Hot and humid summer days call for something cold.

If you’re thinking this is like gazpacho, no, it isn’t at all. Other than having tomato in it, and being a cold soup, there’s little resemblance between the two.

Decades ago, in 1981, my DH and I took a trip to England and we befriended a delightful older couple in a tiny town in Somerset (Ilminster) and we stayed friends with them until they both passed away. Pamela taught me how to make a proper pot of tea (see post I did about that in 2007). She taught me about popovers and any number of other British culinary things. She was a chef who cooked for families in lovely homes, doing hunt dinners/weekends and banquets and such. They lavishly entertained us in their stately home many times, and over the  years we got to know their children and extended family.

Back in the late 80s and maybe early 90s (no internet then, of course, but I doubt Pamela or Jimmy would have cottoned to computer use anyway!) I wrote to Pamela and asked her if she had any recipes for cold soups. Oh my, yes she did, and she wrote me the longest letter, writing out in longhand about 6 cold soup recipes.

Just buy some green chiles (I bought a California green chile plus a pasilla/poblano) and some mushrooms and you probably have everything else on hand. The preparation is a little unusual – first you lightly sauté the garlic in olive oil, making sure it doesn’t get brown or burn, then you bloom the paprika and cinnamon in the pan with the garlic. Then the vegetables go in, the tomatoes, the citrus zest and juice. That’s it. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, cool it down, puree it (mostly, but leave it a little bit chunky) and chill for several hours or overnight. When serving it, put a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream on top and sprinkle some fresh mint all over.

What’s GOOD: it’s really delicious, and refreshing. Because of the mushrooms, it has a kind of meaty texture, although there isn’t, of course, any meat in it. Low calorie, for sure, just about zero carbs, although tomatoes are technically a fruit, so yes, some carbs there. You can’t really taste the cinnamon – interesting, that, as I expected to be able to note it. And the citrus juices just blend in, so you can’t exactly taste that, either. But put it all together and it’s great. Worth making.

What’s NOT: only if you don’t like soups without some meat in it.

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Some days it’s still cool weather here in SoCal, and a bowl of hearty soup for lunch sounds good.

‘Tis the season when weather is variable. We had a 98°F day on Saturday. Mostly I stayed inside with the A/C on. But today it’s much cooler, and we’re expecting a day under 70° tomorrow. Likely it’s much the same where you live.

After making the Chicken Stew with Fennel Seed a few weeks ago, with the amazing fennel seed from Burlap and Barrel, I’ve been on the lookout for more recipes using fennel. I certainly didn’t realize how much I like fennel until I bought some of theirs. Cabbage and Italian sausage came to mind. I looked in my own recipe collection but didn’t find anything that was quite what I was wanting, so I began searching online. For me, flavor is king – any soup I make needs to be full of flavor. The other day I made a cauliflower soup with all kinds of veggies in it and some bacon, then whizzed it up in the blender. It’s loaded with flavor. So I wanted a flavorful soup for this batch too.

Let’s talk about the sausage – I had a pound of it in my freezer, so I defrosted it and instead of cutting open each link to remove the casing, I used a pair of very sharp scissors and cut little chunks (not coins) of the sausage and dropped them into the simmering vegetables.

I started gathering ingredients – Italian sausage obviously, then onion, celery, carrots, garlic, canned tomatoes, tomato paste and all the various herbs. Oh yes, and the vermouth. You could easily  use any white wine you had open, but I didn’t, so vermouth is always in one of my kitchen drawers for just this kind of use. The soup was easy enough to put together. AND I had a Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese rind in my frig – that has likely been there for at least a  year, sealed up in a baggie. Don’t over-cook the soup, as the sausage will lose all of its flavor. This is a quick and easy way to make a hearty soup.

In several of the online recipes a can or two of cannellini beans were included, but since I eat low carb, I left it out. If I weren’t watching carbs I definitely would have included the beans! The soup is better made the day before – as with all soups. I didn’t wait – I made it and served myself a portion with some Italian parsley and some Pecorino-Romano cheese sprinkled on top. Oh, and a little sprinkling of fennel seed.

What’s GOOD: everything about this soup was good. I love veggie soups, but they’ve got to have lots of flavor – that came from the sausage, of course, also from the Parm rind that soaked in the pot, and the various herbs used, including the fennel seed. Altogether delicious and yes, I’ll definitely be making this soup again.

What’s NOT: can’t think of anything – not hard to make, although there is a bit of chopping and mincing to do.

