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Meatball Minestrone Soup

This is my twist on the classic minestrone soup. I decided to add meatballs to the soup to turn it into a heartier one pot meals because it’s February and we all need some comfort. I decided to keep the soup vegetarian by substituting Beyond Ground Beef for regular ground beef. You can also use it in chili and my vegetarian meaty lasagna, This was my first time using it to make meatballs. The results were excellent. They were tender and moist.

The usual meatball binders, of egg and breadcrumbs were employed, along with lots of finely diced onion to add moisture. For spice, I added ground fennel seed and lots of Aleppo pepper. I used a mini meatball scoop to form them and baked them in the oven while the soup was cooking.

Tips for success:

Yes, there are are lots of ingredients. Don’t let this scare you. This is not a weekday soup recipe. Set aside some time on the weekend, put on some music or a podcast or binge some old episodes of Top Chef, and get chopping. I like to chop everything before I start cooking. Then I know I won’t forget any ingredients.You will be rewarded with a big hug in a bowl.
The ingredients are very customizable. The basics include a mirepoix (carrots, onions and celery), but the additional vegetables could be whatever is seasonal or you just happen to have hanging around in your fridge. I used butternut squash, zucchini and red potato.
When sautéing your mirepoix, keep the heat on medium. You don’t want to brown the veggies at this point, you’re just looking to soften them. If they start to stick to the bottom of the pot or get too dark, add about 1/4 cup of water to slow things down.
I added kale, but feel free to use spinach or any other hearty green. For the pasta, you want a small shape, like macaroni, orecchiette, small shells or ditalini.
Don’t rush the cooking/browning of the tomato paste. You really want the tomato paste to get dark brown. There is a ton of flavour and umami in tomato paste and we want to take advantage of that by browning to develop those deep rich flavours.
If you’re not saving your parmesan rinds, after you’ve grated all the cheese, start now. Throw them in a bag in the freezer and add a rind or two of Parmesan cheese to the simmering soup. Parmesan is packed with umami. The savoury flavour of the cheese will enrich your soup.
Just before serving stir in about a Tablespoon of sherry or red wine vinegar. This tiny bit of acid wakes the sop up.

Watch how the soup comes together in this video.

Meatball Minestrone Soup

saltandserenity

This is my twist on a classic minestrone soup. The addition of meatballs makes it a hearty, comforting one pot meal. I used a plant-based ground beef (Beyond Ground Beef) to make my meatballs and was thrilled with the results. The meatballs were tender and moist.

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Prep Time 45

Cook Time 50

Course Soup

Servings

Calories 459 kcal

Ingredients

Meatballs

1 pound ground beef or plant-based ground beef
1 small onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic finelyminced or grated on microplane
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1 large egg
2 Tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher salt or 1/4 teaspoon Morton's Kosher salt
1/4 cup Italian parsley leaves finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Soup

2 large carrots peeled and chopped into ¼ inch pieces
2 ribs celery peeled and chopped into ¼ inch pieces
1 large yellow onion peeled and diced into ¼ inch pieces
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher salt or ½ teaspoon Morton’s Kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 28 ounce can of crushed or diced Italian plum tomatoes with juices
5 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 medium red potato washed and diced into ½ inch pieces
1/2 small butternut squash peeled and diced into ½ inch pieces
1 small zucchini peeled and diced into ½ inch pieces
1 rind Parmesan cheese
1 15 ounce can of white beans drained and rinsed
1 pound black kale (also known as Lacinato, Dinosaur or Tuscan kale) center ribs removed, and leaves sliced into thin julienne strips
1 cup dried small pasta, (shells or orecchiette)
1 Tablespoon red wine or sherry vinegar

For Serving

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.Place all meatball ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Using your clean hands, gently mix until well combined. Form small meatballs, using either a Tablespoon measure or a 1¼ inch mini scooper and arrange on baking sheet. Roast meatballs for 18-20 minutes until meatballs are well browned. Remove from oven and set aside.
While meatballs are roasting, heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add carrots, celery and onion and sauté over medium heat for 6-8 minutes. If veggies start to burn or brown too quickly, add ¼ cup water to pan and continue cooking until veggies have softened and become translucent.
Add tomato paste and stir well, until all the vegetables are coated in the tomato paste. Cook for an additional 4-5 minutes until everything is well browned. There is flavour in the brown, you are developing deep flavours here. Add Aleppo, oregano, thyme, bay leaves, salt, and pepper and stir well.
Add canned tomatoes and stock. Stir well, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add potatoes, squash, zucchini, and Parmesan rind. Increase heat to high and bring mixture to a boil. Once boiling, turn down to simmer, partially cover the pot and simmer soup for 15-20 minutes, until potatoes and squash are tender.
Remove lid, add beans and pasta and simmer, uncovered for an additional 15 minutes. Add kale and meatballs and simmer for another 5 minutes, until pasta is cooked. Remove bay leaves and Parmesan rind and discard.
Just before serving, stir in 1 Tablespoon vinegar.
Ladle soup into bowls and top with grated parmesan cheese.

