KS 6 Seasonal Recipes - Spring Soups
Soup is a model of resourcefulness - and it’s a great way to clean out the fridge. Once you have it you’ll be glad you do - it makes a healthy and satisfying lunch, and takes the worry out of what to have for dinner when it looks like you’ll be late - and it freezes beautifully - although my soup almost never makes it to the freezer. If I’ve made too much for the two of us, soup makes a welcome gift to all friends and neighbors.
I roast a chicken every Sunday, and immediately make a stock with the leftovers, you could easily do the same with just vegetables for a vegetarian stock - remember no potato skins or eggplant in veggie stock. Lay the foundation of your soup with a few aromatics; sauté in butter or olive oil some chopped spring onions and garlic, leeks, or shallots. Add your spring vegetables - peas, paper-thin skinned turnips, asparagus, spinach, tiny carrots - you can add one or all. Plan on about a pound and a half of vegetables for 4 cups of stock. Your vegetable of choice can be roughly chopped. Sauté briefly and add the stock, simmer gently just until the vegetables are cooked through. Remove from the heat, taste and add salt and pepper. Cool, and puree in a blender - a blender works better than a food processor. If you like a thinner soup, you can always add more stock, or a bit of milk or cream. I love to swirl a pat of butte into the soup just before serving to richen, but it’s optional. Let the market be your guide no matter what the season, but here are some recipes for what’s out there now.
The Foundation
Lay your aromatic foundation: Sauté your choice of chopped onion, shallot, leek, spring onion, green garlic and/or garlic or garlic scapes in butter or olive oil - about a tablespoon per cup of vegetables. Cook until softened.
Add your vegetables, trimmed and chopped. Figure on about 1 1/2 pounds of vegetables to 4 cups of stock.
Sweet Pea and Fresh Mint Soup
You must ONLY use sweet fresh peas from your garden or the market - if you can only get starchy peas, don’t bother as it will not be the same sublime soup.
3 T. virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
1 cup fresh mint leaves (only fresh!!) - reserve 10 leaves
1 cup chopped sweet onion
3 cups shelled English peas (from about 3 pounds unshelled peas)
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock, or more as needed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 slices day-old baguette
1 garlic clove, halved
Crème fraiche for garnish
To make the soup:
Heat olive oil in a large pot over moderately low heat. Add the sweet onions and sauté 10 minutes, then cover and steam, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, about 5 more minutes.
Add peas and 2 1/2 cups broth. Bring to a simmer, adjust heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook, uncovered, until peas are just tender, 5 to 10 minutes.
In a blender, puree half the soup and all but ten mint leaves until smooth. Return the pureed half to the pot and add enough broth to achieve the consistency you like.
Season with salt and pepper, taste and adjust, and reheat gently.
Toast the baguette slices until lightly colored. Rub one side with the cut side of the garlic. Drizzle with olive oil.
Stack the mint leaves atop one another and roll into a mint cigarette, slice thought the cigarette on the diagonal cutting the leaves into thin strips - this is a chiffonade.
Divide soup among warm bowls, topping each portion with a dollop of crème fraiche, and a couple of toasts. Sprinkle a bit of the mint chiffonade atop the soup and serve immediately.
Jerusalem Artichoke and Potato Soup
1½ lb. Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and roughly chopped
2 T. knob of butter
2 leeks, finely chopped, white part only
1 large potato, peeled and diced
4 cups vegetable stock
3 T. heavy cream
2 T. white truffle oil
2 T. fresh chives or garlic scapes, snipped
salt and white pepper
Truffle Oil (optional but wonderful)
Heat olive oil in a large pot over moderately low heat. Add the leeks and sauté 10 minutes, then cover and steam, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, about 5 more minutes.
To make the soup:
Put the Jerusalem artichokes in a pan of salted water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for eight minutes, then drain.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the onion and potato. Cover and sweat until soft, about ten minutes.
Mash the artichokes, then stir them into the onion and potato mixture. Add 3 cups of the stock, and simmer for 20 minutes.
Purée the soup in a blender, if it is very thick add enough remaining stock to thin it a bit. Pour the soup through a sieve into a clean pan. Stir in the heavy cream and reheat the soup gently, without letting it boil. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper.
Ladle the soup into four warm bowls. Drizzle a few drops of the truffle oil over the surface and sprinkle with the chopped chives or garlic scapes and serve immediately.
