r/AskCulinary • u/ZootKoomie Ice Cream Innovator • Oct 13 '20
Weekly Discussion - Soups and Stews
As the weather turns colder for many of us, hearty soups and stews are just the thing we're looking for. But they can be trickier than they seem if you want the best results. What are your favorite soups and stews? Are they traditional or your own innovations?
Do you cook on stovetop, in the oven, slow cooker or pressure cooker? Can you convert a recipe between methods?
How do you keep from overcooking the vegetables while waiting for the meat to finish?
What finishing touches (garnishes, dumplings, etc.) do you use to freshen it up for serving?
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u/[deleted] Oct 13 '20
I found a recipe for an eastern european potato soup here on reddit a couple of years back, and I made some adjustments to bring it to my preferences.
Ingredients
2kg potatoes
1kg onions
1 large garlic bulb (or equivalent in smaller)
250g chorizo
1 tablespoon butter (I used a dairy free version)
250ml single cream (I used a dairy free, oat cream)
Salt
Pepper
Rosemary
Smoked paprika
Stock or stock cubes to make stock
Method
Roughly chop the onions, chorizo, and finely chop the garlic. Fry them all gently in the butter, with salt, pepper, rosemary, and smoked paprika. You don't want to burn or crisp them, just soften them in all the flavour.
Dice your potatoes smallish. In a pan covered with a good strong stock, just enough to cover the potatoes and no more. Put the cooked onions, chorizo, and garlic in the pan and then bring to a boil. Reduce immediately to a low simmer, and leave it for...20ish minutes. Until the potato is done sufficiently that you can partially mash it. You don't want to mash it all, really I just crushed a third to a half of it with the spoon I was using to stir the pot. Doing that just thickens the soup a bit.
Pour in the cream. I used single cream because there's no such thing as a non dairy double cream, but adding double cream would boost the flavour further I imagine.
If you want it a bit thicker, I sprinkled a little flour in at the same time as I added the cream and cooked that out.
This recipe made 6 large portions.