THE GLORY OF SOUP
It's healthy: It relies on veggies, nutrient-rich legumes, little meat and almost no fat.
It's inexpensive: It can feed an army quite frugally.
It's versatile: It's good for lunch, super, for crowds and parties.
It's easy to expand: And it freezes well for future meals. When reheating, warm the liquids first, then the solids, so the solids don't overcook.
It's a great use for leftovers: A nice broth will transform last night's saute into soup.
It's forgiving: Who needs exact measurements?
It's flexible: Swap out ingredients to your liking.
It's easy to convert for vegetarians: Ditch the meat, grab the veggie broth.
It warms your soul: Because it just does.
Source: "Soup Night: Recipes for Creating Community Around a Pot of Soup," by Maggie Stuckey.
‘SOUP NIGHT’
In “Soup Night,” cookbook author Maggie Stuckey explores and encourages the neighborhood communal dinner concept, offering that soup is the perfect community-building main course.
It’s a simple concept: monthly block suppers in which neighbors take turns making two large pots of soup (one vegetarian). Guests bring their own bowls and spoons (fewer dishes to wash!), as well as pot-luck side dishes and drinks.
Stuckey quotes one Soup Night participant on Stanton Street in Portland, Oregon, on the essence of the ritual: “Soup night has created a place rich in grace and kindness.”
The book: "Soup Night: Recipes for Creating Community Around a Pot of Soup," by Maggie Stuckey (Storey, $19.95; Storey.com).
My Bubbie’s Chicken Probes
Donna Fishman of Singer Island shares this chicken soup memory about her grandmother, “a wonderful role model.”
“Once a week I would take the ritual walk with her to Willard Avenue in South Providence, Rhode Island, to get chicken from the kosher butcher. To this day, I can see her picking up all the raw chickens, inspecting every inch, lifting the wings and putting her whole hand in the orifice between the drumsticks. At only 5 years old, I had no idea what she was doing in there!
“Many years later after retiring from teaching, I was hosting an anti-discrimination/bigotry conference in Providence, in the very same spot where my Bubbie used to do her chicken ritual. In my opening remarks, when I shared this story, a black man in the audience raised his hand and said, ‘I remember your grandmother and I know what she was doing, since I used to work in that butcher shop when I was a young man. She was feeling for the chicken eggs so she could buy the chicken that had the most eggs inside.’
“What a surprise that it would take so many years to get the answer to the mystery of my Bubbie’s probings. My sister Arlene and I would race to get the tiniest of the eggs which Bubbie cooked right in the soup, since they tasted the very best!”
Soup, by its very nature, inspires a communal experience, a bowl-to-bowl sharing of food, recipes and stories.
What we put into a soup pot is never more grand than what we ladle from it. We may add the finest organic ingredients, all lovely on their own and promising in their fragrant mingling. But you can be sure each pot yields something more splendid than soup.
The concept of the communal soup bowl has inspired the book “Soup Night: Recipes for Creating Community Around a Pot of Soup,” released this week by Storey Publishing. Author Maggie Stuckey explores a concept that appears to be taking root in communities across the country: the neighborhood block that comes closer over a shared pot of soup.
Of course, soup lends itself to communal dining. As the book points out, it’s healthy, inexpensive, forgiving, flexible and easy to make. Soup also stirs our own stories.
In a recent “Liz Quiz,” we asked readers what was simmering in their soup pots. They ladled out some terrific recipes and memories. And in doing so, they made soup for all of us, for a selection of their submitted recipes appear with this story.
The topic of soup stirred memories of Bubbie’s chicken soup for readers Donna Fishman of Singer Island and Denise Landman of Wellington.
Cindy Menningmann of Palm Beach Gardens shared her grandmother’s Illinois Chowder. Ruth Walerstein, also of the Gardens, offered her take on extra-spicy veggie soup. Stephanie Brasch, who teaches culinary arts at Jupiter High School, shared a vegetable soup she uses to teach her students knife skills. Anne Van Gieson of West Palm Beach shared a cumin and mint-laced tomato and zucchini soup she has been making for 20 years. Judy Roy of Jupiter spooned out some homemade pea soup she simmers with a smoky ham bone.
