Flavoring Soups with Fresh Herbs

 Just your every day Chilled and Grilled Peach Soup 
doctored with fresh basil

There was once a time when I solely relied on bouillon and store bought stock to make my soups (and since this site is less than one year old, that's not that long ago). Sometime over the course of creating soups, these additives were naturally replaced with fresh herbs. Having a little urban garden has definitely helped the transition and thanks to the added use of fresh rosemary, mint and basil (a favorite of mine) my soups have never tasted better. Not to mention, I'm more excited to try out new variations/combinations on the site. As I continue to test out new soups, I wanted to so a summary of sorts of my favorite herbs for soup making. 

 Basil - this tasty herb has made many appearances 
on Seriously Soupy.

 1. Basil: Basil can do me no harm in my eyes. This peppery, somewhat-sweet herb is packed with flavor and has been a staple in many of my soups. I love how it really shaped Lonnie Feldman's hangover soup and my tomato pesto. I'd love to try a sweet corn with basil or a pumpkin basil soup for the fall.

Mint ready for soup making

2. Mint: A close second, mint has been a devoted herb on Seriously making appearances in this grilled and chilled peach soup recipe. Great for digestion and packed with vitamin A and C mint would be an excellent choice for a fresh pea and mint soup and a mushroom mint soup.

 Dill - Versatile herb for any soup

3. Dill: Dill is another amazing herb (aren't they all!) that I loved using in this chilled cucumber yogurt soup recipe and my hummus soup. According to organicfacts.net, dill is also good for you and packed with health benefits such as assisting with digestion, insomnia and hiccups. Carrot dill and a chunky potato dill soup are in the works.

Aromatic rosemary for your next soup

4. Rosemary: Part of the mint family, I really love rosemary for its strong aroma and pine-like taste that really livens up soups. Guest blogger, Aimee Wheaton, submitted an amazing rosemary and chicken soup recipe and I'm excited for some of our newest meat guest bloggers that are working on rosemary and lamb recipes. I'm also thinking a white bean rosemary soup and a roasted veggie rosemary soup for the fall.

 The tasty, yet hard to pin down sage 
is perfect for soup.

5. Sage: I guess I would describe sage as having onion flavors or maybe similar to thyme, but not as strong. Although it's flavors are hard to pin down, one thing is for certain I love using it for many of my soups that really made this spinach and corn soup pop. I'd like to try a sage soup with smoked sausage and spinach or a cream of spinach and sage soup.

 Oregano -- great for Italian dishes and soup!

6. Oregano: A quintessential herb used in Italian cooking, the aromatic and pungent oregano is a part of the mint family and is also referred to as Spanish thyme. I love how oregano and basil taste together and would like to make a green bean soup with oregano and a chickpea, sweet potato and oregano soup.


7. Lavender: I never cooked with lavender prior to Soupy for its association as an oil or perfume. Well, times have changed and lavender is up there as one of my favorites for fruit soups. Before the summer ends (yea, it's coming), I'd like to try a lemon and strawberry soup and a blueberry and blackberry lavender mint soup. 

Red Basil, the purplish plant will be an interesting 
addition to your soups.  

8. Red Holy Basil: A newer herb to my soups that I discovered on a recent haunt to TJs. At first it served a decorative purpose adding some color to a sea of green herbs, but slowly this sweet herb made an appearance on Soupy - most recently in the one cantaloupe, three soups recipe. I'm excited to try out this recipe in a red pepper soup. I also learned from ramonasbasilgarden.com that this basil is used as a "form of protection where people plant it near their front doors in India and in public places before an important event." I'll have to remember to wear a red basil lapel at my next event.

More herbs I want to cook with: marjoram, parsley, thyme, anise and caraway.


What fresh herbs do you use in your soups?


Seriously Soupy Serena