Since it’s summer, with the thermometer hovering around the century mark for days at a time, I decided I’d better do some chilled soup recipes. Figuring that Vichyssoise and Gazpacho are the top contenders for that category I flipped a coin and it came up leeks.

Not everyone likes the idea of a chilled soup, my testers were quick to point out, but whether you call this Potato Leek Soup or Vichyssoise, you can serve it hot or cold and it’s good either way.

I like the pale green color of the soup and the creamy smoothness, but it’s one of those things I never got around to making before. Though I often surf the web and dig through my collection of soup books for tips, I had a pretty clear notion of how I wanted to make this, so I just went to the produce section and grabbed what felt right.

One thing that didn’t feel right was the potatoes, because they’re carb heavy, and that’s something I’m avoiding. Still, it wouldn’t be right to leave them completely out, so I settled for a fifty-fifty mix of Yukon Gold potatoes and cauliflower.

Vichyssoise w Potato, Leek and Cauliflower

• 2 qts Chicken Stock (I typically use 2 tbs Better than Bullion Organic Chicken base)
• 1 lg Onion chopped
• 1 lb white boiling potatoes, peeled and sliced
• Garlic 4 cloves (minced)
• Leeks 2.5 lb before cleaning and cutting (yield: 2 qts)
• I lb Cauliflower (broken up into florets)
• 1 tbs kosher salt
• 12 oz Half and Half

I started off by putting the water and chicken base into a stock pot and bringing it up to a simmer. While it was coming up to temp, I peeled and sliced the potatoes, which went into the stock. Then I brought a saute pan with a tbs of olive oil up to temp while I coarsely chopped the onions and garlic and sweated them for about 8 minutes until they were getting soft. Into the soup with them. Next I broke the cauliflower florets off teh thick stem and added them to the stock.

While the stock was simmering, I cleaned the leeks, which are grown in sandy soil, so you can be sure they’ve got sand between their leaves. First you cut the base of the stem off, then the leafy tops, leaving an inch or two of green, but none of the floppy leaves. Some folks suggest cutting across the stalks to open them like a brush and running them under water, but don’t fall for it. Cut the leeks in halves or quarters, separate the leaves, and rinse them. Wash your cutting board between operations that might have sand in them as well.

After they’re clean, crosscut the leeks into one inch sections and saute for about 3 minutes in another tbs of olive oil. Add them to the soup and use some of the liquid to deglaze the pan, which you might as well wash,  since you’ve got nothing to do for the next 20 minutes except watch the pot simmer.

When the simmering is done, it’s time to go to town with your immersion blender. You want this to be a smooth soup, so keep at it until you no longer detect (much) graininess to the soup. Add in the Half and Half and the tbs salt.

Let that simmer for a few more minutes (5 min) then let it rest for half an hour before serving. If you’re going to serve it chilled, of course you’ll need to pop it into the fridge, probably overnight.

Chopped chives make an excellent garnish, and a little sour cream wouldn’t hurt either.

This came out pretty well hot, and I’m looking forward to testing it cold tomorrow.

Here’s a soup I threw together on a whim while out shopping with my gal this morning. As we went down the isles I picked up a variety of things that seemed like they might go together, and by golly, they do. Even though a feature ingredient of this soup is okra, I don’t consider it a gumbo of any sort. It does have some Cajun tang going on though.

My overriding concern, besides that it taste good, was low carbs, and if you check out the ingredients used, you’ll find that this is about as low carb a soup as you’ll find. Okra, 20 grams (net) for the whole package, peppers, 8 carbs for their package. Chicken and sausage…forgetaboutit. Continue reading →

I’ve been looking for some low carb soups to help out with another of those new year’s resolutions that we always make…then forget until it’s time to go to the beach. Since starch is the main source of soup thickener’s that often means brothy soups, which are fine…except that I’m usually looking for a soup I can eat as a meal.

Tomatoes are fairly low in carbs, so I was browsing around for thoughts in that direction when I found this tempting recipe over on Hunt’s website. Bacon, basil, tomatoes and  Half and Half. It’s got all my favorite food groups in one place!

Of course, it’s probably darn good as a vegetarian dish as well, and I could alwaus double batch it.

Tomato Bisque w Bacon and Basil

• 1 pound smoked bacon, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled, finely chopped
• 2 cans (14.5 oz each) Hunt’s® Petite Diced Tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (14 oz each) chicken broth
• 1 can (6 oz each) Hunt’s® Tomato Paste with Basil, Garlic and Oregano
• 1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil, divided

Now, that list was taken directly from Hunt’s site, and for a change, I almost followed the recipe. I actually did use Hunt’s tomatoes, the only deviation being that I couldn’t find the Tomato Paste with Basil, etc., so I used their “Italian Seasoning” one…which is pretty much the same thing.

It’s pretty appalling how much a pound of bacon cooks down to, by the way, though in this case it was 12 ounces of lean bacon, but that was plenty, really. In fact, half a pound of bacon would be fine. Of course I used a teaspoon of Better Than Bullion Low Sodium Chicken Base instead of the stock called for. I should really ask those folks to sponsor me, or at least throw some jars my way.

Like it says in the recipe, more or less, I cooked the bacon until about crisp, reserved about a half for adding back in or  for garnish. The reserved bits got dried on several paper towels, which left them exposed to the cook…and diminished their quantity somewhat. I added in sauteed onion and garlic, tomatoes and juice, two cups water, and the tbs chicken base previously mentioned. Simmer for twenty minutes.

I added in the cream and simmered it very gently for ten minutes before stirring in the chopped basil, then blended until smooth-ish.

Hunts calls for a blender, and truthfully, it would probably have worked better than the immersion blender I used, which left the bacon in grainy bits. KT, one of my tasters, tells me she liked that part…but next time I think I’d run it through my mesh strainer to get the soup perfectly smooth.

Last I stirred in some of the remaining basil and bacon and divided it up into six eight ounce containers. There was about half a cup left over, which I took as food tax and while I played with the seasoning.

Hunts BBT Bisque - this is their picture...but but mine came out the exact same color. (photo credit: Hunts.com)

It came out pretty well, and would be a perfectly good first course for a dinner party (with or without the bacon) but next time I’d:

• Strain the soup for smoothness
• Add a bit more salt for flavor
• add a half tsp of cayenne for zip

sources / links

• http://www.hunts.com/recipes-BBT-Bisque-4327.html

I’ve been looking forward to a shrimp bisque for a while, and when I was in the market last week I saw a 2lb bag of deveined but uncooked and unpeeled shrimp for $14.99, which seemed like a pretty good deal to me, especially since I wanted the shells for their stock value.

Continue reading →