EnjoyYourCooking

My Homemade Food Recipes & Tips

Tag: soup (Page 3 of 5)

Tomato and Rice Soup

April 16th, 2011 in Hot Soups, Soups by Julia Volhina
Tomato and Rice Soup

Gentle tomato soup with rice filling garnished with freshly chopped basil is a russian variant of tomato-basil soup.

It is beef broth based and if you want to make it more tomaty and thick, reduce amount of water you use for broth and increase amount of tomatoes.

I’ve garnished soup with basil even though it isn’t very widespread in Russia, but it gives a nice kick to flavor of this soup. After all basil and tomatoes are the combination which can never taste wrong.

Russian Lenten Mushroom Soup

February 19th, 2011 in Hot Soups, Soups by Julia Volhina
Russian Lenten Mushroom Soup

This soup doesn’t include any meat, it is based on mushrooms and have vegetables (carrot, parsley and celery roots, potato) as well as pearl barley.

Such kind of mushroom soup is very popular in Russia. Various kind of mushrooms can be used in this recipe, but I must say fresh or frozen porcini are the best tasting ones, if you can find them, of course.

If you are not trying to follow Great Lent rules – my advise is don’t skip on sour cream, 1 tablespoon of sour cream to the bowl of mushroom soup not only adds nutrients, but also gives the soup its unique rich taste.

Easier Borscht with Precooked Beets and Beans

December 18th, 2010 in Hot Soups, Soups by Julia Volhina
Easier Borscht with Precooked Beets and Beans

One of the challenges when cooking classic beet root soup, borscht, is to get all vegetables (and there are quite few) cooked till perfect readiness at the same time.

Considering different vegetables require different cooking time it is sometimes hard to achieve. For borscht you need to make sure beens are soft, while potatoes are not over cooked and beets don’t lose their color.

So, to make this happen: I cook beens in a separate cooking pot (just until they are soft and ready), cook beets skin on (like for salad) in separate pot in advance, and add these two to the main cooking pot at appropriate times.

By the way, using of canned beets and beens instead of cooking them yourself is an option (which I never did, but it may safe you some time).

Buckwheat Soup

October 30th, 2010 in Hot Soups, Soups by Julia Volhina
Buckwheat Soup

This is good soup to cook at winter: time when fresh herbs are not full of flavor and most of vegetables are not as full of nutrients as fresh ones.

Root vegetables used in this recipe (potatoes, carrots, parsley and celery roots) are good on keeping their nutrient through whole winter and buckwheat grains add even more.

As for most of meat broth based soups, you can save some time cooking it by preparing meat broth in advance: night before or so, and then reheat before cooking buckwheat soup itself.

I really encourage you to cook beef broth yourself, whatever they say in those advertisements, but broth from can can’t be the same good as broth prepared by yourself from ingredients you choose, it is not that hard after all.

French Onion Soup

August 14th, 2010 in Hot Soups, Soups by Julia Volhina
French Onion Soup

I absolutely love this tender onion and cheese soup with a light hint of spices and dry white wine. It is very good choice for home dinner party or romantic dinner just for you two.

You can prepare most of the steps in advance (from step 1 to step 9), then pour soup to the bowls, add bread and cheese and put them to the oven right before serving. That will save you a bit of time and ensure every meal comes fresh and warm at the right time.

My advice would be to use home prepared broth, cooked with good quality beef, carrots, onions, parsley and celery for this soup. If you need some hints on how to prepare beef broth, follow these instructions.

Lithuanian Borscht (Cold Borscht)

June 26th, 2010 in Cold Soups, Soups by Julia Volhina
Lithuanian Borscht (Cold Borscht)

Are you suffering from hot weather like me? When outside feels like in the oven there is no better food to eat than cold soup. Lithuanian borscht is a nice refreshing buttermilk based cold soup you can put together without any extra hassle and then enjoy it sitting on the patio.

The real trick to Lithuanian borscht is to find good kefir – it should be original kefir which hasn’t been flavored with any tastes, not salted and not sweetened. I used plain unsweetened kefir (can be replaced with buttermilk) from Lifeway and it worked out perfectly.

The rest of ingredients: vegetables (beets, cucumber and greens) and hard boiled eggs, are easy to get and not pricey at all. And btw, even though this soup is called a “borscht”, the only thing it has in common to other borschts, I guess, is the color.

Soup-Purée with Broccoli and Chicken

May 8th, 2010 in Hot Soups, Soups by Julia Volhina
Soup-Purée with Broccoli and Chicken

This bright green colored soup-purée (or cream soup) made of chicken, broccoli and some other vegies is probably the quickest to prepare soup I know.

It is also nutritious: loaded with healthy vegetables and white chicken meat, which are boiled, pureed and blended together for tasty creamy texture.

All that makes this soup very good choice not only for kids, but also for people who prefer soft food.