I love simple meals! One thing that cooking school taught me was modifying recipes to discover the taste profile that I enjoyed. This soup is a lovely base for many soup creations ~ like the simple Potato, Swiss Chard and Pepper Soup below. In this blog, we will explore how to make this base soup and give you some ideas for creating the taste profile that you and your family enjoys.
This base soup has a nice creaminess to it by just blending 1/2 of the soup. It is very simple and the flavors do not compete with with whatever flavor profile you want to create. Have fun exploring….
Ingredients
1/2 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 1/2 cup potatoes, peeled and diced
4 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon thyme *
1/2 teaspoon rosemary *
Directions
Saute onion and celery in a soup pot. Use a little vegetable broth if iyou have any issue with sticking. Once the onions are translucent, add your spices * (I used rosemary and thyme, but use what you like) Toast the spices for a minute then add the vegetable broth and potatoes. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes, until potatoes have softened.
Take 1/2 of the soup and place in blender. Be careful, hot liquids produce alot of steam and can overflow easily in a blender. Blend to a fairly smooth texture, then add back to the soup. This will create a wonderful creamy textures.
At this point, remove what you won’t eat at this meal if you want to change the soup up each thing you eat it.
Now, add whatever additional ingredients that you like to create you perfect soup.
Variations for the Soup
There are so many possibilities, just use your imagination. The soup pictured above was just items that I had in my garden and refrigerator ~ Swiss chard, red and yellow bell peppers, and green onions.
So what area your favorite flavors or what is in the refrigerator?
Beans
Roasted leftover vegetables
salsa
chili paste
curry paste
soy sauce and ginger
tomatoes
corn
frozen vegetables
Then, there are toppings.
Nuts
Seeds
Diced Tomatoes
Sliced Green onions
Avacado
Fresh Herbs
Here is one with Harissa paste, frozen roasted corn and topped with cilantro.
So what is your creation?