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Having always had an affinity for Mulligatawny Soup, this one intrigued me because of the addition of garam masala and the other various vegetables.

I’ve posted a couple of Mulligatawny Soups during the 18 years I’ve been posting recipes on my blog. The first one, back in 2008, was my go-to for several decades of my home cooking routine. Then I had one made at a cooking class, different, have never made it since, so I guess it didn’t hit any marks. How I came across this recipe, I don’t recall, but it’s an Emeril Legasse recipe, and it’s on the Food Network site, so perhaps Emeril prepared it back in the day when he had a show there.

• Mulligatawny is a type of Anglo-Indian soup. It is regarded as the national soup of India. A literal translation from Tamil “pepper water” (‘Millagu’ is pepper and ‘Thanni’ is water). Despite the name, pepper itself is not a vital ingredient. Rice and noodles are commonly served in the soup; the real dish the Anglo-Indians call “pepper water” is closer to Tamilian rasam than mulligatawny. Variations differ very much. Sometimes, the soup has a turmeric-like yellow color and is garnished with parsley and chicken meat, and is more soupy, which takes on its Anglo-Indian adaptation to be a thick, spicy meat soup.

I posted that blurb above, before, about the origin of Mulligatawny. Obviously, it’s an adaptable kind of soup – maybe rice or noodles, maybe turmeric, maybe curry (which is in my original recipe), usually chicken, almost always with some apple and rice, spicy somehow and with veggies. This one adds garam masala, that Indian mixed spice. Emeril tossed the chicken in it, then browned it in a big Dutch oven. Because I love garam masala, I added in more at the end, which is also very common in Indian cooking – it heightens the garam masala flavors to add more just before serving. I really liked how it tasted done that way.

This is a soup with many ingredients and a variety of flavors. The apple is very common, and it’s one of the things I love about Mulligatawny. I suppose it’s the “sweet note” it adds with almost every bite. Lentils are common also, but because I don’t eat many carbs, I reduced the amount in the version I made, although I included the half cup in the recipe below. I also didn’t include potatoes or the rice for the same reason. I did include the sweet potato (because it’s a resistant starch). Add more broth as needed, or less, just so the vegetables are covered with liquid. Adding spinach is a new ingredient, perhaps not at all common to this soup. But I liked it. Except for the peeling and chopping, the soup comes together in a jiffy. And it makes a goodly portion, so now I have a package of it in the freezer and lunch for some days to come. Love that!

What’s GOOD: this is a really delicious chicken and veggie soup/stew kind of thing. Love the Indian flavors with the garam masala, but the soup itself is very complex even with no other seasonings except salt and pepper. Hearty, filling. This may be my new go-to Mulligatawny.

What’s NOT: only that it takes a bit of time to peel and chop all the veggies that go into this. But that’s what makes it taste so good  – the variety of textures and flavors.

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Such a tasty soup or stew, for a cool night. Easy to make, but it’s the fennel seed  – to me – that makes this special.

A few weeks ago I was driving somewhere, and listened to a Milk Street podcast. Chris Kimball was interviewing a gentleman from Burlap & Barrel, a small spice/herb company. In the interview he talked about how and where they harvest the very rarified herbs and spices they carry in their online store. I was so intrigued by the stories about the fennel (this blog post) that as soon as I was home I went online and ordered it, plus their cumin and cinnamon. Then to get free shipping I had to add a couple more items. So far I’ve tried the fennel (marvelous) and the cinnamon (the most fragrant and tasty I think I’ve ever-ever had).

So, this blog post is going to highlight their fennel, called Lucknow Fennel. Here’s what the store has to say about it:

Lucknow Fennel is a sweet, grassy variety known for having bright green, small, ridged seeds that can be applied to savory and sweet dishes alike. Ours is grown in the hot, arid northern state of Rajasthan in India on the family farm of our partner farmer, Negi. We love these seeds tempered in oil or ghee with cumin and chili flakes and poured over roasted root vegetables, added to a poaching liquid for fish or crushed and rolled into a shortbread dough.

When I opened the grinder-jar (pictured above) of this fennel, the fragrant scent just wafted over and over to my nose. Smelled so good, and more fragrant than any fennel I’d ever had – seems to me I recall the guy talking about the ridges on fennel seed – I’d never thought about it – ridges? Well, I guess they do have ridges.

