Souper Meals
For many of us, soups are the essence of comfort food. They are also a delicious and easy way to add more vegetables into our family’s diets. Almost any vegetable can be used in soup, and sometimes it is a great way to introduce new ones to your kids. As the weather begins to cool down, plan on adding vegetable soups (or soups with extra vegetables added) into your weekly meal plan. You will be giving your family the benefit of a great tasting meal loaded with vitamins and nutrients.
Weeknight v. Weekend
There are usually two categories of soups: clear (aromatics like onion and garlic, vegetables, and/or proteins added to a stock) or puréed (roasted or sautéed veggies blended with stock, sometimes with cream). For families trying to get meals on the table, though, the best way to categorize soups would probably be different: weeknight or weekend.
It is safe to say there are soups that can easily be whipped up for a weeknight meal that don’t involve many ingredients or much prep time (like a vegetable purée), and those best left to the weekend when you might have a good block of cooking time (like a hearty vegetable soup absolutely packed with vegetables and beans). Both options are valuable for a busy family; the weeknight soups put a delicious meal on the table with less effort — especially if you prep some ingredients ahead of time — and the weekend soups make a lot that can be reheated easily during the week and/or frozen for later use.
- Weeknight vegetable soups will usually take as long to prepare as it takes to get vegetables tender in the broth**. These soups may have only a few vegetables in them, so the preparation of those vegetables is not very time consuming. Noodles and pasta, if added, can be cooked at the same time and added in when the broth is ready. Here are some ideas for weeknight soups:
- Roasted Vegetable Soup from Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa Family Style. This recipe shows you how easy it is to transform any roasted vegetable into a soup. She uses winter vegetables like carrot, parsnip, and butternut squash for a delicious fall and winter soup.
- Cream of Broccoli Soup from Mark Bittman. Bittman covers the basics of a cream vegetable soup and offers easy variations with other vegetables.
- Tomato Soup from Martha Stewart. This is a good basic recipe that you can add to if you want.
- Asian Noodles in Broth with Vegetables and Tofu. This recipe from Peter Berley is so easy and delicious. You can leave out the tofu, or even add very thinly sliced flank steak that will cook quickly in the broth.
- Basic Vegetable Soup: Sauté aromatics, like chopped onion, garlic, ginger, or scallions, in a little bit of oil. Season with salt and pepper, add broth, then add vegetables according to their cooking time; heartier veggies like potatoes and carrots will take longer than more delicate veggies like green beans or snap peas. Simmer until vegetables are tender. Add extras like quinoa, barley, rice, potatoes, or noodles for extra body. Remember to keep tasting the broth so you can adjust the seasoning.
- Weekend vegetable soups
- Parker’s Split Pea Soup from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. This hearty soup is delicious and filling.
- Vegetable Chili from The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins. Packed with great vegetables, this may become a new favorite for your family.
**Stock makes a big difference in the flavor of soup. You can always use water, though, if you don’t have any stock.
Tips and Ideas
- Prep vegetables ahead. Usually, preparing the vegetables is the most time consuming step for vegetable soup. If you take some time to cut up your vegetables ahead of time (immediately after the grocery store once a week, or even the night before), then cooking the soup will be a breeze.
- Cut vegetables into same-size pieces so they cook at the same rate. Not all vegetables have the same cooking time, so take that into consideration if you are using up what you have in your kitchen. For example, vegetables like potatoes and winter squash will take longer than asparagus or green beans.
- Use your freezer! Frozen vegetables are great for soups, and there are so many available now that keeping your freezer stocked with a variety of them will give you some great options for that quick weeknight vegetable soup. You can add them directly into the simmering broth. (If you have extra time, consider using this tip from Mark Bittman to add more flavor: sauté the frozen vegetables in some oil first to defrost them and brown them a little.)
- Seasoning before serving can make a huge difference in any soup. Taste the soup for salt before you serve. You can also add a little vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, or olive oil to spruce the flavor. We like a suggestion made by Michael Ruhlman in Ruhlman’s Twenty: if you are not sure whether a seasoning will help at the end, just get a big spoonful of the soup and add a drop to taste how it changes the flavor.
- Add texture and crunch. Serve toasty bread along side your vegetable soup, or add croutons (maybe even cheesy croutons for something like tomato soup, crackers (like oyster crackers or saltines), veggies (pieces of roasted or steamed vegetables on top of a puréed soup), or even chips for a nice contrasting crunch.
- Make it kid friendly. Most children really like soup, but they can be a challenge to eat for younger kids. Make it easier by serving soup in mugs with handles (you can always refill them). Vegetables cooked in soups can be a great finger food for any toddlers — they are soft enough to chew easily but can still be handled by little fingers. Puréed vegetable soups can be left a little thicker for babies starting on solid foods, and then thinned out with more broth for older kids.
- Super-Speedy: Buy pre-cut ingredients at the salad bar or produce aisles to cut down on preparation time at home. If cutting up the ingredients for soup is going to be what stands in the way of making it, then definitely spend a little extra in this case. If you hate cutting onion, buy it already chopped (fresh or frozen). One thing we don’t recommend buying chopped is garlic, though. Once garlic is chopped, the flavor gets stronger and can take over. (A quick way to get garlic broken down for cooking without using a knife is to use a garlic press.)
- More soup ideas: Mark Bittman’s Vegetable Soup Variations.
Have a souper supper!
