Soup Method

Soup is a slow cooked dish, whose main ingredient is a liquid stock. Soups are simple recipes with common ingredients, but not necessarily fast. The best soups are made from scratch, and cooked slowly. Soups requires some planning and preparation, but are not labor intensive, mostly cooking in the background.

Soup = BASE + SPICE + MAIN (STOCK and FEATURE) + FINISH

Vary the ingredients in each building block.

The soup method applies equally to Asian, European and American soups and stews. From Indian lentil soups and curries, to European vegetable minestrone soup. With popularity of both dry dishes and fast cooking, soups and stews are becoming a lost art. Can you remember the last good European soup or stew you made?

Soups and stews should have mouth watering flavor. It’s a common mistake to think that flavor comes from spices. Flavor comes from the base and the stock. The base and stocks commonly use aromatic vegetables like onions, carrots, celery, tomato and peppers. The spices and finish only enhance the central flavors that come from the base vegetables.

The best way to serve green and yellow vegetables is not as salad, and not as a side dish, but as soups and stews. An amazing amount of green and yellow vegetables and roots effortlessly disappear into soups and stews.