The most recent soup I made was dreamed up as a simple vegetable soup. I had a good amount of slow-simmered chicken stock that I had made fresh, using plenty of bones and aromatics, then strained. But as I retrieved fresh veggies from my produce drawer, I found other inspirations: a good chunk of calabaza, a healthy bunch of parsley, a nice malanga (taro root). In the meat drawer, I found some delicious chicken sausages, which triggered a peek at the pantry, where I grabbed a can of cannellini beans and a handful of pasta.
That simple veggie soup turned into a kind of tropical pasta e fagioli and it made a delicious weeknight dinner. But that’s the nature of soup – it inspires the intermingling of ingredients and ideas.
HATTIE’S WONDERFUL VEGETABLE SOUP
Cindy Menningmann of Palm Beach Gardens shares this recipe for the “soul-warming soup” her grandmother used to make.
“My grandmother’s Illinois Chowder is now nourishing a 4th generation,” she writes. “Back in the 1930’s, every Fall in West Salem, Ill., the farmers would gather their fresh-picked vegetables and Hattie Mercer Roby would make this ‘soup’ for Sunday Church Suppers.”
Cindy’s grandfather, Benjamin Roby, was a lay preacher and, as her mom liked to say, a “gentleman farmer.” Cindy’s mom, Josephine Roby Carter, continued to make the soup that came to be known as “Wonderful Vegetable Soup.” Cindy continues the tradition for her five granddaughters and three great-grandchildren.
Her recipe makes enough soup for an army — and this is by design. “I make so much because everyone wants some!” writes Cindy, who says the recipe is adaptable to the cook’s preferences.
Makes 12 quarts of soup
4 large bone-in chicken breasts
6 bay leaves, divided
2 large onions, divided
Salt and pepper, to taste
2-4 pounds pot roast
48 ounces each chicken and beef broth
One 46-ounce can of tomato juice
2 pounds fresh green beans, cut bite-size
1-2 pounds fresh, peeled carrots, cut bite-size
8 ears of fresh corn (Note: “The secret to this soup is to scrape the cob after cutting off all the kernels.”)
1 medium head cabbage, coarsely chopped
2 pounds frozen or canned lima beans
3 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks (omit if freezing soup)
Boil chicken breasts in 4 cups of water seasoned with 2 bay leaves, 1/2 onion (quartered), and salt and pepper, until tender. Remove chicken, strain liquid and refrigerate overnight to remove fat. Carefully debone breasts and tear to bite-sized pieces.
Boil pot roast slowly until tender in 4 cups of water seasoned with 2 bay leaves, 1/2 onion (quartered), salt and pepper. Remove meat and strain liquid. Tear or chop into bite-size pieces. Set aside or chill for later use.
To your biggest soup pot (at least 12 quarts – or make in batches), add chicken broth, beef broth and tomato juice. Add veggies in the order of cooking time needed: green beans, carrots, lima beans (if frozen), corn, chopped onion, potatoes (if using), cabbage and lima beans (if using canned).
Cook over medium heat until all veggies are tender. Add both meats and simmer for 30 minutes. Season to taste. Cool in pot, divide and refrigerate for at least 24 hours to set the flavor.
Soup-maker’s note: “Mom used to add canned stewed tomatoes.”
JON’S HOMEMADE VEGETABLE SOUP
This soup has been in North Palm Beach reader Stephanie Brasch’s life for 44 years. “When I was 16, I cut out a soup recipe from my ‘Seventeen’ magazine. It was titled ‘Jon’s Homemade Vegetable Soup.’ I am 60 and it is still my family’s favorite soup,” writes Brasch, who teaches culinary arts at Jupiter High School. “This is the soup I use to teach my students knife skills. Who would ever have thought when I cut that recipe out of my magazine that I would still be using it?”
