Victoria: In Mary Poppins, Bert sings, "Winds in the east, mist coming in, / Like somethin' is brewin' and bout to begin." Picture me singing that, but it's not about the arrival of Mary Poppins: it's about the beginning of soup season.
Obviously one can eat soup in spring and summer (I made a late summer corn soup a couple weeks ago), but is there anything as delicious as a bowl of soup on a chill day? Reader, I think not! Of course it's the perfect sick day food, but it's also the perfect any day food.
Let's talk about the tools that make soup life easier. Obviously you need a good ladle for serving. If your ladle sucks, go get a new one. Also, get yourself a spoon rest, because if you leave the ladle in the pot, you will have regrets!! I aspire to be a bitch who makes her own stock and broth, but until then, better than bouillon tastes better than the store bought boxes of stock and is way cheaper. Personally I also love to add an extra splash of white wine to a soup, so I try to keep some in the fridge. The other essential piece if you're a real soup head is an immersion blender! You can get a completely decent one for $30 (I have the Mueller one), but you can also get a more expensive one if you're serious. It is 1 million times better than transferring hot soup to a stand blender or food processor. You need one!
Hayley: I fucking love soup! It's a perfect food.
Wow, where to begin. I echo your endorsement of Better Than Bouillon, not only because its flavor is superior but also because it is way more convenient to pick up one little jar of concentrated soup base over a ton of cartons of stock. Also tangential to soup: cook your quinoa in stock instead of water, you're welcome.
Soup has always been a staple in our household. My mom makes incredible soups, stews, and chilis. We believe wholeheartedly that soup always tastes better the next day, so I almost always prepare my soup in advance. It's a fantastic Sunday meal prep ritual, and it's usually the only thing I make a huge batch of that I end up eating all of by the end of the week (cooking for one is hard! In this essay I will). Soup is also something that is insanely easy to make when you have no money. The easiest, cheapest soup in the world that I used to make all the time is just stock, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and a good ol' bag of Hurst's Hambeens 15 Bean Soup Starter (I do not use the "ham" seasoning packet). If you have any wilty greens you're trying to use up, throw 'em in. If you have any potatoes, dice 'em up. You can of course add any sort of meat or bone to it for flavor, but I usually used a little bit of liquid smoke and called it a day. It is an insanely satisfying soup that is pretty impossible to fuck up.
As far as store-bought soups go, the Trader Joe's Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato soup is an absolute banger. It's so creamy and tangy, I really love it on its own or with any salad or sandwich for a fancier meal. I have also sauteed onions and red pepper and added them in, and have also made gnocchi to add to this soup as well. The Amy's canned soups and chilis are also wonderful, if a bit pricey. Prepackaged soup is so tricky because it can get too salty, but I have never been lead astray by either of these bad boys.
What are some of your favorite soup recipes?
Victoria: Soup really is the best leftover! When I make chili on Sunday and then can eat it the rest of the week? That's heaven! (I usually riff on this Emeril vegetarian chili). I actually don't think I've ever bought pre-made soup at the store, but I will pick up this Trader Joe's one next time I go!
No Alison Roman discourse allowed, but I think her creamy tomato soup recipe is pretty perfect (and also very cheap to make!). This lemony tortellini soup from The Kitchn is super quick to make, a perfect weeknight soup. Last winter I used beyond beef to make meatballs for Italian Wedding soup and I cannot wait to do it again. The Smitten Kitchen baked potato soup is an iconic favorite for me, and you can make all sorts of toppings for it to make it even funner. Helen Rosner's Roberto is also infinitely customizable (I usually make it with chickpeas and beyond sausage in hot italian). Smitten Kitchen's pasta with chickpeas lives somewhere between soup and pasta, but she includes it in her "soup" category, so I'll include it here.
Of course my number one homemade soup is Julia Child's french onion soup. Since I don't eat meat, to add MSG I usually add some soy sauce, or even just some MSG. I've heard mushroom broth is good in this too, but I've never tried it. French onion soup is a bit of a project, but it's worth it.
My soup wish list for this fall and winter is long. I want to make this Indian cauliflower soup. I really want to make my own ramen, so if anyone has a vegetarian broth situation that they like for that, please hit me up! I also just want to go to Veselka to eat their vegetarian borscht, which is perfect in every way.
Hayley: It is hard to narrow down favorites! I'm not vegan or vegetarian anymore, but since I was for so long, most of my go-to soups are meatless. This delightful Budget Bytes Winter Lentil Stew is one of the best soups I have ever had, period. It has all the cozy, smoky flavor of a hearty beef stew but it's vegan. It is impossible to photograph and make it look appetizing but I promise it's one of the best, easiest soups you'll ever make. Another vegan version of a classic soup is the Minimalist Baker Chickpea Noodle Soup, which also packs a lot of flavor and comfort in every bowl. I also adore this Bon Appetit Chickpea and Celery Soup with Chile Garlic Oil. (Bon Appetit is probably my favorite website to browse for soup inspo.)
