As I sit down to write this, it’s a damp, dreary winter day in San Diego. Poor, poor pitiful us suffering through temperatures in the low 60s, right? But it’s all relative. We are lucky enough to not have to live through blizzards and subzero weather — but that just means that it takes less to give us a bit of a chill. And what is better to warm us up from the inside than a steaming bowl of soup?
The temptation, of course, is to make winter soups as hearty as possible, loaded up with meat or cream or cheese. But these chilly temps coincide with New Year’s resolutions to eat more healthy foods, lose weight and exercise more. While I can’t help with the third, here are some soups and methods of making soups that can give you an assist with the first two. Because, yes, even in winter and even without the fats that make hearty soups so delicious, you can enjoy a bowl of soup that tastes delicious and fills you up, but is also bursting with fresh, healthful ingredients.
One soup I’ve come to love is Lemon Turkey Soup With Orzo. Like many of you who cook Thanksgiving dinner, I found myself with a turkey carcass and load of turkey meat leftovers. I stripped the carcass and bones of as much meat as I could and made a basic stock with the bones, some of which I put in containers to freeze. The rest of the stock was the basis for this soup. After that traditional heavy meal, I wanted an antidote, and riffing on avgolemeno — a Greek chicken soup spiked with cinnamon and lemon — seemed perfect. The brightness of the citrus would turn your basic turkey — or chicken — soup into a dish that just felt lighter while the cinnamon grounds it in comfort.
Now, I’ve made this with both turkey and chicken, so this doesn’t have to be a strictly post-Thanksgiving soup. What counts is the lemon and cinnamon — and beans and orzo. It’s easy to make. It’s nice if you have your own stock, but you can certainly substitute it with pre-made broth. It starts with a traditional mirepoix (a combination of diced carrots, onions and celery) plus garlic, sautéed in olive oil with cinnamon and oregano. Then comes the stock that’s brought to a low boil. Simmer and then add orzo, then cooked beans, turkey or chicken, lemon juice and lemon zest. Finish the cooking process, season with salt and pepper and you’ve got a hearty soup for a full house that also freezes well. If you find the orzo has soaked up a lot of liquid, add some water when reheating it.
What if your true love is a creamy soup? Making a creamy soup sans the cream is surprisingly easy. You just need a blender or immersion blender. I prefer the latter when making a hot soup: no heat-based explosions!
One of my go-to’s this time of year is Creamy Broccoli Soup. The creaminess comes from red potatoes that are cooked with the broccoli, along with garlic, onion, celery and green onions. Add vegetable or chicken stock and simmer until all the ingredients are cooked through. Then insert the immersion blender to close to the bottom of the pot and puree the mixture until it’s smooth.
A vegetable soup like this, which could also be made with roasted carrots or other root vegetables, deserves a little frivolity. To garnish the soup, I make a Panko Parmesan Crumble. All it takes to make this is a blend of panko breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, along with pine nuts and herbs. I use oregano and thyme here. Sauté this mixture with olive oil just a few minutes until it just starts to brown. Remove from the stove and stir in lemon zest. You can sprinkle this on other vegetable soups or even roasted vegetables.
Finally, there are vegetables that just cry out to be turned into a creamy soup. At the top of the list are winter squashes. And at the top of this list is red kuri squash. When I see a red kuri squash, I kind of melt a little. Actually, I do love the others, too, but there’s something about the magnificent red orange coloring and slight teardrop shape that makes me feel I’m not just going to eat something special, but that until I do, I’ve got a beautiful piece of nature’s art to ire in my kitchen. Perhaps more importantly, though, is the flavor of this Japanese squash. If you love chestnuts, you’ll fall for the red kuri squash’s rich chestnutty flavor. You can bake with this squash, but you more than likely will enjoy it in a stew, casserole or soup.
Because winter squash soups can be a little one note — the squash can dominate even the freshest spices — my goal with this soup was to create the now clichéd but truly relevant “layers of flavor.” So, I roast the squash with carrots and garlic, then add fresh ginger, fresh garlic and shallots, along with serrano chiles, garam masala and tomato paste. And lots of fresh-squeezed lime juice.
All these roasted vegetables, aromatics and tomato paste cook with chicken or vegetable broth and coconut milk. Then the soup gets the immersion blender treatment and is finished with salt and lime juice. The lime juice and serranos give the soup a nice kick, adding sparkle to the squash’s mellow chestnut flavor.
