The days are getting shorter, the temperatures are dropping, the skies are getting grayer and the bright colors are becoming less and less common on the early vegetable stands until you’re only eating seasonal fruits and vegetables. But rest assured, autumn and winter are not necessarily synonymous with the spleen, especially for lovers of “comfort food”. And we may not be talking about raclette, fondueor other dishes that are certainly tasty, but should not be abused. Here come the soups.
Far from bland shapes, artificial industrial “tastes” can be easily make soup quickly with almost any seasonal vegetable, especially since they make very comforting and very tasty soups. In addition, you can easily prepare a large pot in which you will draw during the week (keeping it cool).
Butternut, pumpkin, chestnuts, potato, onion, carrot, sweet potato, mushrooms… There are many combinations and choosing 5 was even heartbreaking. Note that frozen vegetables, uncooked or processed, are a healthy alternative.
1 – “Winter vegetables” according to Cyril Lignac
The chef, who has never skimped on tips, especially at RTL, recommends first browning the onion and garlic in the bottom of the pot in a little salted butter. You can add a few pieces of bacon for a meaty taste. Then add the diced vegetables: half a leek, a piece of celery, 5 pears, 3 charlotte potatoes and two carrots. Mix everything well so that the juices flavor the mixture, then cover with water. Let it simmer on low heat and when the vegetables are cooked, stir, season with salt and pepper and you’re done. Cyril Lignac adds a little crème fraîche for a velvety effect. According to taste, add cumin, “5 spice” mixture and croutons as a side dish (decorate yourself).
2 – CusineAZ mushroom soup
It’s mushroom season, and it’s not just eaten with pan-seared duck breast and Sarladais potatoes (even if it’s very good). So let’s stick with the soup theme, with a recipe from CuisineAZ. 600 grams of Paris mushrooms, 100 grams of onion, white leek, 60 cl of water, chicken broth, salt and pepper were planned for 4 people.
Start by peeling, cutting the stems and wash the mushrooms with plenty of vinegar water. Then cut them into pieces. Cut the onion and leek into pieces. Place the three ingredients in your pot and pour in the water before crumbling the chicken stock. Simmer and stir. If you have a heated blender (or “soup maker”), blending is done in the selected cooking mode. Season with salt and pepper, you can add chopped parsley (or basil) and, of course, holy croutons.
3 – French onion soup
Everything is said or suggested in the title of the dish. It’s a classic that appeals to those coming back from a good night out, but can be enjoyed however you like. In its “rich” version, take onions (about 1 per person), unsalted butter, flour, water, chicken stock or diced vegetables.
Let’s start with that Cut the onions very finely with a mandoline or a knife and fry them in semi-salted butter over low heat.. Cyril Lignac specifies that to cook the onions, you need to cook them slowly without coloring them too much. The chef notes that in his native Aveyron, they add duck fat (which is rarely a bad idea). Once the onion is cooked, add the flour and let it cook again before moistening with water. It is at this stage that the spare cube is added, which is optional. Note that CuisineAZ offers a light version with olive oil instead of butter.
The result makes the soup “heavier” instead of “light”. Cyril Lignac therefore toasts garlic-rubbed bread, and you can also brown pieces of bacon that have just been added to the soup. The bread is then placed on top of the soup, before the grated cheese covers your preparation (cheese of your choice, as tasty as possible). Then place under the oven rack before serving. In the lighter version, we stop before putting it in the toaster and season it with thyme. However, a slice of garlic-rubbed toast would not be a crime on the side.
4 – North African note harira
First of all, let’s avoid pointless arguments: North African means Moroccan, Algerian or Tunisian, there is no need to (re)start the rivalry. The recipe here is one from CuisineAZ titled “Algerian harira”. But cultural boundaries are porous between each other’s borderlands.
Once this trap is removed, take 300 grams of meat (lamb shoulder), but you can also try the vegetarian option. Offer 2 carrots, squash or butternut squash to avoid zucchini that is not in season, 2 cloves of garlic, 50 grams of green lentils, parsley, 1 tbsp. c. ras el hanout, pepper, 100 grams of flour, 250 grams of canned peeled tomatoes (no fresh tomatoes in winter), 4 stalks of celery, 2 tbsp. c. turmeric, fresh coriander, 100 grams of chickpeas, 2 large onions, yeast and salt. The list of ingredients is long, but the preparation is simple.
Mix flour, yeast with a little warm water and set aside, cover with rokon. Chop the onion and fry in olive oil. Add meat, garlic, spices and fresh herbs, brown for 5 minutes on medium heat without sticking to the bottom of the pot. Add peeled and cut into small pieces vegetables and tomato. Bake for ten minutes. If your chickpeas are canned and therefore cooked, they are added at the end. If they are dry, they are soaked in water the day before, before being rinsed and put into this cooking stage. Then cover everything with boiling water. Salt pepper. Bring to a boil before reducing heat and simmering for an hour.
Then it’s time to remove the meat and blend it. Then we take some of the broth that we add to the sourdough from the beginning of the recipe and add it to the pot while stirring. Put the meat back and let it boil again. You can choose to cook the chickpeas separately to keep them whole in the harira. We add them at the end, cooking for a few minutes on low heat..
Note that cilantro can also be omitted if you don’t like it. A small piece of sugar can also be added to compensate for the acidity of the tomato. For a recipe that “keeps more on the body,” angel hair or “bird’s tongue” paste can be added after cooking in boiling water. Otherwise, we offer a homemade semolina porridge galette as a companion, or you can buy it from a bakery. “Bsahtkum”.
5 – personal recipe
Here it is a personal preference, simple, quick, but with a delicious result. Offer 3 carrots, a small whole pumpkin, a nice sweet potato, two onions, 4 tablespoons of green lentils, salt, pepper and… chestnuts. For the latter, prefer boiled and vacuum-packed. The amount depends on your taste, but count around 200 grams.
We peel, cut into pieces, put everything in a pot with the broth of two chicken, beef or vegetable cubes. Salt, pepper, amateurs add fresh coriander before covering with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 45 minutes. All you have to do is mix and enjoy. You can add a little cream or the lighter variant Skyr (very thick, protein-rich Icelandic yogurt).
A little extra tip: put it at the beginning of cooking two chicken thighs stewing with vegetables and whose fat seeps through the soup. Remove them before mixing. You can grill them afterwards to grill the skin. It is only a possibility.