Convenient main course soups

To make our soups easy to put together, we prepare them as separate components and mix and match them to obtain soups that look and taste different.

By FAYE LEVY, YAKIR LEVY
Warhol soup cans 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Warhol soup cans 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
When Yakir was growing up, his mother prepared Yemenite meat or chicken soup as the family’s standard midday meal. Main-course soups became a staple in our kitchen as well.
Over time our soups evolved. We added more vegetables and used beans or tofu instead of all or part of the meat.
To make our soups easy to put together, we prepare them as separate components and mix and match them to obtain soups that look and taste different.
One component is our soup base, which we usually make from chopped onions, potatoes, carrots and celery, and depending on the season, turnips, squash or radishes, cooked in broth or water with herbs. A second element is a protein – poached meat or chicken with their broth, cooked beans with their liquid, or tofu. In another container we keep briefly cooked vegetables to add when we reheat the soup; we use their broth in the soup base.
These generally are green vegetables that would become dull-colored and soggy if left in the soup for a couple of days and reheated.
When we want a more substantial soup, we might also prepare baked winter squash, baked or microwaved potatoes, or cooked bulgur wheat, rice or other grains. If we feel like having pasta in our soup, we either cook the pasta at the last minute or use pasta like orzo that can be cooked in advance and doesn’t lose its texture when reheated.
To vary the taste of our soups, during reheating we add different flavorings, in addition to salt and black or red pepper, such as chopped garlic, s’hug (hot pepper and garlic relish), curry paste, miso, Chinese black bean sauce or Indonesian pepper paste.
This method is perfect for minestrone, which can be finished with different quick-cooking vegetables each day. Suzanne Landry, author of the recently published book The Passionate Vegetable, makes her minestrone base from sautéed onions and garlic, chopped jalapeno, sweet peppers, carrot, celery, dried basil and dried oregano simmered in water, and adds separately cooked navy beans. Close to serving time, she simmers chopped green beans, zucchini and tomato sauce in the soup base for a few minutes and adds cooked macaroni and chopped parsley to each bowl. To vary such a soup, you could change the beans, vegetables and pasta, substituting chickpeas, spinach and rice.
A soup base can be made from just a few vegetables. For Landry’s yam and pinto bean soup, she makes a sweet potato soup base with sautéed onions, garlic, ginger, vegetable broth, red pepper flakes, cumin and sea salt. She finishes the soup with cooked beans, tomato paste and green onions. (See recipe below.) One of the simplest soup bases is made of potatoes cooked with vegetable stock and a bay leaf. This is what Betsy DiJulio, author of The Blooming Platter Cookbook, uses for her red pepper paprikash soup. She finishes the soup by heating the base with roasted red peppers pureed with tomato paste, paprika and a little dry red wine.
For her spinach-tortilla soup, DiJulio makes a soup base from sautéed chopped tortillas cooked with pureed onion, tomatoes, cumin, chili powder, garlic power and vegetable stock. At the last minute, she heats chopped spinach in the soup base.
To take this soup-making strategy one step further, freeze some of the soup base in convenient-sized containers.
My friend Dana Jacobi, author of Cook and Freeze, freezes her mushroom barley soup base. Just before serving, she sautés carrot, celery and parsnip, simmers them briefly in a little water, and adds them to the soup with a sprinkling of chopped dill. For her Tuscan lentil and Swiss chard soup, Jacobi makes a lentil and sautéed leek soup base flavored with rosemary and garlic.
To finish the soup, she briefly simmers chard strips and diced tomatoes in the soup base, and garnishes each portion with pesto.
“A great soup is built slowly by adding vegetables in layer by layer,” writes Landry. “Never add all your vegetables at the same time. Let each vegetable have a chance to simmer in the bottom of the pot to allow it to release its flavors. The hardest vegetables such as onion and carrots go in first as they will be closer to the heat and will cook longer.” The faster-cooking ones can be added later.