Creamy Broccoli Soup
Serves 4 to 6
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
3 green onions, sliced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
12 ounces broccoli, chopped (including stems)
1/2 pound red potatoes, cut into chunks
1 quart organic vegetable stock
1/2 cup dry white wine or sherry (optional)
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
Panko Parmesan Crumble (recipe follows)
Heat olive oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven. Add the garlic, onion, celery and green onions. Sauté at medium/low heat for 5 minutes but don’t brown. Add the herbs and mix well. Sauté until fragrant.
Mix in broccoli and potatoes. Then add the stock, wine, salt and ground pepper. Stir well, increase the heat to medium/high, and bring to a rolling simmer, then lower the heat and cover the pot. Simmer gently for an hour. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Remove the lid from the pot, turn off the heat, and insert an immersion blender. Carefully move the blender through the pot to puree the mixture to a smooth consistency. Remove the blender and stir the soup. Taste soup and adjust seasonings if necessary.
Ladle into bowls and top with Panko Parmesan Crumble.
Note: You can do this with any vegetables you have. Add chicken broth if you like instead of vegetable broth.
Panko Parmesan Crumble
Makes just under 1 cup
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Panko crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons pine nuts
Zest from 1 lemon
Heat oil in a sauté pan. In a bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients except the lemon zest. Pour the mixture into the sauté pan and brown at medium/low heat for about three minutes. Stir regularly to keep mixture from clumping and burning. Once the mixture is lightly brown, remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Stir in the lemon zest. Set aside.
Lemon Turkey Soup With Orzo
Makes 10 to 12 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 large garlic cloves, minced
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried oregano
9 cups turkey stock
1 cup dried orzo
2 cups cooked beans
2 cups or more diced cooked turkey meat
Juice and grated lemon zest from 2 lemons
Salt and pepper, additional lemon juice/zest to taste
Heat oil in heavy, large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and stir 1 minute. Add celery, carrots and spices and sauté until vegetables are tender, about 8 minutes. Add 8 cups broth and bring soup to a low boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer to blend flavors, about 20 minutes. Add pasta and simmer until pasta is tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
Add beans, turkey, lemon juice and lemon zest into soup. Simmer about 3 minutes. The orzo will thicken the soup, so thin soup with the remaining 1 cup of turkey stock. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper and more lemon juice/zest if desired.
Note: This can just as easily be made with chicken and chicken stock.
Roasted Red Kuri Squash Soup
Serves 6
3 to 4 pounds red Kuri squash
4 or 5 medium-size carrots, peeled and trimmed
1 large head of garlic
1 tablespoon vegetable oil for roasting
2 tablespoons combination of vegetable oil and butter
4 more cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 large shallots, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger, from a 3-inch piece
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons garam masala (or curry powder)
2 red serrano chiles, seeded and chopped
1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt or to taste
Juice of 2 limes (about 4 tablespoons)
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, chopped, or roasted squash seeds
Sour cream or crème fraîche to garnish (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the squash into quarters, remove the seeds and fibrous material and place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Roughly chop and add the carrots. Drizzle both with 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil. Slice the top off of the garlic head, drizzle with the remaining third teaspoon of vegetable oil and wrap in foil. Place that on the sheet pan as well. Roast for 1 hour.
Let the squash and carrots cool for 15 minutes until they can be easily handled. Then peel the skin away from the squash flesh and roughly chop the squash and carrots. Squeeze the soft garlic cloves from the paper into a small bowl. Set all aside.
In a 4-quart Dutch oven, heat the oil and butter over medium heat. When the oil is hot and the butter melted, add the 4 garlic cloves, shallots and ginger. Sauté for about two minutes. Add the tomato paste, roasted garlic, the garam masala, and red serrano chiles and stir together. Lower heat and sauté for another minute, then add the squash and carrots. Turn the heat back up to medium to cook the squash and carrots with the aromatics for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the coconut milk and broth, stir well to mix, and bring to a light simmer. Lower the heat and cover the pot. Simmer for 30 minutes.
Turn off the heat and puree the soup with an immersion blender. Alternately, you can puree it in a blender in batches, holding the top down with a towel. Add the sea salt a little at a time, tasting until it reaches the right balance with the soup, and stir in the lime juice. Garnish with a sprinkling of chopped roasted peanuts or roasted squash seeds and a dollop of crème fraîche. Serve immediately.
Golden is a San Diego freelance food writer and blogger.
