Five Autumns Soups and Why

Malvern Autumn Show by amandabhslater 

For many  autumn is the favourite season for the colours in the nature, but for our body mean changes. Means that we already are working full-time in the office or in the school, that the day are shorter and we struggle with adapt us to the new time and with chose the appropriate clothes for the falling temperatures until we have time to resemble our wardrobe, for those common reason our immune and respiratory system is vulnerable and will need some seasonal autumn food for protect and strength our body for the coming  cold  months.

I would like to share 5 autumn soups with some of the vegetable that need to be daily in your autumn diet and how they are going to help your body to have a healthy new season.

Leek Soup New York Style. Serves  4 at 450kcals by person

Leek Soup

You need:  5 leeks (using only the white part and sliced) – 2 celery stalks (sliced) - 450g potatoes preferably floury (peeled and cut in chunks) – 100ml cooking o dry white wine – 750 organic vegetable stock – 300 ml single cream –  50g unsalted butter – 20g chives  for garnish (chopped)

1. In pan with boiling salty water simmer the potatoes until tender (about 15 min.) Drain and set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a pan in a slow medium heat, add the leeks and celery and cook gently for about 15 minutes stirring time to time. Avoid burning the vegetables.
3. Now add the wine and increase the heat until start to boil. Then add the stock, bring to the boil again and simmer for 20 min. Season with pepper and salt (check the salt content in the label of your stock first).
4. Retire from the heat and liquidize the vegetables with the potatoes.
5. For best result sieve the soup, it is a bit of a pain but well worth it!
6. Now stir in the cream, mix very well.
7. Reheat in a very slow heat (you can have it cold if you like it)
8. Serve and scatter some chives over the plates.

Why: Because in autumn start the long season of the leeks until early spring. Also are low in calories and contain a good dose of folate (folic acids) very important to generate red and white blood cells for our immunologic system. Also is rich in potassium helping you in your daily muscular activity.

Ukrainian Beetroot Soup. Serves 4 300kcal by person

Beetroot Soup also known as Borscht

You need: 800g beetroot (head only, peeled and sliced – 3 shallots (sliced)  - 2 medium onions (chopped) -2 garlic cloves (chopped) – 2 apples (peeled –cored –sliced) – 200ml dry cider – 1 ltr. Vegetable stock – 90 unsalted butter – Crème fraiche for garnish.
1. Melt 60g butter in a medium low heat and sauté de onions and garlic (6-8 minutes)
2. Now add the beetroots and the apples for 5 extra minutes
3. Add the stock and simmer for half an hour
4. Meanwhile in another pan smelt the rest of the butter and fry the shallots, until crispy, you will need a medium high heat and stir often.
5. Liquidizer the soup ( if you use a blender be sure you are pressuring the lid down). Season.
6. Serve the soup and scatter over some shallots and crème fraiche.

Why: The beetroot is a vegetable rich in sugar that mean calories and have little Vitamin A and C, but and is a good one beetroots contain a good dose of folate (folic acids) very important to generate red and white blood cells for our immunologic system.

Tomato and Fig Soup Serves 4.150 kcal by person

Tomato and Fig Soup

You need: 1kg fresh tomatoes and 400g canned tomatoes – 7-8 dry figs - ½ very ripe figs by person (in this case 2) – 1 green pepper (chopped) – 1 onion (chopped – 3 garlic cloves (chopped) – 3tsp cumin seeds.
1. Heat 3 tbsp. of olive oil in a pan and sauté the onion and green pepper (6-8 minutes)
2. Add the 1 ½ tsp. of cumin and cook for just 1 minute more.
3. Put in the canned tomatoes and the dry figs, simmer for 15 min in a medium-low heat.
4. When you get a thick consistency in you sauce add the fresh tomatoes and simmer for another 15 min, stirring time to time.
5. Retire from the heat and blend until is very smooth.
6. Refill your tomato can with 250 ml of warm fresh water.
7. Serve in soup bowls with half peeled (or not peeled) fig and scatter over a few remaining cumin seeds and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, plus a nice slice of bread beside.

Why:  Have tomatoes in Autumn is your last chance to have eat tomatoes in season. The difference between those juicy summer tomatoes are that the autumn tomatoes instead to finish of ripe in the plant they ripe in the fields. The figs contribute with fibre and carbohydrates and even are rich calories their sweetness remember you the summer fruits.

