Soup is good food
Classical music composer Ludwig von Beethoven once said that "only the pure of heart can make good soup." I'm sure he meant well, but soup can be made by anyone. So, even if you are not pure of heart, or you're new to cooking, it doesn’t matter - soup is a great way to begin your culinary journey. In fact, it's one of the first things I began making and it gave me the confidence to move on from there. It's also very forgiving. If you make small changes to the ingredients you are not going to make any huge mistakes and you'll still end up with great soup.
There are basically 2 types of soup: broth- and cream-based. Those with cream are richer, naturally, and are good, but I like the simpler, cleaner flavors of broth-based soups. What’s cool about vegetable soup, for instance, is that you can either leave them chunky, or puree them completely for a very smooth soup, or puree only 1/2 and have it both ways.
The soup recipe I wanted to share with you was dictated to me by my mother many years ago. She has been making this soup for as long as I can remember. It's simply called Potato Soup in German, but it contains a variety of vegetables, not just potatoes, and I love it. Hearty, satisfying, and completely vegetarian, it makes for a great meal on a cool evening.
Kartoffelsuppe (Potato Soup)
Serve with a mixed green salad and some warm, crusty bread, or alongside some sausages. Or you can cut the sausages into slices and put them in the soup at the end just to warm them up.
Instructions:
Saute onions and garlic in a soup pot along with a little oil. Add raw, peeled, sliced potatoes, 2 chopped carrots and 2 stalks of celery, some leek, chopped (not too much of the green part), 1 Tbsp. tomato paste, and enough vegetable stock to just cover the vegetables. Cook 20-30 minutes until the vegetables are tender, then puree the whole thing in batches in a blender. Pour the pureed soup back in the pot and gently reheat. Add a pinch of ground marjoram, and salt and pepper to taste.
As you can see, the recipe is written in paragraph form, instead of an itemized list with exact quantities. This is how she dictated it to me, in a conversational style, which showed me at a young age that good cooks don't need exact quantities of things. With a lifetime of experience cooking for a family, they just get a feel for how much of each ingredient is needed. This comes only with time spent in the kitchen.
If you prefer making this with some quantities provided, use the following:
1 large onion, or 2 smaller ones
2-3 garlic cloves, depending on size
4 medium rose potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 to 3/4 of a large leek, chopped
1 Tbsp tomato paste
Vegetable stock, 4-6 cups
A pinch of ground marjoram
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Happy soup making! I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know if you make it and what you think. I'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment below or head to the Contact tab at the top of this page for how to reach me via email.
#Kartoffelsuppe #soupisgoodfood #vegetablesoup
