Tag Archives: soup

French onion soup

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French onion soup without a crouton or cheese

Sitting in airport hotels as a child, excited about the impending hours in the air. On family holidays to the Dordogne, days in the car, followed by weeks in the sun. In posh London restaurants for a special occasion. The eighties for me was full of French onion soup.

And then it just disappeared. Did I stop eating it, stop noticing it? Or was it just considered untrendy and old fashioned? Whatever happened, it’s only recently I’ve begun to rediscover it. The first taste brought memories of those airports, restaurants and rustic French tables rushing back. It was pure warm nostalgia. Continue reading →

Spicy sweet potato and carrot soup

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Sweet potato and carrot soup

Soup is a constant. From slurping French onion soup at Gatwick as a child to being blown away by the sour spicy hit of Tom Yam on my first trip East, soup appears all over the world. It must answer a deep seated need for nourishment and warmth that goes beyond simple degrees celsius.

Sometimes, particularly when I’m under the weather, I crave a clear meaty broth, simple chicken and ginger or a more complex Pho – which many consider to be the ultimate soup. Clean, crisp and subtle flavour. Other times, when it’s cold and I’m hungry, I need a soup with substance. Something that will slide thickly over the tongue, smooth and soothing and full of taste. Continue reading →

Autumnal parsnip soup

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Parsnips

Isn’t it weird how comfort food is so rarely good looking? Often it’s some sort of stewy one-pot meal of indeterminate ingredients or maybe big piles of mash splodged onto a plate covered in a brown gravy. Never the less, they do have their own rare beauty.

The glistening fat on a slow cooked lump of lamb, oily worm-like noodles, pieces of aubergine that look unsettlingly like withered body parts. And swampy sludges of pureed roots and vegetables like this. Just looking at the thick greeny-yellow soup gently steaming away kindles a warm glow in my navel. Continue reading →

Attempting a jjigae – a Korean style spicy tofu and mushroom soup

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Jjigae - mushroom and tofu soup

This wasn’t really a jjigae. It was an attempt at recreating the spicy Korean soup, but with no recipe, no fish or meat, and without many of the proper ingredients. And having eaten it all of three times in my life. What could possibly go wrong?

The result turned out better than I feared, but not as good as I’d hoped. And in part, it was all down to me trying to keep it vegetarian. Not sure why I felt the need to do it, other than a perverse and vague feeling that it’s good to be veggie sometimes. Continue reading →

World weariness and chicken soup

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Chicken noodle soup

Drugs, medicine, alcohol, all those things that soothe and relax the body when you’re feeling aches and pains, they’re really complicated. It’s not as if you can rustle up a bottle of sauvignon from scratch at a moments notice. The same goes for a paracetamol, a pint of decent beer or valium.

Thank goodness for chicken soup. It’s at least as effective as a glass of wine if you’re feeling shitty. The savoury aroma of fresh broth bubbling on the hob is as effective a relaxant for me as hearing a cork being pulled from a wine bottle (is that tragic? probably). Continue reading →

A cleansing chicken noodle soup

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Cleansing soup

Essentially, this is a chicken poached gently in water with added bits and bobs. The chicken and its meaty juices are the base upon which you can build all sorts of exciting concoctions. If you want a real savoury hit then add an onion, celery, parsley, carrot, tomato, peppercorns and a bay lef or two, just like a stock. You’ll end up with a lovely meaty clear soup.

But tonight, I wanted something different, more cleansing than heavily flavoured. I’ve been working hard these last couple of days and i needed something as a pick-me-up. A soup with a bit of zing, a bit of excitement, but one that also left me with the same relaxed feeling you get after a particularly long walk in the crisp air. Continue reading →

Lentil and cumin soup

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Spicy lentil soup

Sometimes, you need something that will warm your soul as well as your stomach. A meal that imparts the glow you usually only get when sipping a fine whiskey. Those are the times that a salad or stir-fry just won’t cut it. You need something smooth, something…well…warm in the emotional (as opposed to temperature) sense. Everyone has their favourites, their particular comfort food. For me there are several things that hit that spot: red braised pork belly, lamb casserole or hot pot, a rich and creamy mushroom risotto, poached chicken broth with ginger, lemon grass and chilli. And a spiced lentil soup. Continue reading →