I love vegetable soup, especially in the Fall. There's really something special about assembling a set of ingredients that are some of the healthiest things on the planet into a thoroughly satisfying meal. Making your own veggie stock is equally as satisfying and so very easy. You can even use the scraps from putting together your mise en place for the soup to flavor your stock--and it only needs to simmer for thirty minutes before its ready to be used.
Vegetable Soup
Adapted from On Cooking: A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals
Makes 1 quart (approximately 4 servings)
1 ounce of butter
1 ounce of carrot, small dice
1 ounce of celery, small dice
2 ounces of onion, small dice
1 garlic clove, finely minced
3 ounces of tomato concassée
3 ounces of corn kernels
2 ounces of turnip, small dice
2 ounces of leek, white part only, small dice
1 quart of vegetable stock (recipe follows)
4 ounces of stew beef, small dice
1 bay leaf
1 stem of fresh thyme
freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
salt, to taste
beets, thinly sliced for garnish
parsley, finely chopped for garnish
In a soup pot, brown the beef in the butter. Remove and drain carefully. Sweat the mirepoix (carrots, onion, celery), leeks, and turnip until tender in the fond left behind. Add the garlic and sauté lightly. Add the broth and the diced beef and bring to a simmer. Add the bay leaf, thyme and keep simmering for around 20-30 minutes. Add the tomato concassée, corn for an additional ten minutes of cooking. Remove the thyme stem and the bay leaf and season to taste. Garnish with the sliced beets and parsley for color and flavor.
Vegetable Broth
Adapted from On Cooking: A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals
Makes 2 quarts
1 pound of Mirepoix, chopped
1 Leek, green part, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed
2 ounces of fennel, chopped
4 ounces of white wine
1 ounce of turnip, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 quarts of water
1 bay leaf
4 parsley stems
1 teaspoon of black peppercorns, smashed
1 thyme stem
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Add oil to a stockpot and sweat the vegetables for 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer—keep at a simmer for 30 minutes and then strain, cool, and refrigerate or use in your vegetable soup.
