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What’s your favorite soup?
I recently got a big 10L pot and I’m planning on making some soups in an attempt to eat out less and I would love some recipe ideas!
I recently got a big 10L pot and I’m planning on making some soups in an attempt to eat out less and I would love some recipe ideas!
While I love a good French onion soup, it's a real pain to make. It's also really expensive as far as soup goes; you need a lot of sweet onions (which are already more expensive than more common varieties) as well as a good wine and cognac. The US doesn't really have good cheese widely available, so the gruyere will need to be imported at extremely high cost.
I'm not saying that you can't find Gruyere in the US, simply that it is expensive.
I see where the confusion might be though; most of the cheeses in that grocery store section are going to be imported cheeses (in other words, not made in the US).
Or you could move here ;-)
I love you, @joelthelion, but I just don't know you well enough to make that step. :P
Pho, hands down. I used to have it several times a week but sadly there are no Vietnamese restaurants where I currently live, so I haven't had it in forever now. I miss it so much and no matter how hard I try to replicate it, I can't get it quite right. There is just no substituting the veal bone broth I guess, but I don't have the time/energy to make that. :(
p.s. I do make a mean Ramen (my second fav soup) though. Here is some rough instructions cobbled together from some old comments:
Bonus Faux-Pho "recipe" using the above Ramen broth:
Oh man, standard pho can only be topped by pho with sate.
This one place in Vancouver (Pho Goodness on main at 14th) has the perfect bowl — and I’m not sure it can ever be topped. They even have an option to have lemongrass chicken in place of beef and tripe — pure heaven in a bowl.
Do you know of any cheap ramen brands that don't include seasoning packets? I don't use them either and the waste kind of bugs me.
Unfortunately not. I eat a ton of Ramen and all the affordable brands I buy in bulk come with those shitty flavor packs.
Me too... sometimes I pour just a tiny bit of the packs into my "pimped up" broth, just so I don't feel like I'm completely wasting it. :P
The chili ramen packets go kind of okay with green lentils, but I don't make them nearly as much as I make ramen, so the packets really start to pile up.
LOL, yeah, I have a giant stash of the packets too. Although I throw the old ones out when I get a new box of the same flavored ones, so they don't pile up too bad. And yeah, I also use the "spicy/hot/chili" ramen packets fairly often too, since they are basically just MSG+spice/pepper powder and go well with almost everything.
I've only had it a few times, but probably without a doubt: Pozole.
This recipe is probably closest to how I've had it, just don't forget the lime! I find a lot of soups lack flavor or rely too much on meat alone to give it flavor. Not so with pozole, and that makes it oddly refreshing.
Family had pozole for Mother's Day, today. I no longer partake in eating meat, so...I didn't have any. But it smelled damn good. Don't forget some fresh bolillos!
Though, I would say pozole relies on meat considering the broth comes from fat that renders. I wonder if I could recreate it with just hominy and spices...
I just think it doesn't over rely on meat, if that makes sense. It has enough flavor to compliment the meat, instead of the meat being the only real flavor.
I made this during the weekend but I have to wonder, how important is the California Chili Powder? Is the taste difference significant? Same with the ancho chilies. I had to substitute Mexican chili powder and McCormick brand Chili powder which only state "Chili powder" as one of the ingredients not clarifying what kind of chilies they use. I also subbed 3 Jalapenos and 1 Serrano to make up for the lack of ancho. I garnished with a fresh serrano pepper on 2 bowls which wasn't bad, but unnecessary. I'd be willing to buy chili powder online if it is worth the taste difference. IDK that I can find ancho chilies unless I travel to a bigger city.
You'll definitely get a different flavor profile if you aren't using ancho chile peppers (or guajillo..or any other dried chili). They're mild and kind of smokey and permeate the broth, where a fresh serrano is going to have more bite and probably won't add to the soup as a whole. You might be able to substitute some kind of chipotle sauce, if it's heavy on the chipotle. I don't know what California chili powder is, but it's probably not essential.
