Soups and Stews – But What Can You Eat?

Look, I love soup. I just do! I make a lot of broth, I spend a lot of time figuring out ways to use it, and if it’s not in a sauce, then it’s definitely going to show up in a soup later on. I can’t help it! It’s so easy and filling, and I don’t think it’s too much to say that, when you start staring into the cupboard, wondering what you can possibly make with what you have left…soup is going to be the answer almost every time.

This soup, when hot, is more of a winter/fall menu item, where you could maybe stretch into a particularly cold early spring. If served cold, I think it could be a passable Vichyssoise in the spring and summer months, though I confess it’s not my go-to summer dish (that would be strawberries and chicken salad). It’s very simply, requires nothing much from the pantry, and you can beef it up with anything from a good piece of toast to a pat of butter to a smattering of chopped green onion. I add more pepper, which possibly says something about me as a person.

You’ll Need (serves 2 – 4):

6 small potatoes or 4 large ones, peeled and chopped

1 – 2 large leeks, cleaned and chopped

1/4 cup onion, chopped

2 tsps white pepper

2 tsps black pepper

1 – 2 bay leaves

3 cloves roasted garlic

3 tsps salt

4 cups chicken broth

1 Tblsp olive oil

Get a large pot with a lid and heat the pot on medium-low with the olive oil. Add the leeks and onions, salt and peppers, and begin to wilt them, stirring occasionally. Once they begin to soften, add in the roasted garlic and smush them all together, stirring for two minutes until you can smell the garlic.

Add in the bay leaf, the potatoes, and the broth. Then, bring it to boil and simmer it with the lid covered for about twenty – thirty minutes. Check the potatoes occasionally by sticking them with a fork to see if they’re done. Once they’ve started to crumble, get a potato masher out, or a large spoon, and mash the potatoes in the broth. This makes the dish look creamy while still preserving a bit of texture, so that it’s not entirely smooth. Stir it up, remove the bay leaf, and serve!

Additional Comments:

A lot of traditional Leek and Potato soups add heavy cream or sour cream as an ingredient, to make a very luxurious, silken soup. I don’t honestly think it needs this, both because of my allergies and also because I don’t like just adding things like that to soups. I prefer them as personal add-ons, a dollop of non-dairy sour cream or yogurt here, a pat of butter there, so that you can enjoy this soup in the same way you might enjoy a baked potato.
- If you do want to add dairy, or a non-dairy substitute, reduce the amount of broth by one cup and then add in the dairy close to the end of the cooking time.

If you like blended soups, take the pot off the hob and let it cool for a few minutes. Depending on the size of your blender, either carefully ladle the whole thing into the blender, or blend half the soup and then half again.

This can easily be made vegan by either substituting a vegetable broth or simply using water and upping the amount of spices/herbs and salt.

A good soup or stew is the perfect all day meal during the cold season (by which I mean, any month after August), and I make them constantly. Lamb stew, however, is considered something of a treat in my family. My grandmother cooked lamb (or rather, mutton) and my mom does too. I got the basis of this recipe from them, and then added my own tweaks to call the recipe my own.

I have a hit or miss relationship with red meat, to be honest, and so we don’t eat a ton of it in the house. That’s why this lamb stew is special to me; I have to make the most out of it, because it’s not coming back around again! And this stew is something else, let me tell you. I’ve eaten it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and never been left feeling unsatisfied.

You’ll need (serves 4-6):

1-2 lamb shanks

4 carrots, chopped roughly

4 celery stalks, chopped roughly

1 onion, chopped

2 parsnips, chopped

2-3 large potatoes, peeled and chopped

3-4 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped

1 cup red wine (think Bordeaux, tempranillo, or malbec)

4 cups water

1 Tbsp cooking oil

1 large bayleaf

3 tsp parsley, chopped

3 tsp rosemary, crushed

Salt and black pepper to taste

1 Tbsp tapioca flour (optional)

Get out a good pot with a lid, and add in your lamb shanks. Brown them with the cooking oil at a medium heat, and then remove the meat to rest on a plate, while you add in all your vegetables except the potatoes, salt, pepper, garlic, spices and herbs.

Cook down your vegetables until a light brown crust forms on the bottom of the pot (the scrap-able bits!) and then deglaze the entire pot with the red wine. Don’t stand over it, unless you want a face full of alcohol-scented steam! Take a good spoon, and scrape up all the crust on the bottom of the pot, and then add in the lamb shanks, and the four cups of water. Lamb is such a flavorful meat that you don’t need to buy broth, this makes it for you!

Peel and chop the potatoes and add them into the stew. I think potatoes make the stew hearty enough not to need a thickener, but if your stew is looking a little thin, here’s what to do: Ladle out one cup of the broth into a soup bowl and add one tablespoon of tapioca flour. Whisk them together to avoid lumps of flour in the stew, and then add the slurry back into the pot.

Bring the pot to a bubbling boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer (usually I put it on medium-low or low). Cover and let it cook for at least an hour, if not more. The longer it cooks, the more rich it will taste! Stir occasionally, and let it reduce down by about a quarter.

Before you want to serve up, take some tongs and pinch out the lamb shanks. Set them on a plate and cut off all the meat. Don’t worry about being too savage with your knife cuts! This is a stew, and you want to have nice chunks of meat to go with those big vegetable pieces. Add the meat back in to warm it up, and then ladle out into a gigantic bowl to facilitate gulping it down with your biggest spoon.

Tip: If you’re making this ahead of time, I like to add the potatoes into the stew thirty minutes to an hour before serving, because I don’t want them to completely disintegrate. If you don’t have the time, add the potatoes when you add in the lamb shanks, and let them all cook together!

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Tag: Soups and Stews

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