Hi! I’ve made four soups in the past 7 days!
French onion soup! Had to remind myself if my recipe from newsletter #1 was good or not. It was! I do think it took almost an hour and a half to caramelize my onions though, much longer than the 45 minutes in the recipe as written. So don’t be afraid to revise the caramelizing time upward. For cheese, I used a combo of gruyere and Emmental. I wouldn’t use all Emmental alone but it’s great in combo with the gruyere (the classic French onion soup cheese). Finally, I would also recommend adding leeks with the onions if you wanted or some Worcestershire sauce at the deglazing step.
Broccoli Cheese Soup. I mostly followed this recipe from Serious Eats. I added some extra broth and maybe not the full amount of cheese off the bat; it almost split and it was only saved with some elbow grease and whisking in cornstarch. My tips: don’t let the soup go full boil once you add the milk (it was an accident on my part), and possibly just follow this recipe as written.
I didn’t actually make this soup. I completely misread the directions on Charred Eggplant and Lemon Soup from the new Palestinian cookbook, Falastin. I messed up the eggplant cooking step, aka Step 1 (4 get charred then drained, 2 stay raw then get salted in the first step). Actually, I didn’t “misread” the directions so much as not read the directions at all. I’m going to table this and get more eggplants and then actually make this soup. Maybe if you want to compare notes with me, make this soup this week too? If you need the recipe, I’ve attached a photo of the recipe AND the eggplant charring directions.
Finally, I made Vegetarian Chili with Butternut Squash and Moroccan Spices. I would argue this is not a Chili! But it is good, fairly quick, and vegan. I might roast the cauliflower before I add it next time and mash up the chickpeas a little bit to add some thickness to it, and add some spinach to wilt or kale toward the end. I always like extra greens in my soup to make it feel like a salad-level amount of vegetables.
