Looking for some new soup recipe ideas to help ride out the winter? Check out these four “worldly” soups over at Mrs. Smith Cooks.
Category Archives: Soup
Curry Pumpkin Soup
Curry Pumpkin Soup
I was searching this blog for my Curry Pumpkin Soup recipe the other day, and I couldn’t believe I haven’t blogged about it yet. This is the soup of all soups that convinced me, that perhaps, yes, I can cook!
Ten years ago I journeyed to New Zealand with my best friend from high school to be a third wheel while she and her Mom visited family. Actually the trip Down Under was so delightful, and her Mom was very thoughtful in showing me all the highlights on the North Island. One of those discoveries was this Curry Pumpkin Soup at her cousin’s house in Auckland.
One thing to note, what Kiwi’s consider pumpkins would be what North American’s call squash. The pumpkins that they used looked like Blue Hubbards, and that is what I prefer to use when I can find them in the fall. However Acorn squash, or even our traditional orange pumpkins work fine with this recipe.
What I love about creamed soups is that you don’t have to chop onions or garlic really fine. You can just quickly cut them in chunks for sauteing. I also like to buy a few Blue Hubbards in the fall, bake them in the oven, gut them, and them stick them in the freezer so I can make this soup all year long.
Crusty Ciabatta bread and Curry Pumpkin Soup is really one of my favorite meals, and New Zealand is one of my favorite countries. On a side note; the pace of life reminded me of what America was probably like back in the 50s. Ideal and relaxing. No mega stores. However they did have deli selections at Starbucks (which wasn’t happening in Texas back in 2002), and they already had McCafe’s at McDonalds. Didn’t we just get those just a couple of years ago?
Back to the soup. You can cut the fat and calorie count by sauteing the onion and garlic in water and using milk vs. cream.
Curry Pumpkin Soup
- 1 large Onion
- 3-4 cloves Garlic
- 1.5 – 2 tspn Curry Powder
- 5 cups Water
- 8 tspns Vegetable Stock
- 1/2 Pumpkin (Squash)
- 300 ml Full Cream
Saute onion and garlic in melted butter with curry powder. Add water and vegetable stock, pumpkin (peeled & cubed). I bake the pumpkin until soft in the oven. Place pumpkin and liquid in blender and whiz to mushy liquid. Add cream and parsley.
Come join SoupaPalooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by KitchenAid, Red Star Yeast and Le Creuset.
Roasted Cauliflower Soup
Recently I’ve been addicted to Pinterest and am finding I don’t have enough time/meals/days to make all the wonderful things my friends are discovering for me. However I pushed this recipe for Roasted Cauliflower Soup to the top of my list; mostly because cauliflowers are in season at the farmer’s market, and secondly my sister-in-law gave this a huge thumbs up.
I probably used too much cauliflower because my soup turned out like a stew. However the flavor was oh, so good! My husband gave this recipe his personal stamp of approval, so I think this will make it onto the family cookbook.
I must give @hailskitchen over at the Tasty Kitchen kudos for this recipe. I used yellow sharp cheddar instead of white — only because that’s what I had available.
Roasted Cauliflower Soup
- 1 head Cauliflower, Roughly Chopped
- 2 whole Shallots, Roughly Chopped
- 3 cloves Garlic, Roughly Chopped
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 4 cups Chicken Broth
- 1-½ cup White Cheddar Cheese, Shredded
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Thyme, Chopped
- 1 Tablespoon Coarse Salt
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. On a cookie sheet, drizzle the cauliflower, shallots and garlic with the olive oil and season with coarse salt. Roast for about 40 minutes or until the cauliflower is fork-tender.
Carefully place the vegetables in a food processor or blender and roughly puree. Texture is good, large chunks are not so good. Place the vegetables in a pot along with the chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about ten minutes. Add the cheese, thyme and a good dose of black pepper. Season to taste with salt. Serve with warm, crusty bread and enjoy!
Oops! There Goes the Pumpkin
The Hot Pot before baking.
Ah, it’s fall. My favorite time of year because the pumpkins are back in the stores. So you can imagine my excitement when I received a new recipe for Aromatic Pumpkin And Chickpea Hot Pot that my friend Stacy found in the New York Times.
Like Stacy, I was going to back this Hot Pot inside a pumpkin — even though the recipe didn’t call for it. And like Stacy, I was going to impress the socks off my dinner guests.
I made some minor modifications to the recipe. I didn’t use chunks of pumpkin when assembling since it would be cooked inside one. I planned to just scrap the pumpkin meat off the sides when dishing out the stew. That makes prepping much easier.
I also cut the chickpeas in half and instead used a can of hominy.
This hot pot recipe was super easy to prepare. I assembled and cooked it on the stove top the night before. Refrigerated over night and then placed it inside the pumpkin to bake for our noon dinner.
Guests arrived, dinner was ready, and all I needed to do was transfer the baked pumpkin filled with this awesome tasting hop pot recipe on to the severing platter for it’s final presentation.
The Remains.
As my guests were looking on in wonderment, I picked up the pumpkin from the 9″ cake pan it was resting in and I suddenly hear a WHOOSH! To my horror the stew dropped out of the bottom of the pumpkin, back into the cake pan, and overflowed in to the stove.
As I continued to look on in horror, my friend stepped in to take over. We were able to salvage what fell into the cake pan and serve it in the pumpkin, placed in a bowl, on top of the serving platter.
