Everyone has at least one go-to dish that they make over and over, yet somehow it never ends up being the same thing twice. Soup, in general, is sort of like that, a kind of cooking without borders, its endless variability inherent. Don't get me wrong here. While one of the best things about making soup is the affordance of stretching a little into a lot, the quintessential peasant food, a soup may be as refined as it is rustic. Each ingredient has a distinct job to do in flavor, texture, or nuance. Poetic, ain't it?
My go-to soup is always some variation on beans and greens. Talk about endless possibilities! Shall I rhapsodize on leafy greens here? Escarole! Mustard! Kale, be ye purple, curly or dinosaur-y, I love you all! Oh Chard, I swoon for your stems of pink, gold and orange. Ahem. Compose yourself. As for beans, the creamier the better. Cannelini almost always make the cut, but I'm really excited to get familiar with some interesting varieties of heirloom beans.
Beyond the beans and greens, however, anything goes. Well, almost anything.Let's get one thing straight here. You probably already know this, but I still think it's worth mentioning. Every soup- EVERY SOUP starts with a mirepoix, or whatever your culture* calls its blessed base of aromatics (carrots, celery, onions, Amen) softened in a fat of your choosing. I often toss a little diced garlic and/or fennel in there if I'm feeling randy, but this is as wild as it gets at this stage of the game. Nothing, by the way, beats the scent of a mirepoix sauteeing in some butter. I would make a perfume out of this if I could. You probably could. Once, I made a tomato-basil perfume, and it was magical. I digress.
Once I've got my mirepoix veggies softened up, I like to add in whatever herb component I'm going to use. Rosemary, thyme and oregano are a pretty safe bet, because I always have them around. I also like to add my first pass of salt here. I have this theory, grounded in no empirical knowledge whatsoever that a well-seasoned soup (or sauce or stew) starts from the ground up, layering in the flavor. However, if you're going to use any wine in your recipe, you'll want to deglaze any nice browned bits of veggie before adding in the herbs and such, to make sure the alcohol cooks off, and the liquid is more or less evaporated. Once that's all taken care of, I'll add in a thickening agent of some sort, usually a tablespoon full or so of tomato paste, or Wondra flour for a creamy soup.Get that all mixed up in there, spreading the love all around to coat the veggies, and to let the flavor mellow a bit.In terms of soup-making, that's all you really need to know. You can take it any which way you please from there, adding this and that, maybe giving it a go-round with the old immersion blender. Just keep in mind the relative cooking times of what you toss in there, like adding in some pasta and letting things simmer awhile, then stirring in your greens at the end, so they still have some vitamin and minerally goodness left in them.
To me, a bowl of soup is a no-brainer for a really nutritious meal, dense with a variety of veggies, some protein-packed beans, and maybe a pasta or a grain, all with a typically limited amount of fat. For finishing touches, sometimes I'll swirl in some homemade pesto-like creation, with basil or arugula or who knows what. A little shave of Parmesan on top, the end.
Honestly, I really didn't intend to go into a whole article or essay here. I had merely wanted to say hey, check out this delicious and simple soup I made the other night; try it, you'll like it. But I couldn't help myself, even if I'm largely preaching to the choir here...and assuming, for that matter that there even is a choir! One of the things about blogging, or starting up one's blog again is that there aren't any rules about structure, or expectations of format or style. If there's going to be, then it's going to emerge organically. I can't decide all that now. I can only know the basics of where to start; the variations are endless.Here's what was in the soup I made the other day- a riff on the Tuscan Ribollita:(The ingredients are listed in the order I added them to the pot.)
- Carrot, celery, onion, garlic mirepoix (from 1 of each vegetable, 2 cloves of garlic) plus the diced chard stems
- 1tbsp-ish of tomato paste- 2 tbsp combined chopped fresh thyme, oregano, rosemary- 1 can of Cannelini, with their juices- 1 quart of chicken broth (until I start roasting some chickens, I use the Whole Foods Organic Low-Sodium variety) plus 4 cups of water- 1 cup of orzo- 2 bunches of Swiss Chard, leaves cut into ribbonsSimmered the whole thing maybe 10-15 minutes before adding in the chard; simmered another 5-7minute before ladling myself a big bowl for dinner.
*We can talk about sofrito, and other variations on this theme some other time. You get the point.
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