Recently, however, my sister broke my book-buying fast by giving me a new cookbook called Whitewater Cooks: Pure, Simple and Real Creations from the Fresh Tracks Cafe.  And I am so glad she did.  The book is full of really tasty, slightly (but not outrageously) out of the ordinary stuff that regular-skilled cooks with real lives (i.e., lives that don’t allow them to spend all day in the kitchen) can produce.  The Hungarian Mushroom Barley soup recipe below is a good example – very creamy, rich flavours and…barley!  Mushroom soup is one of my husband’s favourites, so I made it initially with him in mind – but quickly fell in love with it myself.

Note that the Whitewater Cooks author, Shelley Adams, has not only graciously agreed to let me share this recipe with you – she will also be sharing the story of how her cookbooks and her culinary career came into being in an upcoming post.  Stay tuned (but try the soup in the meantime)!

Ingredients

• 2-3 onions, diced
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ cup barley
• ½ cup sherry
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp fresh rosemary
• 2 tsp dill
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp salt
• 12 cups mushrooms, sliced
• 8 cups vegetable stock
• 4 bay leaves
• ½ cup parsley
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 cup whipping cream

Method

Heat oil and butter in a large soup pot.  Add the onions and sauté until translucent.  Add mushrooms and sauté another 10-15 minutes.  Add the barley and spices and continue to sauté for 10 more minutes.  Add the stock and let cook over medium heat approximately 30 minutes or until the barley is done.  Add soy sauce, sherry, cream and parsley.

An added splash of sherry at the end is a must.  For a thicker soup, add 2 tbsp flour mixed with 2 tbsp butter and cook a little longer until it thickens up.

So, no vindaloo for me.  True connoisseurs of Indian cuisine will no doubt say that I am missing the essence of the culture by not eating the hot stuff.  They may well be right.  But no matter.  There are plenty of non-spicy Indian specialties that my palate can handle, and that I enjoy immensely.  One of my most favourite among them is mulligatawny soup.

If you look up recipes for this soup on the internet, you will quickly see that there are many versions of it, and that the list of ingredients can vary widely.  I tried many variations of this soup before hitting on the one below, which originated as a recipe from my aunt (thanks Else!), to which I made a few modifications to include ingredients like lentils and lemon and coconut milk to give it that rich savouriness that I love.  And (bonus!) it takes only about half an hour to prepare.  Thus, a treat of more than one kind.

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 onions, diced
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, diced
• ¼ cup butter / olive oil or combination of both
• 1 teaspoon curry powder (or more if you can handle it)
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 1½ tsp garam masala (you can buy this in the spice aisle at your grocery store)
• 1½ tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups dried red lentils
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 3 tbsp lemon juice

Directions

1. Saute onions, celery, carrot, garlic and butter/oil in a large soup pot over medium heat until vegetables are softened. Add all spices and cook 2 more minutes.
2. Add lentils, stirring to coat. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Simmer about 20 minutes (until lentils are soft).
3. Add coconut milk and lemon juice. Cook just long enough to heat through.
4. Serve and enjoy!

Since then, I have been lucky enough to try a wide variety of delicious soups that were not readily available to me in childhood, and this makes it pretty difficult to choose only one as my absolute favourite.  Minestrone is right up there in the fray, however, and always will be.  The recipe below is an amalgamation of various recipes I have seen over the years, with some personal tweaks.

The last time I cooked this, my daughter loved it so much she practically climbed right in the bowl, and refused to eat anything else I had prepared for dinner.  Apparently some apples do not fall far from the tree…

Ingredients:

4 slices cooked ham, chopped in roughly 1 inch chunks
3 tbsp olive oil or butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed or roughly chopped
1 parsnip, chopped
1 celery stalk or small chunk root celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
1 cup frozen corn
2 cups thinly sliced cabbage (savoy if you can get it)
3 or4 cups chicken stock
3 or 4 cups beef stock
one 24 oz tin canned tomatoes
1 cup red wine
one 14 oz tin kidney beans, drained
2 cups shaped, dry pasta (my kids like wagon wheels)
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil
One handful fresh parsley or 2 tbsp dried
1 tsp black pepper
salt to taste
Parmesan cheese for garnish

Directions:

Heat oil/butter over medium heat in stock pot and sauté the ham briefly, just to season the oil/butter.  Add all vegetables except corn and potatoes and sauté until they begin to soften, about 5-7 minutes.

Add stocks, wine, tomatoes, potatoes and all seasonings. Adjust amount of stock depending on how thick you like your soup. Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes, or until potatoes are cooked through.

Meanwhile, bring a separate pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.

When soup has simmered 20 minutes, add corn and kidney beans. Simmer another 10 minutes.

Place about a half cup of cooked pasta in each soup bowl and cover with soup.  Garnish with parmesan cheese.  Buon appetito!

Hope you enjoy it as much as my son.

Ingredients:

16 cups water, roughly
2 medium onions, peeled, whole
3 celery sticks chopped in half, or a baseball-sized chunk of root celery
2 cinnamon sticks
5 star anise
5 whole cloves
handful fresh parsley
2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried
Other fresh herbs if on hand: oregano, sage, rosemary
5-10 peppercorns
salt to taste
6 chicken drumsticks, fresh or frozen
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced in circles
One large package rice noodles
Fish sauce (for seasoning or serving)
White vinegar (for serving)

Directions:

Put all ingredients except chicken, carrots, fish sauce, vinegar and rice noodles into a large stock pot on high heat. When water boils, add chicken and immediately reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer all day (or at least 3 hours). The longer you simmer, the stronger the flavor but the less tender the meat.

Before serving, strain soup into another pot to remove solids and collect the broth. Put the broth back on the stove on low heat and add the carrots. Remove chicken meat from the bones and put chunks back into broth. Taste, and season with fish sauce or salt as needed. Simmer just until carrots are tender.

While soup simmers, boil a pot of water and cook rice noodles according to package directions. Drain. Place noodles in bowls, cover with hot soup and serve. Season with fish sauce and vinegar to taste.

The first and biggest reason to have a column dedicated to soup is pretty simple: I really like soup. It is by far my favourite comfort food, and something I always feel good about feeding to my kids, especially when it’s home-cooked. Having a venue for sharing something I enjoy that much is simply too hard for me to resist.

Of course, I am a literature graduate, and the symbolic value of having a soup column on a blog about life did not escape me either. At the very least, it’s a handy coincidence.

So for reasons both simple and lofty, I hereby launch The Soup Column. Stay tuned to have your taste buds turned on.