Soups

The Maundy Thursday soup supper always has an impressive array of offerings.On this page, we'll provide the recipes! Please give an indication of how much soup your recipe makes. Note that if you are trying this at home, you will probably want to scale it down to a smaller family size. Got a soup to share? Send it to stpaulblog@gmail.com .





Spiced Peanut and Sweet Potato Soup Double the amounts for Maundy Thursday!
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 3 or 4 medium sweet potatoes or yams,
  • peeled and cut into 1" cubes
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp. chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
  • 2 tablespoons tomato sauce or ketchup
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  1. Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to wilt, about 5 minutes.
  2. Add the garlic, sweet potatoes, spices, tomato sauce, peanut butter and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are very tender, about 35 minutes.
  3. Puree, adding additional broth if necessary for a smooth texture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
Curried Lentil vegetarian (Lisa Churchill and Susan Forsburg) This soup comes from our friend Charlotte and will make at least 5 quarts. You probably want to divide by 4 to have a reasonable amount for home. We begin with a home-made vegetable stock, based on mushrooms and add whatever is in the vegetable drawer and our freezer stock bag: carrots, celery, onion, parsley, the green ends of leeks, etc. We chop all these into our big soup pot and fill it up with water, along with a small handful of peppercorns, several generous pinches of kosher salt, 2 or 3 bay leaves, and fresh herbs from the garden including thyme and oregano. Bring to a boil and simmer for a couple of hours, then strain. Prepared stocks keep well in the freezer till you need them.
  • 3 lbs green Lentils, washed and sorted
  • 3 quarts of vegetable broth
  • 2 T cumin seed
  • 2 T brown mustard seed
  • 4" of fresh ginger root, shredded
  • 3 onions - medium, yellow or white, chopped fine
  • 3 bulbs garlic, mashed (yes, bulbs, not cloves!)
  • 3 large cans of tomatoes, (20 oz. each), chopped, with their juice
  • 2 bunches cilantro, chopped
  • 1/2 t turmeric
  • 1 t ground chili (such as cayenne, New Mexico, or Pasilla)stp
  • 1 t paprika
  1. Heat 1-2 T oil in a large soup pot until it shimmers. Add mustard and cumin seeds and cover quickly--they will "pop" for about 10 seconds; no longer or they will burn.
  2. Add the onions and ginger and soften, stirring constantly so they don't burn. Add the garlic.
  3. Add lentils and stock and cook for about 30 minutes, till lentils are done.
  4. Add tomatoes and their juice, cilantro, turmeric, paprika, and chile powder and simmer.
  5. Blend about half the soup in a blender or using an immersion blender and mix with the remainder.
  6. Serve with a dollop of plain yogurt. Leave the yogurt out if you want to keep it vegan.
Minestra di Farro (Robert Heylmun) A classic Italian soup, perfect for vegetarians. This soup was given to brides in ancient Rome on their wedding day as a token of good fortune. The recipe has been slightly modified for modern kitchens.
  • 1 cup (200 g.) farro*
  • 1 cup (200 g.) cannellini beans (dried) or 1 can (400 g.) of good quality beans (if you buy Bush’s cannellini beans, you’ll avoid gas later)
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 3 tbs. olive oil
  • 2 stalks of celery
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 1 cup ( 250 g.) chopped tomatoes (or one can of high quality tomatoes, drained)
  • 3 leaves of sage
  • 1 tsp. marjoram
  • ½ tsp. freshly ground pepper
  • 1 tsp. salt (see notes below)
*Note: You must find the ‘pearlized’ form (available at Costco) rather than using American spelt. If you use spelt, you will not get a soft, creamy texture in your soup.
  1. Bring the farro to a boil in plenty of water, remove from heat, cover, and soak at least four or five hours, or overnight. Similarly, the beans unless using canned ones.
  2. Chop the onion and celery and gently sauté in the olive oil for ten minutes without browning the onion. Add the garlic and cook for two or three minutes more, making sure not to brown anything, particularly the garlic.
  3. In a large kettle, combine the soaked farro, the beans and the sautéed mixture, tomatoes and spices, adding enough water or chicken stock to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer on low heat (it will scorch if on high heat) for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients are well blended. Serve hot with a drizzle of good quality olive oil along with some good bread.
  4. You can also brown Italian sausages and put them into the soup if you want to skip being a vegetarian.

