Part 3: Soup Swap Recipes

Soups ready to be eaten

Dave Miss and Naomi of Cantaloupe Alone enjoying some soup

Hannah and Sebastian of the tour company Explorecation.com

A giant ladle! (Thank you, Rachael)

As the final post in this three-part entry about the Brooklyn Soup Swap, I am excited to share Sheena's Vegetable Coconut Milk Soup and a Chilled Melon Soup with Stilton Cookies by Chris Ellmann  (perhaps this means warmer and lighter soups are to come?). As with the other soup recipes, please let me know if you have any questions or if you would like to be included on the email list for future swaps. (I can be reached at seriouslysoupy@gmail.com). Also, in case you missed it: be sure to check out part one and part two of the delicious soup recipes shared at the swap!

Chilled Melon Soup by Chris Ellmann

Chris Ellmann dishing out his Chilled Melon Soup 

Chilled Melon Soup with Stilton Cookies by Chris Ellmann (Inspired by Larry Kolar)
Ingredients:
4 cantaloupes
juice of 2 blood oranges
juice and zest of 1 lime
8 oz sour cream
1/4 cup Grand Marnier
1/3 pound prosciutto
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
5 sprigs fresh mint

Directions:
Slice half the prosciutto into thin strips, lay them across an ovenproof wire rack. Bake at 350F until crispy, about 8 minutes.

Get the freshest melons you can find.  Slice them, discard seeds.  In batches, blend all the remaining ingredients except the mint until smooth.  Pour into a big pot.  Bruise the mint leaves.  Add to the pot.
Refrigerate at least six hours, adjust seasonings as needed.

Stilton Cookies
Ingredients:
100g butter (cold, cut into small pieces)
100g stilton (or some other blue cheese)
100g flour

Directions:
In a food processor, mix butter and cheese.  Add the flour and process until smooth.
Roll the immensely sticky dough into a log an inch or so thick, wrap in plastic, leave in the fridge an hour to harden up.

Cut dough into disks maybe 1/4 inch thick.

Bake at 350 about 12 minutes, or until nicely golden brown.  Flipping the cookies halfway through the baking was a bother, but made for prettier cookies.

Serve chilled soup topped with crispy prosciutto and with a cookie or three.

Vegetable Coconut Milk Soup by Sheena

Vegetable Coconut Milk Soup by Sheena

Ingredients:
1 onion, peeled and chopped up
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
drizzle of olive oil
Various vegetables (Sheena used broccoli, cauliflower, peppers and carrots)
1-2 sweet potatoes, cut up
pre-cooked beans
1 can of coconut milk
half a lime lime or lemon juice
bunch of fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Saute an onion (any type) and a couple cloves of garlic minced in some olive oil in the pot.  When the onion gets translucent add some vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, pepper, carrot).  Cook for a little with the onions till tender then add 4 cups of broth (any stock, though vegetable or chicken broth taste best), and bring to a boil.  Once boiling add 1-2 potatoes (any variety...sweet potatoes are really yummy in the soup) that have been diced and boil for 10 minutes.  Add some beans (precooked), a can of coconut milk, some lime or lemon juice (a tablespoon or so of the juice or half a lime), and cut up some fresh cilantro. Let soup simmer for a few minutes.  Salt and pepper to taste. And enjoy!  

Part 2: Soup Swap Recipes

Warming up the soups

Soups - ready for eating

  
Since there were 7 soups at the soup swap I decided to pace out the recipes and pictures among 3 posts so that these delicious recipes wouldn't get lost in one post. For part two, we have a delicious Mushroom and Barley with Greens Soup by Naomi of Cantaloupe Alone, a Spinach, Roasted Cauliflower and Ginger Soup topped with Fried Shallots by Dave Miss and a traditional Potato and Bacon Soup created by Aaron Levine (that is a recipe from Martha, a family friend). Sorry for the lack of pictures for each soup - it was difficult to stuff my face with soup, bread and cheese and take pictures - but I think you can get an idea of how delicious each soup is by these delicious recipes. Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the recipes or if you would like to be included on the email list for future swaps. (I can be reached at seriouslysoupy@gmail.com).

