After the excesses of the festive season, January is often a time to go easy on the culinary front.
Plus, the dreary weather and short days at this time of year make it perfect for the quintessential light and healthful meal of soup.
If you need another reason to hanker for a soothing bowl of comfort, soups offer a fabulous solution to the perennial problem of what to have for lunch or supper when people are home for feeding three times a day.
If you are a regular shopper in French supermarkets, you will have noticed the soup aisle. You will also have noticed how much shelf space is devoted to soup and, most importantly, how most of these soups are in Tetra Paks, not cans. What is also important is that these soups are not, primarily, the brothy kind; they are potages.
Artisan potage which can be bought in French supermarketsLaura Washburn Hutton
A potage is almost always made of vegetables, alone or in combination, and it is a velvety, blended mixture—like a purée, but thinner.
Broadly, there are two ways to pimp your potage. You can add substantial ingredients, such as beans, tiny pasta shapes, more vegetables, grains etc., to bulk out the basic soup and make it a meal. Croutons, or torn bits of stale baguette, are well known.
The other option is to keep it as a simple soup, perhaps for a light lunch or a dinner party starter, and add ingredients to boost flavour without increasing bulk: think spices, herbs, seeds, nuts, flavoured oils. It can be a fine line between pimping a ready-made soup and just making one from scratch so how elaborate you get is up to you.
I will say this now and get it over with: homemade will always taste better. But we do not always have the time or inclination, and if the soup aisle of French supermarkets is anything to go by, we are not alone.
Thus, keep a few of these life-saving items in the pantry, and here are a few tips for making them just a bit more delicious.
Almost all of these soups will benefit from the addition of vinegar (sherry or cider best but use what you have), soy sauce for umami, Worcestershire sauce to drown a multitude of industrial-flavoured sins and, balsamic vinegar, especially if you detect a hint of bitterness. Add them while the potage heats up, before anything else and go slowly, a teaspoonful at a time, tasting, until you are happy.
Other good pimps are crème fraîche, fresh herbs, black pepper and piment d’Espelette.
Add cheese: if it grates, it will be goodLaura Washburn Hutton
Go big on the herbs, not just a sprig of parsley but chop hefty handfuls and treat them like an ingredient in their own right.
Cheese goes without saying, but I prefer fresh grated and be adventurous; it does not always have to be Emmental. If it grates, it will be good. I often have a small, dry goats’ cheese on hand for grating in place of Parmesan. Blue cheeses, too, make a splendid addition.
In the meat category, I favour lardons, fried until crisp and chopped even smaller if you like. These are also sometimes called allumettes, matchstick size, and you will find these for chicken, ham, duck and chorizo too; all perfect for pimping.
Leftover cooked and chopped sausage is always good, as is leftover rotisserie chicken, shredded.
Beans and legumes, pre-cooked in pouches, jars or tins, are ideal, especially small tins of chickpeas and lentils. There is also a wonderful variety of grains, alone or mixed with different kinds of rice.
Try combining barley or rice with mushroom soupTomato, bean bacon soup
The freezer is your friend here too and, soups aside, you should always have frozen chopped spinach and peas at a minimum.
What other things have you got lurking on that top shelf? Pestos, harissa, tartinables, olives, Tabasco. Feel free to get creative.
The pimping possibilities are endless. However, quality varies from brand to brand and there is a contrast between industrially-made cartons and small-batch artisan soups in glass. Large supermarkets often carry these and artisan is remarkably superior. That said, this is an exercise in convenience, so choose what works for you.
Sliced mushrooms cooked in butter with a splash of sherry or port or just white wine, cooked barley, quinoa and rice, crème fraîche, fresh tarragon, piment d’Espellette.
