By Ali Slagle, The New York Times
The steam, smells and stirs of a long-simmered soup can be therapeutic, sure, but so can a warm bowl of soup that’s on the table as soon as possible.
Making soup doesn’t need to take hours to be soothing and fortifying, as these tips for classic soups, stews and other brothy numbers prove. Each smart trick delivers deep flavors in less than 40 minutes. You’ll still cozy up to something delicious and fill your house with good aromas. It’ll just be sooner rather than later.
1. Start by Blooming Big
To build a sturdy foundation, sizzle big-impact ingredients like chopped vegetables, cured meats, dried spices or pastes in fat before adding any liquid.
This step rids the ingredients of flavorless liquid, wakes up slumbering spices and intensifies the savoriness of vegetables and proteins. For example, in her vegan chili recipe, Jocelyn Ramirez builds an intense base by browning chopped mushrooms, onion, hot and sweet peppers, and garlic. Then, she adds a mix of dried spices and chiles. In the jar, their scent is muted. But after they bloom in the hot oil, it fills the room. That mix’s full might puts the chile in this chili.
— Bloom a few choice ingredients to not muddy the waters: A version of shiro, a silky chickpea stew beloved in Ethiopia and Eritrea, starts by simmering 10 cloves of garlic, an onion and two whole tablespoons of berbere, a red chile-based spice blend, in a shallow pool of oil. That fat then becomes infused with their flavors and carries them through the broth.
— Remember that the fat adds flavor, too: Butter or olive oil are often go-tos, but to create the toasty nuttiness essential to panang curry, Naz Deravian warms Thai red curry paste, chopped peanuts and spices in thick coconut cream. Once the liquid from the cream evaporates, the aromatics sizzle in the remaining coconut oil, staining it bright red. The fat then carries their essences throughout the curry, much farther than they could have traveled on their own.
2. Choose Flavorful Liquids
Samin Nosrat, chef and author of “Salt Acid Fat Heat,” wrote that “if you have water around, you can have soup.” Water is essential, but pantry and fridge staples like broths, stocks, dairy, wine, pickle brines and canned tomatoes offer far more flavor — and faster.
— Broth and stock can be the backbone to any soup: Keep frozen homemade broth, store-bought box broth or bouillon on hand. Chicken, beef and mushroom are all great, as is dashi, either homemade from seaweed and bonito flakes or from instant granules. It contributes enough savoriness to keep a breakfast udon soup satisfying but not so rich that you’ll want to crawl back under the covers.
— Milk of the dairy or coconut variety can add silkiness without heft: Milk provides a sweet backdrop to the cheese, eggs and bread in Colombian changua. Moqueca, a Brazilian seafood stew, is buoyant thanks to juicy tomatoes and peppers and the sea spray that seeps from cod and prawns, while coconut milk gives it lusciousness and a floral undertone.
3. Thicken With Starches, Not Time
A soup that hasn’t simmered long enough might be so thin, it drips and dribbles like water. For one that’s just thick enough, you could reduce the liquid for longer. Or, quicker yet, pick a recipe that incorporates a starchy ingredient, such as bread, potatoes, pasta, beans, lentils, nuts, tortillas or rice. As they cook, they’ll add body to the soup.
— Rice is an especially gentle addition: The tender grains will fray at the edges, releasing starch as in Melissa Clark’s avgolemono-inspired lemony egg soup with escarole, which is so creamy, you might think it has cream. But it’s so light that it couldn’t.
— Red lentils are another good choice, since their starches easily and quickly dislodge into their cooking liquid. That’s why Priya Krishna’s everyday dal turns stony red lentils, turmeric and just the right amount of water into a soothing porridge in only eight minutes.
— And two starches are better than one: In a sopa de fideo y frijoles, thin noodles and puréed beans simmer with chicken broth, canned tomatoes, crisp chorizo and other aromatics for just 12 minutes, but the result has the stewy consistency and deep flavor of a much longer game.
4. Finish Brightly With an Acid
A finishing squeeze of lemon or lime, dribble of vinegar, dollop of sour cream or yogurt, or scatter of pickled onions or jalapeños teases out the nuances you so diligently, if expeditiously, created in the pot. Acid also balances richness and enhances the overall flavor. Its addition might even win you a chili cook-off.
— Lemon or lime juice beams sunshine onto everything it touches: Millie Peartree’s fish curry leans heavily on Jamaican curry powder, which is filled with grounding spices like turmeric and allspice. Wake up those earthy flavors with a final squeeze of lime, as well as fresh scallions and cilantro.
— A teaspoon of vinegar can transform a ho-hum soup into so much more: Intensifying chicken broth for wonton soup, for example, might just take a few drops of vinegar, soy sauce and chile oil.
— Top bowls with tangy garnishes: While sour cream and cheddar add creaminess to baked potato soup, they’re also sneaky sources of acidity, cutting through the richness of the potatoes, milk and bacon for more balanced bites.
RECIPE: Sopa de Fideo y Frijoles con Chorizo (Fideo and Bean Soup With Chorizo)
By Rick A. Martínez
Yield: 4 servings
Total time: 40 minutes
This weeknight-fast soup — a common and comforting family meal in Mexico — is easy to prepare and uses ingredients typically stocked in the Mexican kitchen such as beans, chorizo and fideo noodles. Puréeing the beans with chicken stock, tomatoes, oregano and spices gives the soup a rich and hearty finish, while bits of broken pasta and spicy chorizo add bite. Toasting the pasta adds a nutty depth to the flavor that, together with the fire-roasted tomatoes and stock, give the impression that this soup has simmered for hours, not 10 minutes.
Ingredients
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken stock, plus more if necessary
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
- 1/4 medium white onion, coarsely chopped (about 3/4 cup)
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more if necessary
- 8 ounces fresh chorizo, casings removed, crumbled
- 4 ounces fideo, vermicelli or angel hair pasta, broken into 2-inch pieces
- Crema, crumbled queso fresco, sliced avocado, chopped onion, chopped cilantro, crushed red pepper and tostadas for serving, as desired
Preparation
1. Working in batches if necessary, add chicken stock, beans, tomatoes, onion, garlic, chili powder and oregano to a blender. Purée until smooth and season the salsa to taste with salt and pepper. Set salsa aside until ready to use.
2. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high and cook chorizo, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and stirring occasionally, until just browned and almost cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the chorizo to a medium bowl, leaving as much oil in the pot as possible. You should have at least 1 tablespoon of chorizo oil in the pot, if not, add 1 to 2 teaspoons vegetable oil.
3. Add fideo to the hot, red oil and cook, stirring frequently until the pasta is browned, about 2 minutes. Carefully pour the blended salsa into the hot pot; it will bubble rapidly and then quickly die down. Return the chorizo to the pot, reduce the heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the fideo are cooked through (it’s OK if they are a little past al dente) and the soup has thickened slightly to a rich stew consistency, 10 to 12 minutes. The soup will continue to thicken as it sits; add stock or water to thin, if desired. Taste and adjust seasoning.
4. Divide the soup among 4 bowls and top with crema, queso, avocado, onion, cilantro, crushed red pepper. Serve with tostadas.
NOTE TO READERS: Recipes for all the soups mentioned in this article can be found at NYTCooking.com.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.