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Well we done and did it! Made vegetable soup that is. What recipe did we use? My recipe which I made up from perusing a bunch of sources. In addition to tips from the Box Car children books, I first read about vegetable soup from the best of the best of the cookbooks - The Antoinette Pope School Cookbook by Antoinette and Francois Pope. Antoinette Pope was the founder of the famed Antoinette Pope School of Fancy Cookery on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. This school doesn't appear to still be around. I remember watching their show "Creative Cookery" in Chicago in the 50s and early 60s. They seemed to really know what they were doing and their cookbook attests to that.
I also perused the internet and got some good tips from that source. One thing soon became clear-to make good vegetable soup you need some sort of broth-since I wanted a vegetarian vegetable soup the broth had to be vegetable broth. Some recipes mentioned buying the broth pre-made in a supermarket. Others said you should make your own. I have had experience with vegetable broth from the store and it wasn't pleasant. I decided no way! So then I decided to make the broth on Thursday and the soup on Friday. Well, what did I put in the 22 quart stainless steel pot? About everything we grew but first I filled the pot about a quarter full of water, added 4 tablespoons of salt and a tablespoon of black pepper and turned on the burner. Next, I put in a bunch of whole carrots that weren't only washed but scraped. (By the way, I actually did very little preparation of the vegetables themselves-I have a crew of assistants that did much of the actual preparation work.) Next, I put in Hamburg Parsley root. (This is similar to parsnips but has a stronger flavor. We only grow this for ourselves because it yields really bad and unless we sell it for 10 bucks a pound we'd lose money growing it. I recommend you substitute parsnips since the flavor is nearly identical.) Then added turnips, celery with leaves (clean celery well to remove all dirt), bell peppers, garlic, onions, fresh parsley and celltop which is a cutting type of celery were used as herbs. (Just for reading this newsletter we are offering free celltop and free parsley. Just stop by any time and cut yourself some-if we are there or not. The celltop and parsley are the primary herbs in our herb raised beds that are still green and they are labeled! Smell 'em, and unless you have a cold you can't goof here!) For color, I added a tablespoon of turmeric to the big pot. The pot of veggies simmered all day and then a strainer was used to remove just the broth-the veggies were discarded. We then put about 6 quarts of the broth in an 8 quart pot and refrigerated it. We then froze the rest of the broth, which was about 4 quarts.
The next day (Friday), we started making the vegetable soup! Friday turned out to be the coldest day so far of the fall, there was even a dusting of snow on some of the leaves. THE PERFECT DAY FOR SOUP!!! First, we put the refrigerated homemade vegetable broth back into the 22 quart pot and turned the burner to medium heat. We sautéed chopped garlic and onions in olive oil until golden brown and while they were being cooked started adding other vegetables. This time they were cut into small bite-sized pieces. We added carrots, parsnips, celery stalks(no celery leaves!!), finely chopped fresh parsley, lots of diced fresh tomatoes, (use canned diced tomatoes if fresh ones aren't available), frozen green beans, chopped broccoli, chopped cabbage, diced potatoes, 2 tablespoons sugar, celery seed, thyme, a bit of oregano and basil and the juice of two fresh lemons. Last we added the sautéed onions and garlic and then salt and black pepper to taste. We simmered the soup for a couple of hours and then checked if it needed more salt or pepper. It didn't so we continued simmering it until we ate-which was for at least 2 hours later. By the way, we served the soup with delicious bread (and of course butter) that was still warm after being taken out of our bread machine.
By the way, seven people in our family ate the soup and I asked them to give you their rating (1 to 10) as well as any comments.
Annemarie: When I was growing up, my aunt made an oxtail soup that was absolutely superb. Of course, I didn't eat the meat or vegetables just the liquid. I did the same thing with this soup and it was the equal of or better than the soup my aunt made. It even looked like hers. I would give it a 10 without any doubt.
Rebekah: I thought the soup was flavorful, robust, and delicious. I loved all the different vegetables, especially the carrots, parsnips, and cabbage. Rating: 8 out of 10
Mark: On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the vegetable soup as a 7. It was quite rich and flavorful (the beans were excellent for some reason), but there was an element my taste buds were searching for, but couldn't find. It was nevertheless a very successful soup for the lack of any meat and one that will probably be even better when served again.
Bernadette: I don't like many soups, although that isn't saying much because I
haven't tried many soups. My favorite soups, starting with my most favorite, are Cream of Mushroom, Tomato Soup (with grilled cheese!), our homemade split pea soup, and our homemade Vegetable soup. So, Vegetable soup comes in at about 7 stars.
My thoughts on the soup: It was a very good soup, fresh and flavorful. The broth was excellent and I think it could be the basis for other soups. Freshly baked bread goes well - dunking it in the warm broth. A bread with a good crust on it would be best, I think. IMHO the soup would have been a bit better with some sort of meat. Perhaps chicken,
since chicken goes very well with fresh ingredients or even pork or turkey for a heartier tasting soup. Although, meat kinda spoils the whole vegetable soup idea so I would go for the "meaty" tasting Portobello mushroom.
Matthew: I'm not a soup fan. I have had home made soups and canned, most were usually a bit bland or salty. The vegetable soup we made was something quite different. It had a good rich flavor almost meaty. Even though we didn't use any meat stock. I really don't know how that happened. I can only guess it was from the homemade vegetable stock. What ever the reason this soup certainly is one of my favorites.
Catherine: My experience: I knew the soup would be delicious just by the aroma of the cooking vegetables that filled the house. All the vegetables blended well together and I especially liked how the potatoes and parsnips added some meaty texture to the soup. It is definitely on my list of top five favorite meals. Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.
Tom: It tasted better than I hoped! Perhaps even better than the Box Car children's soup! I was amazed that it tasted as if it had beef broth in it. I have to give it 9 stars. Golly, I wish I had a steaming bowl of it put in front of me at this moment!
Well, Indian Summer will pay a return visit to Magicland Farms a good part of the week with sunny skies and temperatures more like early October than early November. Toward the end of the week more typical November weather will return but it will still be milder than normal. Next week, starting on Monday the first day of rifle deer season, looks like it will be more like December than November. While we try to stay open until Thanksgiving, it looks like this week might just be our last week open for the year. More details in the next issue of the newsletter. Also we will be closing at 5PM now due to the time change.
Nashle!
Tom
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