We’re quite fond of soups around here – be they a part of my Bread & Soup Project, my L Word Project, or just what’s for dinner. I’d venture to say that soup is what’s for dinner here in the house, at least 3-4 days a week. Even on the nights we run Casa SaltShaker, I’d say I usually just have a bowl of whatever soup we have on the menu, and Henry often does too. Now, June, because I was away, was a bit light on soups. But here are three that people have responded eagerly to on social media and asked for recipes….

 

Italian Meatball Soup – The meatballs were simple – ground beef, seasoned with salt, pepper, ground garlic, and oregano, a smattering of breadcrumbs to lighten them up slightly, formed into walnut sized balls, and browned in olive oil. In a pot, sauteed onions, celery, and garlic in olive oil, added a couple of chopped tomatoes, a package of frozen mixed vegetables, and a cup of ditalini pasta. Topped it off with beef stock, added the meatballs in, and let it all simmer until the pasta was done. All told, about 45 minutes from start to finish.

 

Moroccan Lemon Chicken & Chickpea Soup – This one was a recipe pulled straight off the internet, the only variation to it was that I had two smaller cans of chickpeas that added up to more than the specified amount, so we had extra chickpeas. We like chickpeas. In nutshell form – diced and browned some boneless chicken legs and thighs coated in a mix of salt, pepper, cumin, and turmeric. Set that aside, sauteed onions, celery, garlic, and ginger. Put the chicken back in, added bay leaf and lemon zest, topped it off with chicken stock and simmered away. Added in rice, chickpeas, and lemon juice, cooked until the rice was done, adjusted the seasoning, and voila. Took about an hour.

 

Split Pea & Rice Soup – This is kind of my go-to soup in the winter, as it’s really quick and easy, and we both love split pea soup. Threw an onion, some garlic cloves, a couple of chilies, and a carrot in the food processor and blitzed them up until finely chopped. Into a pot with some diced bacon, and a couple of chicken carcasses. Now, I get it, you don’t have chicken carcasses sitting around. We generally do, so essentially here, we’re just making chicken broth at the same time as the soup cooks. Add in a package (500gm for us) of split peas. Top with water, bring to a simmer, and cook for about 35-40 minutes. If you didn’t have those chicken carcasses, use chicken stock instead of water. Here, however, I remove the chicken carcasses, let them cool slightly, remove all the chicken meat that’s clinging to them (there’s a surprising amount), chop that up and add it back to the pot. If you didn’t have those, here you’d add in a diced up chicken breast or two. I also add in a cup of rice a this point, adding more water or stock if the soup is already really thickened. Cook another half hour, season to taste with salt and white pepper, done. About an hour and a half, start to finish.

 

Now, those don’t include the two soups made for the two weeks we did have Casa SaltShaker dinners, when I wasn’t off gallivanting about in the U.S. So, here, the soups from the menus of the first and last weeks in June.

 

Roasted Beet Soup – Peel a half dozen medium sized beets and a large white onion, cut them all in wedges, put them in a baking dish, add a couple of teaspoons of cumin seeds, cover with foil, and bake for about an hour until the beets are soft. Put in a pot with 2 chipotle chilies (I use the canned ones in adobo, but the dried are fine too), a half dozen stems of parsley (stems & leaves), the rind and juice of a lemon, a tablespoon of tamarind pulp, some salt and pepper. Cover with vegetable stock (or water), bring to a simmer, and cook for about 20 minutes. Puree. This can be served cold or hot, at this time of year, we go the latter. Garnished with some yogurt that has a little salt and grated horseradish mixed in, some chopped green onions, and toasted pinenuts or sunflower seeds. This is not your grandmother’s borscht. Unless you have/had a really cool grandmother. Takes about two hours to make, though while the beets are roasting, you can get everything else ready to go. You can also, if you want to speed this up, skip the roasting, just chop the beets and onions and put everything in the pot upfront, and just simmer it all together until the beets are soft, then puree. It’s not as rich tasting, but it’s still delicious, and only takes about an hour.

 

Prawn, Shrimp, and Cabbage Soup – This is one of my new favorites, inspired by a traditional Vietnamese soup. I only first made it back in May, and I’ve already morphed it into something richer and spicier, and a bit more… Korean. You can see it looks very different from that first version. I pureed and then sauteed a white onion, a few cloves of garlic, a cup of our homemade kimchi, and two tablespoons of dried shrimp, in a bit of oil, then added a couple of tablespoons of doenjang, about a pound of thinly sliced Chinese cabbage, and enough stock to cover made from shrimp and prawn shells (or you could use a pre-made or cube type shrimp or fish stock). Brought it to a boil and cooked for just 5 minutes until the cabbage was cooked through, then turned the heat down to leave the soup simmering, and added a half pound each of split and deveined shrimp and prawns, letting them just cook until pink, about 3-4 minutes. As the stock was already seasoned with salt and white pepper, plus, now, the kimchi, this needed no adjustments, just serve and enjoy, garnished with chopped green onions and nira (Asian garlic chives). This is really fast, takes me about 30 minutes from start to finish.