Tonight I made a recipe from one of my favorites- Ina Garten. I made her version of lentil vegetable soup. Absolutely delicious!! I love lentil soup. Pop's Restaurant in Milford makes a mean lentil soup. I believe their soup had beef in it as well. I've tried the Progresso sausage and lentil soup and that was just terrible. I want to like soup from a can but so far the only kinds I actually like are Progresso's Chickerina and Campbell's Tomato soup. The traditional chicken noodle soups in cans are gross. Where do they get that disgusting little pink cube aka the chicken? Back to my lentil. It was a very simple recipe and I have a tip that made it that much easier to make. My dad will never ever eat anything with lentils involved, so I knew if I wanted to try this soup, I'd have to make it on a weeknight. Then I started to worry that I wouldn't have enough time to chop, put together, and let cook all on a Monday night. So Sunday I cut up all the vegetables, put them in a large Ziplock bag, and cut my time in the kitchen! The recipe calls for 3 large onions, 2 leeks, 3 garlic cloves, 8 stalks of celery, and 6 carrots. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any leeks at Stop and Shop or Adam's, so I improvised. A leek looks like a large scallion and gives off an oniony-type flavor and because of this, I chopped 3 scallions (the white and light green part). I also decided to chop up 2 parsnips as well. I suppose you could add or subtract any vegetables you'd like. Be careful, though, the pot does get quite full.
First you brown the onions, scallions/leeks, and garlic- about 20 min. with salt, pepper, fresh thyme, and cumin. Then add the carrots, celery, and parsnips. Let that cook for a bit. Then add a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste- mix together. Add 3 quarts of chicken stock and the lentils. Before adding the lentils, put in a bowl with a strainer and cover with boiling water. Let sit in the water for 20 minutes. Once everything is combined, cover and let the stock come to a boil, uncover and reduce to a simmer. Let an hour go by and HEY! Now it's time for some lentil soup. Delicious! There is nothing quite like hot soup on a cold, damp night. This soup was flavorful, filling, healthy, and piping hot! Just the way should be! As the winter continues, I'll be sure to put up some other soup recipes that I have or try out.
Homemade soup, of course, is the best, but here are some wonderful soups to check out when you're eating out. As I have mentioned, the lentil soup from Pop's is dynamite. As a matter of fact, all of the soups I have tried from Pop's are divine. Chicken orzo, beef barley, Manhattan clam chowder to name a few. I love a good wonton soup. There's nothing worse than biting into a wonton and getting this al dente, ball of death in your mouth. The best wonton soups are from Bao's (you can tell when a different cook makes it so it's not always good) and China Pavilion. I've had the hot and sour soup from China Pavilion as well. That soup wasn't really my cup of tea but if it was the only soup left on Earth, I wouldn't complain. Let's talk chowda now. There are three types- New England (creamy), Rhode Island (clear), and Manhattan (red). The best New England clam chowder used to be from the old Chuck's Steakhouse in West Haven. I can taste it right now just thinking of it. I guess that's another soup I'll never have again. *Side track alert* The Chuck's chowder and Gianotti's pancakes are the only two restaurant foods that I can recall the taste of and will never be matched. Whatever happened to Gianotti's? Remember it? Tiny little breakfast place that used to be where Dive Bar is now. Suddenly, I hear Barbara Streisand in my head. Back on track... the New England clam chowder from Chandler's Tavern (at Yankee Candle in Mass.) is, hands downs, the BEST currently bubbling NE chowder. Perfect balance of flavor and not so creamy that you're gagging while you're trying to swallow it. Stowe's had good NE chowder too. NE is not my favorite of the three. My favorite is Rhode Island. That's real soup. All of the flavorful clam broth! I just love it. West Haven is home to many great RI chowders. Turk's is my favorite, though that can depend on the cook as well. Sometimes it is chock full of clams and potatoes and vegetables. Other times, you get 4 hard pieces of potato and 1 little inappropriate piece of clam. When the good cook is on- Turk's is the best. Jimmie's has great RI clam chowder as well, though I'm upset that you can't order RI chowder as your soup choice with your meal. You get the choice of chicken or corn crab chowder. If you order the clam, you have to pay extra. Let's not be ridiculous here people! The joke is on them though because the crab is fantastic! Duffy's also has fabulous RI clam chowder. I have a hard time choosing any other type of soup when I eat at Duffy's. Savin Rock Roasting has pretty good chowder as well. There's only one type of RI chowder that I don't like- and that would be one that has very tiny cubes of potatoes and a lot of bacon flavor. It's not supposed to taste like bacon. It's just used for a little smokiness and bite, it's not supposed to be a bacon challenge for that "fat-ass versus food."
This is turning into a long post so I'll just list some good soup/restaurant combos. Pasa -te (can't spell) from Biagetti's, Tortellini soup from Lisiano's (I know- I will never go there again- but good soup), Meat tortellini soup from Gabriele's, Chicken and Rice soup and French Onion soup from Turk's, Asparagus Soup from Roly Poly, Various soups from liquid lunch, Chicken and Beef barley soup from Water's Edge, and believe it or not, every soup from Duchess fast food restaurant is delicious. It's the only fast food place I know of that makes soup. So nice to go through a drive-through and get soup. Duchess Diner in WH and the Athenian Diner in Milford has great soup. I can't seem to think of any others right now, but this will be soup season, so I plan on keeping you informed of where you can find the best soups around.
Until my next slurp .... (Insert Mrs. White and Professor Plum from "Clue")
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