This sounds great. I tend to do most of my cooking on the weekends, but mid-week, soup would be a perfect quick meal to use up all those odds and ends. Thanks for sharing!
Sunday Soup: A Cookbook Review
Photo: Chronicle Books
The new cookbook by syndicated columnist Betty Rosbottom tackles a food topic totally appropriate to the current economy. To find out what I think of it, and what you can expect to find inside, read on.
In my recent post, Seven Money Saving Menu Ideas for Every Day of the Week, I alluded to this very concept, soup on Sundays. If you're leaning towards a more casual and affordable version of Sunday dinner, this title, along with this list of ideas for soup garnishes, is just what you need.
What you'll find in this book? A year's worth of scrumptious Sunday dinner soup recipes, including cool versions for summer months. Also included are various recipes for “souper sides” to round out the meal such as grilled gorgonzola sandwiches, green bean-cherry tomato-bacon salad with a red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard vinaigrette, and walnut-feta salad with baby greens. A few of the slamming soup recipes included in this tome? Potato-bacon chowder with caraway cheese, tortilla soup with chicken and lime, Thai lemon grass soup with shrimp, creamy crab and corn bisque with fresh basil and coconut lime soup with scallops.
Betty hosts the popular New England cooking show “On the Menu”, is a frequent contributor to Bon Appetit magazine, and writes a syndicated column called “That's Entertaining” for Tribune Media Services. Want an inside peek at one of the scrumptious recipes inside?
Coconut Lime Soup With Scallops
Ingredients: 3 stalks of lemongrass, 3 cups chicken stock, 1 tbsp fresh minced ginger, 1 ½ cups coconut milk 1 ½ tsp Thai fish sauce, 3/8 tsp red pepper flakes, 1 ½ tbsp fresh lime juice, 12 ounces sea scallops, kosher or sea salt, 3 tsp lime zest and six wedges of lime for garnish, ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro for a topping and flavor accent.
What to do: Remove the tough outer layers from lemongrass stalks and cut an inch or so off the woody stem. Thinly slice the rest of the lemongrass crosswise to yield about a quarter cup. Combine stock, lemongrass and minced ginger in a saucepan and simmer for five minutes before straining into a large bowl, discarding the solid bits and returning to the saucepan. Add coconut milk, fish sauce, red pepper flakes and lime juice to pan and simmer. Slice large scallops horizontally into three rounds, then cut rounds in half to form half-moon shapes. (I have to admit I'll probably cheat here and go directly to the tiny bay scallops.) Add scallops to the soup and cook until opaque and cooked through (about 2-3 minutes). Season with salt, ladle into bowls, garnish and top with cilantro and lime.
Clearly, the woman knows her food. Who might find this book a helpful purchase? Those who enjoy full color images with their culinary instructions, collectors of unusual recipes, or those looking to give a gift to a person or couple starting out that provides resources for style as well as budget. Definitely a title for the serious soup enthusiast.
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Glad you enjoyed the review. There are so many cookbooks out there, I think it helps to bring some of the good ones to the forefront. Good luck on your soup endeavors.
This is my kind of cookbook. I only do new recipes if I can see what they look like first, so this sounds perfect. I'm really the only one who eats soup in my family, but I can make a batch and take some next door to my parents. They'd love these recipes!
Thanks for the review!
Linsey Knerl
It is a pretty cool book, and so topical for the economy and people trying to pinch pennies on the grocery front. Yet, the recipes are all pretty stylish too.
All the more inspiring when you can see what the finished product looks like. Thanks for letting us know about this book, I am going to put it on my wish list!
Gorgonzola? Cherry tomatoes? Bacon? Feta? Caraway cheese? Lemon grass? Shrimp, crab and scallops? I don't know where these are considered budget ingredients, but not in my neighborhood!
I agree with Mom on "these are considered budget ingredients". Not in my neighborhood now or ever. Our soups were and still are mainly made with leftovers veggies and chicken or turkey carcasses supplelmented with biscuits or muffins.
I'm sure the recipes are wonderful, the photos a real plus, but for cutting the food budget I really don't think so.
I think everyone is a little guilty of spending too much on food so this book should help.
Soup is really economical. I make huge pans of it and it lasts for day. Great with a chunk of homemade wholemeal bread too!
I think economy on soup is relative, really. Certainly there are a range of soup recipes in this book, and a range of ones that I use at home. For example, today we're doing a cream of chicken and brocolli with leftovers from last night's dinner.
However, if you are looking for a way to enjoy seafood and other ingredients affordably, soup can certainly do the job. Tomatoes and lemongrass can be grown, and cheeses and fish can be purchased on sale. Not to mention that you are using very small amounts of each. The title provides a range of recipes with varying prices on the ingredient list. Bay scallops where we are can be gotten cheaper than steak, lamb and certain kinds of ground beef.
Feel free to enjoy whatever type of soup you want. But the economy of the meal itself is available across the recipe board, in my opinion.
Thanks everyone, for offering comments and opinions, though.
"In my recent post, Seven Money Saving Menu Ideas for Every Day of the Week, I eluded to this very concept, soup on Sundays."
Probably not. To elude is to slip away from, to hide. No doubt you had previously alluded to the subject.
You know, this is why spell check is sometimes not enough. And a lesson in how tough it is to edit your own work effectively. My bad. Thanks for catching it.
I've tried every cookbook reviewed on WiseBread and have never been disappointed! I can't wait to get this one from the library!
One of my New Years Resolutions was to avoid processed food, including canned soups, which are extremely high in sodium & contain all sorts of mystery ingredients. I am a huge fan of soup, but always sort of believed that you need an entire afternoon to cook a pot of soup. Nothing could be further from the truth -- most soups can be cooked in around an hour. A bean soup (with dried beans) from scratch takes about three hours from start to finish (including an hour for quick soaking) & is super, super cheap. Canned beans are even quicker, but not quite so cheap.
I've been making my daughter homemade chicken & pasta soup to put in her thermos, for about $2.50 per pot. My recipe is really simple -- I buy the Pacific organic chicken broth @ Costco (6 cartons for 10.00, which works out to 1.60 per carton -- the broth contains nothing but filtered water & chicken). I pre-cook the pasta (about 1 cup, which is about .35 per cup) in whatever shape looks interesting -- I've done wagon wheels, rotini, shells, vermicelli broken into 1 inch pieces, etc.
Once the pasta is cooked, I drain away most of the cooking water (I leave the pasta just covered with water), and then put a carton of broth in, throw in two or three frozen chicken tenders, a few sliced carrots & some sliced celery & simmer it for about 20-30 minutes until the chicken is cooked. You could add more vegetables, but she won't eat them. I take the pieces of chicken out & dice them up & throw them back in. For less than the cost of two cans of Cambell's, I have around 5 servings of healthy, homemade, delicious, low-sodium chicken soup to send to school/work. If the soup gets too thick sitting in the fridge, I just add a little water to thin it. It's more similar to the Progresso-style soups, which are just insanely expensive at around $2.00 per can (which really only serves one person).
The thing that I love about homemade soup is that you can turn about $2.00 worth of meat into dinner for 4 people. I also make a black bean & sausage soup that is a little more expensive. It mixes up for about $5.00 a pot & will feed myself, my husband & my two kids with 2 servings left-over for lunches.
It is possible, and economical to make my own broth. However, I find that I am a lot more likely to make soup if I give myself permission to use pre-made broth.
