It’s January, so we pull out the soup kettle and go to work.
Don’t think of it as actual work though as the process of making soup can be vibrantly therapeutic. One of my most vivid cooking memories occurred when I was deathly ill with the flu, shuffling around the house in my jammies. I felt well enough to have some soup. I had some frozen cubes of chicken stock, some carrot, onion and celery, garlic and leftover spaghetti noodles.
The step by step process, standing over the stove and watching those few items morph into a hearty broth of vegetables, healing aromatics and pasta not only opened my sinus’s a bit but, as the book says, warmed my soul. I finished the soup, felt a bit better and went back to bed. While the chicken soup didn’t cure my ailment it lifted me out of the depths for a moment.
Soup is a blanket for some, an edible leftover bin for others, but for all it should be a yearlong staple. Quick cold sups like gazpacho and melon allow us to avoid the hot stove in the summer months, bubbling chicken noodle or hearty chipotle potato warm the cold winter kitchens and fill the bellies of child and adult alike.
Soups are economical and budget oriented, able to be made inexpensively to feed a crowd, the type of crowd that might appear at holiday time or when the kids have their friends over. The base of ingredients can come from a summer garden (frozen tomatoes for cream of tomato), a well-stocked pantry with dried beans and pasta, or as a leftover from holiday dinners (turkey stock from Thanksgiving, ham stock from Christmas frozen as small portions for later use).
When we examine what makes a soup we realize that other dishes qualify or come close as a partner or a substitute for the soup concept.
Pasta e Fagioli is a traditional Italian bean and pasta soup that has been interpreted as a stew, soup or even a pasta in some renditions. Is a traditional Vietnamese pho a broth soup with vegetables, or a brothy pasta dish with vegetables and protein? In the cuisine of that country which is more important? Don’t let this make you indecisive about making and eating all sorts of soup, remembering that it is your creation, based on your needs.
Experiment and investigate far beyond the standards, or take a tried and true favorite and flip the script a bit. Roast the tomatoes for your cream of tomato and add garlic and herbs to move the concept sideways. Make a potato soup base and then spilt the finishing elements into a creamy Guinness Potato, a spicy chipotle potato or a tried and true loaded potato with bacon, green onion cheddar and sour cream.
There are some caveats to soup making that are fairly general but if followed, will produce a better product. Make the soup at least a day ahead, flavors will blend more completely and increase the balance of the soup. Don’t go too far down the road of using your soup pot as a leftover bin. It’s good to have quality standards to eliminate the two week old chicken left over from a Sunday supper.
Have a flavor profile you want to hit so that the tendency to put everything in is lessened and the flavors make sense. Use the five flavors of your palate as a general rule, sweet, salty, bitter, hot and sour.
Soups that you are trying for the first time are especially prone to becoming unbalanced. Follow the recipe and then if the flavors are not to your liking make the changes for the next time.
I have in the past stressed that you can make soup for more than one meal and most soups do freeze well. I will only say that the process of making soup is one of the reasons I like soup in the first place. As I mentioned in the opening it’s a therapeutic process and highlights one of the distinct advantages that my career has over others; the ability to see your work grow before your eyes and then to sample it or serve it to a welcoming crowd.
White Bean Pancetta and Greens
I prefer dried beans, and if that is your choice as well then a 24 hour soak and rinse is the first step. This method will plump the beans with moisture making them easier to cook and allowing some of the gas inducing effects to be lessened. It should also be the time when you sort through the soaking beans to get the small stones and off beans that are a byproduct of the bulk dry variety.
If you choose canned white beans for quicker production then you will at least want to rinse them thoroughly. 1 cup of dried beans will yield about 3 cups of cooked beans, 1/2 heaping cup of dried beans will approximate a 15 oz. can of cooked beans.
1 cup dried white beans, navy or cannellini beans soaked and simmered until just tender. Reserve the simmering liquid, sometimes called “pot liquor”
3 cloves garlic minced
1 medium yellow onion minced
2 ribs of celery minced
1 cup small dice fresh pancetta
3 cups of greens such as baby kale, collards, mustard and large leaf spinach cleaned and chopped if necessary
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
A tied sachet of 4 thyme sprigs, ½ rosemary sprig, 2 oregano sprigs and one bay leaf
Olive oil
Salt and fresh cracked black pepperStarting with a large thick bottomed soup pot coat the bottom with olive oil and set on medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook slowly and with little color until it starts to crisp. Add the garlic, onion and celery and continue the cooking until they are soft and lightly colored.
You have created a “sofrito” or flavor base from which to work. Once you’ve establish this add the vinegar and reduce, add the chili flake, the sachet, the cooked beans and enough of the pot liquor to cover the beans. Simmer the pot for at least an hour to distribute the sofrtio’s flavor throughout the beans.
Keep adding pot liquor to keep the simmer but don’t add too much at a time. You have two choices as to how to finish this soup, you can puree and add the greens and more pot liquor or you can leave the soup brothy and add the greens about 20 minutes before the soup is ready to eat. If you are holding the soup over still add the greens on day one and then slowly reheat and season the next day before the first serving of soup. Serve with shaved parmesan and crusty bread.
John Foster is an executive chef who heads the culinary program at Sullivan University’s Lexington campus. A New York native, Foster has been active in the Lexington culinary scene and a promoter of local and seasonal foods for more than 20 years. The French Culinary Institute-trained chef has been the executive chef of his former restaurant, Harvest, and now his Chevy Chase eatery, The Sage Rabbit, in Lexington.
To read more from Chef John Foster, including his recipes, click here.