Nutrition

Calories: 459kcalCarbohydrates: 44gProtein: 25gFat: 21gSaturated Fat: 7gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 90mgSodium: 1772mgPotassium: 1307mgFiber: 8gSugar: 10gVitamin A: 19399IUVitamin C: 101mgCalcium: 374mgIron: 5mg

Keyword comfort soups, hearty winter soup, Main dish soups, Meatball Minestrone, Minestrone Soup, One pot meals

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Grilled Gazpacho with Cheese Crisps

2 Replies

I’m not ready to wear socks yet. It’s technically still summer, and I plan to squeeze out every bit of joy from the last moments of the season. The markets are still overflowing with corn, peppers and tomatoes, so I’m going to ignore the pumpkins for just a bit longer.

This late summer soup comes together quickly. I grilled tomatoes, sweet red peppers, a jalapeno pepper, sweet onion and some corn. I dumped everything, except for the corn, into the blender and puréed until smooth.

The soup could be served heated or chilled, your choice. I like to serve it with some do-it-yourself garnishes. I filled some little bowls with diced cucumber, red pepper and charred corn.

If you’ve got a bit of extra time, make some lacy Parmesan crisps to crumble up into the soup for some crunch. They take about 8 minutes to bake in the oven.

Click here to print recipe for Grilled Gazpacho Soup Download

Green Spring Soup

3 Replies

Clearly no local asparagus was harmed in the making of this soup. I had to rely on Mexico’s finest. I used leeks instead of onions as my allium choice. I prefer their gentler flavour profile for this soup.
Sautee leeks and a touch of garlic.
I opted for vegetable stock over chicken as I really wanted to let the flavours of the vegetables to shine through. Frozen peas are perfect for this.
Puree the soup in the blender. After that, I am asking you, very nicely, to please strain the soup through a wire mesh sieve. Asparagus is a very fibrous vegetable. Straining it will give you the most velvety texture.
I made some toasted breadcrumbs to sprinkle on top of the soup, I love a bit of crunch with smooth soups. When you are cutting up the asparagus, save the tips. Blanch them in boiling water and use them as a pretty garnish. A drizzle of cream or some really fruity extra-virgin olive oil is a beautiful way to finish this soup.

Click here to print recipe for Green Spring Soup (Asparagus and Green Pea Soup_.

Tuscan White Bean and Farro Soup

5 Replies

We’re not really a big game-playing family. The one and only time I ever played a board game with my husband was early on in our relationship. We were on the same team for a friendly game of Trivial Pursuit. The category was sports and leisure and it was a baseball question, the only sport I know anything about. I got so excited that I knew the answer, I shouted it out. Unfortunately, it was the other team’s question. My husband declared a moratorium on game playing with me after that.

But, on a visit to see us in December, my youngest son started a game of tag, and it’s still going on. Sadly, he was playing tag with a wicked cold. He caught it first, passed it on to my husband, and now I am “it”, sneezing and coughing my way through January. Normally, when I’m sick, I lose my appetite, so I sort of got excited about being sick at the beginning of January. I figured this would be the perfect way to lose my December cookie weight. But this cold left me feeling ravenous. I couldn’t seem to eat enough to make me feel satisfied. I was craving carbs.Soup seemed like the perfect remedy. Hot enough to soothe my sore throat and packed with lots of starchy things to make me feel full. This is my take on the classic Tuscan soup, Minestra di Faro Lucchese. (Farro soup in the style of Lucca). I used Mark Bittman’s New York Times recipe as my starting point and adapted slightly from there. I added a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste to the sauteed onions and celery, to really deepen the flavour of this soup. I also slipped in a big pinch of red pepper flakes. While spicy heat is not a typical addition to the classic recipe, my tastebuds were so dulled by my cold that I wanted the soup to really pack a punch of flavour. Plus, spicy food makes my nose run, so I figured that the soup would work to cleanse my sinuses. The final adaptation I made was the addition of a rind of Parmesan cheese to the simmering soup. I always save my rinds and keep them in the freezer in a zip-loc bag to add to soups and stews. This soup does not fall under the “fast food” category. You need to soak the beans the night before. You could use canned beans, but I think that the texture would not be the same. The original recipe called for adding the farro and beans at the same time. I found that the beans needed at least 90 minutes of simmering to get tender, so I added the farro during the last 30 minutes of cooking, so that it would still retain some chew, the way I like it. I also waited and added the carrots at the end of the cooking time, rather than at the beginning with the celery and onions, so that they would not be too mushy.