Begin with only a little water – enough to cover the vegetables by about 5 centimeters (2 inches), or you will drown the flavors. Keeping the volume of water low helps to build a tasty soup broth without having to rely on canned or powdered broth. Later you can add more water to adjust the consistency to your taste.
Adding dried herbs and spices at the start of cooking gives the seasonings a chance to meld with the soup broth.
When using fresh herbs like cilantro, oregano, parsley, dill or basil, you can add half of them in the beginning to help flavor the broth, and the rest toward the end of cooking.
Faye Levy is the author of the award winning Classic Cooking Techniques.
MAIN-COURSE MINESTRONE WITH GREEN VEGETABLES
If you want to turn this minestrone into a meat main course, omit the cheese for kosher meals, and cook about 500 gr. (generous 1 lb.) chicken thighs in water to make the broth; add the chicken to the finished soup after discarding the skin and bones.
Makes 6 servings
1⁄4 cup olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 2 stalks celery, cut in thin slices 1 large potato 2 or 3 large Swiss chard leaves, cut in thin strips, or 2 cups spinach 6 or 7 cups vegetable broth 1⁄2 tsp. dried leaf thyme, crumbled Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste Pesto (see Note) 4 small zucchini or pale green-skinned squash (kishuim), about 350 gr. (12 oz.) total, cut in cubes 1 1⁄2 cups small pasta shells 225 gr. (8 oz.) fresh peas, shelled, or 1⁄2 cup frozen peas 1 1⁄2 cups cooked or a 400-gr. (14-oz.) can chickpeas or white beans Bowl of freshly grated Parmesan cheese (for serving)
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over low heat. Add onion and cook for 10 minutes or until soft but not brown. Add celery and cook over medium heat, stirring, 7 minutes.
Peel potato, cut in 1.25-cm. (1⁄2-in.) dice and add to saucepan. Add chard, broth, thyme and a pinch of salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat 25 minutes.
(Soup base can be kept, covered, up to 3 days in refrigerator.) Meanwhile make pesto. Before serving, bring soup base to a simmer. Add zucchini and simmer for 3 minutes.
Add pasta and simmer about 5 minutes or until nearly tender. Add green peas and cooked beans and simmer about 3 minutes or until peas are tender.
Remove soup from heat, ladle into a heated tureen if desired and stir in pesto; or serve pesto separately. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve immediately, with grated cheese.
NOTE: To make pesto, chop 4 medium garlic cloves in a food processor.
Add 1 1⁄2 cups fresh basil leaves (about 45 grams or 11⁄2 ounces), 1⁄2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, 2 tablespoons pine nuts or walnuts and 1⁄3 cup extra virgin olive oil. Process, scraping down sides of container a few times, until mixture is well blended.
(Pesto can be kept, covered, 2 days in refrigerator.) Makes 3⁄4 cup.
YAM AND PINTO BEAN SOUP
Suzanne Landry, author of The Passionate Vegetable, notes that this soup is sweet, spicy, creamy and very filling.
She uses pinto beans, but you can use other cooked beans instead.
Makes 4 to 6 servings
1 cup minced onion 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 2 Tbsp. fresh ginger, minced, or 2 tsp. dried ginger 3 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1.25-cm. (1⁄2-in.) pieces 6 cups vegetable broth 2 tsp. red pepper flakes 1 tsp. ground cumin 2 tsp. sea salt 1 1⁄2 cups cooked pinto or other beans, or a 400-gr. (14- or 15-oz) can 170 gr. (6 oz.) tomato paste 2 green onions, chopped, or a few parsley sprigs (for garnish)
In a large soup pot, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
Peel a 5-cm. (2-in.) piece of ginger with a potato peeler. Slice ginger thinly, then place on cutting board and slice into thin sticks. Slice across these sticks, creating very small pieces. Add to onion and garlic.
Add sweet potatoes, broth, pepper flakes, cumin and sea salt. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender. The longer they cook, the creamier your soup will be.
Add beans and tomato paste and adjust seasonings to your taste. Serve garnished with green onions or parsley.