demonstrate that a soup based upon vegetables only can be very rich in flavor and texture without relying upon canned chicken stock and chunks of meat or bone. Quite frankly, some of the best compliments I’ve received have come from people who were just sure you couldn’t make a good soup without meat. What follows are some of the tricks I’ve used to infuse soups with rich flavors without meat.
Much has been written about the value of organic growing methods; however, I think most consumers miss one very important point: synthetic fertilizers and pesticides were not created with your health in mind . While they have enabled us to produce large quantities of food and feed a greater number of people worldwide, they have also contributed to destruction of the environment and created havoc with human and animal health.
This is not to say that many hardworking farmers would deliberately harm your health, but it is to say that your health is not the farmer’s bottom line . Running his or her business is the bottom line. Keep this in mind and support those farmers who are willing to go the extra mile in the interests of keeping both you and the planet healthier for all concerned by using
organic farming
methods.
As for the palate (as well as other senses), I’ll let the recipes speak for themselves.
Bang for Your Buck: Ways to Bump Up the Flavor
Professional chefs use a variety of cooking techniques to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Most of the soups in this book include a limited number of ingredients, but you can build
flavor
using some of these techniques.
One of the simplest ways to add flavor to a soup is to brown some or all of the ingredients before committing them to the pot.
Onions
can easily be chopped and added to the soup raw, but if you’d like to add an extra dimension of flavor, you can brown them in oil or butter first, anywhere from just softening them to giving them a nice golden hue. If you have a slow cooker with a cast aluminum insert suitable for use on the stovetop, then you won’t even have to use an extra pan for
browning
.
Better still, brown the vegetables, then cook them in the slow cooker with a little oil but no water for anywhere from 2 to 6 hours before you add the water (see French Onion Soup ). This method gives the vegetables an opportunity to further brown or caramelize, adding yet more flavor to your soup.
Salt
is certainly a must-have in building the flavor of any good soup. Soup is one of those foods that cries out for plenty of salt and can taste very bland without it. Salt interferes with bitter taste receptors on your tongue; then you, as a result, taste the sweet or more desirable flavors in the soup instead of its bitter elements. Salt is a flavor enhancer for everything in the soup, not just a means of adding a salty taste.
You’ll notice that I have left the matter of how much salt to add entirely to your taste; since we differ in our taste and tolerance for salt, it seems a good idea. A rule of thumb is to add about a tablespoon of salt to any one of the recipes in this book as a starting point. This is a starting point only. If the soup still tastes a little bland to you, try adding a little more salt, a little bit at a time, until you’ve reached optimum flavor. You’ll be amazed at how all the flavors in the soup jump out at you with just a little additional salt.
I use Hain Pure Foods Sea Salt from my local health food store as my all-purpose cooking salt, but I enjoy, from time to time, using specialty salts, another great way to bump up the flavor of my soup. For example, I don’t use smoked meats or fish, but I love a smoky flavor, so one of my favorite tricks is to use a good smoked salt. Specialty salt is rarely cheap, but it is one of the extravagances I allow myself from time to time because I enjoy it so much. Shop around. The last time I visited
Dean & DeLuca
in the Napa Valley, they had a hefty collection of specialty salts sold in
Much has been written about the value of organic growing methods; however, I think most consumers miss one very important point: synthetic fertilizers and pesticides were not created with your health in mind . While they have enabled us to produce large quantities of food and feed a greater number of people worldwide, they have also contributed to destruction of the environment and created havoc with human and animal health.
This is not to say that many hardworking farmers would deliberately harm your health, but it is to say that your health is not the farmer’s bottom line . Running his or her business is the bottom line. Keep this in mind and support those farmers who are willing to go the extra mile in the interests of keeping both you and the planet healthier for all concerned by using
organic farming
methods.
As for the palate (as well as other senses), I’ll let the recipes speak for themselves.
Bang for Your Buck: Ways to Bump Up the Flavor
Professional chefs use a variety of cooking techniques to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Most of the soups in this book include a limited number of ingredients, but you can build
flavor
using some of these techniques.
One of the simplest ways to add flavor to a soup is to brown some or all of the ingredients before committing them to the pot.
Onions
can easily be chopped and added to the soup raw, but if you’d like to add an extra dimension of flavor, you can brown them in oil or butter first, anywhere from just softening them to giving them a nice golden hue. If you have a slow cooker with a cast aluminum insert suitable for use on the stovetop, then you won’t even have to use an extra pan for
browning
.
Better still, brown the vegetables, then cook them in the slow cooker with a little oil but no water for anywhere from 2 to 6 hours before you add the water (see French Onion Soup ). This method gives the vegetables an opportunity to further brown or caramelize, adding yet more flavor to your soup.
Salt
is certainly a must-have in building the flavor of any good soup. Soup is one of those foods that cries out for plenty of salt and can taste very bland without it. Salt interferes with bitter taste receptors on your tongue; then you, as a result, taste the sweet or more desirable flavors in the soup instead of its bitter elements. Salt is a flavor enhancer for everything in the soup, not just a means of adding a salty taste.
You’ll notice that I have left the matter of how much salt to add entirely to your taste; since we differ in our taste and tolerance for salt, it seems a good idea. A rule of thumb is to add about a tablespoon of salt to any one of the recipes in this book as a starting point. This is a starting point only. If the soup still tastes a little bland to you, try adding a little more salt, a little bit at a time, until you’ve reached optimum flavor. You’ll be amazed at how all the flavors in the soup jump out at you with just a little additional salt.
I use Hain Pure Foods Sea Salt from my local health food store as my all-purpose cooking salt, but I enjoy, from time to time, using specialty salts, another great way to bump up the flavor of my soup. For example, I don’t use smoked meats or fish, but I love a smoky flavor, so one of my favorite tricks is to use a good smoked salt. Specialty salt is rarely cheap, but it is one of the extravagances I allow myself from time to time because I enjoy it so much. Shop around. The last time I visited
Dean & DeLuca
in the Napa Valley, they had a hefty collection of specialty salts sold in
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