Simple Summer Soups

Everyone associates soup as a heavy, hearty meal to warm up with on chilly winter days.  But I love soups every season of the year, and summer is a great time to make simple, pure soups that aren't heavy or hearty.  You can use ingredients that are in season and in your CSA box or local farmer's market every week.  And the best part of making seasonal summer soups is how easy it is!  Most of the ingredients you need are already in your kitchen cupboards.  Here are some of my favorite summer soups that are full of great seasonal flavors and wonderful nutrients, but won't be heavy or overly filling.


Chilled Melon Soup:

6 cups cubed ripe melon
1/2 cup diced seedless cucumber
6 tablespoons lime juice, divided, plus more to taste
1 tablespoon thinly sliced scallion green, plus 1 whole scallion, divided
1 jalapeño pepper, plus more to taste
1 cup cold water
1 2-by-1/2-inch strip orange zest
1/2 cup orange juice, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro, or mint for garnish
6 teaspoons plain yogurt, or crème fraiche for garnish

1.)  Dice enough melon to measure 1 cup and combine in a small bowl with cucumber, 2 tablespoons lime juice and scallion green. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve the soup.
2.)  Place the remaining melon and 4 tablespoons lime juice in a blender. Chop the whole scallion and seed and chop jalapeño; add to the blender along with water, orange zest, orange juice, ginger and salt. Blend until smooth and creamy. Taste and add more lime juice, jalapeño and/or orange juice, if desired.
3.)  Refrigerate the soup until chilled, 2 hours.
4.)  Stir the reserved diced melon mixture and divide among 4 soup bowls. Pour the soup into the bowls. Garnish each serving with cilantro (or mint) and yogurt (or crème fraîche), if using.

Serving Size: 3/4 cup

Total Kcals: 63

Carbohydrates: 16g

Protein: 1g

Fat: 0g

Bold Spinach Soup:

 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish

2 large yellow onions, chopped
1 teaspoon salt, divided
2 tablespoons plus 3 cups water, divided
1/4 cup rice
1 bunch green chard (about 1 pound)
14 cups gently packed spinach (about 12 ounces), any tough stems trimmed
4 cups vegetable broth, store-bought or homemade
Big pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice, or more to taste

 1.)  Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add onions and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook, stirring frequently, until the onions begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, add 2 tablespoons water and cover. Cook, stirring frequently until the pan cools down, and then occasionally, always covering the pan again, until the onions are greatly reduced and have a deep caramel color, 25 to 30 minutes.
2.)  Meanwhile, combine the remaining 3 cups water and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a soup pot or Dutch oven; add rice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Trim the white ribs out of the chard (save for another use, such as to add to a stir-fry or other soup). 3.)  Coarsely chop the chard greens and spinach.
4.)  When the rice has cooked for 15 minutes, stir in the chard greens. Return to a simmer; cover and cook for 10 minutes. When the onions are caramelized, stir a little of the simmering liquid into them; add them to the rice along with the spinach, broth and cayenne. Return to a simmer, cover and cook, stirring once, until the spinach is tender but still bright green, about 5 minutes more.
5.)  Puree the soup in the pot with an immersion blender until perfectly smooth or in a regular blender in batches (return it to the pot). Stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Taste and add more lemon juice, if desired. Garnish each bowl of soup with a drizzle of olive oil.

Serving Size: 1 1/4 cup

Total Kcals: 99

Carbohydrates: 14g

Protein: 3g

Fat: 4g

Fragrant Fish Soup:

1 cup jasmine rice

2 cups water
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth, or vegetable broth
1 pound tilapia fillets, or other firm white fish

4 cups bite-size pieces arugula, or watercress (about 1 bunch), tough stems removed
1 cup finely shredded carrots
1/4 cup very thinly sliced fresh mint
2 scallions, finely chopped

1.)  Combine rice and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat; cover and cook until the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Stir in lemon zest and juice.
2.)  Meanwhile, bring broth to a simmer in another medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat so the broth remains steaming, but not simmering. Add fish and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes. Remove and break into bite-size chunks.
3.)  Divide the lemony rice among 4 bowls. Top with equal portions of the fish, arugula (or watercress), carrot, mint and scallions. Ladle 1 cup of the warm broth into each bowl and serve.

Serving Size: 1 1/4 cups

Total Kcals: 239

Carbohydrate: 25g

Protein: 29g

Fat: 3g

Paprika And Red Pepper Soup:

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 small onion, diced

2 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, stemmed, seeded and diced
1-2 fresh green Thai or serrano chiles, stemmed and coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons sweet Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
2 cups vegetable broth or water
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
2 tablespoons whipping cream
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro or basil


1.)  Heat oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell peppers and chile to taste. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables release some of their juices and the onion is lightly brown around the edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle the vegetables with paprika, salt and cardamom and cook, stirring, until the spices are very fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
2.)  Add pistachios and broth (or water). Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until the peppers are fork-tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the heat; let cool 5 minutes.
3.)  Transfer the soup to a blender (in batches if necessary) and puree until smooth. (Use caution when pureeing hot liquids.) Return the soup to the pan.
4.)  Whisk buttermilk and cream in a bowl; stir into the soup. Gently warm over low heat. Serve sprinkled with cilantro (or basil).

