Soup!

I love soups.  They are healthy, easy to make, and perfect for cold weather--also cheap to make!

I made a delicious pumpkin soup last night for dinner--it was cold and rainy and I wanted something comforting--and thought I'd share the recipe.  It's very rough since I made it up based on what I had in the house, so definitely tweak flavors and ingredients where you so desire!

Curried pumpkin soup

Saute an onion, one celery stalk, and some garlic in a little olive oil until the onion and celery are beginning to brown.  Add pumpkin pulp (maybe about 2 cups or so?) and a heaping tbsp of curry powder.  After a minute or two, add one can of coconut milk + one can of water.  (I also added maybe 3 cups of vegetable stock or so).  Use an immersion blender and puree mixture until smooth.  This is the pumpkin soup base.  Add salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, and other seasonings to taste.

After pureeing the base, I added 3 small potatoes, finely diced (you can leave the skins on!), 1/3 cup dried lentils, and 2 carrots, finely diced.  Cook everything over low heat until vegetables and lentils are done.

Serve with a dollop of plain yogurt, or skip the yogurt to keep it vegan (personally, I like the tang of the yogurt with the deep spicy flavor of the curried soup).  It was great for a cold and rainy day!

Do you all have some good soup recipes?

Sigh.  I wish I knew how to cook!  This sounds so good but I can't do "wing it" recipes like this.  "Until lentils are done" is totally ambiguous to me -- how long did you cook it for after you added the lentils?

I'm planning to make the french lentil soup from Veganomicon next week.  I'll let you know how it is!

Um...maybe 45 minutes?  Just give them a little taste--if they are soft and not crunchy, then they're done.  Sorry I can't be of more help!!

For those with no cooking, go with Veggie and Barley soup.

I made some the other night. Just chop up whatever ever veggies you like (I used potato, carrot, celery, zuccini, and yellow squash, sauteed onion and a ton of garlic). Cover with veggie broth and add about a half cup of barley. Cook for about 15-20 minutes and you've got a decent (albeit a bit "boring") soup that will last you a few days.

I'm not a good cook and can't do anything fancy. But I don't let that stop me. It could probably be made a lot better with some herbs or something.

I like pot-luck soups and 'what have we got left in the fridge' soups but I also like ones with a definite flavour. My favourites are Leek and Potato, Carrot and Coriander, Mushroom & Barley and Pea & Mint. My recipes often stipulate chicken stock (sorry veggies!) but you can substitute vegetable stock of course.

http://caloriecount.about.com/carrot-coriande r-soup-gi-jane-recipe-r101658

http://caloriecount.about.com/leek-potato-sou p-gi-jane-recipe-r74893

http://caloriecount.about.com/mushroom-barley -soup-gi-jane-recipe-r87896

http://caloriecount.about.com/pea-soup-gi-jan e-recipe-r123707

For non-cooks, the secret is often to 'sweat' the vegetables with a little oil or butter first ... placed over a very, very low heat with the lid on so that maximum flavour is extracted. And then cook the soup slowly. No rush...

Amusing (to me, at least) soup story: A week or so ago I got to thinking, "Hey, if black bean soup is really good, and split pea soup is really good, then black bean split pea soup would be REALLY good." So I made some. I diced a whole onion and some carrot, softened that in some olive oil and added about a cup and a half of soaked dried black beans and probably about a cup and a half of dry split peas. I added water to cover and cooked until the beans were soft and the peas had disintegrated, adding a vegetable boullion cube just before. I then seasoned with some cumin, salt, garlic and a dash of cayenne.

It tasted amazing. But it looked ... well, kind of like poop, to be quite honest. I think next time I'll have to try cooking the split peas and black beans separately, then rinsing the beans and hoping that gets rid of the blackness of the liquid. I was too embarrassed to let my co-workers see it when I brought it in for lunch

But man, it tasted so good ...

I made some vegan Thai-style coconut soup last night...it came out yummy!

I looked up some recipes online for a general idea of what goes into the soup...and then kind of made it up adding coconut milk, shredded coconut, vegetable broth, lots of spices (ginger, lime juice, sea salt, pepper, curry powder, basil, cilantro), and some veggies (peapods, zucchini, serrano chile pepper, sweet red peppers, etc)...and serving it over homemade coconut rice.

It was delicious, though a bit indulgent! :)

Sometimes it's fun to just see what's available and work with what you have. I was surprised when I called my boyfriend at work and asked if I could make anything in particular for dinner and this was his request...I'm glad he liked it!

Hmmm, I've never had pumpkin soup. It sounds good; it doesn't have a strong coconut flavor, does it?

Oh my Oh my!

Soup is the easiest thing to take to work in a flask. I think I will try one recipe a day,

I am going to calorie count my tomato and red pepper soup, then post it.

gi-jane:

I don't have a hand blender and can't invest in one for some time. Would the soups you've linked be good chunky too?