Satisfying soups are hearty, nourishing, restorative, and curative, bowls of goodness full of vegetables, legumes, meats, grains, rice, potatoes, or pasta. They can be simple affairs, made with whatever is languishing in the fridge, say a piece of steak, a single carrot, half a can of chickpeas, tomatoes that never made it into a salad.
As part of The Recipe Box Project, we asked readers for their favorite soups, and more than a score of rib-sticking recipes arrived in our inbox. Some are more stews than soups; all are hearty.
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Our picks include two deconstructed gems, one a stuffed cabbage soup with beef chuck, in which brown sugar and lemon juice provide the sweet-tart flavor of stuffed cabbage without the fuss of rolling or stuffing. The second is caraway-scented German potato soup that is basically a baked potato with all the trimmings, including sour cream and bacon.
A trip to Tuscany inspired another reader to re-create ribollita, a vegetarian tomato-bread soup; this version includes beans and fennel. And finally a riff on an old family favorite, a pot of sausage and kale with orzo and red kidney beans.
Most soups thicken overnight in the refrigerator, but they also mellow if left for a day. When reheating, add stock or water, ladle into bowls, and after the first few hot sips, you’ll be planning your next pot.
The recipes:
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Recipe for stuffed cabbage soup
– Recipe for stuffed cabbage soup
– Recipe for German Westphalian potato and bacon soup
– Recipe for ribollita
– Recipe for sausage and kale soup
The Recipe Box Project is a reader-based recipe collection. If you have a favorite dish you want others to know about, send it to [email protected]
Debra Samuels can be reached at [email protected]
