Soup and Stew Recipes & Ideas

My farm box delivered the most exquisite treasure a few weeks ago, the fairy tale-like Musquee de Provence Pumpkin. It’s been sitting on my dining room table and as much as I would love to keep it around for it’s voluptuous beauty, this pumpkin (which is technically a part of the squash family) is also quite delicious to eat.Read on for a favorite recipe!The flesh of the Musquee de Provence is deep orange and sweet.

We’re not sure we’ve ever had two minestrones that tasted the same—which makes sense, because minestrone is really meant to be a hodgepodge. This Italian vegetable soup usually has tomatoes, white beans, and greens, but recipes vary wildly. This one is a keeper. Hearty, rich, and packed with huge bunches (three kinds!) of greens.There is one big caveat, something we didn’t read carefully before starting on dinner last night.

My kitchen is overflowing with tomatoes, a ‘problem’ I truly love and appreciate! I’m making plans for tomato chutney and tomato jam and homemade ketchup. Canning projects are being penciled in and mason jars are collecting on my countertop. While BLTscaprese saladsI took this to a party last night–a ‘salad party’ where the host had instructed the guests to bring salads.

During the boiling days of summer, conversations among my Korean friends inevitably turn toward cravings for mul naengmyun, a dish of buckwheat noodles and cold, tangy broth topped with crisp cucumber, pear, and even a few ice cubes for extra chill factor.Although it originated as a North Korean wintertime dish, icy mul naengmyun has become a favorite hot weather meal. Unfortunately for vegetarians like myself, the broth is traditionally made with beef.

Many years ago my aunt gave me the Sunset Complete Vegetarian Cookbook, which contained a recipe for Finnish Summer Soup. It was an easy-to-make concoction that contained potatoes, onions, carrots, and green beans swimming in a creamy broth. Later on I learned this was known in Finland as kesäkeitto (don’t ask me how you pronounce that) and the Finns use more vegetables than the humble Sunset recipe did.

Earlier this week, a reader inquired about more uses for mung beans. Like several of you, my thoughts turned to Asian-style sweet mung bean soup.In Vietnam, sweet soups or puddings are known as chè. They may be served hot or cold in bowls, glasses, or over ice, and contain ingredients ranging from various kinds of beans to tapioca, glutinous rice, jellies, lotus seeds, and fruit. As a child, the scent of chè simmering on my family’s stove always had me jumping in excitement.

A recent meal at an Armenian restaurant inspired this recipe for yogurt barley soup. Creamy without being heavy, the zesty yogurt provides a nice balance to nutty and chewy barley. When the barley is cooked ahead of time, the soup is a snap to put together, and it can be served hot or cold. This one is definitely going into our comfort food repertoire.

Two ingredients. That’s it. Well, if you want to be a stickler and count salt and pepper and a touch of olive oil, it’s five. OK, and water makes six. But the oil method is optional, so we’re back to five again but really, it’s two ingredients. Potatoes and leeks. Two of the most humble ingredients, plus the simple alchemy of simmering water, come together to make one utterly blissful, satisfying soup. Read on for the recipe.You can do anything to this soup.

Knoblauchcremesuppe! Say that eight times fast. It’s actually a very simple thing, and it’s quite deserving of our soup of the day. Creamy garlic soup, an Austrian favorite.This soup is so simple and easy: just some onion and garlic, a little flour and a little milk. Toasted bread croutons and ta-da! Dinner. Sweet and simple.• Get the recipe: Knoblauchcremesuppe (garlic soup) at Dinner for OneHave a great soup recipe? Email us here if you have a recipe and photo to share.

This rich, spicy stew really hits the spot on cold winter nights. Chorizo, the Spanish pork sausage flavored with smoked paprika and chilies, has a spicy, robust flavor that just permeates this soup. Onions, garlic, thyme, and a little wine round out a broth that gets soaked up by the beans as they simmer. It was easy, quick, and incredibly satisfying on a cold night.

Oden is a hearty Japanese stew that is cooked over several days and commonly served during cold winter months. It’s pretty easy to make and most ingredients can be found online or in Japanese supermarkets. It’s got a wonderful, savory flavor and contains an odd melange of ingredients like yam, taro, fish cake, hard boiled eggs, and mushrooms. Even though those food combinations might seem odd to Westerners, oden is a delicious dish that should be tried.

Tortilla soup is something we enjoy any timeOne might not expect a meatless tortilla soup to be very hearty, yet this is actually quite satisfying without animal, or even soy, protein. Pumpkin puree (made from scratch or canned) and cubes of avocado add creamy richness and balance the soup’s tomatoes and spice. Tortillas appear not only as crispy garnish but they are also cooked into the soup, infusing it with texture and flavor.

What’s going on this week over at Serious Eats? Well, there’s this bread and tomato soup, and it looks pretty mouthwatering. This and more in our weekly wrap-up of the best cooking this week at Serious Eats.• Dinner Tonight: Bread and Tomato Soup – A thrifty peasant classic – pappa al pomodoro. Uses stale bread and fresh tomatoes, a winning combination.• Apple brandy for autumn – A discussion of Calvados and other apple brandies.

Dana’s post last week on cavalo nero kale reminded me that we’re in ribollita season. Ribollita is a simple, earthy Tuscan soup made from whatever vegetable scraps and stale bread is on hand, and is eaten in the fall and winter months.The word “ribollita” means “reboiled” and is used to refer to this soup because it requires a lot of cooking to get the right flavor and texture. It’s very hearty and filling, and keeps you warm in the winter.

I had a jar of kimchi that was a little over a month old. At that point it’s got a little tang in it and doesn’t taste as good as fresh kimchi. It’s still edible, though, and is best used for stews and other cooked dishes.So, I decided to make soondubu jjigae, which translates to “soft tofu kimchi stew.” A jjigae is a savory, hearty Korean stew. There are many varieties of jjigae using various ingredients.

Last week at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market, we picked a bag of fresh stinging nettles.Nettles have a short growing season – they’re only available for a brief period in the spring, so they aren’t something we get to enjoy often. Some consider nettles a nuisance in the garden since they sting the skin at the slightest touch, but what most people don’t know is that nettles are a wonderful delicacy.Remember to use tongs or wear gloves while handling raw nettles.

Our favorite April Fools Day food tricks are more nice than naughty – the classic idea of serving foods that look like other foods. You’ve probably seen the meatloaf “iced” with mashed potatoes to look like a cake. Maybe you’ve even seen mashed potatoes and gravy in a parfait glass, mounded up to look like a butterscotch sundae.This year, we were looking for a new trick to truly fool our favorite people. Did we fool you?

Here’s a recipe for cream of chicken soup, one of the more common condensed soup varieties. To make cream of anything else, just substitute the broth for another type. For cream of mushroom, cook some mushrooms down in the butter, then add the flour and some cream.

Fortunately, onion soup is one of the easiest little dishes to prepare. And you don’t need very many things at all. Onion soup grew out of the constraints of poor people making do with what they had, and yet its simple preparation rewards with rich taste far beyond the sum of its parts. All you really need is an onion, some butter and broth, some wine if you have it – or water if you don’t – and salt and pepper.