Back to this recipe. I’d read about it at the New  York Times and since I make a lot of soups, I downloaded it and made it a few days later. The only unique thing about the soup/stew is that it had green beans in it – not a frequent veggie in chicken stew, I’d say. It did have some herbs, which I added, but then I decided to add fennel. Not only did I add it to the soup itself, but I grated some of this new fennel on top when served. In this picture it looks kind of red – that’s from the paprika. I added mushrooms to the soup also, just because I had them, and why not? Chicken stew should have mushrooms, right? I didn’t add potatoes (trying to make this dish lower carb). I didn’t miss them since the mixture is thick with other veggies.

The only other thing I changed was to use King Arthur Flour’s culinary thickener. KAF doesn’t have that product in their lineup anymore, so if you make this, use the flour listed in the ingredients.

What’s GOOD: to me, the fennel from Burlap & Barrel was the star of the show. The soup was delicious, but the fennel just put it over the top. I’m looking forward to trying the other things I bought from them – particularly the cumin, since I use a lot of it in my cooking.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. Mincing and chopping does take a bit of time, but it’s an easy soup/stew to make. Would it be good without the fennel? Yes, but the fennel just makes it better.

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Such succulence – tender pork shoulder in a soup with lovely crunchy toppings.

A couple of months ago my cousin Gary and I were visiting daughter Sara and on Christmas Day we were about to head home to my house and needed a little sustenance. Sara had made some pozole which she served to us. Oh my, so delicious. She forwarded the recipe to me and I’ve now made it twice. Each time tweaking the recipe just a little bit.

Basically, you simmer chunks of pork shoulder in broth (with some aromatics) until tender. You also rehydrate dried chiles in water and make a chile sauce with them that is also added to the soup, along with ground cumin, oregano and tomato paste and sauce.

If you’ve never made a chile sauce from dried chiles, you just don’t know what you’re missing – it has so much depth of flavor. See that dark brown broth in the photo – it’s from the chiles, not from the pork. And that dark brown color = unctuous flavor.

The meat needs to simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, and then with some more add-ins, another 20-30 minutes. Make it a day or two ahead and it’s an easy dinner with the garnishes – shredded cheese, shredded cabbage (a must for pozole), sliced radishes, sliced avocado, chopped cilantro and green onions. Altogether yummy.

What’s GOOD: everything single little droplet and bite of this soup is delicious. It should freeze well, can be made in advance, even good for company.

What’s NOT: nary a thing. A keeper.

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Yes, I know it’s summer; but I eat soup year ’round.

This is a post from Sara. This is one of my very favorite soup recipes (well… as of today). It has everything I love about soup; flavorful broth, bite-sized meat and lots of veggies.  It also freezes and reheats well.  I’ve made a few adjustments for my tastes.  I prefer the flavor of lean pork and hint of yam or sweet potatoes vs. the russet potatoes that are traditional.  This soup is a complete meal.  Another benefit for my lifestyle.  I love to cook but the cleanup… not so much.  This is a one pot dish.

I began my obsession with Albondigas when my mother-in-law made it years ago.  I was hooked after my first spoonful.  She’s Hispanic and I wanted to learn how to make some of her family favorites to pass on to my children. We will talk tamales another time….

It takes about an hour from start to finish.  I start with making the meatballs. To reduce dirty dishes, I mix the meatball ingredients in a large bowl then make the meatballs and set them to one side of the bowl.  I also prefer smaller meatballs so mine are probably 1/2″ rather than the traditional 3/4″. I roll all the balls and set the bowl aside. Then I use one of my biggest cutting boards and chop all the veggies, onion, garlic.

I cook the broth with tomatoes and tomato sauce then add the carrots and sweet potatoes (or yams). Let it simmer for 10 mins.  Add all the meatballs at once. They tend to stick together in the bowl so gently stir them after adding to the broth. You want to separate the meatballs but not break them apart.  Cook another 10 mins. Lastly, add the zucchini for 5 mins.

What’s GOOD:  This is a hearty and flavorful soup that has all my favorite components; meat, veggies and sweet potatoes.

What’s NOT:  The meatballs are a bit time consuming with rolling the smaller size.  And the total time is about an hour.

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Can I just say – this chili is SO good. So easy to make. Very satisfying.

I started off with a recipe from Kalyn’s Kitchen – she used ground turkey instead of chicken (and you could use either one – my daughter Sara happens to prefer ground chicken so I used that), and the sweet potatoes (no beans in this recipe). Since sweet potatoes are a resistant starch, I like including them in any potential recipe I make. Most of the seasonings are similar to Kalyn’s, but I made a few changes. I wanted more vegetables (just because) and I used some small pieces of cauliflower too which just melded into the soup (couldn’t see it or taste it). I’m not a fan of green peppers – never have been. I know they add a distinct flavor in some cuisines, but I just don’t like them. So in my recipe I used red. You could use yellow or orange, as well. Or a mixture.