Serve with lots of chopped Italian parsley and fresh basil for a hit of verdant freshness. Don’t forget the Parmesan cheese.

Click here to print recipe for Tuscan White Bean and Farro Soup.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup.

9 Replies

My youngest son is a linguaphile. For those of you who are not linguaphiles, it means “a lover of languages and words.” I was visiting him a few weeks ago while he was playing his favourite vocabulary game, “Word Smart.” The word “spleenful” came up on the screen and when I asked him what it meant, he defined it as “bad-tempered or irritable.” What a great word! I could not wait to find an opportunity to work it into a conversation.

Then last week, around 10:30 p.m. on Monday night, I was going down the stairs in the dark. I misjudged where the last step was and I ended up crumbling to the floor. Fast forward to Tuesday at 3:00 am when we arrived home from the hospital.I had broken 2 bones on the top of my foot. The doctor at the hospital told me I was very lucky the break was not at a joint, as they do not heal very well and most often result in arthritis complications. I was also very lucky that they chose to put an air cast on me, rather than a plaster cast. I can take this one off for showering. I must confess, using crutches is not my forte. I look like I am about to lurch forward and stumble with every step I take. I make my husband very nervous. The cast has been on now for almost a week, and I must say I have had some “spleenful” moments.

I wanted some comfort food. For me, that means Broccoli Cheddar Soup. I still recall, with great fondness and longing, the Cheddar Broccoli Soup I ate at “Say Cheese” in London Ontario, in the late 1970’s. Say Cheese was a restaurant and specialty cheese shop, located in downtown London, on Talbot Street, across from Covent Market. There was no other place in the city quite like it. They were known far and wide for their cheese soup, but I preferred the Broccoli Cheddar. For a student living away from home for the first time, that soup wrapped me up like a big hug from home. Sadly, the restaurant is no longer there.

The soup was a verdant green colour and had a pure broccoli flavour that wasn’t overpowered by cream or too much cheese. The cheddar was perfectly melted into the soup and the texture was so silky. Every few spoonful would yield some cheesy stringy bits when you pulled your spoon up for a mouthful. Definitely not a soup to order on a date, but perfect for lunch with your girlfriends! It was a touch spicy and just so fragrant.

For years afterward, I would order Broccoli Cheddar soup any time I saw it on a menu. I was always disappointed. These soups were various unappetizing shades of green-grey, and they had a strong sulphur odour. The cheese was usually grainy and not at all melted into the soup. Eventually I just stopped ordering it.

For some reason, I never thought of trying to recreate it at home. Then, last week Cook’s Illustrated dropped a recipe for Cheddar Broccoli Soup into my inbox. I was psyched! Cook’s has yet to let me down.

Since I am unable to bear weight on my left foot yet, I talked my husband and oldest son into being guest cook and photographer for this post. I perched myself on a barstool, at the counter, and chopped, diced and shredded, while calling out instructions to my sous chef. I knew we were in trouble when after reading step 1 in the recipe, “Heat butter in a large Dutch Oven over medium-high heat”, he pulled out the smallest saucepan in the cupboard. We had a quick lesson on what a Dutch Oven is and proceeded to step 2.

Things were going swimmingly until we got to the part where it says to blend half the soup. We could not find the blender lid. My son, who is the rugged outdoors type, said no problem, we will improvise. He covered the blender with a plate. If you lose your blender lid, DO NOT , I repeat, DO NOT, attempt this solution. It does not make an airtight seal. Enough said.

We found a mini-chopper languishing in the back of the cupboard and used that instead.Success! This soup took me right back to my youth. For a few minutes I was feeling anything but spleenful. Cook’s Illustrated has cracked the code! The magic, it seems, is to cook the living daylights out of the broccoli. Overcooking does produce that awful smell, but when you take it past the point of overcooked, the sulphur compounds breakdown, eradicating any bitterness, leaving behind the sweet and nutty flavour of broccoli. It takes almost an hour of cooking to get to that point, but Cook’s figured out a shortcut. Adding a mere ¼ teaspoon of baking soda helped the broccoli break down in about 20 minutes.

