Spring is
here and the weather is warming up so it’s fitting that it’s our last week of
soups! This week we are focusing on creamy soups, ones that are a bit thicker
and more filling. You can have these soups as a main meal or even use them as
more of a sauce on meals you are having.
Some
different types of creamy soups are...chowders (clam, corn, potato, seafood
etc.), cream of broccoli, chicken, and celery, mushroom, creamy tomato basil, potato,
cauliflower, chicken vegetable with rice (almost like a stew consistency),
cheesy broccoli, potato leek, potato and ham, and bisque.
We’re
sharing with you a couple of recipes today for creamy soups (you can also look back at one that we posted previously, for Potato Chicken Chowder). One we made for
lunch the other day so check them out.
Cream of Potato Soup
For the soup
you will need the following ingredients...
2 tbsp. of
margarine
1 small
onion (diced)
2 tbsp. of
flour
2-4 potatoes
depending on the size (diced)
2-3 stalks
of celery (diced)
4cups of
chicken broth
½ tsp. of
celery salt
Bacon bits
(optional)
First of
all, dice up the celery, onion, and potatoes and set aside.
If you are
wanting to sprinkle bacon bits on top of your soup, then you can chop up some
bacon now to fry later.
Next melt
the margarine in a large pot on medium heat.
Add the
onion and cook until tender.
Mix in the
flour and stir well.
Now add in
the potato and the celery along with the broth (we added a cup or so of water as well) and bring to a boil and allow it
to continue to boil (with the lid on) for 10-15 minutes. If the potatoes aren’t
tender by this time then you can keep on boiling the soup until they are.
While the
soup is boiling, you can make a roux for thickening.
In a separate
sauce pan, melt 2 tbsp. of margarine and then add 2 tbsp. of flour. Cook and
stir for about 5 minutes. Your roux should start thickening to a cake icing
consistency. You should see gentle bubbles.
Once it
bubbles and is thicker, you can add your 2 cups of cold milk to the pan slowly
while whisking. Adding a little bit of liquid at a time is probably the best
thing to do and then whisk after each addition. In order for the roux to become
properly thickened (we found this out by failing) you need to let it simmer for
10-20 minutes. Once you’ve let it simmer and it looks to be thicker, then it’s
ready.
Back to the
soup...after letting your soup boil, you should have soft potatoes. Now you can
stir in the celery salt and then incorporate the roux you just made. Add in a
couple of pinches of salt.
Allow the “finished”
soup to simmer at medium temperature for 10 minutes or so and serve.
In this
simmer time, we made some bacon bits to put on top of our soup and a cheesy
melt to pair our
soup with for lunch.
'Cream' of Mushroom Soup
3 Tbsp. of
olive oil
2 pounds of
mushrooms (finely diced)
1 tsp. of
fresh thyme
Zest of 1
lemon
2 cloves of
garlic (minced)
2 celery stalks
(diced)
1 large head
of cauliflower (chopped in small chunks)
1 ½ tsp. of
sea salt
½ tsp. of
black pepper
½ tsp. of
onion powder
1 tsp. of
Dijon mustard
4 cups of
broth
1 cup of unsweetened
coconut cream
In a large
pot, heat 2 Tbsp. of oil and then add the mushrooms and cook until golden brown
and soft. Add in the thyme and lemon and cook for about 2 minutes or until very
fragrant.
Set half of
this mushroom mixture aside and leave the rest in the pot that they were cooked
in. Add in the rest of the olive oil, onion, garlic, and celery and cook until
tender.
Now add the
cauliflower chunks with the salt, pepper, onion powder, and the mustard. Sauté
it all until fragrant and then add in the broth and cook until the cauliflower
is tender (about 5-7 minutes). Transfer to a blender and purée.
Once the
soup looks smooth, add in the mushrooms that were set aside along with the
cream (you could probably use regular cream if you want to) and stir it all up
to combine. You might want to add it back to the original pot to warm it up
slightly before serving.