Makes 16 cups or 12 generous servings
2 strips bacon, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 head cabbage (about 1 pound), shredded
1 can (28-ounce) whole tomatoes
4 medium potatoes (1 1/2 pounds), cut in cubes
3 carrots, sliced (about 2 cups)
2 stalks celery, chopped
6 cups water
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 drops Tabasco
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 can (18-ounce) tomato juice
In a very large pot, fry bacon until lightly browned. Add onion and cook until golden, stirring frequently. Add cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, celery and water. Then sprinkle in all the seasonings. Mix everything well and bring to a rolling boil over medium heat. Boil hard for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add tomato juice and reduce heat to low. Cook for 1-1/2 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Soup-maker’s note: “This recipe makes a thick peasant-style soup … As with most soups and stews, (this soup) gets better over time.”
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RUTH’S SPICY VEGGIE SOUP
Ruth Walerstein of Palm Beach Gardens makes a large pot of this dinner-worthy soup every weekend as a way to “add as many vegetables as possible” to her diet. offered her take on spicy, fresh veggie soup.
The veggies: (Amount and variety to taste) Broccoli, cauliflower, pea pods, baby carrots, zucchini, spinach, mushrooms "or whatever vegetables you love to eat."
Steam the harder vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower and carrots) in a large pot with water. When veggies are soft enough that a fork will cut them, take steamer basket out of pot, add softer veggies and enough water to about 1/2 inch from top of pot.
Add a couple of tomato and chicken boullion packets. Add lots of herbs (parsley, oregano, basil, etc.), freshly ground black pepper, hot sauce and salsa.
“I let this all simmer until the liquid is spicy enough for me,” she writes.
Soup-maker’s note: “I divide the soup into containers, placing some in the freezer for the end of the week and some in the fridge for the beginning of the week.”
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TOMATO AND ZUCCHINI SOUP WITH CUMIN AND MINT
Anne Van Gieson, a Canadian living in West Palm Beach, has been making this soup for 20 years (“Always a hit!”). For most of those years, she and her American husband lived in London, where she gave cooking classes at home for a charity that supports Canadian WWII veterans in England. She now writes a recipe newletter she calls Act V (actvnewsletter.wordpress.com), “as this is my fifth act … and also I’m always thinking about food.”
Makes about 6 servings
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped or sliced
1 pound (about 3-4) medium zucchini, sliced
2 cans (14.5-ounce) peeled Italian plum tomatoes, with juice
3 cups of chicken stock
1 teaspoon cumin (or to taste)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint or basil (or to taste)
4 ounces plain Greek yogurt, or creme fraiche
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat butter and oil on low to medium heat. Add onions to pot; saute for 5 minutes. Add zucchini; saute for 5 minutes. Add canned tomatoes and juice. Stir in chicken stock.
Slowly simmer for 30 minutes, until onions and zucchini are soft. While simmering, add cumin and mint or basil.
Blend soup, adding yogurt or creme fraiche during the process. Adjust seasoning and herbs. Cook another 5 minutes to blend seasonings. Add more stock if you desire a thinner soup. Garnish with fresh mint or basil leaves.
Soup-maker’s note: “This can be served as an appetizer in small shot glasses or espresso cups.”
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JUDY’S HOMEMADE PEA SOUP
Judy Roy of Jupiter offers this favorite soup: “In the early ’70s I lived in the Boston area with the wonderful seasons. So with my neighbors we would cook up great, filling fall soups! This was mine.”
Makes about 6 to 8 servings
Place one ham bone in a large pot of water with 3 chopped onions and 1 bag of dry green peas, rinsed. Add salt, pepper and parsley flakes to taste. Simmer soup for 2 hours.
Add 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced. Simmer until potatoes are soft. Strain the soup. Mash the potatoes in blender, then put back in the soup. (“This thickens up the soup nicely,” she says.)
Take the meat off the ham bone and add meat to the soup. Shave off some small pieces of fresh ginger and some shavings of fresh carrots and stir into the soup. Serve into deep bowls with a dollop of sour cream.
Soup-maker’s note: Serve with warm, crusty French bread.
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