The Soup Sisters Family Cookbook – Review

In 2009 The Soup Sisters was founded to deliver nutritious and comforting soup to women and children in need. Their first cookbook, Soup Sisters Cookbook, was produced in 2012. Shortly thereafter in 2014, the second book, Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers, was released and now this is the third in the series.

This new addition, The Soup Sisters Family Cookbook, features recipes from chefs, food professionals, soup sisters, and children. The brief introduction “Soup Comes Full Circle” even includes letters from children who participated.

In the “Getting Started” section you get the basics of what you will need for the soups. For example, Pantry Essentials, Essential Equipment, information on Prepping, even Kitchen Safety.

With “Stocking” you get several recipes on how to create chicken, turkey, beef, fish, vegetable stocks. Also information on chilling in storing soup and stock.

Recipe chapters include:

• Garden Growing
• Magic Beans
• Noodling Around
• The Main Event
• Chill Out

Throughout the book, you will see various icons serving to highlight those recipes which are vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and also icons indicating helpful hands, or a story to Patel that comes from the person who contributed the recipe.

Each recipe contains the name of the contributor as well as a brief description of the recipe or where it came from. The recipes are all very straightforward and although with all soups they do take time, these recipes are not overly complicated.

Only about 40% of the recipes have a picture. The pictures are gorgeous and are either on the page with the recipe, the facing page, or are labeled with the name of the recipe and the page number. That makes identifying the recipe you want so much easier.

At the end of the recipes is a section with a brief introduction to each of the child chefs who contributed recipes along with the page number of their contribution. I found this is especially enjoyable, and brings a little closer to each of the contributors.

Strongly Recommended

It is been such a short time since Soup Sisters began but their progress is impressive. They have nearly 30 chapters across Canada and are now making themselves known in the US. There can’t be anything more important than making sure children have enough food to eat. By purchasing this cookbook or any in the series you are helping to support their efforts. Even if this were not the case though, I would strongly recommend this cookbook to anyone who wants a lovely soup. The variety is excellent and the recipes are very approachable.

Because I do love my mushrooms, I included the “Go Wild Mushroom Soup”. Enjoy!

Go Wild Mushroom Soup

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Nora Pouillon
Author inch chef and owner of Restaurant Nora, Washington, DC
This is one of our family favorites. My mother often made it after we went mushroom hunting in the woods in the Austrian countryside near where I grew up.
Vegetarian, Gluten-free

Makes4 Servings

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoon onion finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon garlic minced
• 1 pound wild mushrooms assorted such as chanterelle, oyster, porcini, shiitake, cremini, and or portobello, sliced
• 2 stalks celery thinly sliced
• 1 small leak white part only, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon tamari see note
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons crème fraîche or sour cream or whipped cream 35% MF
• 1 1/2 tablespoon parsley chopped or fresh tarragon

Instructions

• In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until the onion has softened, about four minutes. Add the garlic and cook to soften.
• Add the mushrooms, celery, leek, and carrot. Cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms start to soften, about four minutes.
• At stock and tamari and bring to boil over medium – high heat. Reduce the heat to medium – low and simmer, covered, until all the vegetables are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.
• Remove the pot from the heat and cool the soup. Using a blender, a food processor, for an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Reheat to serve. Ladle the soup into warm balls. Garnish each serving with a dollop of crème fraîche and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
  

Notes

Tamari is a type of Japanese soy sauce without wheat, making it gluten-free. If you can't find it in the Asian section of your supermarket, substitute regular soy sauce.

We often make this soup at my restaurant, Nora, when we have accumulated enough trimmings and stems leftover from her other wild mushroom dishes; that way we don't waste any food and we make economical use of the trimmings. to enhance the mushroom flavor even more, soak some dried porcini for 20 minutes, then drain and add to the soup along with the fresh mushrooms.