Spicy Southwestern Soup

Your soup for the day, if you choose to accept it, is a Spicy Southwestern Soup. I used a soup mix for this one. Sometimes you just don't have all the time in the world, but you can add a bit of kick to a soup mix.

INGREDIENTS

• North Bay Trading Co. Spicy Southwestern Soup Mix
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Celery
• Carrots
• Onion
• Yellow Squash
• Zucchini
• Kosher salt
• Garlic

Black Bean Soup

I must admit, I cheated. This is a quick and very easy recipe. If you opt not to buy premade Pico de Gallo, then the recipe becomes a bit more work. I was tempted to call this, "Quick and Easy Black Bean Soup" because, using my method, it is just that!

Here goes:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb bag of black beans
• 2 cups veggie stock
• 2 cups fresh Pico de Gallo (if you're in the Milwaukee area, I bought mine at Sendiks in Whitefish Bay)
• fresh cilantro
  
• 1 lime
  
• 1 T ground coriander
• salt to taste
• chili powder to taste
• fresh avocado for garnish
  

(The Pico de Gallo ingredients are as follows:  fresh diced tomatoes, fresh minced jalepeno pepper, diced red onion, fresh cilantro, lime juice)

METHOD:

• Cook the black beans per package directions. 
• When done, mash slightly with a potato masher or use an immersion blender. Do not puree completely. Most of the beans should remain whole. Mashing slightly gives the soup a thicker texture and allows the bean flavor to combine with the other ingredients. 
• Add vegetable stock, lime and seasonings. 
• Let cool for about 30 minutes to an hour. 
• Add fresh pico de gallo and more cilantro if desired.
  
• Refridgerate overnight to let soup rest which allows flavors to meld.

YIELD:

8 cups


Serve warm, topped with fresh avocado and cilantro. You can also top with more pico de gallo, sour cream, green onions or tortilla chips!

Enjoy!

Tuscan Bean Soup

Today I have for you Tuscan Bean Soup. I have tasted this recipe before, made with canned Great Northern beans, but I've never made it. Yesterday I went all out and not only made the soup but cooked the beans from scratch, also a first for me. I've been wanting to give it a try for ages and the soup group was the perfect excuse. So thank you.

Tuscan Bean Soup

INGREDIENTS

2 cups diced onions
1 cup peeled and diced carrots
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tablespoon olive oil
15 large sage leaves
6 cups cooked pinto, Roman, or small red or white beans* (I used Great Northern white beans)
or three 15- or 16-ounce cans, undrained
3 to 4 cups vegetable stock, bean-cooking liquid, or water (I used half veg stock / half bean-cooking liquid)
salt and ground black pepper to taste

*2 cups dried beans will yield about 6 cups cooked


METHOD

If using dried beans, soak, then cook the beans. Drain (saving the cooking liquid if you plan to use in recipe) and set aside.

In a soup pot, sauté the onions, carrots, and garlic in the olive oil on medium-low heat until the onions are translucent and the carrots are tender, about 10 minutes. Stack the sage leaves and cut them crosswise into thin strips. Stir the sage into the vegetables. Add the cooked beans and 3 cups of the vegetable stock, bean-cooking liquid, or water. Continue cooking on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the soup is hot and simmering, 5 to 10 minutes.

Carefully ladle about 3 cups of the soup into a blender and purée until smooth. Stir the purée back into the soup. If you wish, add more stock or water for a less thick consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Gently reheat the soup and serve hot.

YEILD
approximately 8 cups (64 oz.)

by Jacquette

The Great Pumpkin Soup

Here's the more veracious recipe:

INGREDIENTS
1 lg can pumpkin puree
2-4 cups veggie or chicken stock, depending on how thick you like your soup
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (light) or 1/4 cup cream **
1/4 cup sugar (skip this if you used sweetened coconut milk!)
1 orange (for zesting and for it's juice)
3-4 carrots
1 to 1/2 butternut squash
cayenne pepper to taste
2t white pepper
2t powder ginger

GARNISH
cilantro
toasted pumpkin seeds

METHOD
Mix the first four ingredients together in a 4 quart pot
Meanwhile, slice and dice the veggies and roast them in the oven until tender. Careful not to over cook or burn! If you prefer, you can boil them.

Add cooked veggies to pot. Add zest of the orange. Carefully squeeze the juice of the orange into the pot, stirring every few moments so that the ingredients gently blend.

Add spices to your liking. I added cayenne, white pepper and ginger.

** IF you do not want to use cream or coconut milk, add a little more veggie stock.


Here's the more simple recipe!

INGREDIENTS
1 lg can pumpkin puree
2-4 cups veggie or chicken stock (depending on how thick you like your soup)
1/4 cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 orange (for zesting and for it's juice)
2t white pepper
2t powder ginger


METHOD
Mix the first 4 ingredients together in a 4 quart pot. Add zest of the orange. Carefully squeeze the juice of the orange into the pot, stirring every few moments so that the ingredients gently blend. Add spices to your liking.


Both recipes are great and both can be made either with veggie stock or chicken stock. If you do happen to make this soup, I'd love to hear how it turned out, so consider coming back and leaving a comment if you did just that!