Mushroom and Barley with Greens Soup by Naomi of Cantaloupe Alone

Soup #1

Mushroom and Barley with Greens Soup by Naomi of Cantaloupe Alone
Makes 2 quarts
Ingredients:
1.5 lbs mushrooms (I used oyster and white)
2 tblsp oil, divided
2 medium leeks, white and light green part only, cut in half and sliced
3 cloves garlic sliced thin
(Remember the movie Goodfellas, when they're cooking in jail during, slicing garlic with a razor blade? Channel that scene while slicing the garlic)
2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock
2 tsp white wine
1/2 cup barley
1 tsp dark miso paste (Naomi used barley miso)
1 tblsp soy sauce
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 big handful italian parsley, stems removed, chopped
2 big handfuls of baby spinach, chopped
salt to taste

Directions:
Slice half the mushrooms 1/8 inch thick and saute in a large stock pot with 1 tblsp oil and a pinch of salt. Cook until browned well. Remove from pot and set aside. Quarter the remaining mushrooms and add to the pot with leeks, garlic remaining 1 tblsp oil and pinch of salt. Cook until mushrooms are browned. Add stock, wine, barley, miso paste, and soy sauce, stir. Bring to a boil and reduce to a low simmer. Cook for 40-50 minutes or until barley is tender. Add reserved sliced mushrooms, cayenne pepper, spinach and parsley to the soup. Stir and turn off heat. Adjust flavor by adding more salt, white wine, or oil as needed.
 
Stock Recipes from Naomi of Cantaloupe Alone:
Vegetable broth 
Beef/lamb bone stock 

Soup Tip: Naomi make stock with stock. When she makes new stock she starts with a container from the last batch, which she then keeps frozen.

Spinach, Roasted Cauliflower and Ginger Soup topped with Fried Shallots by Dave Miss

Soup #2

Spinach, Roasted Cauliflower and Ginger Soup topped with Fried Shallots by Dave Miss
Makes 5 quarts of soup, or enough for a large dinner party with enough to be frozen for another day.
Ingredients:
4 quarts of chicken stock
1 head of cauliflower
10-15 cloves garlic
4-5 small bunches of fresh spinach (about 1lb per bunch)
1 lb of frozen chopped spinach
6 large shallots
10-16 oz of frying oil (safflower, canola, peanut, grape seed)
6 red onions
1 large ginger root (6oz)
1 stick of butter
1 chipotle pepper (la Morena)
punch of Tony Chachere's Seasoning
sea salt
olive oil

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 550º.

Put chicken stock in large 8 quart pot and bring up to boil.

Chop up head of cauliflower, getting rid of all green leafy parts and cut up florets into small wedges. Basically cutting small florets so that they have at least one flat side.  Take main stem and chop into chunks.  Add 5-7 garlic cloves. Put into large bowl. In large bowl, drizzle olive oil over cauliflower/garlic and toss until it's all covered.  Liberally sprinkle sea salt over and toss again.

On a parchment lined, or non stick baking sheet, put cauliflower/garlic spreading out and turning cauliflower so flat side is on the sheet. On the top rack in the oven, roast for 25 min or until edges are brown on cauliflower.  Alternatively for the garlic, you can also take one whole head of garlic, cut the top off, put in small piece of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil, wrap up and roast for an hour at 450º.  Pop those suckers out when they're done, or just eat them straight or on toast.

While oven is roasting the cauliflower your chicken stock will be boiling. Turn down slightly to med high heat.

In large 12" non reactive pan add 2 tbls salted butter.  When it's stopped bubbling add chopped red onions that have been cut in half and then into pinky thick slivers.  Saute on med-high heat for 10 min or so.  While the red onions are cooking down, using a spoon, peel ginger and mince. Take 1/2 and add to onions, stirring in so to coat. Cook for another 5 min or so and watch that onions don't burn.  Add pat of butter if necessary.

Roasted veggies should be ready at this point so remove from oven.  They are crazy hot so be careful where you put them.  Due to lack of counter and stove space, I used my fire escape.  Yea Winter!  While that's cooling, wash and de-stem the spinach.
 
Now it all gets thrown together!

First up, it's the onions and ginger.  Chuck it into the chicken broth and turn up the heat. Next it's the roasted cauliflower/garlic. Chuck it into the broth.  Give it a good stir and cover to get the whole shebang back to a boil.

While it's coming back up to a boil, saute in a small pan the rest of your ginger and garlic, either with butter or olive oil.  This only needs a few minutes to get the ginger soft and garlic soft.  We still want the bite of the rawness of both.