Roman Legion Soup Serves 4 – 300 kcal by person

Roman Legion Soup a real boost

You need:  1 onion (sliced) – 2 celery stalk (sliced) – 1 carrot (sliced) 2- turnips (cubed) – 1 garlic clove (chopped) – 1 ltr vegetable stock – 60grs soup pasta – 1tbsp chopped basil – 1 tbsp chopped oregano.
1. Heat 3 tbsp.  of olive oil in a pan at medium low heat and add the onion, celery, carrot, turnips and garlic. Sauté for 6-8 minutes.
2. Pour in the vegetable stock. Simmer by 30 min.
3. Remove from the heat and puree the vegetables until smooth.
4. Back to the heat and boil the soup, add the pasta and cook according the packet instructions, 2 minutes before finish add the chopped herbs. Season and Serve.

Why: Here we have a nice mix, but first is a soup that really will calm down your appetite but not just based in the calories also because is very rich in vitamins and carbohydrates from the pasta.  The carrots give us Vitamin A which means antioxidants for the body, better skin and better sight. The celery is good like diuretic and turnip will  contribute with fibre and Vitamin C and B. now you are getting the idea why I called Roman Legion Soup.

My aunts Mushroom cream Soup Serves 4 178 kcal by person

Mushrooms picked with my uncle in a deep Soria forest

You need: 400g mushrooms cleaned and sliced (autumn wild mushroom will be the best but any seasonal kind is welcome) – 100ml olive oil – 250 ml chicken stock – 700ml milk - 2tbsp corn flour. Lemon juice.
1. Clean the mushrooms removing the root, then clean them in running fresh water (don’t clean them in a container because they are going to absorb too much water and lose flavour) and drain. Now slice them and pour over the lemon juice to avoid oxidation.
2. Heat the olive oil in a pan in a medium low heat, add the sliced mushrooms, and stir occasionally for 5 minutes.
3. Pour in the stock and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat and liquidise the vegetables until smooth.
5. Dissolve the corn flour in 150 ml of milk.
6. Add the rest of the milk to the pan and heat again until start to boil, and at that moment and without stopping to stir add the milk with the corn flour, and stir for 2 extra minutes.
7. Season with salt and pepper (white better)
8. Serve options: with croutons – with chopped parsley – 2 little fry prawns

Why: mushrooms are almost all year around in the forests, but without doubt the best varieties and the more flourish are in autumn. The mushrooms only have 20 kcal for 100 grms. Given their high absorption water capacity, is the reason that all the mushrooms picker like to have a summer full of storm. Mushrooms are rich in Vitamin D needed for our body for retain calcium and phosphorus.  Mushrooms are also rich in Vitamin B.

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Five Autumns Soups and Why

Gazpacho!!

Tomatoes, gazpacho main ingredient

Find the original recipe of the gazpacho or even the origin of the word has been a lost study case for the historian, mainly because exist equal quantities of gazpacho recipes like andalucian families, and is a dish created by peasant that can´t  access to read or write, so the origin is not documented. Gazpacho is a dish that was consumed by peasants in the field during the harvest, they needed something nutritious and at the same time refreshing, to cope with the hard work and hot weather.
The earlier gazpacho dated from when the south of Spain was under Arabian control the gazpacho was made just with garlic, olive oil, bread and almonds, today in some areas they are still doing and is known as white gazpacho.
Later on with the introduction of new vegetables coming from the Americas like tomato and pepper, the gazpacho takes the color that we know today. And even today with the demands of the tourist industry and new modern cooking technique the gazpacho continues  its evolution always providing us with  nutrients and flavour.
The gazpacho is very easy to make, and now more than ever with the juicing or blender machines, but still quite tricky to find the correct balance between the ingredients, for that reason gazpacho in tetra brick like Don Simon becomes summer by summer more popular in the Spanish tables, even everyone knows that gazpacho like our mothers can’t be beaten.

       Kitchen Voyage trip to Seville

   Gazpacho recipes.

Classic Gazpacho.

Bowl of Gazpacho

 3 slices of white bread (without crust about 200 g)
500g ripe tomatoes or british red choice tomatoes.
1 cucumber (peeled – seeded – diced)
1 green pepper (seeded – halved)
3-4 cloves of garlic (peeled)
125 ml olive oil
2 tbsp sherry vinegar.

1.    Put the bread in a bowl and pour a glass of water, soak by 30 min.
2.    In a blender put the rest of ingredients (reserve the vinegar) and blend for 1 minute. 
3.    Remove the bread and drain any water excess.
4.    Add the bread to the blender and blend until you get a nice consistency, if is too heavy just add more water. For me must be creamy but some people like more drinkable. So this point is up to you. You can sieve the cold soup if required.
5.    Now season with salt and the 2 tbsp. of sherry vinegar.
6.    Refrigerate for at least one hour and serve in very cold individual soup bowls.

