Soup for the Soul

Soup is it’s own kind of comfort food,
both warming and healing.

I make many soups from cream of mushroom to split pea to veggie soups and the classic chicken noodle, all without recipes but straight from my mood and tastebuds!

Once in a while I’ll Google something for inspiration. I’m going to share my soup base for several of my faves.

Here we go! Soup!

All soups begin with a good base that brings depth and yumminess! It’s a calssic mix of onion, carrot and celery sauteed in olive oil, avocado oil or sometimes pure rendered fat from bacon.

This combo of sautéed veg is called a mirepoix. It’s an aromatic blend of fresh veggies, specifically carrot, onion and celery and herbs, and a fat made to bring flavor to stews, soups, stocks, and broth. This traditional trinity is slowly sautéed bringing flavor and creating a delicious base layered underother ingredients as a foudation for soups and other dishes.

Ingredients:

Yellow onion, chopped
Three carrots, chopped
3 – 4 Celery stalks, chopped
Olive oil or avocado oil
Chopped garlic, optional
Low sodium chicken stock or veggie stock (it’s full of flavor and drastically lower sodium)
A bundle or sprigs of fresh thyme.

How to:

Put the olive oil or avocado oil in a heavy-bottomed stainless steel deep skillet or heavy-bottomed quart pan. Heat gently and add the chopped onions. Sauteé the onions gently. Add the celery and carrot and continue cooking. If you’re using garlic add that in as well. Toss in the bundle of thyme.

When the vegetables are softer, pour in enough stock/broth to just cover the veggies. Let it all simmer a bit. When the broth as reduced some, add in a bit more and reduce again. Remove thyme sprigs.

E voila! Soup base.

Options: If not making a beautiful soup now, cool the soup base in the pan on a heat safe surface, then refrigerate covered until it’s time to make soup! Keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated. To keep longer for later use, freeze in an airtight container after cooling the base to room temperature.

And: If you’re not intending to use the mirepoix for soup, skip the broth addition. Simply suatee the veg and then use it in meat loaf, a bolognese sauce and any delicious dish that comes to mind!

Soup and More!

From here you can go many different routes. You can add stock and split peas to simmer for a split pea soup that you might also add in cooked sausage or vegan sausage. You could add kidney beans, chopped veg such as zucchini and add cooked pasta later for a minestrone soup.

You could add farro, barley or other grain with veggies of your choice for a hearty healthy soup. This can become the base for a clam chowder or tomato soup, tomato and red pepper soup, potato, carrot, asparagus, or lentil soup and so many!

I usually add some dashes of cayenne – not enough to give it heat but to punch up flavor. I personally don’t use salt. – When I did use salt it was uniodized seasalt. – I do sometimes add umami powder. This is made from muchrooms and adds a savory element and a bit of a salt boost.

Another tip is to add bacon fat left from the drippings of cooked bacon to the sauteé. This deepens the flavor tremdously, but naturally wouldn’t do for vegetarians or vegans.

When making a soup and before serving think of more freshness and another flavor layer in toppings such as chopped green onion, or chopped fresh Italian parsley, fresh grated Parmesean cheese, lemon zest, black pepper, bread crumbs or croutons.

Let you mood, preferences and appitite tell you where to take it!

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