Moving into creamy soups, I absolutely LIVE for this soup my mom makes that is a modified version of this Forks Over Knives Cream of Broccoli. She saves peeled broccoli stems in the freezer specifically for this soup to give it more broccoli flavor, and then uses an immersion blender (like Victoria said, an absolute necessity for the soup-inclined chef) to make it super smooth. I like making homemade croutons to go with this soup. There are a lot of easy homemade crouton recipes available, but the simplest way to make them is to melt butter in a saucepan on the stovetop, add in some dijon mustard, parsley, garlic powder, and salt and pepper and whisk it all together until it emulsifies. Taste it and adjust it as needed, then toss torn pieces of old bread in and coat them well before dumping them on a baking sheet and baking them at 400 degrees for about 10-15 minutes (depending on how crispy you like them!)
I'm just now realizing that most of the time when I make soup, I don't use a recipe. (THIS IS NOT A HUMBLE BRAG.) I like making kitchen sink soups that use up any produce that I want to eat before it spoils, and random, versatile pantry staples, like quinoa or white beans or any kind of pasta. In the fall and winter, I will buy a bag of kale specifically to use in soups, because it's so hearty and tough and it holds up well in any soup. Potatoes are also a good addition to nearly every kind of soup, but they always turn out a little weird if you want to freeze your soup, so if you are making a big batch of something to freeze, skip the potatoes.
My mission this fall is to make a perfect Chipotle Corn Chowder. They had this at the restaurant I worked at in high school and college every Tuesday, and it literally made me pick up Tuesday shifts just so I could eat endless bowls of it. I haven't worked at Country House since 2012, but I still remember each soup of the day: Monday is Cream of Chicken Wild Rice, Tuesday is Chipotle Corn Chowder, Wednesday is Loaded Baked Potato, Thursday is Chicken Tortilla, Friday is Clam Chowder. It's safe to say that most of my life revolves around soup.
Victoria: Thank you for linking to Budget Bytes, which I think is probably the most under-appreciated recipe resource online! Also, since you mentioned Bon Appetit, I want to mention that they started putting a paywall, BUT all the recipes are also on Epicurious, so if you can't get a recipe you want, google it with Epicurious and it should show up.
Just reading that you freestyle your own soup recipes feels extremely impressive to me!! I feel comfortable making up pasta recipes all the time, but soup feels really intimidating? Can you walk us through your process of turning disparate parts into a yummy soup??
When I was in high school, Wednesdays were creamy tomato soup day and you'd have to wait in line at the soup vat to get a cup full. In college, whenever me and my best friend got sick, we would go to Cosi (kinda like off-brand Panera?) and get each other cups of tomato soup and bread. (Is soup just an excuse to eat bread?? Kind of!!) No food says, "I'm taking care of you" like a bowl of soup.
Hayley: Freestyling my soup recipes like the world's most chaotic kitchen DJ! Ok, my cooking philosophy is pretty much the same no matter what you're making—whether it's soup, pasta, salads, sandwiches, or whatever: think about one of these items that you like, and then think of how each of the ingredients can adapt to a different medium. So, it's no surprise that I love the flavor of Buffalo wings, but I don't like chicken wings. So I figured out ways to incorporate the essence of Buffalo wings into other recipes: coating vegan chicken tenders or chickpeas in Frank's hot sauce and dipping them or drizzling them in Ranch, using the same seasoning on tofu for my Buffalo Tofu, or any combination of these things.
Let's use the same principle on another one of my favorite sandwiches: a Reuben. The main ingredients are sauerkraut, rye bread, corned beef, Swiss cheese, and Russian dressing. Now I'm going to think about how to use these ingredients for a Reuben soup: I'm going to do a vegetable broth with the classic carrots-onion-celery (mirepoix) base. Obviously, garlic is a non-negotiable in a soup recipe in my household. I can use either cabbage or sauerkraut in my soup. I'm definitely going to add some horseradish, too. I could add corned beef, or I could skip it and add in some liquid smoke for that "meaty" component. I can make rye bread croutons. Maybe I want to get really fancy and melt some Swiss over the top a la baked French onion soup. Or maybe I just want to drizzle a little bit of Russian dressing over my rye bread croutons. Now, would you look at that: Reuben soup.
This is how I cook pretty much everything. I think about each ingredient in a recipe and how it can be used in every way possible. Soup is an incredibly forgiving way to start being creative with your flavor combinations, because if something is too sweet, too sour, too salty, too earthy, or too spicy, you can easily add something else to tone it down (for the most part). And soup is also incredibly satisfying when it's simple: just your store-bought broth of choice, any veggies (fresh or frozen), any beans, and some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder can make a delicious soup. A good soup, if you will.
Things Hayley Likes:
Speaking of soup, I'd be remiss not to mention my friend's soup appreciation IG account Ladle, Baby
The Girls' Night In newsletter has been one of the best places that I've found really great book recommendations lately. They have a few different kinds of newsletters, but they're all easily skimmable and have great content.
This strapless bra is the only one that has ever stayed UP and been SUPPORTIVE for an entire night. I recently wore it to a wedding (congrats, Paloma and Tom!) and was surprised at how comfortable it was while helping my giant tits defy gravity for 8 hours of dancing.
Stuff Victoria Digs:
The new season of The Great British Bake-Off is a balm to my weary soul. Jürgen and Giuseppe hive!!! New episodes on Netflix on Fridays!
I am currently reading Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT Up New York, 1987-1993 and I really recommend!
My fall playlist continues to grow.
Follow Gold-Plated Girls on Twitter and Instagram! Follow Hayley on Twitter and Instagram, and Victoria on Twitter and Instagram.