Hearty soups with some French flair for winter? Oui, oui
When temperatures hover around freezing, coffee and tea are only temporary warmups. The best way to take the chill away is soup.
I’ve always loved soups, but living in Paris taught me about blended, pureed ones — something I only occasionally thought about before, say if I wanted a tomato or potato soup. When I first saw the little soup shop on rue Princesse in the Sixth Arrondissement more than a decade ago, with a menu of a half-dozen fresh vegetable soups, served with thick slices of crusty bread, I thought it was brilliant. The soup was wonderful. You could buy bottles of it to take home.
Grocery stores in Paris always have a decent selection of ready-made soups in tall cartons in the fresh produce section, usually next to the lettuces, and they’re more interesting than you’d think — tomato and coriander, and zucchini and basil were two of my favorites — I’d often buy them when I had a cold or the flu. That’s how I learned that soups, even the most basic ones, don’t have to be plain.
Soups are a lot like salads in that it pays to imagine the end product before you begin, and to think about the different textures and colors that might come into play.
The Market soup, below, is a blended light green vegetable soup that includes kale, so I figured a crispy garnish of kale would be a great addition; the Cannellini bean soup, another blended soup, needed some crunch and color, so I went for nutty toasted hazelnuts and chopped flat-leaf parsley; cheese-dusted popcorn, turns out, was the perfect match for the Speedy roasted red bell pepper soup, and the pairing was a complete accident — I was snacking on popcorn as I was blending the soup, which is how I got the idea. For the Fast French onion soup, I went with a traditional slice of country bread, toasted and topped with Gruyere.
Other than the overnight soak for the beans in the cannellini soup (which I prefer over the quick-boil technique, because it never turns out to be as quick as it should be), these soups don’t take long to make. Even better, all of them taste great the day they’re made — not always the case with heartier stews and dishes like chili, which require advance planning and are best after a day of rest.
I spent all of last week testing and photographing soups, and I still can’t stop thinking about them — what I might do differently or serve on the side. When it comes to what to puree and make into a soup, the possibilities are practically endless. Good thing we’ve got more cold weather in the forecast.
Ellise Pierce is the author of “Cowgirl Chef: Texas Cooking With a French Accent” (Running Press). Read her blog (www.cowgirlchef.com), and follow her on Twitter (@cowgirlchef) and Instagram (cowgirlchef)
Speedy roasted red bell pepper soup
Makes 4 servings
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup diced onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Sea salt to taste
2 (12-ounce) jars roasted red peppers, drained
1 quart vegetable stock
1 tablespoon light miso
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
Popcorn for serving
1. Put the olive oil, onion, and garlic in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add sea salt to taste and cook until you can smell the onion and it’s slightly translucent, about 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Add the peppers, vegetable stock, miso and cayenne. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook for an additional half-hour or so, or until the soup reduces by one-third. Blend with a stick blender or in a blender. Serve with popcorn on top.
Market soup
Makes 6 to 8 servings
3 leeks, chopped (white parts only)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and pepper
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 small head of broccoli, florets removed (about 2 cups)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock
1 bunch kale, leaves removed from stems and roughly chopped
1. Put the leeks and olive oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add sea salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the leeks soften, about 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Add the chopped parsnip, potatoes, broccoli, tomato paste, and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low and cook until the parsnip and potatoes are soft. Add 3/4 of the kale, let it wilt, then remove and either blend with a stick blender or pour into a blender and puree.
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Finely chop the last 1/4th of the kale and toss with about 1 tablespoon olive oil and a tiny bit of sea salt and pepper. Roast until crisp, about 10 minutes.
4. To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and top with the crispy kale.
Fast French onion soup
Makes 4 to 6 servings
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter
3 pounds yellow onions, sliced in half-moons
Sea salt and pepper
Dried mushrooms, such as cremini, shitake, and porcini
2 quarts beef stock
Country bread for serving
1 cup grated Gruyere for serving
Fresh thyme for serving
1. Melt the butter in a large stockpot over medium-low heat. Add the onions, stir, and salt and pepper them. Let the onions cook slowly, stirring frequently, until light brown — this will take 45 minutes to an hour, but this is the key to the soup’s flavor, so don’t try to rush this step. Keep the heat low and keep an eye on the onions.
2. Put a kettle of water onto boil. When it boils, pour about 2 cups of water over the mushrooms and let this steep for 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Once the onions are light brown in color, add the stock and mushroom juice. Reserve the mushrooms for another use — they’d be great chopped up in a pasta.
4. Let the soup come to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Cook until it reduces by 1/3. Serve in bowls, then add 1 slice of country bread and about 2 tablespoons of grated Gruyere on top. Slide under the broiler and let the cheese melt. Serve hot with fresh thyme sprinkled on top.
Cannellini bean soup
Makes 8 to 10 servings
1 pound dried white beans such as Great Northern or cannellini
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic
Sea salt and pepper
2 quarts chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon smoked paprika, plus more for serving
Crushed hazelnuts for serving
Flat-leaf parsley for serving
1. Pour the dry beans into a large bowl, cover them with water by 4 inches and let them soak overnight.
2. The next day, put the olive oil, onion, and garlic into a large stockpot over medium-low heat. Add sea salt and pepper. Cook until the onion is translucent, about 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Rinse the beans and add them to the pot, along with the chicken stock, bay leaves and smoked paprika. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and let cook until the beans are soft, 1 to 2 hours.
4. Remove the bay leaves and puree the beans with a hand blender or in a blender. Taste again for seasonings. Serve topped with crushed hazelnuts and flat-leaf parsley.
This story was originally published January 16, 2018 at 10:17 AM with the headline "Hearty soups with some French flair for winter? Oui, oui."