Building a Soup: How to Improvise Your Own

From The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift (Clarkson Potter, 2008). Copyright 2008 by American Public Media. All Right Reserved.

The Three Opportunities: You can dictate the character of your soup by how you decide to start cooking it.

1. Bold and sturdy flavors come from starting the soup by fast-browning the onions and some of the vegetables in good tasting fat over medium-high heat.

2. Mellow flavors are achieved with slow-stewing onions and key ingredients, like herbs, in a little fat in a covered pot over low heat.

3. Clear, true flavors come from simmering everything in liquid with no pre-sautés.

A Basic Formula:

• 2 parts onion
• 1/2 part garlic
• 2 parts members of cabbage family (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.)
• 1/2 part carrot
• 1/4 part celery with leaves
• 1/2 part root vegetables (celery root, rutabaga, turnips, etc.)
• 1 part leafy vegetables (salad greens, chard, kale, turnip greens, mizuna, dandelion, escarole, endive, collards, etc.)
• 1 part dry white or red wine
• Water as needed

Note: Wine is a powerful flavor booster because alcohol opens up flavors that neither fats nor water release. Also, red wine is high in umami, a chemical component of some foods which heightens flavors. So be generous with the wine. Use white wine in pale soups, red in dark ones, and anticipate 1/2 cup for every eight cups of liquid. Contrary to rumor, all the alcohol in wine and other spirits does not cook off.

Weeknight Kitchen® is a free weekly e-mail newsletter full of new recipes and tips from Lynne and our guests.
Sign up »
This week's newsletter »

The Splendid Table®, is now available for free in podcast form. Follow the Sterns as they travel the country, hear all our unique and wonderful guests and, as always, Lynne takes your calls, downloaded direct to your computer every week.
Get the podcast

Get our recipes delivered straight to your iGoogle account with our new Google Gadget. It's free. It's easy. Find out how you can install this new feature on your Google Homepage.
Learn More