Soups
12 recipes
Turkish Red Lentil Soup
Red lentils cooked soft with onion, carrot, and tomato paste, blended smooth and finished with dried mint bloomed in olive oil. Lemon at the table does the rest of the work.
Tomato Rasam
A thin South Indian broth of tamarind and tomato seasoned with black pepper and cumin, finished with a hot tempering of mustard seed and curry leaf. Sip it from a cup or spoon it over rice.
Tom Yum Goong
A clear Thai hot-and-sour shrimp soup built on lemongrass, galangal, and lime leaf, sharpened with lime juice and fish sauce and rounded out with roasted chile paste.
Ribollita Tuscan Bread Soup
Cannellini beans, cavolo nero and stale bread simmered together until the bread dissolves and the soup turns thick enough to eat with a fork. Mashing some of the beans does the thickening.
Pozole Verde
Pork shoulder simmered until it shreds, then finished with a blended tomatillo, chile, and pumpkin seed sauce and plenty of hominy. The raw cabbage, radish, and lime at the table are not optional.
Pho Ga Chicken Noodle Soup
A clear chicken broth built on charred ginger and onion with star anise, cinnamon and coriander, poured boiling hot over rice noodles, poached chicken and a pile of herbs.
New England Clam Chowder
Chopped clams and diced potato in a milk and cream base built on rendered salt pork, thickened lightly with flour and seasoned with thyme. Canned clams and their juice carry the flavor.
Moqueca Brazilian Fish Stew
White fish layered over onion, peppers, and tomato and simmered in coconut milk, finished with palm oil and cilantro. The lime and garlic seasoning goes on the fish first, not in the pot.
Miso Soup with Tofu
Kombu dashi loosened with barley miso off the heat, with silken tofu and wakame. The two rules that decide it: pull the kombu before it boils, and never boil the soup once the miso is in.
Harira Chickpea and Lentil Soup
A tomato-based Moroccan soup of chickpeas and brown lentils spiced with ginger, cinnamon and turmeric, thickened at the end with a flour-and-water slurry that gives it a velvety body.
French Onion Soup
Yellow onions cooked down slowly until deep brown, deglazed with white wine and simmered in beef broth, then topped with toasted bread and Gruyere melted under the broiler.
Doenjang Jjigae
A fast Korean stew of fermented soybean paste with potato, zucchini, tofu, and green chile in a kelp and shiitake broth. Deeply savory and salty, built to be eaten with rice.