I love a good vegetable soup. I began with a recipe from Chef Bradley Ogden of the Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur, California, and started tweaking it to my taste. This is the latest incarnation, and I keep changing it all the time.
Heat the olive oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Add the carrot, onion, corn and potato, and cook uncovered for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently.
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup carrot, diced
- 1 cup yellow onion, sliced
- 1 cup yellow or white corn, freshly cut from the cob, with milk (I suppose frozen would do, but it's a zillion times better this way)
- 1 cup diced potato, skins on (use a waxy potato like Red Rose or Yukon Gold)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 quarts chicken stock or vegetable stock
- Salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup tomato concassé (peeled, seeded and diced tomato)
- 1 cup zucchini, diced
- 1 cup sugar snap peas or snow peas, cut into 1/4" pieces
- 1 cup water chestnuts, sliced and slices cut in half
- 2 cups collard greens or spinach, stemmed and shredded
- 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Creole croutons
Add the garlic, stir and cook for 2 minutes. Add the stock and salt and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce to a simmer and add the tomato concassé, tomato paste, zucchini, peas, chestnuts and greens. Simmer gently for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender. Sprinkle on the chopped fresh herbs and simmer 1 minute. Add pepper to taste.
Serve in hot bowls, and sprinkle with Creole croutons.
YIELD: About 16 servings.
gumbos, soups and bisques | creole and cajun recipe page
the gumbo pages | search this site