Food: the soup of the week

I don't usually cook soup every week. It just happened that now I did. I cooked five soups in five consecutive weeks... They are almost vegan, I don't eat meat, I do occasionally eat some fish, eggs and cheese. Here they are:

1. Smoked trout chowder. I have a happy memory from a skiing vacation about a corn chowder with truffle oil and micro greens. I liked it so much I went and had it tree days in a row. Then, I had a smoked fish chowder at a local brewery, that may or may not have had corn. Anyway, I combined the two. On a sauteed base of onion carrot and celery I added one can of smoked trout in oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Then I added water and few cubed potatoes and frozen corn and let it boil. When done I added a little cream, and that's it... I cooked this just before the coronavirus situation really exploded. I may have intuitively needed this comfort soup.

2. Cabbage soup. I make often the traditional eastern European cabbage soup. That is a base of sauteed onion carrots, parsnip, celery, salt, pepper, shredded cabbage, water thyme (very important)  and crushed tomatoes (fresh or canned) with a smoked meat bone, that I skip because I don't eat meat for few years now. But to improve the nutritional content I add sometimes garbanzo beans or some kind of grains. Now I added buckwheat, that I just discovered and I find I like it added to meals and not so much on its own (it has a quite strong taste somehow feels metallic to me). I also added turmeric (at the beginning with the sauteed vegetables, and half of pickled hot pepper for some bite. Again this is a comfort food for me as I had it from childhood cooked by mom and grandma. I also came across cabbage soup as a "diet" food, it must be because it is very filing for the few calories it has...

3. Red lentil soup. This is both a comfort food and a memory... a skating memory. In the good old days when I was skating I used to skate on Mondays a session on my own, at noon, then have a lesson at 3. During that break I either ran errands or had lunch. Almost invariable the lunch was at a Turkish restaurant that is close by the rink and open on Mondays, and has a lunch menu... I often have their red lentil soup (a little spicy and minty). I made it on a base sauteed onion carrots and celery, salt, pepper, turmeric, red pepper flakes, then I added water, red lentils and tomato paste.  And... it was the first time I added prunes. The recipe caught my eye on facebook, and I just happened to have prunes in the house and they were to dried up to eat on their own. I have to say it they added something "warm" to the soup. The traditional Turkish recipe has some barley to thicken it and, at least at the restaurant, was blended a little.

4. Cauliflower soup. I love cauliflower and I've just happened to find a beautiful one in store. I usually cook cauliflower in different kinds of stews (like mediteranean with celery, peppers, olives or capers, or moorish with curry spice and raisins). But now I wanted soup. Staying home all the time, I realized how convenient was to be able to grab a bowl of soup when I wanted something quick and light to eat (instead of grabbing some junk food). I started the cauliflower soup with sauteed onion. carrots, celery, red pepper, salt, pepper, turmeric, water, cauliflower, half of pickled hot pepper, red pepper spread (sometimes I put tomatoes but as I had the pepper spread on hand I thought is gonna be a nice change and keep the color of the soup lighter). I usually add potato to the cauliflower, but  I wanted something a little more filling and I added cannellini (white) beans, hoping they wouldn't compete in taste with the cauliflower and I was happy with the choice.

5. White bean soup. This is my favorite soup! but as my grandma was making it, I cannot ever get even close to that, but guess what, neither is my mom. I'm wondering if maybe is more about the happy childhood memories, then the actual soup. Anyway, I was talking to my mom about this, and she said "of course you loved grandma soup, she added tarragon!". The "of course" was in regard with the very well known fact that tarragon is my favorite herb. This soup I make from dry white, cannellini beans. I don't use white beans often, the previous week I used a can that I bought when stocking up the pantry for the quarantine. These white dry beans I had were a little old I think, I had them in the pantry for a while, I really use them just for this soup. Either that, or I didn't cook them enough, so they were a little hard in the soup. The base was sauteed onion, carrots, parsnip and celery to which I added the beans that I cooked for half hour before separately, with the liquid, and close to the end I added tomato paste and tarragon. "Of course" I loved the soup with the tarragon, but I don't really associated it with my grandma soup, sight... My grandma usually used a smoked bone, so that may be the difference, but she surely made it without meat at points. It's gonna be a forever mystery!

That's were my soup streak ended, the next "light" cooked meal of the week was a zucchini stew.