Friday, October 10, 2008

Soup, A Year Round Family Favorite

By Jana Banks

There's a lot to love about soups. The tastes, the textures, the endless varieties, and let's not forget the comfort food factor. While soups are often thought of as a wintertime food, there's no reason they can't be a year-round favorite. Many of the heartier soups can be a complete meal. And for the hottest days, you can always switch to chilled soup if you prefer. Below are some of are some of the basics about the types of soups you can make.

To start, let's separate the soups into a few categories, beginning with those that require a stock base and those that don't. Then there are also the fruit soups. Some examples of soups requiring stock include your broths, bouillon, and consomm. Soups without stock would be bisque, chowders, creams, and purees.

You can make soup stock from every kind of meat including beef, turkey, lamb, chicken, veal, fish, etc. Using dark-colored meats will produce brown stock while white soup stock is made from light-colored meats. Vegetables commonly added to soup stock include onion, celery, and carrots. Soups in this category include beef vegetable, chicken soups, tomato soups, cabbage soups, and broth's.

Purees and cream soups often make a great main course for lunch or for a lighter dinner since they're quite thick and rich. Varieties can include split pea, creamy corn or tomato, clam chowder, potato and bean purees bisques like lobster or oyster, and vegetable cream soups such as cream of broccoli or mushroom.

Then there are the fruit soups - these are delicious chilled soups that are perfect on a hot summer day. Refreshing varieties include cherry, honeydew melon, strawberry, peach, and cantaloupe. Some cold soup recipes will list fruit juices as a mixer while others use a vegetable-based soup stock in the recipe. Either stock works well.

There's nothing like well-made, scrumptious, homemade soup to make any meal complete. Remember to top your creamy soups with a simple garnish for that finishing touch. Serve soups like bean or onion in a covered soup dish, while your cream soups are best served in a round, flat soup bowl. Don't be surprised if everyone asks for seconds.

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