Real Salad Gazpacho.

30 g stale white bread (torn)
300g ripe tomatoes or british red choice tomatoes.
1 ltr chilled tomato juice
3 eggs (hard boil). Then separate the white from the yolk
½ cucumber (peeled – seeded – diced)
1 red pepper (seeded – halved)
4 salad onions (thinly sliced)
1 red chilli (thinly sliced and deseeded)
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
1 tsp chopped oregano leaves
4 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Little ices cubes.

1.    In a big bowl mix mustard, olive oil, vinegar, bread, garlic, and hard boil egg yolk, and paste with a fork
2.    Add the vegetables and tomato juice. Mix everything very well.
3.    Season with salt and pepper. And chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour and serve in very cold individual bowl soups.
4.    Pour over each bowl the white eggs chopped with a few oregano leaves and some ice cubes. And then sprinkle over a little olive oil.

Ham and quail egg Gazpacho.

250g white bread
500g ripe tomatoes or british red choice tomatoes.
¾ cucumber (peeled – seeded – diced)
1 green pepper (deseeded – halved)
2 cloves of garlic (peeled)
125 ml olive oil
2 tbsp sherry vinegar.
250g Serrano ham shredded
2 quails eggs (hard boiled)

Follow the step above. When you are ready  to serve  sprinkle over every bowl the Serrano ham and add on the top half quail egg. 
This recipe is interesting because you add some protein to the dish.

Adding water you can Gazpacho like a drink

Macerated Gazpacho (1 day preparation)

500g ripe tomatoes or british red choice tomatoes roughly chopped.
3 black peppercorns
250 ml tomato juice
4 basil sprigs (leaves only)
1 red pepper (seeded -cut in strips)
½ small yellow pepper (seeded - cut in strips)
1 garlic clove (peeled – chopped)
1 thyme sprig (leaves only). 1 bay leaf
2 tsp balsamic vinegar. Some olive oil.
2 slices of white bread

1.    Mix in a bowl the chopped tomatoes, peppercorns, tomato juice and half of the basil leaves, and cover with a clean film. Put in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
2.    In a medium heat pan with a few olive oil sauté for around 8 minutes the stripped peppers, with the garlic, bay leaf and thyme and the rest of the basil. Season with salt.
3.    When the peppers are soft (avoid any browning) remove from the heat and tip onto the bowl of tomatoes.
4.    Cover the bowl again and put back to the fridge for another 24 hours.
5.    After 24 hours or marinating, blend the mix until smooth. 
6.    Pass the mix through a sieve.  Season with salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar. 
7.    Check the consistency, if is too thick just add a few extra tomato juice.
8.    Cover again the bowl and put back to the fridge for at least 1 hour
9.    Preheat oven at 150ºC
10.    Now cut the bread in 5mm slices and gave them a nice drizzle of olive oil and a good pinch of salt.
11.    Scatter on a baking tray an toast in the oven for about 4 minutes.
12.    Serve the tomato soup in very cold individual soup bowls and top with the white bread croutons.

White artisanal Gazpacho.

75 grs. Almonds (blanched and peeled)
2 garlic cloves
150 grs. White bread
8 tbsp.  Olive oil.
3 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 litre of very chilled water
Bunch of white grapes or apple slices to serve.

1.    Soak the white bread for 5 min, and drain.
2.    Put the almonds, garlic and a pinch of salt in a mortar and pestle and crush them until you get a thin paste.
3.    Then add the drained bread and mix very well and start to add the olive oil meanwhile you still crush the mix. 
4.    Now move the mix to a bowl and add the vinegar. And then pour the chilled water very slowly and mixing everything very well.
5.    Season and pass the mix through a sieve.
6.    Pour into cold dish soup bowl and serve with grapes or apple slices.

Gazpacho tips:

*Use bakery bread, if you use processed bread they contain additives and the bread behaves in a different way when it is getting stale.
* The secret of the good gazpacho is finding the equilibrium between the ingredients. Dont overpower the flavour of your soup, If you like more cucumber or peppery, serve them like a garnish.
* If you are not in a sunny region, perhaps you need to add a pinch of sugar before to chill the soup for extra sweetness.
To  avoid the cucumber repeating on you, you must peel, deseeded and macerate in salt for 20 minutes.
*If you have digestion problem with the garlic, you should put the garlic in a pan with cold water and bring to boil. When is boiling retire the garlic and repeat the same process another 2 times.
* Only the gazpacho cook at home conserves all the nutritional properties


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Gazpacho!!