlic, dried mushrooms (which the spouse bought but which I forgot to put in the pot), celery, parsley and thyme. When I got home from work this evening I got stuck into making the soup. T...

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...

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...

Porcini Mushroom Soup I think it's been a while since I made a tomato-based soup from The Soup Book . This weekend's effort is porcini mushroom soup, described as a "hearty Italian country soup [with] deep, earthy flavours." The ingredients are dried porcini, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, garlic, chestnut mushrooms, celery, chopped tomatoes, vegetable stock, seasoning and ciabatta. Once I had the ingredients out on the worktop, I left the porcini soaking while I chopped the herbs and other vegetables. Then I started to cook the onions in the olive oil, but became sidetracked by another activity and the spouse had to rescue the onions. My hero! The next ingredients into the pot were the herbs, garlic, chestnut mushrooms and celery. The smell of the herbs was intense. The celery having softened, I put in the tomatoes, porcini, stock and the soaking liquor from the porcini (it's suggested that you strain this through a fine sieve as there may be bits of straw or dir...

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...