SOURCE
Myself! I concocted this potion. Please feel to add or subtract ingredients and spices to your liking. The soup is pretty forgiving.

Ciao for now!

Spicy Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes (about 3 large potatoes), rinsed
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon red curry paste (found in the international section of markets)
• 1 15-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
• 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 3 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro sprigs

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 400° F. Put the sweet potatoes on an oven rack and bake for 50 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven and let cool.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the onion and ginger until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Stir in the curry paste and cook for 1 minute. Add the coconut milk and broth and gently bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, partially cover, and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Skin the potatoes and cut into 1-inch chunks. Add the potatoes to the soup and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and salt.
4. Ladle the soup into serving bowls. Drizzle the sesame oil evenly over the servings. Garnish with the cilantro.

SOURCE
www.realsimple.com

The Soup Nazi’s Indian Mulligatawny Soup

The history of this recipe is as follows...  The character Kramer in Seinfeld loved this stuff, as made by "The Soup Nazi", who was inspired by a real-life soup vendor, Al Yeganeh.  Todd Wilbur visited his shop, bought some of this soup, and set to dissecting it to make a recipe clone, which use to be on his site (http://www.topsecretrecipes.com) for free years ago but now he charges for it which I think is BS.

Thankfully, the recipe has spread and it's a trivial Google search away.

INGREDIENTS
4 quarts water (16 cups)
6 cups chicken stock
2 potatoes, peeled & sliced
2 carrots, peeled & sliced
2 stalks celery, with tops
2 cups peeled & diced eggplant (about 1/2 of an eggplant)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup frozen yellow corn
2/3 cup canned roasted red pepper, diced
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1/2 cup roasted cashews
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
dash marjoram
dash nutmeg


METHOD

1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot over high heat.
2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 4-5 hours
   or until soup has reduced by more than half, and is thick and
   brownish in color. It should have the consistency of chili.
   Stir occasionally for the first few hours, but stir often in
   the last hour. The edges of the potatoes should become more
   rounded, and the nuts will soften. Serve hot.
   Makes 4-6 servings.

Yes, you read that right - simmer for 4 to 5 hours.  I was up late last night...

I did substitute vegetable broth for chicken - it may need more salt, even though I added some extra towards the end.  It's best served really hot.  It's an odd soup - feel free to tell me what you think of it or don't think of it.

by Jeffrey Schrab

Curried Potato, Spinach and Garbanzo Bean Soup

INGREDIENTS
1 15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup coarsely chopped onion
2 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 pound small red-skinned potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 14 1/2-ounce can vegetable broth
1/2 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk (lite works fine)
1 cup (packed) baby spinach leaves (about 1 1/2 ounces)

PREPARATION
Transfer 1/3 cup garbanzo beans to small plate. Using fork, mash beans to paste. Heat oil in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté until beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Add curry powder; stir 10 seconds. Add potatoes and stir to coat. Add broth, coconut milk, whole garbanzo beans and mashed garbanzo beans. Bring soup to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered until potatoes are tender, about 18 minutes. Add spinach; stir until spinach wilts, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

NOTES
I doubled the recipe above and it made three 16-oz jars and one 32-oz jar. To the double recipe I also added one extra teaspoon curry powder and one teaspoon garam masala powder (it's still awesome without garam masala, I just wanted to try it). I did not double the olive oil quantity for the double batch to sauté the onions. The spinach is from Growing Power, the best spinach in all the world. 

SUBMITTED BY JAQUETTE

CREDIT: Epicurious

Welcome to Primordial Pottage

Welcome! You've landed on a small group of folks who have begun experimenting with sharing our soup recipes with one another and with you! We are an enthusiastic avaricious group of soup devotees, who are determined to discover the meaning of life through an exchange of hearty pottage. We thought long and hard about the name of our fine group (all of about 30 minutes via email exchanges) and we were really torn between using the word potage vs pottage. I am a huge fan of anything French, including words, so I was immediately drawn to the word Potage. This is a french word for soup. More precisely:

po⋅tage  [poh-tahzh; Fr. paw-tazh]  –noun French Cookery. 
soup, esp. any thick soup made with cream. 
Origin: F; see pottage

But then I read more about Pottage. This seemed more appropriate for our group since we had a few vegetarians on board.

pot⋅tage [pot-ij] –noun

a thick soup made of vegetables, with or without meat.
Origin: 1175–1225; ME potage < OF: lit., something in or from a pot ¹ ; see -age

Then came the philosophical aspect of our passion. There is this term used, Primordial Soup to describe…. Well, I’ll just show you the definition:

primordial soup –noun Biology.

1. the seas and atmosphere as they existed on earth before the existence of life, consisting primarily of an oxygen-free gaseous mixture containing chiefly water, hydrogen, methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide. 
2. a laboratory preparation containing the substances believed to have composed primordial soup, and used in experiments seeking to understand the origin of life.

In a sense, this is what we are doing with our soups. Thus the name and our definition:

Primordial Pottage –noun Biology, Cookery

a laboratory preparation containing the substances believed to have composed primordial soup, and used in experiments seeking to understand the origin of life through soup cuisine.

So I hope you enjoy your time here. Any comments or feedback is certainly welcome! If you try one of our recipes, do come back and let us know how you liked it!

Andrea