The chili has a deep, dark color, which comes from using ancho chili powder. If you haven’t added this seasoning to your spice pantry, you should, as it has a wonderful deep flavor. It’s only been in recent years that you could buy it ground. Yes, you can use the whole, dried anchos – cut off the stems, remove the seeds, chop coarsely then run them through a spice grinder. I just buy the powder already ground.

I also use a spice mix from Penzey’s, called Chili 3000 (I also use the Chili 1000 too) but the 3000 was the one I used here. You don’t have to buy that unless you’d like to try it.

When I made this chili, I doubled the recipe. I was out at the desert house and I made it in our huge 12-inch “MadeIn” pot I bought for that house to use on our induction range. Sara and John were there, and we had it for dinner one night. It got rave reviews from all of us. I froze some of the portions, gave some to Sara to take home and I brought a few servings home with me too. Loved the toppings – we had yogurt, green onions, grated Cheddar and cilantro.

What’s GOOD: Gosh, so delicious. Loved the complex flavors (am sure it’s a combination of the ancho chili powder and the Penzey’s Chili 3000 mix). The ground chicken – don’t we know – doesn’t have a lot of flavor, but the protein is healthy for us – so the flavor here has to come from other things. Altogether fabulous. For me, this recipe is a real keeper.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. Make sure you buy the ancho chili powder.

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Tummy-warming soup with a Mexican bent – made with poblano chiles, canned green chiles and a bunch of vegetables. Plus chicken, of course.

First, a little update about me. My jury duty is finally over with – it lasted four weeks. Thank goodness I’m done with it. I wasn’t ever called to be a deliberating juror (I was an alternate), but when the jurors did meet they convicted the defendant on all five counts, including an enhancement charge that she had intended to cause bodily harm. I wrote a letter to the prosecutor (thanking her), one to the police detective who was assigned to the case (thanking him for his 14 months of working on the case), another to the police chief (telling him how much I admired the detective for his work, but also for his compassion to the victim), and lastly I mailed a Halloween card to the victim herself telling her how brave she was to testify (age 11). The defendant will be put away for a long time.

Now let’s talk about soup. When the weather begins to turn cooler I’m all in for making soups. This one started out as a slow cooker soup, but since I no longer have a large slow cooker (only the instant pot one – and it would have been too small for this batch) I changed the recipe all around, added more vegetables into it and made it on the stovetop. If you have leftover chicken (or in my case it was some rotisserie chicken) this is a perfect soup to use it up.

This is a quick and easy soup if you have all the ingredients. The original recipe called for rice (you can add it if you’d like), but I added some sweet potato and a bit of butternut squash. Actually, for the record, I bought a box of fresh, chopped up veggies at Trader Joe’s, a kind of fall medley, so I’m estimating how much sweet potato and squash it added. Soups like this aren’t exact – add more of anything that suits you and your family.

There are bunches of recipes on the ‘net lately, all made in a crockpot, using a brick of cream cheese. That adds a lot of luscious creaminess to the soup as it melts slowly. I almost always have an 8-ounce brick of cream cheese in my refrigerator. You don’t have to decorate the servings with grated cheese or cilantro, but those two things add a nice touch to the soup. Finishes it off.

What’s GOOD: loved this soup. It makes a big batch, so I have ample to freeze in Ziploc quart bags. Loved the creaminess of it, and the various vegetables added, the sweet potato and butternut squash. The various chiles add a lovely umami flavor to the soup, I think. Altogether delicious.

What’s NOT: nothing really. I suppose you could adapt this to an instant pot (make half the recipe) and then add the cream cheese at the end and let it simmer (not pressure cook) to blend slowly into the soup itself. Made on the stovetop, with all the chopping, etc. it probably takes an hour to make the soup.

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We used to think that coconut milk was bad for us – because of the saturated fat it contained. But now the experts think that type of saturated fat isn’t the same as from animal fat. Good thing, since this soup is so delicious and contains not one, but two cans of coconut milk.

