Recipes and Reviews

A light and refreshing soup to enjoy some of the middle to late summer vegetables. Freeze in small to medium size batches to enjoy your summer vegetables all winter long.

Quick & easy were important for this recipe since I am doing all of my cooking in my utility room right now during my kitchen remodel. Right now my cooking appliances are a single induction burner, a toaster oven, a microwave oven, and an immersion blender.

My wife and I had a roasted cauliflower soup at Camille's Restaurant in Bastion Square in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, that was quite nice. It was the first time that I actually enjoyed eating cauliflower so I recreated the soup at home - and made it a bit healthier (and vegan) by replacing the creame with a potato.

The original version of this soup came from a food article in the Oregonian in 1994 or 1995 and I have been making and modifying it ever since.

The original version only called for canned ingredients, and while it is quite good, making it with fresh or home made ingredients really elevates this simple dish.

If you enjoy the flavours of chiles, beans, corn, and sausage, then this may be a soup for you. This recipe was inspired by a lack of time (getting home late from work and having students arriving soon) and items that were found in the freezer and pantry.

It took me about a year of searching and experimenting, but I finally came up with what I consider the ultimate Tom Yum Gai recipe. I had a great Tom Yum Goong (with shrimp instead of chicken) recipe, but it just didn't work doing a straight replacement of shrimp for chicken. After trying a number of different recipes, I went back and started tweaking the shrimp version. What I found was that it takes a little more tamrind and some clear chicken broth to balance out the flavor.

It is well worth a trip to your local Asian market to get these specialty food items. Fresh Galangal and Thai chiles are best, but get a stash of the dried versions so you can make up a batch of soup whenever you want.

There are two ways to go with this soup. If you really like the taste of mutton (like I do, goat is even better but a bit harder to get a hold of), then get yourself some shoulder chops and shanks, trim off the meat and make yourself some mutton stock. If mutton is a bit too strong for you but you like the taste of a bit of lamb, then just get a couple of lamb leg steaks and make the soup using a good chicken stock or vegetable broth.

This is one of those soups that is so easy to do right that it is just amazing how many times you get bad hot and sour soup when you go out to Asian restaurants. You can even make decent hot and sour soup without any special ingredients, though if you take the time to select good seasonings and make good stock/broth you will be rewarded.

This is a slight variation on traditional French onion soup. We like more onions, some garlic, and a touch of smokey heat.

We also reduce the fat in the soup 75% (4 T. to 1 T.).

I wanted a different soup for my work lunches next week so I dug through the pantry and freezer for ingredients and came up with this one. I did the slow version for myself since I had the time and the dry beans on hand, but I am also including directions for how I would make a quick version of the same soup.

I found the original soup recipe in the Oregonian 8 to 10 years ago and have been slowly adjusting the ingredients to suit my palate. I no longer have the original article or follow the original directions, but that was where the soup originally came from.

Get yourself some large bowls because you will not want to eat anything else during the meal when you start on a bowl of this soup.

Another simple and enjoyable soup (once you have made your ham stock). The ham stock can be replaced with vegetable broth and the ham bits can be replaced by tofu, cooked rice, or cooked pasta for a nice vegan meal.

This thick and rich soup can also be made vegan by replacing the ham stock with a vegetable broth. (When making it this way for my friends that do not eat critters I replace the ham bits with tofu bits that are marinated in a paste of vegetable broth, chipotle powder, and a touch of honey.)

This ham stock is one that I like to make after having a ham dinner for Christmas or Easter. The stock, along with bits of left over ham, is used for rich split pea and bean soups.

Making turkey stock is so simple, straightforward and delicious, that I have no clue why so few people make it for themselves. You simply toss the carcass and whatever bits are leftover from your feast into a pot with some veggies, herbs and spices and set it to simmer for about 4 hours.

You don't even have to do it right away. When I smoke up a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey, I just toss the bones into a bag in the freezer until I have enough to make some stock.