A Soupy Obsession

Bottom line: I am obsessed with soup. I try to stop myself from getting too nerdy about it but the fact of the matter is that I find the art of making soup VERY intriguing. To the French (and perhaps to some of you culinary freak Americans as well) making soup is as simple as putting a roast in the crock-pot When I lived in Normandy Monique put soup on the table every night during the winter months. I thought it was great then but now that I'm on my own there's no soup unless your's truly gets to gettin' on the cooking front. So, I invested in a pressure-cooker (you'll find one in any French household) and a hand mixer. *not the hand-mixer you're thinking of that will perfectly purée those special mashed potatoes or create the perfect cookie-batter consistency* I'm going to call it a hand-held food processor instead because it has a tiny yet powerful blade that just chops everything up into soupy goodness.

Anyway, here are some photos of the beloved pressure cooker and hand held food processor.


If you're making a vegetable soup (which is what I prefer) the strategy begins with deciding what base you want your soup to have: potato, cabbage, carrots, pumpkin? etc. A cabbage base is my favorite, mixed with a little bit of eggplant, leek, onion, small amount of pumpkin, a couple of potatoes, turnip, garlic, lettuce, des blettes (something similar to kale but by translation it seems to be in the beet family... it's green, leafy and grows up out of the ground, that is all I know.), carrots. The next steps are easy, heat and process into liquid. (By the way, I just use water when cooking the vegetables and it turns out quite tasty, but you can add oil or butter or some sort of bouillon if you like.) When serving the soup it is common to add a couple of tablespoons of milk or cream and of course flavor it as you like with salt and pepper.

As you can see, I am content with the simple pleasure of tossing a few vegetables together and enjoying a tasty result. If you're more ambitious, get creative. Anyway, I highly suggest souping up your winter meals. A bowl and a half of hearty veggie soup is quite filling.