They solved the problem of the drab green grey appearance by adding some fresh baby spinach at the end of the cooking period. Some aged cheddar and finely grated Parmesan added the final bit of richness and flavour.

Click here to print recipe for Cheddar Broccoli Soup.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

5 Replies

When my oldest son left to go to University 5 years ago, I felt a deep sense of grief. I got so weepy every time I passed his empty bedroom that I had to shut the door. That sense of loss passed within a few weeks and we all got back to normal. Two years later, my middle child went off to Israel for a Gap year after high school. That sense of loss returned and I felt empty again. Her bedroom door also had to be closed, but this time the cause was mostly mess and not grief! When my third child, the baby (now 19) moved out this past May, I followed him and moved in with him. No, I’m not making this up. I actually did sleep there for the first week. But that’s a story for another time!

Eventually I returned home. I must admit I enjoyed the sounds of silence in the house. However, it was short-lived. A week later, my middle one returned home from college for the summer.

But it is now September and all the chicks have flown the coop! I must admit that rather than feeling that deep sense of loss, I am filled with pride and joy in watching my kids make this transition successfully. That being said, when they all come home to visit, and the whole family is together under one roof, I just get that feeling that everything is good and right with the world. My friend Sharon says, that she sleeps better when all her little chicks are tucked in at home. I know just what she means.

For me, one of the biggest transitions has been learning to cook for just 2 people again. My husband will often come home and look at the big bowls and platters on the table and ask me who else is coming for dinner. One of my favourite strategies is to cook a roast chicken and eat half of it one night and then use the leftover in an entirely new way the next day. I will admit that even food writers get lazy and occasionally buy a Rotisserie chicken at the grocery store. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

With half a roast chicken as leftovers you are well on your way to creating any number of delicious dinners. I found a fantastic recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup in the Ottawa Citizen Food section (September 13). The recipe, posted by Laura Robin, was created by Foodland Ontario. . As with most soups, you start with some diced onions. In the spirit of September and back to school, here is a little onion dicing lesson.

Peppers, red bell and jalapeno, add sweetness and heat.

If field fresh tomatoes are available, use them, if not, go for canned italian plum tomatoes. There is a bit of prep work involved in using fresh tomatoes. They need to be blanched, peeled and diced. Remove the cores and cut a little “X” in the other end. Gently place them in boiling water for a minute and the skins will slip off easily.

Cumin, oregano and chipotle chili powder combine to give this soup its distinctive flavour. Once all the ingredients are chopped, the soup comes together in less than 30 minutes.

Corn and diced cooked chicken get added during the last 5 minutes of cooking. A squeeze of lime juice gives the soup a fresh acidic vibe.

Finish off with some freshly chopped cilantro and a few tortilla chips for crunch! A perfect dinner all in one bowl.

Click here to print recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup.

Andalusian Gazpacho Soup

6 Replies

I literally had a gazpacho soup epiphany the first time I ate this version of it. Thick, creamy, silky, tangy, and just pure tomato goodness. I have had versions of gazpacho where all the vegetables are pulsed together in the food processor, and I have always found the texture and flavour to be murky, reminding me more of V8 cocktail juice, than of gazpacho soup.

This gazpacho soup was served to me several years ago, at a friend’s cottage on a girl’s weekend. When I asked her how she prepared it, she said it was pureed tomatoes, thickened with bread soaked in a little water, olive oil, sherry vinegar, garlic and cumin. This was classic gazpacho soup, prepared the Andalusian way. Andalusia is the Spanish town, where Gazpacho soup originated. I could not believe that these few simple ingredients created this astounding soup.

Now, I feel that I must disclose the event that immediately preceded the ingesting of this soup. It was a blustery day.

We all had afternoon naps and woke up feeling a little chilled, so we made a fire. We were just beginning to prepare our cocktails, when the wind really started whipping around. It came straight down the chimney and the cottage began to fill with smoke. Within minutes the smoke alarm began its piercing cry and chaos ensued. Our hostess managed to rip the smoke alarm from the wall and we opened windows and doors, but it wasn’t helping very much.

Someone suggested dousing the fire with water, but after much discussion, we decided that was a bad idea from a cleanup perspective. Then someone suggested we use the fireplace tongs to lift the burning log, take it outside onto the deck, walk down the stairs and drop it into the lake. This led to quite a discussion about safety. The wind was really blowing and sparks from that log could fly off and begin a forest fire.

Finally, after about an hour and much coughing and choking, someone came up with the bright idea to use the fireplace tongs to lift the burning log, place it in a metal bucket and use that to carry it down to the lake. All were agreed. One person manned the tongs, the second person ran to get oven mitts (the bucket would be hot). The third person wore the gloves and held the bucket and the fourth, opened the doors to the deck. Mission accomplished. The burning log was deposited safely in the lake.

