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Fresh Tomato Gazpacho

Fresh Tomato Gazpacho

I get antsy during tomato season if I don’t have a satisfactory number of local tomatoes in my house at all times. It’s a short season and the alternative during the rest of the year is so sad in comparison that I feel tremendous pressure to make the very most of one of my favourite food seasons (and yet I feel close to no pressure for so many seemingly more important things…).

Fresh Tomato Gazpacho

So, short of the Spanish Tomatina Festival, tomatoes have been on, in, under and around everything that has been happening in the kitchen these days. Usually just salad like the Avocado Caprese or this one from last summer with avo croutons, but as you saw last week, there has also been pasta.

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Summer Minestrone Soup

Summer Minestrone Soup

Lately I’ve been brainstorming ways to make vegetables more appealing when you’re in a ‘veggies are for losers’ kind of mood. This is often a problem I have with clients who are going through treatment; their brain wants the veggies but their body wants the toast and the crackers.

Summer Minestrone Soup

When we don’t feel well it’s all about the comfort food. But what makes food comfortable? A bit of nostalgia, some carbs and not making it yourself, is my current definition. There’s even room for veggies sometimes.

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Green Asparagus Soup

Green Asparagus Soup

Did you know in traditional French cooking, if you see the word ‘princesse’ in the name of the dish, you can usually assume there will be asparagus in it? For example Princess Omelette (Omelette Princesse) is an asparagus omelette.

Green Asparagus Soup

I think it is because the asparagus tips look like small crowns. Regardless, I think they need to make a Disney movie about this, they could just call it Princess Movie (Filme Princesse). Imagine a bunch of little kids singing about asparagus, dressing up as asparagus for Halloween (or just everyday), and possibly asking for asparagus for dinner (‘Mommy, why does asparagus season have to be sooooo short?!’) I seriously think I’m onto something.

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Mushroom & Lentil Soup with Lemony Massaged Kale

Mushroom & Lentil Soup with Lemony Massaged Kale

You know it’s winter in Vancouver when you can’t find your raincoat or umbrella because they’re hanging in the shower, still not quite dry from the last time you used them. It’s the time of year that warm, hearty food is really appealing, the kind that lights a tiny furnace inside you. The kind that used to make you salivate as the smell drifted upstairs while you were (pretending to) do your homework. Enter this awesome soup.

Mushroom & Lentil Soup with Lemony Massaged Kale

My sister ordered a bowl of soup like this in a restaurant while I was visiting her in Amsterdam (PS –the Dutch do soup really well, I think it might be the antidote to their chilly, all-weather bike riding). It was simply called ‘lentil soup’ on the menu (at least the English version) but she gave me a taste and it was so rich and flavourful, but most interestingly, there was a nutty pop happening that totally worked. It came from toasted pine nuts –not as an expensive, toasty garnish, but stirred right into the soup.

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