The crocks are washed and the tablecloths are clean — or as clean as they’re going to get, at least.  Soup & Bread 2013 was a joy. A messy, soupy, ridiculously themed adventure through our fifth year of this cockeyed project. We’re not sure what the future holds; we may try to change things up again in 2014 — and, hell, we may well be back again during gazpacho season, at least for a night. But in the meantime, I just want to say a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who came and cooked and let us a hand over the last 15 weeks. Your collective generosity of spirit and soup generated more than $7500 for food pantries and hunger relief organizations across Chicago. That’s … amazing.

A few helping hands in this year’s mix deserve extra recognition. Thanks, very much, to: Niall Munnelly,  Helen Tsatsos, Alison True, and Perry Kim for general helpfulness; Sarah Bortt and Sarah Dandelles for running last week’s bake sale; Ryan Hembrey for A/V assistance without parallel; Eiren Caffall, for taking the lovely photos on this post; and the Hideout, for just being there and being great.

Thanks many times over to Paul Kahan, Heather Medina, and everyone at Publican Quality Meats for generously keeping us stocked with warm loaves of truly transcendent bread every week. And thanks also to Allison Scott and Hoosier Mama Pie Company, for donations of both soup and pie that went well above and beyond.

And heaps of thanks, as ever, to the excellent Sheila Sachs, the busiest graphic designer in soup business.

Now, go on outside and play. We’ll see you next year!

xoxo

Soup & Bread

This soup is packed with bold spring flavors, but Jen dubbed it “slutty” because, to paraphrase, the addition of bacon on top of so much goodness can be seen as a completely unnecessary play for your affections. Or something like that! It was great. That’s all I have to say.

Ingredients
40 slices of bacon
5 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
20 celery ribs, thinly sliced
½ cup minced ginger
20 shallots, thinly sliced
10 leek, white and tender green parts only, thinly sliced
50 cups (400 oz) chicken stock or low-sodium broth
20 4-inch rosemary sprigs
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
3 pounds sugar snap peas, thinly sliced
2 pounds snow peas
2 pounds pea shoots
20 10-ounce boxes frozen baby peas
2.5 cups flat-leaf parsley leaves
32 oz low fat greek yogurt
5 cup (40 oz) heavy cream
Salt
10 garlic cloves, minced

Preparation
In a large soup pot, cook the bacon until browned and crisp. Transfer the bacon to a plate. Pour off all but about 5 tablespoons of the bacon fat.

Heat olive oil with the bacon fat. Add the celery, shallots, ginger, and leeks and cook over medium-low heat until softened but not browned. Add the chicken stock, 1/2 the cooked bacon, 10 rosemary sprigs, salt, and white pepper. Simmer until the vegetables are very tender. Remove the bacon and discard the rosemary. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to a bowl.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the sugar snaps and snow peas and cook for 3 minutes. Add the peas, 1 pound of pea shoots, and the parsley and cook just until heated through, about 1 minute; drain.

In batches, add equal amounts of the pea mixture and the veg mixture to the blender and puree until smooth, adding spoonfuls of broth as needed to loosen the mixture. Transfer back to the pot and simmer. Repeat until all veg and pea mixture is blended smooth. After all puree has been transferred to the pot with the stock, add all but a cup of the yogurt.

In a saucepan, bring the heavy cream, remaining yogurt, garlic, and remaining 10 rosemary sprigs to a boil. Simmer over low heat until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Season with salt to taste. Strain the garlic cream into a bowl and let cool. Crumble the remaining slices of bacon.

Ladle the warm pea soup into bowls and drizzle with the garlic cream. Garnish each bowl with crumbled bacon and a pea shoot and serve.

From Alia Danal

Alia posted the recipe for this on her own website, Urban Chickpea, last week, along with heaps of beautiful photos and background on how she developed the recipe. I’ll just reprint the basics, here with a note that for a plain pea soup this has a wonderful depth of flavor — not to mention a delicate green hue all to suitable to what Alia calls this month of “Seasonal Limbo.” PS: Did you know Alia was a Check, Please! finalist? Check out her video here!

Ingredients 
1/4 cup minced or grated English cucumber, with the seeds and peel (extra for garnish, optional)
1/2 cup plain yogurt, nonfat OK
1/4 teaspoon dried mint
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup water
1 16-ounce bag of frozen peas
2 tablespoons chopped mint, loosely packed
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, about 1 lemon

Preparation
First make the cucumber raita by mixing the minced cucumber, the yogurt, the dried mint, and the salt in a small bowl. This can be made ahead and kept in the fridge.

In a large pot over medium heat, add the oil. When it starts to shimmer, add the diced onions and the salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. You do not want any browning on the onions. Stir in the cinnamon and cook for 30 seconds. Then add the vegetable broth and the water and bring up to a boil. Stir in the frozen peas and cook until just defrosted and warm. If you cook them longer, the soup will lose its bright green color.

Pour half of the soup into the blender with the lemon juice and the fresh mint and blend until smooth. Then repeat with the other half of the soup. You should never fill a blender more than halfway full with a hot liquid, so work in more or fewer batches according to the size of your blender. Combine the pureed soup into one container and taste to see if it needs more salt.

If serving hot, ladle or pour the soup into bowls. Then take a spoonful of the chilled raita and swirl it in a spiral pattern into the bowl and garnish with some extra minced cucumber if you’d like. If serving cold, add an extra pinch of salt and then chill for several hours. Swirl in the raita and serve.

