Gazpacho – a chilled Spanish tomato soup (Title Photo)
Dear Readers, we clearly have some soupmeisters and brothmistresses amongst us, because Fran and Bobby Freelove, Mal and Sara all got an unbeatable 20 out of 20 this week – well done to all of you! I would love to know what your favourite soup is. I have a longstanding fondness for goulaschesuppe (an Alpine speciality which is basically goulash in a soup, as you might have guessed from the name). This was always my first choice after striding up a mountain, but as I am vegan this month I suspect it might be rasam, an Indian tomato and tamarind soup which is great for clearing the sinuses! I know some of you have allotments too, or grow your own vegetables, so I would relish your soup-making adventures.
1) J) Ribolita vii) Northern Italy
2) A) Vichyssoise v) France
3) I) Borscht x) Eastern Europe
4) D) Avgolemeno ix) Greece
5) F) Cullen Skink i) Scotland
6) H) Fruktsoppa viii) Scandinavia
7) E) Rasam ii) India
8) C) Harira iv) North Africa
9) B) Caldo Verde vi) Portugal and Brazil
10) G) Gumbo iii) Southern United States
Photo Credits
Title Photo by cyclonebill from Copenhagen, Denmark, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo One by Joy at https://www.flickr.com/photos/joyosity/15149605670
Photo Two By BocaDorada – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2645024
Photo Three By liz west from Boxborough, MA , CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18741185
Photo Four By robin.norwood CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56508051
Photo Five By Metukkalihis – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19504960
Photo Six By Josefine Stenudd from Gothenburg, Sweden – 20070422_2 Fruit soup (Swedish "Varma Koppen"), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35778950
Photo Seven By No machine-readable author provided. Pamri assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=426901
Photo Eight By إيان – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112370678
Photo Nine By Mateus Hidalgo – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5 br, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2263361
Photo Ten By jons2 at pdphoto.org – http://pdphoto.org/PictureDetail.php?mat=pdef&pg=7646http://pdphoto.org/jons/pictures/gumbo3bg_122499.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=913167
Sorry Viv, I meant to enter this week, with Jude’s help of course, but I completely forgot to go back to it… Maybe next time! 😌
Adventures in Soup making? When the children were small I often made Leek & Potato Soup. Heavy on the leeks, light on the potato, not too much milk. I’d add the chopped green parts of the leeks later on in the cooking to keep the green colour, rather than either boiling them to Khaki, or leaving them out all together.
As the children were small I’d then liquidise the soup, so that they couldn’t pick out bits ‘they didn’t like’, one was a Very Fussy Eater.
If the leeks were older, the slightly less well cooked green parts might liquidise a bit fibrous – thus we’d have a green and somewhat ‘hairy’ soup – Monster Soup. It became a family favourite.
Some years ago our son, living independently for quite a while, requested the recipe.
These days it’s more likely to be a big potful of red and brown lentils, with ‘the usual suspect veg’ and a tin of tomatoes thrown in at the liquidising stage. You don’t cook pulses with tomatoes, or anything else acid if you want them to soften. A really large pot of this, boxed up in the fridge, will then see the two of us through the rest of the week for lunch.
And then there’s the feral garlic which comes up in abundance Nov-April/May at the top of the garden, between the paving and anywhere else it can. That’s a great addition to soup too.
Gosh this brings back memories – leek and potato soup was the first soup I ever learned to make. You’re right about not too much potato or the texture goes a bit gluey, which is not nice. And nowadays we often have a pot of ‘veg box soup’ with whatever’s left from the organic box, though I currently have rather more red cabbage than I know what to do with 🙁 – all ideas welcomed.
Pickled red cabbage? Red Cabbage and Apple – side dish. I like to do a slaw with finely shredded red cabbage, grated carrot, spring or red onions, and grated courgette, dressed with balsamic vinegar. Though a French Dressing would work equally well.
Thanks Sharon! I love the sound of the slaw.
Here’s a simple soup perfect for your vegan January. Saute 1 teaspoon each salt, cayenne, cumin seed and 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seen in 3 Tablespoons oil, add 1/2 cup mansoor dal (the orange quick cooker) and let the dal brown slightly. Add peeled eggplant cubes from a small eggplant (aubergine), 2 potatoes peeled and chopped and 2 cups water. Simmer briskly for 20 minutes. Everything cooks down to a dull brown sludge that is extraordinarily delicious. This is from The Yogi Cookbook by Vithaldas Parekh.
By the way I would have aced your soup quiz, but was too lazy to enter!
Thank you Lynn, that sounds delicious!