When I'm sick. When I'm cold. When I'm feeling festive. When I'm feeling the opposite of festive. When I don't know what to eat for dinner, and when I know exactly what I want to serve for a dinner party. These are just some of the times I make creamy, silky puréed vegetable soups.
Learning how to make vegetable soup is soothing in itself: the repetitive motion of blending, the forgiving and adaptable form leaving room for daydreaming. And you don't need broth or stock to do it, nor do you need cream or any other dairy to make it rich. All you need are vegetables and a blender. (I like to use an immersion blender for easier cleanup, but if you happen to have a Vitamix, soup-making is absolutely the time to bust it out.)
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell
Follow these simple steps, and you’re on your way to a fall and winter full of the best soups ever:
1. Prepare the Vegetables
Pick the veggies you want to turn into soup and start chopping. You’ll want at least one allium: an onion or a shallot or a leek. The rest is up to you: carrot, butternut squash, zucchini, cauliflower, sunchoke, peas, celery root, cauliflower, corn, sweet potato, etc. Pair a couple together or stick with just one type, and peel and chop them into somewhat uniform chunks. (Don't worry about how they look: no one is going to see the chopped veggies except you. Isn't that a nice break?) For a thicker soup, add a potato to your mix, but don't add too many—they can make a pureed soup gluey. For a sweeter soup, add an apple or a pear. Today I used a mix of yellow onions, carrots, sweet potato, and apples for an autumnal bowl perfect for the month of October.
2. Sweat the Vegetables
Melt some fat (about a tablespoon) in your favorite soup pot: butter, olive oil, coconut oil—whatever you like. (Me? I like butter.) Toss your chopped onion or other allium in the fat as soon as it's melted. Let the onion (or shallots, or leeks) sweat for a few minutes to soften, then add the rest of your chopped veggies. Give everything a stir, and add a bit more oil or butter if you need it. Sprinkle with some salt, stir one more time, and let everything sweat for a few more minutes to get the flavor juices flowing.
3. Add Aromatics
While the vegetables are sweating, add some aromatics to season the soup. Finely chopped ginger and garlic are always great options; so is curry powder and garam masala. A sprig of thyme and/or a few bay leaves are almost never out of place, or you can use a rosemary sprig, cinnamon stick, or a dried chile to spice things up.
4. Add Liquid
All you need is water. I know, I know—you think you need stock, or cream, or beer. But the pure flavor of the vegetables is going to shine through so much better if you just use water. If you want to get a little fancy, you can deglaze the pot with a bit of wine or fortified wine such as sherry, madeira, port, or vermouth before you add the water. This can lend a nice depth of flavor, but it's not essential to soup success.
When you add the water, add enough to cover all the vegetables completely, then put the lid on your pot and bring everything to a boil. Reduce the heat and let everything simmer until it's all tender (you want to be able to very easily mash the chunks of vegetables against the side of the pot). Depending on the size of your vegetables, this should take about half an hour. Is the water evaporating too quickly? Just add more.
