Soup is probably the oldest form of food. No doubt very early people, after they discovered fire and found that cooking foods made them easier to eat, created soup. The best soups are still those made with a bit of this and a bit of that. Soups have evolved into a number of categories; there are stews, chowders, bisques, as well as just plain soup. Every culture seems to have particular soups with which they are identified. Italians love soup and Minestrone seems to be the most popular soup in Italy. It is made in more ways than there are sections of Italy, but basically it is always a thick, hearty vegetable soup with cooked fried beans. In some areas, pasta is always added, in others they add rice. Still other areas always add thick crusty bread to the soup. Parmesan cheese or Romano are often freshly grated over the servings of soup.
This is just one of hundreds of recipes for Minestrone and just be sure that your beans have been soaked and cooked before you add them to the soup.
Minestrone
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
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1 clove garlic, minced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup Italian plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
7 cups water
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1 large zucchini, diced
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1/2 cup cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1/2 cup cooked cannelloni (small white beans)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped
fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
In a large heavy kettle, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrots. Sauté until the onions are transparent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer this mixture for 45 minutes. Add the zucchini and simmer for 30 minutes more. Add the chickpeas and the beans, season with the salt and pepper. Crush the parsley, oregano, and basil and add the soup. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes more. This will make 6 to 8 servings.
This next recipe is for Bermuda Vegetable Soup and one of the ingredients is V-8 juice. Today just about everyone knows what V-8 juice is but it hasn’t always been around as I found out when I looked into its origin. A Mr. Peacock in Evanston, Illinois developed the first V-8 in 1933. He made it by combining tomatoes, carrots, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, watercress, and spinach and sold it in a food specialty store. The name that Mr. Peacock gave his juice combination was Veg-min and it was the manager of the store that suggested he call it V-8. In the 1930’s only about twenty-five cases of V-8 were made each day and all the juices were extracted by hand using a small cider press. The juice became popular enough for the big Campbell Soup Company to purchase the rights to the product in 1948 and these days they produce over 3 million gallons of the juice combinations each year. Just something to keep in mind the next time you pour yourself some V-8.
Bermuda Vegetable soup is quick to cook but keep in mind that because of the quick cooking time you must have all the vegetables diced small.
Bermuda vegetable soup
2 tablespoons butter
or margarine
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup finely chopped
green pepper
1 cup finely chopped carrots
1 cup finely chopped zucchini
1 cup finely chopped turnip
1 cup finely chopped potatoes
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1/2 cup tomato puree
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons
Worcestershire sauce
3 cups V-8 juice
2 cups water
Minced fresh parsley for garnish. In a large heavy kettle or saucepan, melt the butter. Add all the vegetables and cook and stir them for 8 minutes. Pour in the tomato puree and add the thyme, marjoram, and pepper. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, V-8 juice and the water. Bring to a boil and cook for 8 minutes more. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with parsley. This makes 10 servings.
Barley is probably the oldest of all the cultivated grains and greatly underrated as a food. It is easy to grow and will grow under adverse conditions. The majority of barley that is grown is used to make high quality beer but it makes a great side dish as a starchy vegetable, sweeter than rice and simple to prepare. It also makes a good flour when ground. The English use a lot of barley in their beef and lamb stews and this English Beef Stew is a good example of an English soup. One of the ingredients in this stew is Worcestershire sauce, an ingredient that most people have on their pantry shelf. We take this ingredient for granted and I thought you might be interested in just what it is and where it came from. Early Romans liked a salted fish sauce called “garum” and Worcestershire sauce is actually based on this ancient sauce. Two English druggists are responsible for the sauce we have today and their names were John Lea and William Perrins. The British governor general of Bengal gave them a recipe for the Roman sauce. They made a big batch of the recipe, tasted the result and didn’t like it. Rather than throw the sauce away they put it in a wooden barrel in their basement. Several years later they rediscovered the barrel, tasted the sauce and found that now, after aging, they liked it. They called it Worcestershire Sauce because it was made in the English district of Worcester. Lea & Perrins Worceshershire sauce is made today in just about the same way. It contains anchovies, soybeans, tamarind, vinegar, garlic, shallots, molasses and spices. They are mixed and then aged for 2 years in big wooden vats. The sauce is then pressed out, strained, and put in those bottles and wrapped in the familiar tan paper and sold in grocery stores all over the world. Next time you use your Worcestershire sauce you will appreciate just what a process went on to put that sauce into the bottle.
English beef stew
2 tablespoons butter
or margarine
2 cloves garlic, peel and chopped
3/4 pound beef stew meat, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 medium onion, peeled
and chopped
1 and 1/2 cup carrots, cut
into 1/4 inch dice
3 stalks celery, chopped
6 cups beef stock
1 bay leaf
2 cups water
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 cup peeled and diced turnip
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons
Worcestershire sauce
Pinch of ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat a heavy 4 to 6 quart kettle and add the butter, garlic, and beef. Brown the beef slightly. Add the onions, carrots, celery, beef stock and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer gently for 1 hour. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add the barley, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. After the kettle of beef and vegetables have simmered for 1 hour, add the drained barley. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes longer. Add the turnip, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, allspice, cloves, and salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes more. This is a rich stew and will serve 6.