Now I want you to know that we are all intelligent women, quite accomplished in our various fields, but as you may have surmised, not one of us earned a fire safety badge in Girl Scouts. However, this story perfectly demonstrates the ability women have to work together as a team to accomplish great things, like clearing a house from smoke so the cocktail hour could properly begin! After a few glasses of wine, we sat down to dinner and this gazpacho soup.

When I reflected back on the weekend, I surmised that perhaps all the excitement and wine had played tricks on my mind. There was no way that this soup was really that incredible. So I got the recipe from my friend and made it myself.

The beauty of this soup is that there is no need to peel or seed the tomatoes. Fresh ripe summer tomatoes are quartered.

Into the blender they go with a piece of baguette soaked in water, olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt, garlic and cumin.

After pureeing, the soup is poured through a sieve.

Chill and serve! While the soup is delicious as is, I love a little bit of crunch added, so I toasted up some tiny croutons and diced some cucumber and peppers.

Yes, the soup was just as delicious as I remembered.

Deeply flavourful and complex. The small amount of bread really thickened the soup and the olive oil created an emulsion that contributed to the soup’s silky texture.

Click here to print the recipe for Classic Andalusian Gazpacho Soup.

Smoky Corn Chowder

3 Replies

Warning… I’m going to rant like an old person, about the good old days, when you could count on certain things to same. When companies built things to last and when product consistency was a highly regarded value. Don’t you just hate it when companies change a product, when it was perfect already. Then they go and slap a “new and improved” label on it and when I try it, I discover that the improvement has actually made the product worse, not better. Why do they insist on tinkering with something when it isn’t broken. I am referring, specifically, to Imagine Organic Creamy Sweet Corn Soup. It used to have a mild corn flavour that I used as a base for corn chowder. I am not sure what they changed but it now has a nasty chemical aftertaste. I stopped making corn chowder after this.

But then I found a recipe in Chatelaine Magazine that uses canned cream style corn to give the soup thickness and body. I had always thought that cream style corn was corn puréed with cream, but it turns out it contains corn, water, sugar and cornstarch. It is low in fat and works beautifully to thicken a corn chowder with very little effort. The original recipe used bacon to get that smoky flavour. We keep kosher, so bacon was out of the question. For a cold winter day (like every day this winter!) I wanted to have the heaviness of a smoky soup. I decided to experiment with smoked turkey breast. I chopped up a few slices and sautéed them in some vegetable oil. Instead of onions, I opted to use leeks. Sometimes leeks can be quite sandy, so I quarter them, slice them and then soak them in a bowl of cold water.

This is one of those simple chop and dump soups. It simmers for 20 minutes and you have a thick and hearty chowder. A bowl of this is like a big hug, warm and comforting. Add a slice or two of no-knead bread and dinner is done.

I also popped in a finely diced jalapeno pepper when I was sautéing the leeks to wake things up a bit. You could use sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes for a pretty colour contrast and to up the vitamin content. Make it today, you’ll thank me.

To print this recipe, click here.

Linda’s Corn Chowder

1 Reply

This recipe was inspired by my friend Linda. She is the one who introduced me to Imagine Organic soups in tetra-pack packaging. They come in several flavours (creamy corn, butternut squash, tomato to name a few) and are fantastic for making quick soups. It’s a great pantry staple.

The creamy corn does not in fact contain any cream or dairy products for that matter. I think of these soups as a blank canvas and add in my own ingredients. This is delicious in the summer when you can add fresh corn but I make it all year round using frozen corn too.

What you need:

3 tablespoons butter
3 small cloves garlic, finely minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely minced
1 ½ – 2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 large onion, finely diced
2 ribs celery, finely diced
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into ½ inch pieces
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 litres Imagine Organic Creamy Sweet Corn Soup
2 cups fresh or frozen corn
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

What you do:

1. In a large pot, melt butter and add garlic, jalapeno, salt and onions and sauté over medium-low heat for about 2 minutes. Add celery and cook for about 5 more minutes. Add potatoes, thyme and Corn Soup. Bring to a boil, turn down to low, cover and let simmer for about 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

2. Add corn and cook for about 5 more minutes. Taste for seasoning, adding pepper and more salt if needed. Transfer one third of the soup to a blender and puree. Add pureed soup back to the rest of soup. Serve hot.

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Salt and Serenity

Tales from my kitchen

Tag Archives: soup

Meatball Minestrone Soup