A Cook's Library

I am a soup obsessive. They are the mainstay of my everyday cooking and what I feed my children. And good chicken stock is the backbone of these. So before you start getting excited about the soups you can make to surreptitiously slip vegetables into your children under the guise of brightly coloured, flavoursome and sweet bowls of goodness, please read my post on making stock – if, of course you don’t make your own already.

Aside: if you are a vegetarian you can always use water; a light vegetable stock made from garlic leeks, onions, carrots, and aromatic herbs such as bay, thyme and parsley is a good standby – simply simmer the vegetables for an hour or so and remove. Then reduce if the broth is too insipid until a subtle level of flavour is achieved.  Everyone should make the most of vegetable waste such as pea pods or bendy celery by making delicate stock to add another dimension to soup-making.  Remember vegetables don’t benefit from long-cooking as meat bones do in stock making.

Soup really is miraculous and terribly unappreciated in this country. In France, where large lunches (including at schools) are the norm soup is often the centrepiece of the evening meal, particularly for children. The thought of a simple bowl of soup may not satisfy but those who don’t like smooth ones can eat broths laden with vegetables, pieces of meat, pulses or grains. Take inspiration from the Italians and thicken with stale bread, then anoint with extra virgin olive oil. Or look to the east to coconut laced laksas or miso-noodle broth vibrant with fresh greens and the head-dipping mouth-to-bowl satisfaction of slurping noodles.

Soup is economical too; leftovers of every description including wilting vegetables, stale bread, scraps of meat, dripping from the roast, last night’s semi-solid rice or pasta spring to life in the company of golden, flavoursome liquid and a few vegetables.

And soups are endlessly adaptable to the seasons from a warm winter potage of split peas and ham or stale-bread thickened vegetables, to a chilled and refreshing tomato gazpacho at the height of summer.

Spring soup is green and full of life (and in our house rich with thick, lush jersey cream from spring grass-fed cattle). Summer soups are tomato based, redolent of holidays in Italy, Spain and the south of France with garlic, olive oil and basil. Tomatoes, fresh shell beans, a single lamb shank to flavour and thicken, then the meat stripped off and put back in at the end and a spoon of mortar ground herbs, oil and garlic and you have the timeless Soupe au Pistou (see recipe).  Once autumn arrives the abundance of squash, pumpkin, dark bitter greens and mushrooms, means warming, thick glowing golden bowls. Winter brings more roots: celeriac and parsnips are wonderful with apples and cream, a few chunks of bacon, black pudding or even more refined scallops make this a meal in itself.

The endless variations that are used to create seasonal minestrone make use of any vegetables you have in the fridge. A base of diced carrot, onion, and garlic and add fennel, celery, leeks, spring onions and courgettes; or tomato, green beans, borlotti, bacon and pasta; or pumpkin, chickpeas and threads of savoy cabbage. Be creative.

A soup can be as simple or as extravagant as you like. Carrots and onions sweated in butter, a pot of stock and finish with chives. To impress, heat stock, stir in thick cream, add some ribbons of the dark, bitter outer leaves of the savoy cabbage and shave a black truffle over the top.

Never underestimate the healthiness of soups, particularly for reluctant small vegetable eaters. Beetroot, that vibrant pink, iron-rich root makes a sweet, smooth soup combined with apple. Pumpkin is similarly sweet and a superfood if ever there was one. Even spinach is palatable in a soup with cream, stock and a little parmesan grated on top.

To boost the nutritional value – and transform the flavour – of any soup make and use stock; the difference between a stock-based soup and a water-based one is marked, as is the benefit. Stock is rich with calcium, potassium and other trace minerals and it is a protein sparer – giving the benefits of meat without the expense (excellent too for young children who don’t like meat).

Last, but certainly not least, soup is the perfect weaning food. Babies can be introduced to simple, then more complex flavours via a medium that the rest of the family can eat too. Simple smooth vegetables soups can be boosted nutritionally by making them with stock or stirring an egg yolk in at the end to thicken, flavour and add protein and much-needed fat for weaning babies.  As they start to enjoy small pieces, add chopped vegetables and pieces of soft meat into stock – again the rest of the family can join in.

A simple cup of reduced chicken stock is as delicious to a small child with its salty lip-sticking quality and the best medicine I know for viruses brought home from nursery and school.

Teach your children to love soup from a young age – just GIVE it to them and they will never know anything different – and you will never feel you are feeding them badly. My 2-year-old daughter eats all her soup cold from the fridge and that’s fine. My son will have a cup when he gets home from school in winter – though sadly he won’t now take it in his lunchbox thanks to the pressure to bring chocolate spread sandwiches and cheese strings.  I make – and eat – soup obsessively relishing the satisfaction that comes from using up every last scrap in the fridge and getting a meal for free.

Good soups: for children . . . and grown ups too.

Beetroot – simply made with a base of onions, leeks, olive oil and thyme or with apple or with carrot, or with tomato (a jar of passata will stretch the vegetables further for economy reasons). Good hot or cold in hot weather with sour cream and chives or a chopped hard-boiled egg Borscht-style.

Squash/pumpkin – onion base, a few curry spices and a can of coconut milk. Or onion, celery and bacon to start, throw in the cubed squash, some stock and cook.

Parsnip/celeriac: both of these are delicious with apple and plenty of cream.

Green soup: all manner of greenery: spinach, watercress, leeks, nettles, wild garlic can be combined with onions, fennel, celery, leeks and potatoes, some rich stock and cream for a luscious soup to be eaten hot or cold. Nutmeg very good with spinach.

Minestrone: A seasonal catch-all, make with whatever vegetables you have on hand, gently softened in plenty of olive oil, a good stock and thick with herbs. Add pasta, diced potatoes, other grains such as spelt or farro or barley, leftover meats, cheese on top . .. torn old sourdough bread (not all at the same time probably best). A meal in itself.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 30th, 2010 at 7:49 am and is filed under For Children, Soups. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.