This was a wonderfully tangy, fresh and frisky gazpacho, full of the clean spring flavors of celery and bell peppers. Not to mention, I am a sucker for any recipe involving stale bread. So efficient!

Ingredients
2 celery stalks including leaves
2 small green bell peppers, seeded and peeled
6 mini cucumbers (1 1/4 pounds, peeled and seeded
3 slices stale white bread, crusts removed
1 fresh green chili, seeded (less or more depending on your love of heat)
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 1/2 cup walnuts, lightly toasted
6 cups baby spinach
1 cup basil leaves
2 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup olive oil
3-5 tablespoons Greek yogurt
2 cups water (approximately)
Salt & white pepper to taste

Preparation
Roughly chop celery, bell peppers, cucumbers, bread, chili, garlic, and walnuts. I used my Cuisinart to chop the walnuts so it wouldn’t be so hard on my immersion blender. Place in a large bowl or pot and add sugar, spinach, basil, cilantro, vinegar, oil, yogurt, most of the water, salt, and some white pepper.

Using immersion blender, blend until smooth. There should be some green flecks of veggies, but it should be mostly smooth. You can also use a blender and do this in batches, but I found the immersion blender easier. Add more water as needed for preferred consistency. Taste soup and adjust flavors. I usually add more vinegar, yogurt, and salt at this point. Chill soup and serve. I quadrupled this recipe for Soup & Bread.

Ingredients
6 plum heads of garlic
6 cups broth (chicken or, in the vegetarian version I used dried morel mushrooms)
a generous sprinkle of dried sage leaves
2 large potatoes (I used storage potatoes, but it would be really good with new potatoes)
1 cup heavy cream (optional)
fresh parsley for garnish

Preparation
Break the garlic up into cloves, tossing aside any brown or soft cloves. Combine with the broth and herbs and potatoes in a large pot. Bring to a gentle simmer over high heat then turn it down to low and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes. Test the softness of everything with a fork—try mashing the potatoes against the inside of the pot. If easily mashable, then proceed to the blender. In my case (and recommended for all soup makers) I used am immersion blender so that I didn’t have to do a messy transfer from blender/food processor and back to pot.

Stir in cream before serving. Garnish with another indicator of what is to come—fresh parsley (or dill or cilantro).

From Allison Scott

This was another inspired (and delicious) contribution to our “Chicago vs. Chicago” soup night on April 3. With this and the deep-dish pizza soup, all we needed was a Chicago dog-style soup and we would have covered every culinary cliche in town!  Serve with sandwich-bun garlic croutons and giardiniera.

Ingredients
8 medium yellow onions (about 16 c sliced)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 bell peppers (I used red and green)
2 jalapeno peppers
2 tablespoons sherry (or wine on hand)
6-8 cups homemade beef stock
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2-3 tablespoons giardiniera brine or sherry vinegar, more to taste
salt and pepper

Preparation
Peel onions and cut into ¼ inch thick slices.

Heat olive oil and butter in a heavy-bottomed sauté pan over medium-high heat. Stir in the sliced onions to coat them in fat. Crowd the pan – the onions will cook down eventually.

Continue cooking, stirring every 10 minutes or so. The goal is to brown the onions evenly so if the onions begin to burn, adjust the heat to medium. If the onions begin to stick, add a few splashes of water to the pan and stir. Cook until the onions turn deep mahogany brown and have a rich, sweet flavor. This takes about an hour, but sometimes longer. Be patient.

Meanwhile, roast the sweet and hot peppers over a gas burner or under a broiler.  Peel and slice the peppers thin, discarding the stems and seeds.

Once the onions are caramelized, add sherry to deglaze the pan. Scrape the onions, all the brown bits, and any liquid into a stock pot. Turn heat up to high and add the beef stock, sliced peppers, and thyme. Stir and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium low and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from the heat and stir in the Worcestershire sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Allow the onion soup mixture to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.

Reheat soup and season with giardiniera brine to taste before serving.

Giardiniera

This giardiniera is more of a quick pickle than the traditional Chicago relish. Usually it has brined or salted vegetables with pickled serranos, oil, and seasonings added. But I think the rest of the veg benefits from the serranos’ heat when you pickle them all together. Wait until serving to mix in the oil.

Ingredients
2 parts white wine vinegar (I combined white, white wine, & rice wine… what was on hand)
1 part water

for every 3 cups liquid:
3 T kosher salt
2 T granulated sugar

celery
red pepper
carrot
cauliflower
serrano peppers
dried oregano/basil
celery seed
garlic cloves, thinly sliced
olive oil

Preparation
Clean and trim the vegetables, peel the carrots. Chop them all into roughly equal pieces (I prefer about 1/2 inch). If you hate cauliflower, leave it out. I use equal parts celery, red pepper, carrot, and cauliflower.

If you are sensitive to spicy things, go easy on the serranos and remove most of their seeds. Even if you love spicy things, go easy on the serranos–a couple per quart jar is usually plenty (I’ll often pickle a few extra peppers separately in case the final mix isn’t spicy enough).

Add a few cloves of garlic to each jar, then shake in some celery seed and dried Italian seasonings. Add the mixed vegetables to the jar(s).

Bring the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over your vegetables. Cool to room temperature and then cover and refrigerate. Should be ready to eat within 24 hours or so. Eat within a week or so.