Now, it's time for the spinach.


With a big wooden spoon, push handfuls of spinach into boiling broth.  After last of spinach is submerged and wilted, about 2 min, turn down heat.  Using a hand blender (the best thing ever! Get one if you don't have one, but if you're reading a soup blog, you have two, so lend one to the uninitiated), get to blending.  You can also do this in a blender, which will make the whole thing very very smooth.  I like this soup with tiny chunks and then blend.

While blending add remaining ginger and garlic.  This addition is to brighten and sharpen the taste so you can add little bits and taste as you're going to see how much bite you like.  Add chopped up chipotle pepper.  Blend and blend some more.  Keep tasting.

Now we used salted butter, so we are going to be judicious to season with the Tony Chachere's (New Orleans spicy salt) to taste.  If you like it less spicy, sea salt and white pepper will do.

You'll notice that the soup is pretty smooth and that the amazing green color of the spinach is getting grayer.  This is where the frozen spinach comes in.  The blending part, after the spinach goes in, should be pretty quick, so if you add the frozen spinach, it will halt the cooking of the fresh spinach, so as close to the addition of the regular spinach you can add it, the brighter green the soup will be.  Lightly blend in the chopped spinach.  Turn the heat way down.

Using 1" of oil in a pan, get the temp up to 350º. Use a thermometer for god's sakes!  Don't burn down your house.  Turn heat down if you need another few min to chop shallots into rounds about 1/8" thick.  Drop in shallots so that only one layer is across the top of the oil.  They will fry better if not crowded, but at this point we're ready to eat, so do your best. The temp will drop when you put the shallots in, so turn the heat back up.  Pull them out and drain them on a brown paper bag.  Put them all in a big bowl when they are done and toss lightly with sea salt.

As Dave stated throughout the swap; this soup is merely a conveyance for fried shallots. They are worth eating on everything.  So make more than you need, because who wants to bust out some grease when all you want is a salty, sweet onion. (FYI: This soup is also great on sandwiches.)

Soup should be warm, dish it up and plunk down more fried shallots than you think you want.  Enjoy!

Aaron Levine, Rachael Mamane and friend at the swap

Creamy Potato and Bacon Soup by Aaron Levine

Soup #3
Creamy Potato and Bacon Soup by Aaron Levine
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 slices thick slab bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 clove garlic, smashed
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 medium yukon gold potato, cut into 1 inch chunks and peeled
1 tsp fresh thyme (or 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme)
4 oz low fat plain Greek yogurt
salt/pepper to taste 

Directions:
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in 4 qt pot over medium heat.  Add bacon, cook until fat renders but before bacon is crispy, 3-5 minutes.  Add thyme, garlic and sliced onions, cook 5-7 minutes.  Reduce heat to low-medium, cook additional 15-20 minutes until onions are soft and golden-brown.  Add potatoes, chicken stock, bring to boil cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.  Off the heat, add yogurt.  Run through food processor or food mill.  Add salt pepper to taste.


 

Soup Swap Part 1: Fava Bean Pesto Soup with Prosciutto Wrapped Croutons

Swappers enjoying soup, bread, cheese and treats at the Brooklyn Soup Swap

This past weekend I hosted the First Annual Brooklyn Soup Swap at Rachael Mamane's loft (this is also the location of her Bonhomie Supper Club) where over 20 supers came out to enjoy a delicious afternoon of drinking wine, eating cheese, bread, crackers, cheddar jalapeno biscuits, fig treats, and devouring the main attraction: the soups. There were 7 very different soups including a chilled melon soup with a blue cheese cookie, a mushroom and barley with greens soup, a cauliflower soup with fried beetroot and chive oil, a roasted cauliflower soup with spinach and fried shallots, a vegetable coconut soup, a creamy potato and bacon soup, and a fava bean and pesto soup that I brought. By then end of the swap we were all stuffed and took home cartons of each others soup to enjoy at home. Since there are so many amazing soups, I'll be posting more pictures and the recipes from the swappers on Wednesday and Friday and my own recipe in this post.

