Soupy Sales

Today a friend of mine approached me with an interesting problem. "Speaking of bland," she said, "Help me. I made chicken vegetable soup last night and its so gross and bland. Help!" Seeing as how I'm in Boston and she's in New York City and there's not that much that I can do to physically help her, I thought I'd do my best to lend what little I actually know about cooking to my friend (who is a wonderful little cook in her own right) as I could. So I asked her to tell me everything she had done, to walk me through the process.

As soon as her description started with the phrase "I dumped chicken stock into a pot", I knew that this should be the subject of my next post. "How to Get the Most From Your Ingredients" or something like that. Flavorama. Yumsville: Population 10,000. Yes, that's how many taste buds you have. Yes, I'm a nerd. Whatever, the name doesn't matter.


.....Chicken Soup for the Blogger's Soul? Ok. I'm done.



As a practice, whenever I make soup - be it Tomato, Butternut Squash or Lentil in nature - I never (keep in mind I rarely use such definitive language. But I mean it) never, start with the broth. I'm not quite sure why, but I'm sure it has something to do with my aversion to most things cooked in liquid. Poached anything gives me the heebies AND the jeebies. Maybe it's from working one too many Sunday Brunches, and seeing those ghostly little eggs hover in their creepy, gelatinous ice bath. Blech. Anywho. But for once, my weird food phobias (which include mayonnaise and pre-shaped egg-like substances (egg mcmuffins, I'm looking at you.)) actually have panned out for the tastier! In the case of raw onion, celery and garlic v. chicken stock, no one wins. All that delicious flavor gets washed away when what you really want to do is concentrate the flavors of the individual ingredients - make each one as delicious as it can be - before letting them mellow and blend together in you stock (or water, whathaveyou).

It's like a chorus. A bunch of people just singing random notes will not sound good - but, if you teach them how to harmonize, you'll have a wonderful, ear-pleasing blend. And that's what you should aim to do when making anything, never mind soups. Ok. I'm off the soupbox.


Vegetable Lentil Soup

3 Medium Carrots
1 Large Onion
2 Stalks of Celery
1 Large Potato
3 Cloves of Garlic (minced)
1 tbsp of curry powder
1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
1 lb of French Lentils*
32 oz of Low Sodium chicken broth

Ah, the majestic bounty of a pantry. As taken by my Blackberry's camera...


Silly dogs in sweaters wait patiently for carrots

In a large pot, sautee the diced vegetables in a few tablespoons of oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook them on medium heat until the onions have melted and the potatoes and carrots are soft. Push the vegetables to one side of the pan and sprinkle the curry powder and the tomato paste on the bottom of the pan. Let the spices get all toasty and aromatic. I took a photo of that phase...but it didn't look as deliriously delicious as it smelled.

Look at all those veggies. Getting all friendly and snuggly and whatnot.

Add in your lentils, and let those get all familiar with each other. Finally, add in your broth. Be sure to get a wooden spoon and really scrape up the bottom of the pan. It's that whole deglazing thing I talked about here. Taste for seasoning - add more if you think it needs it. Let that come up to temp et voila! Soup's up!

Garnish with some scallions and maybe a dash of some seriously extra-virgin olive oil and enjoy!

* I used Trader Joe's Steamed French Lentils - it's important not to use the regular lentils you find in most grocery stores, as they're bigger and waxier and are just sooo wrong