So, first, just to catch you up. I’ve been on jury duty for about 3 weeks (as I write this). And the trial isn’t over yet. Maybe I’ll talk about it eventually. It’s absolutely gruesome. It’s not a murder trial but about child abuse. Erroneously, I thought that once you got to be my age, you didn’t have to serve on jury duty anymore. Not so in my county. There were 60 of us assigned to a courtroom and over the course of 1 1/2 days they finally got a jury selected, me included as Alternate #3. Lots of potential jurors didn’t want to be a juror for this trial. The judge warned us it was going to assault our senses when we’d see photos. Some people likely lied about their inability to view child abuse. Some jurors were released; others weren’t. When I was called to the jury box (I was potential juror #55) and questioned, I knew all the arguments the judge had heard. I’d resigned myself that this must be what God had in mind, that I needed to serve. So when the judge asked me if I could be fair and impartial, I said yes. Did I want to be there? Absolutely not. But I wouldn’t lie. That’s not in my nature anyway.

Consequently, my life has kind of been on hold. And let me tell you, coming home in the evenings I was just a “basket case” of sadness (for the children involved), anger (at the defendant and that the abuse had gone on for so long, undetected). I have cried in the courtroom several times; so did some of the other jurors. The judge had forewarned us that he expected some of us to shed tears. At home, I found myself unable to concentrate. Unable to do normal tasks. Most evenings I watch mindless TV just to reset my brain. Each weekend I went through the motions of doing tasks I knew I needed to do (grocery shopping and errands), but my heart wasn’t in it. By Sundays I’ve been mostly back to normal. And then it starts all over on Monday mornings.

Cooking has not played center stage for me in these past weeks, except for making a couple of soups that I could take to court (and reheat in the microwave in the large jury pool room on the lunch hour). One was fabulous (this one) the other one not so much (won’t be posting it).

The Soup: the original recipe came from the internet, but I altered it some, making it my own. It had rice; I eliminated the rice – but you can add it if you’d like to. Surely you know me by now, I like to eliminate carbs when possible. This has sweet potato in it, but that veg is a resistant starch that gets mostly eliminated through your gut and intestines and not absorbed as a carbohydrate. I added zucchini (just because I love zucchini) and I added bok choy too. It called for spinach, but I added a lot more.

The meatballs were very easy to make – with ground chicken, shallots, fresh ginger, a bit of soy sauce. They were lightly browned on a couple of sides in EVOO, then removed. Then you begin assembling the soup part – more shallot, some onion, garlic, curry paste, curry powder, chicken broth, bok choy, zucchini and the sweet potatoes. Once the veggies are tender add in the coconut milk and spinach. The meatballs are added back in and simmered for a few minutes. Done.

What’s GOOD: loved the umami flavors in this – probably the coconut milk, the ginger, garlic, even the sweet potato! SO flavorful. I’m so glad I have many more portions of this soup to enjoy in the next week or so. Whether it’s taking it to the jury room, or having here at home once this trial is over. Altogether wonderful soup. If you’re pressed for time, don’t make the meatballs, just add all the flavors into the soup and you’ll be happy with the results.

What’s NOT: maybe the sticky meatball-making, but that’s about it. It’s a very simple soup to make.

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Need a quick, easy soup – even if it’s summer – taco soup is always welcome.

It’s been a few weeks ago that I made this, but I recall that I was in a hurry to get it done – so I perused some online recipes for quick taco soup, and came up with this variation. It has all of the usual ingredients (although I added celery – not sure that’s an authentic addition to taco soup, but I like celery, what can I tell you?) and a shortcut of using a packet of dry taco mix. First I sauteed onion and celery, then added garlic, chopped red bell pepper, a chopped up poblano pepper, the package of taco seasoning mix, a punch of ground cumin (because I like it a lot). Then I added a package of ground beef (you could use ground turkey or one of the non-meat substitutes, or it could be vegetarian easily enough without any protein added). Once it was no longer pink, and separated into lots of little bite-sized pieces, I added tomato sauce, a can of tomatoes and pinto beans. And some water. It simmered for a grand total of 30 minutes. Done. You could make this in the Instant Pot – but the sauteing of the various veggies and the beef would take longer, but probably under pressure it would be done in 8 minutes.

Garnishes are optional – but they help – I used cilantro, sour cream, green onions for sure. The second time I had it I added a few crumbled tortilla chips and some bell pepper. Any of those work – whatever suits your family’s preferences.

It was better the next day – soups always are. And what I didn’t eat in the first three days I froze for another quick meal another day.

What’s GOOD: only that it was finished in about an hour – the prep work did take a bit of time, but some of it can be done while the initial sauteing is being done. Easy soup. It didn’t have time to develop a lot of complex flavors – a simple soup, cooked in a jiffy.

What’s NOT: nothing really – it isn’t going to win any blue ribbons at the fair, but I was happy I got it done in under an hour and provided a bunch of meals afterwards.

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