CROCK POT WHITE CHILI

Frank Borik: I made this recipe up for a church potluck from a collection of Internet recipes and picked what I thought was the best, plus I added a few ingredients of my own. I wanted a couple of layers of subtle heat, so I used jalapenos and hot sauce, and I used red bell pepper for color as well as flavor. I thought that zucchini would be a nice healthy addition, particularly since I also added bacon for flavor. (These two factors cancel each other out, right?) While I normally cook my chili with beer, I couldn’t resist using white wine for this. I served this with a killer cornbread made with jalapenos, cream style corn and cheddar cheese. I can tell you that nobody went home hungry!

Serves 8

Ingredients:
  • 1 Whole Rotisserie Chicken, boned and cut into small pieces
  • 2 slices bacon, diced
  • 2 Cans Great Northern Beans (or other white beans), drained and rinsed
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 medium red bell pepper, diced
  • 2 medium zucchini, diced
  • 1 jalapeno, seeded and stemmed and finely diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 2 t ground cumin
  • 2 t dried oregano
  • 1 T hot sauce
  • Salt and Pepper to taste (note: go easy on the salt as the chicken, hot sauce and broth contain salt)
  • 1 can chicken broth
  • 2 C white wine
  • ½ C queso fresco, crumbled (for garnish)
  • 1 bunch fresh cilantro, minced (for garnish)
Preparation:

Place all the ingredients except the broth, wine, queso fresco and cilantro into a large crock pot lined with a disposable crock pot liner. Pour the broth and wine over the ingredients and mix to evenly distribute. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Yes the zucchini will get very soft, but it matches the texture of the other ingredients which, by this time, are pretty tender. When ready to serve, sprinkle on the queso fresco and cilantro. You can do this in the crock pot, or you can serve the garnish separately.

Preparation note: The hardest part of this recipe is all of the slicing and dicing for the prep work. Boning and dicing the chicken works best when the chicken has been refrigerated for a few hours or overnight. Don’t throw away the chicken carcass!! Save it for making homemade chicken broth!
Crock Pot Tortellini (Mark Patzman)

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 2 medium zucchini, in 1-inch cubes, about 1 cup
  • 3 1/2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
  • 1 large can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
  • 3 1/2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
  • 1 large can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
  • 1 can (15 1/2 ounces) canned great northern beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons dried leaf basil
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 8 ounces fresh or dry cheese-filled tortellini, cooked

Preparation
Combine all ingredients except tortellini in Crock Pot. Mix well. Cover and cook on Low setting for at least 6 hours. When ready to serve, increase heat to High setting. Add cooked tortellini. Cook 10 minutes longer, until heated through.

Serves 6 to 8.

Cioppino (Mark Patzman)
Ingredients
  • 1 large can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes with juice
  • 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup parsley, chopped
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 1 hot pepper (optional), chopped
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • 2 teaspoons basil
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • Seafood**
  • 1 lb deboned (important) and cubed fillet of tilapia, cod or other whitefish
  • 12 oz. shrimp
  • 1 lb. scallops
  • 1 lb. mussels
  • 12-16 oz calamari (whole or cubed from steaks)
  • 1 8oz can of deshelled lump crab meat

Preparation

Place all ingredients in slow cooker except seafood. Cover and cook 6 to 8 hours on low.

About 30 minutes before serving, add your seafood. Turn the heat up to HIGH and stir occasionally (but gently).

Serve with true sourdough bread if you can find it. We here in San Francisco are lucky in that we have a choice of several really 'sour' tasting brands. By the way, don't be afraid to dunk your bread in the chioppino as it's considered perfectly good manners in this case.

*Use your imagination and personal preferences as to which seafoods to add. Some choose to serve with fresh cracked crab when in season.

**Frozen shellfish works great but recommend it be thawed (if still cold, allow more time for the soup to reheat after the fish is added)
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