It should be illegal to sell hominy without the other ingredients to make pozole or menudo...
Edit: After searching for California chili powder, I realize this is what's being referred to, which is just ground Anaheim chilies. Also...jeez, I can get those bags for like a dollar down the street. Living in a highly diverse area has its perks, that's for damn sure.
A simple but well-made vegetable soup.
I'll take your vegetable soup and raise you Alton Brown's lentil soup. The first time I tried this I nearly cried because it was so much better than I expected.
Substitute the grains of paradise with black pepper. As far as I can tell, grains of paradise don't actually exist outside of online retailers. Besides, the gentle heat of the black pepper is one of my favorite parts of this dish.
Ezogelin, which is a version of the Turkish lentil soup with bulgur, dried & flaked mint and dried oregano added, and without terbiye (i.e. dried & flaked mint and dried & flaked chili cooked in butter). It is so tasty and also very filling: on a lazy day, you can chuck stuff into a pot, wait 45 minutes, run it through the blender, and eat it for lunch or even dinner with a decent amount of croutons or some nice bread. It'll be good for days in your refrigerator, and just as tasty all throughout. Along with lentil soup, it'll be cheaply available on all restaurants, and it'll be delicious there too because how simple and easy it is to make. I recently learned how to make it and made it a few times. Came out delicious every time, even the first.
It is by a slight margin my favourite over the lentil soup, which is really delicious as well.
Avgolemano (Greek egg and lemon soup). Just don't go shy on the lemon like most places do.
This one is the tits once you add some heat to it.
I suppose you could pull it off in a pot, but you should probably go out and buy a slow cooker anyways, much easier when you're busy.
Borschtsch with a generous amount of sour cream or thick tomato soup with some good toasted bread.
Like Stalin, you murdered a lot of things about that name.
And the funny part is: it only takes putting T before S to get it right. Doesn't happen often in the English language.
Hell, Germans spell it with ten letters: Borschtsch.
There, I've fixed it :)
Сметана is not sour cream either, not sure what's it called in English, but in German it's Schmand, I think.
Ah. So much better.
Uh...
Well, i've been to states and their sour cream is not smetana at all, it's not..uhhh..sour enough.
That's a shame. Good to know, by the way.
There's, apparently, a handful of similar ones. I tried the Polish one – Żurek – and loved it. It was so sour! An absolute delight. A good borsch should be sour, too.
Salmon soup is an integral part of the Finnish identity. It works both as a quick weekday meal as well as for more festive occasions. It warms your soul, embraces your taste buds and boosts your body. The recipe varies from household to household, but this one has the basics.
Gulyás is an even more integral part of the Hungarian identity. It works both as a winter warmer as well as a summer food, and is particularly good when made over open fire. Again, recipes vary widely, but this looks good to me (I would leave out the pasta though).
When we had our first cow butchered, the first thing we made was oxtail soup. It was remarkably rich and amazing. I'm also a big fan of garlic soup with a poached egg.
Nkatenkwan
LFTL: https://recipes.fandom.com/wiki/Nkatenkwan
It's more of a stew than a soup, but there's nothing like a good, big pot of homemade gumbo that takes all day to make.
If you're sticking strictly to soups, I'd have to go with an Italian wedding.
Some great recommendations in here already. In my opinion you really can't do much better than a good spicy miso ramen, or a beef brisket pho. But since both of those were already mentioned, I'll toss in a new one: CLAM CHOWDER. Great by itself, or with sourdough bread or fish 'n' chips.
You best be talking about Boston (cream based) Clam Chowder and not that Manhattan (tomato based) abomination or we can never be friends. ;)
And yeah Pho and Ramen = #1 and #2 respectively for me, for sure.
But of course! Actually I'm in the Pacific Northwest, which I'm sure is its own breed, but ours is definitely cream-based like the stuff in Boston. We love a good chowder out here too!