PresRDC

Best soup I ever had was the ribolitta at Il Latini in Florence. It was a life changing moment. Seriously. I had always liked food, but that first bite taught me just how a simple preparation coupled with fantastic, but simple, ingredients can combine to produce something magical.

LapLap

This is something I make with a pressure cooker. I guess it could work in a slowcooker with a few modifications.

My way is to soak garbanzos/chickpeas and cannellini beans overnight and make an initial 'sofrito' by frying onions and canned plum tomatoes before I fry the paprika momentarily and add the rest of the ingredients and screw down the pressure cooker lid for 35-40 minutes. I guess tinned beans and a bit of tomato sauce or concentrate would suffice for a crockpot and no pre-cooking on a stove.
Apart from the beans, onions and tomato, the other ingredients are potatoes, green beans, pumpkin or squash and pear. Sometimes I'll add a bit of carrot. Seasonings are salt and sweet paprika (I'd recommend the smoked kind) - optional are saffron and mint. You could add a little cumin if you like it, I don't.
Olive oil, extra virgin, is, of course, mandatory. Be generous.
This is basically a b'sterdised version of an "olla gitana" (roughly translated as 'gypsy stew', chickpeas and saffron are classic ingredients of Spanish gypsy cuisine but this is a very well known dish in Murcia. Not everyone uses cannellini beans)
Don't cut the pear pieces too small as you want them to keep some kind of integrity.

nonesuch flyer

For very tastey vegetable soups I suggest the following:

Step one: Roast some combination of onions, carrots, potatoes, butternut squash, parsnips etc at a high temperature (450 or more) in the oven. I rub with EVOO and place on Aluminium foil in baking dish. I dont peel onion. Caramelize the vegetables such that the onion skins are blackened. If you like garlic add a foil packet of garlic cloves part way through cooking [I suppose some of you were thinking step one was going to be "open up door to kitchen and walk in"...]

Step Two: When veges are soft and before they are to charred remove from oven and cool (you may want to add some water or stock to baking dish during cooking if residue from veges on foil is getting burned).

Step Three: deglaze pan with sherry, white wine or stock or water making sure that you dissolve all dark residues on foil using a wooden spoon. Put deglazing liquid in a pot and bring to boil to drive off alcohol. Add veges to poy after removing skin from onions, butternut squash etc. Use immersion blender to puree adding more water or chicken stock to get desired consistency.

For serving I put a dollop of home made apple/raisin chutney in the centre of each bowl....

EveryPointCounts

My favorite soup is Chicken and Corn soup added with egg and vegetables.

ILuvParis

Made a huge pot of Navy bean with bacon this afternoon/tonight. What an aroma!

Cholula

I expect yet another equal but opposite aroma sometime tomorrow......

We had this tonight and I'd rate it an 8 out of 10 on the Super Soup™ rating schedule.

ILuvParis

That was so fast it was as though you've been monitoring the thread for 110 posts, just waiting for it.

nkedel

I can't cook for beans, but I do like good soup. Good tomato or french onion, especially.

One place where i've had very good soup is at the CX "The Wing" lounge at HKG - in addition to the Noodle Bar, they've had some kind of very good western-style soup every time I've been. The best was a Tomato with coriander a year or so ago that ranks as the best tomato soup I've ever had.

tondoleo

I found this recipe in the NY Times a couple of years ago. It has become a family favorite. Sautee minced garlic (2 cloves) and 1 small/medium chopped onions in 3-4 tbs of olive oil until golden. Add 1 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp ground black pepper, pinch of cayenne pepper or to your taste. Stir. Add 1 tsp of tomato paste or chopped or pureed tomatoes if in season (1/4 - 1/2cup). Stir. Add 1qt to 1 1/2 qts water. (I use 1 qt. We like thick soup). Bring to boil. Add two sliced, chopped, diced or shredded carrots (your choice). Cover the pot partially and let it simmer for 1/2 hour on lowest heat.

We eat this soup in any weather and season. It is great as a light meal with cheeses and homemade bread.

ILuvParis

This is like pea soup without peas or onion soup without onions.

Cholula

How many lentils do you use??

tondoleo

One cup.

SkeptiCallie

Sauerkraut soup--encountered in a Czech-German restaurant in the U.S., with general recipes/guidelines obtained from the Internet

Drain a large can of sauerkraut and rinse two or three times. Put into a saucepan, cover with water, add caraway seed and/or grated small peeled potato (both are optional) and a teaspoon of sugar (very optional--I don't add sugar, but some people prefer a slightly sweet sauerkraut), and boil for about twenty minutes.

Adding the small amount of grated potato makes the sauerkraut taste milder. It's a matter of personal preference.

While the sauerkraut is boiling, prepare a roux with about two to three tablespoons each of oil and flour. Optionally, fry two to three slices of bacon and use the bacon drippings as the oil. Also optionally, add about 1/4 cup of chopped onions to the oil and fry before adding the flour to brown. Alternatively, slice a German or Polish sausage into medallions and fry in oil and then add the flour. IOW, meat and onions are optional but can be added for the roux.

Stir the roux into the sauerkraut and heat for a few more minutes.

At this point you can stop, as you now have a Czech-style sauerkraut which can be served along with the standard bread or potato dumplings, gravy, and pork roast that constitute one of the most popular Czech meals.

But we're talking soup here. And I'm assuming that if you want soup, you might have a cold. So--

For soup, take about one third of a cup of the sauerkraut mixture per serving and stir into one cup of chicken broth (canned is fine, with Campbell's the best of the canned choices) per serving, and serve hot.

Any cold germs will not stay around. Trust me.

ILuvParis

I learned something this weekend I had never heard of. One of the recipes for Navy Bean soup that I ran across had one cup of mashed potatoes as an ingredient. I assumed it was a thickener as some other recipes mentioned pureeing some of the beans. Anyway, I boiled and mashed a medium potato and added a little milk. Then, I added it to the soup and it thickened it perfectly. I would imagine it would work for nearly any soup that needs thickening.

DoubleHaul

I love me some soup, too.

My last batch was potato soup...my family's "sick meal" (my wife had strep last week, yuck!)

Its basically carrots, onions, and potatoes in water/and or chicken stock with a healthy (?) dose of butter. All of it pushed through a ricer (or, if in a lazy mood, pureed with an immersion blender). Some salt and pepper to taste, and you are good to go.

I will also do different versions of vegetable beef soup, depending on what I have on hand. Love to use PISMO whole tenderloin trimmings as the meat.

I keep meaning to try a french onion, but haven't gotten around to it.

My other favorites that I haven't done at home are NE Clam Chowder, She-Crab, and Tom Yum with plenty o' shrimp (especially at Annie's Thai Castle in Buckhead/ATL).