Split Pea Soup

Pea soup recipes often call for a ham bone to flavour the soup. I didn't happen to have one, but I did have some cubes of ham in my freezer which turned out to be perfect in this soup. The colour of the soup might leave something to be desired. I've seen brighter green soups on the internet, but I'm just not sure how they get so grassy green.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 tbsp butter
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• about 1 & 1/2 cups of cooked ham, diced
• 2 cups of dried split green peas, rinsed
• 8 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of Herbes de Provence ( I finished off the bottle, so no more Herbes for me). Thyme, a bay leaf, and parsley would also work well here, and in fact, I used a bay leaf
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Note that ham is often salty, so additional salt may not be required. Taste first before adding more salt. 

Methods: 

Melt the butter in a large lidded soup pot. Sauté the diced onion and carrots in the butter until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot. Bring the soup to a boil on the stovetop, then simmer it for 60 -90 minutes until the peas are soft and the flavours have combined well.

Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup

In the idyllic pre-pandemic days of late winter, my husband and I took a little trip to the charming Opinicon Hotel (www.opinicon.com) for lunch. I had a great tasting smoky Caesar cocktail, which was pretty much a meal in itself. My husband had a very enjoyable sweet potato coconut soup, which I have attempted to reproduce here. I'm not sure why I took such an unattractive photo of the soup. Trust me, it tastes better than it looks.

Ingredients:

• 1 small to medium onion diced
• 1 very large sweet potato (or 2 medium sweet potatoes) peeled and diced
• about a tablespoon of peeled ginger root grated (or use ground ginger to taste)
• about a half a tin of coconut milk
• a litre of chicken broth (homemade, store-bought, or a reconstituted bouillon cube)
• salt and pepper to taste

Methods:
In a pot (large enough to contain all the ingredients) sauté the onion in butter until translucent but not brown. Add the ginger, sweet potato and chicken broth to the pot and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook covered until the sweet potato is soft when tested with a knife tip.

Purée the soup in a blender (in batches) or by using an immersible blender (which is what I use). Stir the coconut milk into the soup . Reheat as necessary and add salt and pepper to taste.

Tomato Soup

The genesis of this recipe was the New York Times Cooking column. I admit to changing up the recipe slightly. I suspect I improved it....I certainly made it easier. In any case it worked.

I put a drop of heavy cream on top, along with several grilled cheese 'croutons', and served it at our annual Christmas cookie exchange to rave reviews.

Ingredients:

• ½  pound butter
• 1  pound onions about 3 medium, cut into small dice
• ½  cup all-purpose flour
• 3  28-ounce cans of crushed tomatoes
• 1 900ml carton of chicken broth
• ¼  cup sugar
• 1  tablespoon kosher salt
• 1  teaspoon celery salt
• ¾  teaspoon pepper 
• about a cup of 35% cream (AKA whipping cream)
• 2  tablespoons honey

Methods:
In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent.

Add the flour and stir until mixture is slightly thickened and pale gold, about 3 minutes; do not allow to brown.

Stir in the crushed tomatoes, chicken broth, sugar, salt, celery salt and pepper. Raise the heat to medium until the liquid bubbles, then reduce heat to low. Simmer for 30 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot frequently.

Stir in the cream and honey. Heat just until heated through.

Peanut Soup - Hearty Winter Fare

I was served peanut soup for the first time by my friend Judith, on the eve of a winter solstice past. She developed the recipe based on her memory of a peanut soup that she had eaten at a now-closed tearoom. The following is my version of this strangely delicious soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3/4 to 1 cup of peanut butter, depending on your taste
• 1 large tin of tomatoes ( 796 ml)
• 1 cup of water or vegetable broth
• 1/2 to 1 tsp. of ground cumin to taste
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes or a pinch of cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste

Methods:
Sauté the onion in the oil in a pot on top of the stove until it is translucent. Add the other ingredients to the pot stirring over a medium heat until the peanut butter has melted. Use a hand-held blender to whiz the ingredients until smooth. Alternatively, pour the soup into a blender to puree. Re-heat the soup and adjust the seasoning before serving.

I think that chopped green onions would be an appropriate garnish. Serve it with a hearty brown bread and lots of butter.

Sweet Potato and Corn Soup

This fresh-tasting soup was inspired by a chowder described by Lucy Waverman in her column in the Globe & Mail on August 22, 2015. The above photo shows an unadorned vegetarian version of the soup, which could be made much more impressive, and less vegetarian, with a healthy sprinkling of fried bits of bacon. Of note, this soup was actually better on Day 2, after the paprika had released all its smoky flavour.


Ingredients:

• 3 cobs of fresh corn, kernels removed with a sharp knife

• 1 onion diced

• 1 teaspoon sea salt

• 1/4 cup butter

• 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

• 4 cups water

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika 

• additional salt and pepper to taste

• 1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)

Methods:

In a fairly large and heavy-bottomed pot, lightly sauté the diced onion in the butter and salt. Add the sweet potatoes and sauté lightly for several minutes before the addition of water to the pot along with the 3 cobs of corn from which you have removed the kernels. Simmer the vegetables until the potatoes are soft when pierced with a sharp knife. Remove the cobs from the pot and discard, then add the corn kernels and paprika. Simmer for several minutes longer in order to cook the corn, then remove the soup from the heat and use an immersible whizzer to blend it thoroughly. Add 1/4 cup heavy cream (or not), and place the soup back on the heat to re-warm. Add salt and pepper to taste.



Hold the cob upright in a bowl, and use a sharp knife to slice off the kernels. No fuss, no muss.




This looks odd, but simmering the 'nude' corn cobs along with the sweet potato adds flavour, and your friends will be impressed with your obviously very-sophisticated cooking technique.

Pear and Parsnip Soup

This is a Foodland Ontario recipe from last year's fall flyer. Their fall recipe flyer had me in its thrall.

The soup has great flavour if you happen to like parsnips and pears, and interestingly, did not require the addition of either salt or pepper to enhance its flavour. I did find the texture to be somewhat fibrous but that may be because I did not peel the pears (as suggested in the recipe). I did attempt to make parsnip chips to garnish the soup, but unfortunately answered a phone call at a rather critical point in the frying process, and that was the end of that.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth

• 1 cup milk or cream (10% butterfat)

• 4 cups diced parsnips

• 1 small onion and 1 small shallot diced

• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

• 2 cloves and 2 bayleaves

• a 1/2 inch chunk of ginger root , peeled and halved

• 2 tablespoons of both vegetable oil and balsamic vinegar

• 3 pears peeled, cored and diced

Methods:

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees F. In a roasting pan, combine the parsnips, onion, shallot, thyme, cloves, bay leaves, ginger, oil and vinegar. Toss the ingredients well. Roast for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the pears and roast for 10 minutes longer. Add the broth and roast for an additional 10 minutes or until the parsnips are tender. Discard the bay leaves, cloves and ginger. Purée the mixture, then place the soup in large saucepan. Add the cream (or milk) and re-heat on low. 

Foodland Ontario suggested serving the soup with crumbled blue cheese and fried parsnip shavings. Good luck with that.