Bread and olive oil

Delicious cheese, crackers and olives

Soup bowls for the swap

Warming up the soups

Cartons to take home the soups

A delicious soup, this one took quite a long time to prepare and cook (the fava beans took over four hours to soften) that also involved making homemade pesto and croutons then wrapping them prosciutto. Having never cooked fava beans, I found that the beans need something and that by adding pesto enhanced the flavors and really gave the soup a nice a hearty feel. The croutons themselves were  a simple cheese, basil, and olive oil mixture that was then wrapped in prosciutto (can be omitted). I hope you enjoy this one and I can't wait to share the rest of the soups from the swap. I am currently planning the next one for the end of March and thinking a soup and sandwich swap - please email at seriouslysoupy@gmail.com to be included on the list.

Fava Bean Pesto Soup with Prosciutto Wrapped Croutons

Ingredients: 
Soup:
6-8 cups of water
1 package of dry fava beans, soaked
1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
6 white potatoes, 
2 chives, chopped up
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
2 leeks, chopped - white part only
2 celery ribs, chopped up
bunch of fresh basil
tablespoon of rosemary 
tablespoon of dill 
2-3 bay leaves 
salt 
pepper

Mashing up the homemade pesto

Homemade Pesto:
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 package of fresh basil
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
drizzle of olive oil


Prosciutto Wrapped Croutons:
1 loaf of crusty bread
drizzle of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced and peeled 
1 tablespoon of dried basil 
1/2 package of prosciutto


Directions:
Soak fava beans (overnight, if possible) or until soft. Pour water into a pot and put on a medium flame. Chop up the onions and garlic and place into the pot. When the water comes to a boil add the fava beans, chives, basil, dill, bay leaves, rosemary, salt and pepper. Cover and let cook for two hours - checking on it periodically. Cut up the leeks, potatoes and celery and place them into the pot. Cover and prepare the pesto.

Prepare the pesto: Start by pouring the pine nuts into a bowl, along with some parmesan cheese. Chop up the garlic and basil and drizzle some olive oil - coating the nuts and basil. Place in a food processor or blender until the mixture becomes a paste. Add the pesto to the soup and stir. Cover and let cook for another hour. 


Prepare the croutons: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut up the crusty bread into small squares on a baking tray. In a small bowl mix the olive oil, basil, garlic powder and cheese. Using a cooking brush, coat the pieces of bread. Place in the oven and cook for five minutes (or until golden brown) on each side. Turn off oven and let cool. Cut the prosciutto into small stripes and wrap around the croutons until finished. Set aside.

Check on the soup. Taste (you may need some more salt and pepper) and serve with a prosciutto wrapped crouton.

Seriously Soupy Serena

Behind the Soupy Scenes

Some ingredients for the Fava Bean Pesto Soup

As I am prepping for the soup swap I wanted to share some 'behind the scenes' pictures of the prep work. I finally decided on a soup (no less than this morning) with a Fava Bean Pesto Soup with Pesto Croutons Wrapped in Prosciutto. Having never worked with fava beans before I am really excited to test out this combination in a soup as well as make my own pesto. The recipe will be posted on Monday as well as the recipes from the swappers. Hope you can join us at the swap!

Fava beans

Fava Bean Pesto Soup in the works

Delicious homemade pesto

Brooklyn Soup Swap

Does your soup rock? - (Image Credit:nonfamous.com)

Since late last year I have been trying to make this blog more dimensional and community-focused by having soup parties, teaching soup classes, and having a soon-to-be soup tour. In correlation with Brooklyn Bouillon, I am now adding soup swap to the growing list of events. Held on February 19th from 3pm to 5pm, the soup swap will take place in Brooklyn (details in this eventbrite) where participants are asked to bring a favorite soup of their choice that can feed up to 15-20 people. If you can't cook a soup (but still love soup), you can also attend. Simply bring something that goes with soup like cheese, bread, a beverage, or a dessert. The event is 100% free and all swappers will be able to bring home 2-3 soups that they tried at the party. Not only that but this fun and casual event will be a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon - learning about soup recipes and meeting new people.

If you are in the NY metro area I would love it if you could join us. I'm hoping this will be a monthly soup meet-up where participants can create soups based on a theme such as chilled soups, bean-only soups, orange soups, noodle-only soups, meat soups, international soups, etc.

For more information and to RSVP, please visit eventbrite.

To learn more about Brooklyn Soup Swap, please visit meetup.com/Brooklyn-Soup-Swap

For any questions, please email seriouslysoupy@gmail.com

Serena