The Weblog
Soup Improvements
This post expired on January 09, 2023.
Well this isn’t 50 ways to leave your lover, but it is 20 Ways to Improve Any Old Soup! Try a few of these suggestions during these chilly days. I LOVE soup. We have FIVE kinds of kale at market this week: Curly, Blue Scotch, Lacinato, Nigerian Dwarf, and Red Russian!! You will only find ONE kind at Ingles….plain. If you scroll farther back in the Wednesday Market website “Weblog” you will find the recipe for Spicy Kale soup, Heck, triple the recipe, it freezes Very well.
Enjoy! and thanks for supporting the Wednesday Market for fresh local food!
Anna Evans and The Market Girls
Anna, Brenda, Sharon, Beverly, and Irma
A great group of dedicated volunteers!
1. Add parsley. If your soup tastes flat or seems to be lacking something, parsley will brighten it up. Plus it is a great source of Vitamin C. [Add the parsley just as the soup is finishing cooking. High heat over long time will destroy Vitamin C.] If it still seems to need something, it may be salt.
2. Add lime. A little lime juice and cilantro can give a brothy soup a Mexican flair. Or if you add lemon, you can get more of a Greek feel. Strands of citrus zest can also make a beautiful soup garnish.
3. Add sautéed garlic. Slice the garlic as thin as you can and sauté it until it is good and crispy. You only need a pinch sprinkled over the middle of the bowl.
4. Add a dollop of dairy. Greek yogurt, creme fraiche or sour cream not only looks pretty on top of a soup that has some body to it, but it will give it a richer, fuller flavor. These kind of dairy products enhance any number of soups, from tomato to black bean. Great on chili too!
5. Put a pastry lid on it. Use puff pastry (you can find squares of puff pastry that fit easily over a six (measure) inch ramekin) to add a golden flaky top to a thick or chunky soup.
6. Give it some veggies. Use a mandolin to cup paper-thin slices of cucumber (or tomato) that you then sprinkle with herbs and float on the soup bowls. Or, shave curls off carrots or zucchini and make a little pile on top of the center of the soup.
7. Spice it up. Just a half teaspoon of cayenne pepper or a few shakes of Tobasco sauce can completely change the character of a soup. If you’re not used to spicy soup, add a little and taste, then add a little more until it achieves a level of spice you are comfortable with.
8. Float a couple of croutons on top. It is so easy to make your own. Just grind some fresh pepper into a puddle of olive oil at the bottom of a large bowl. Cut cubes of bread, toss the cubes in the herb mixture, then spread on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees until they dry out. I like to take one of Concord Street Sweets’ Country Rustic loafs and turn the whole loaf into fabulous panko type crumbs and croutons. Her bagettes are to die for too ;-)
9. Create 3D art. For instance, balance a single sprig of an herb crossed with a piece of citrus zest on top of each serving. Pick an herb that was used in the soup recipe. If you don’t know what exactly went into your soup, crush pieces of the herbs you would like to use between your fingers and smell the combined fragrance. If it smells pleasing, it is probably a good match.[We are going to teach you how to grow your own herbs, THIS year, stay tuned.]
10. Add edible flowers. Use sweet flowers (pansies, rose petals, and day lilies) with sweet fruit soups. Go for spicier pepper-like options with nasturtiums. Try clove flavored ones like carnations/dianthus or plain old clover blossoms. Whatever flowers you choose, make sure you have identified them properly. Make sure the flowers you have are edible by finding them listed in at least THREE different WRITTEN edible flower sources. Also, do not eat flowers from the florist trade, as they have probably been sprayed with high levels of pesticides. TIP: Three pansy blooms will give you 100% of your daily requirements of Vitamin C! Toss them into a salad, they are gorgeous as well as nutritious. Edible flowers are loaded with vitamins and anti-oxidants and add tons of nutrition and beauty!
11. Pep it up. Sometimes a simple grinding of black pepper can be all the contrast a light colored soup needs. Light creamy soups also look elegant with a dusting of paprika or other colorful spices. Try Hungarian or smoked paprika for a bit of a change.
12. Make it grate. Grate some parmesan cheese onto the surface of the soup. Or sprinkle on a little shredded cheddar. Whatever your favorite cheese, there’s probably a soup that would pair beautifully with it, so don’t be afraid to experiment. If you’re not sure, before you offer your flavor combination to guest, put a little soup in a ramekin and add a tiny serving of the cheese to preview the effect. I LOVE to add Brie to the Fresh mushroom soup recipe you can find on this weblog.
13. Make it fit for royalty. Custard cutouts (better known as royales) are traditionally floated on consommés and elegant cream soups like asparagus. To make then, you combine an egg with a tablespoon or two of milk, and flavor it with salt, pepper and nutmeg . Pour it into a greased loaf pan and bake in a hot water bath in a 300 degree oven for 25 minutes, or until well set. Cut the custard into decorative shapes with small cookie cutters. Hmmm….This sounds like a lot of trouble doesn’t it? Yeah, me too, skip this one…lol.
14. Add a ring. Float a single onion ring on the surface of a thick soup (such as potato). Alternately, sprinkle on a handful of canned fried onions, or those strange little fried string potatoes in a can are fun!
15. Make it seedy. Roasted sesame seeds or pepitas (pumpkin seeds) add a nice nuttiness to boldly flavored soups. Actual nuts, such as almonds, which have been sliced, minced or slivered, can also look nice floating in soup. Try adding nut butters [peanut, almond, etc] to soup made from butternut squash.
16. Give it some crunch. Sprinkle on chow mein noodles or tortilla chips/strips.
17. Make a swirl. Make a pesto sauce, or a balsamic reduction (or even just some plain olive oil), or for sweet soups, a chocolate or fruit flavored sauce. Put it in a squeeze bottle and make patterns on the surface of the soup. This would be pretty for sour cream that you water down a bit with milk and put in a squeeze bottle. Why not make your soup as pretty as it is tasty? You deserve pretty food!
18. Got milk? Add milk instead of water when reconstituting canned cream soups. Add stock instead of water to brothy soups. Steam some fresh vegetables and toss them into canned soup to add a burst of flavor (not to mention a few extra vitamins). Always add cream/milk to soup as the last thing, then heat just to a simmer, NEVER never, never bring a cream based soup to a ‘boil’. It will create the most disgusting curdled stuff you have ever seen. Taste fine, but you would have to be blind to be able to eat it! lol.
19. Add rice, pasta, barley to your soup. Or if you are looking to go gluten free, try quinoa as an alternative to wheat [gluten] based products. By doing this, you take your soup from appetizer to substantial main course, especially if you have cheese or meat involved. Experiment with the textures of these ingredients until you find what matches the flavors of the soup. p.s. I only put pasta in soup as I am warming it to serve it, I never freeze or store it with pasta in it. It just gets too mushy, yuck.
20. Add mushrooms. Dried mushrooms are much cheaper and every bit as nutritious. If you reconstitute dried mushrooms (such as shitake)soak in warm water overnight, stir the soaking liquid into your soup, then float a few fresh mushrooms on top. Shitake are known to have fabulous medicinal benefits.
PLAY in your food and Enjoy!
Anna