Dinner wasn’t a disaster, but it sure did come close.
The Final Presentation.
Tropical Gazpacho
It’s still hot here in South Central Texas. And if you’re still sweating away the days while waiting for fall to arrive, try this nice cool Tropical Gazpacho recipe I found in the Whole Foods‘ app. It’s best made ahead of time and chilled overnight, giving the mixture a good opportunity to let its flavors seep together.
And though the original recipe says this serves 6, I must admit it serves more around 10-12. I’m never able to use all the pineapple juice, so I’ve learned to buy the juice in the large 16 oz cans and then freeze the extra juice. The cans are much less expensive than the jarred pineapple juice. Same suggestion for the tomato juice too.
Ingredients
2 cups tomato juice
1 1/2 cups pineapple juice
1 mango, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cups chopped pineapple
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
1/3 cup finely chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 teaspoon lime zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon hot sauce
Method
Combine the tomato juice, pineapple juice, mango and pineapple in a blender and pulse 5 to 8 times, or until just combined; the mixture should be slightly chunky. Transfer pineapple mixture to a large non-metallic bowl. Stir in cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, cilantro, lime juice, zest, salt and hot sauce. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight. Ladle gazpacho into bowls and serve.
Creamy Thyme Mushroom Soup with Parmesan & Herb Croutons
photo taken by thehipvegetarian
My friend Heather sent me this recipe. She and all her friends were swooning over how delicious this soup is.
I must admit when I was assembling it, I had my doubts. Mushrooms and leeks simmering in a stock base looks pretty much like I was brewing a witches brew brought in from the garden. WARNING: This soup does not look visually appealing while being assembled on the stove.
But what this soup lacks in color makes up for in the deepest and richest of flavors.
This Creamy Thyme Mushroom Soup has cast a spell on me — it’s now my all time favorite soup.
Creamy Thyme Mushroom Soup
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Leeks, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 large yellow onion
(I added 2 garlic cloves)
3-4 large Portobello mushrooms or 1 lb , brushed clean and chopped
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 cups chicken or veggie stock (I used Better than Bouillon Organic Mushroom Base)
1.5 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leave
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly group pepper
1 cup heavy whipping cream
In stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Swirl to coat bottom of pot and add leaks and onions. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 mins until slightly softened and well coated with butter. Reduce heat to very low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally for about 30 mins. until leaks and onions are melting soft but not browned. Add the mushrooms and stir to combine. Cover and cook x 10 mins. Raise the heat to medium, stir in the flour, and cook 3 mins. Add the stock, thyme, bay leave, salt, sugar, and pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover partially, and cook for 10 mins longer.
Let soup cool x 10 mins. Discard bay leave. Working in batches, put in food process until a smooth puree. Return puree to pot and add cream. Cook over low heat until heated through, but don’t let boil. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serves 8
Croutons
5 cups fresh bread cubes about 3/4 inch, from artisan loaf with crust removed
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1/2 tablespoon fresh oregano
Preheat oven to 375. In large bowl, Combine cubes, olive oil, cheese, and pepper and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle the herbs over the bread cubes, toss to combine, and continue to bake until the cubes are crisp and golden.
Ladle soup into warmed bowls, and garnish with croutons.
Come join SoupaPalooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by KitchenAid, Red Star Yeast and Le Creuset.
The End of Fall
Photo taken by thehipvegetarian
Pumpkins during the Fall season are simply beautiful.
However before they lose their luster, I always bake them to freeze so I can make soups throughout the rest of the year. Take them to the slaughter-house, I say!
If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to start the process before they start to mold from the inside out.
This year I gutted my Blue Hubbard pumpkin and filled it with about a quarter-cup of water, baked it at 350 degrees until the skin was tender enough to be pierced by a fork. I found this to be much easier than cutting the pumpkin into sections before baking or peeling it raw.
Curry Pumpkin Soup
Photo taken by thehipvegetarian
These chilly nights put me in the mood for Curry Pumpkin Soup. This is a recipe I discovered in 2002 while traveling with my childhood friend in New Zealand. We were visiting a cousin of her’s outside Auckland and we’re served this soup.
The best pumpkin that I’ve found for soup is the Blue Hubbard variety. It has a beautiful blue-gray skin and makes a lovely decorative addition to any home until you’re ready to use it. However if Blue Hubbard is out of season then Acorn Squash is a good substitute.
This recipe calls for Indian curry. I’ve used a variety of Indian curries over the years and they are all good. However this week I tried a Thai yellow curry paste and I wasn’t disappointed. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
You’ll need to experiment to find the best texture and thickness for your liking. Try adding more/less pumpkin, more/less cream, more/less water, etc.
When I tasted this soup for the first time I immediately fell in love. I think you will too.
1 Large Onion
3-4 Cloves of Garlic
1.5-2 t Curry Powder OR 1 T Thai Yellow Curry Paste
5 Cups of Water
8 t Vegetable Stock
4-6 cups of pumpkin or squash (I like Blue Hubbard pumpkins the best)
300 ml Full Cream
Saute Onion and garlic in melted butter with curry powder or paste. Add water and vegetable stock, pumpkin (peeled & cooked) and boil until soft. Place all ingredients in blender and whiz to mushy liquid. Add cream & parsley.
The Hip Vegetarian 