Serving Size: 1 cup

Total Kcals: 246

Carbohydrate: 18g

Protein: 7g

Fat: 17g

Spiced Blueberry Soup:

4 cups fresh or frozen (not thawed) blueberries, plus more for garnish

2 cups water

1 whole cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons honey, or more to taste
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
2 cardamom pods, (optional)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup low-fat milk
1 cup 4 teaspoons reduced-fat sour cream, divided

1.)  Combine blueberries, water, cinnamon stick, honey, ginger and cardamom pods (if using) in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring, until most of the blueberries have burst, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Puree the soup in 2 batches in a blender until smooth (use caution when pureeing hot liquids). Place a fine sieve over the pan and pour the soup through it back into the pan, straining out any solids. (Discard the solids.)
2.)  Whisk cornstarch and milk in a measuring cup until smooth. Whisk into the blueberry mixture. Bring the soup to a boil over medium heat, stirring. Boil, stirring constantly, until the soup thickens slightly, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, loosely cover and chill until cold, at least 5 hours or up to 2 days.
3.)  Just before serving, whisk 1 cup sour cream into the soup and ladle into bowls; top each serving with 1/2 teaspoon sour cream and swirl decoratively into the soup. Garnish with additional blueberries, if desired.

Serving Size: 1/2 cup
Total Kcals: 115
Carbohydrate: 19g
Protein: 2g
Fat: 4g

Declare Your Food Independence!

What happened to food?  As you walk through the aisles of the grocery store, you will notice most of our food these days are imprisoned in plastic.  Rather than representing newfound abundance, these plastic packages have replaced the true, whole foods that our ancestors used to grow and eat every day.  Not convinced?  Try buying real milk - as in raw.  Can you find meat processed in the open air under the sunshine?  Fresh cheese?  They have been replaced by an array of pseudo-foods that did not even exist a mere century ago.  The food additives, preservatives, colorings, emulsifiers, corn syrups, and unpronounceable ingredients listed on the colorful packages actually reduce the options available to fill Americans' dinner plates.

The mindset behind this radical transformation of American eating habits expresses itself in at least a couple of ways.  First, the completely absurd argument that without industrial food, the world would starve.  Secondly, the equally absurd argument that without these airtight packages and processing steps our food is unsafe to eat.  But lets be real here, food safety is a matter of personal choice and millions of people, including many vast cities, were fed and sustained using traditional farming methods until just a few decades ago.  It is time to reclaim our food freedom!  What could be a more basic freedom than the freedom to choose what to feed your family? 

If our food supply is ever going to change, its is up to you and me to make the change.  But what is the best way to make the change?  Through legislation?  Picketing the World Trade Organization talks?  By dumping cow manure on the parking lot at McDonald's?  Demanding regulatory restraint over the aesthetically and aromatically repulsive industrial food system?  What about simply declaring our food independence from the industrial food system?  How do we do that?  Well, let's chat about it...

Learn To Cook Again
First, we must rediscover out kitchens.  Never has a culture spent more to remodel and techno-glitz our kitchens, but at the same time been more lost as to where the kitchen is and what it is for.  As a culture we don't cook anymore.  Americans consume nearly a quarter of their food in their cars, for Pete's sake.  Americans graze through the kitchen, popping precooked, heat-and-eat, bar-coded packages into the microwave for eating-on-the-run.  That treatment doesn't work with real food.  Real, whole food needs to be sliced, peeled, sauteed, marinated, pureed, and a host of other things that require true culinary skills.  To be perfectly sexist, back in the 1900's, every mom knew how to cut up a chicken.  That was generic cultural mom information.  Today, half of the moms don't even know that a chicken even has bones. 

As a culture, if all we did was rediscover our kitchens and quit buying prepared foods, it would fundamentally change the industrial food system.  Both moms and dads need to reclaim the basic food preparation knowledge that was once the natural inheritance of every human being.


Buy Local
After rediscovering your kitchen, the next food independence strategy is to purchase as directly as possible from your local farmer.  If the money pouring into industrial food dried up tomorrow, that system would cease to exist.  Sounds easy, doesn't it?  Actually, it is.  It doesn't take any legislation, regulation, taxes, agencies, or programs.  As the money flows to local producers, more producers will join them.  The only reason the local food system is still minuscule is because few people utilize it. 

Just for fun, close your eyes and imagine walking down the aisle of your nearby Wal-Mart or Whole Foods.  Make a note of each item as you walk by and think about what could be grown within one hundred miles of that venue.  If we break it down into little bits, suddenly the job seems doable.  Can milk be produced within one hundred miles of you?  Eggs?  Tomatoes?  Why not?

Not everything can be grown locally, but the lion's share of what you eat certainly can.  Farmer's Markets are a big and growing part of this movement.  They provide a social atmosphere and a wide variety of fare.  Too often, however, their politics and regulations end up stifling vendors.  And they aren't open every day for the convenience for shoppers.

Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a shared-risk investment that answers some of the tax and liability issues surrounding food commerce.  Patrons invest in a portion of the farm's products and receive a share every week during the season.  The drawback is the paperwork and lack of patron choice.

Many people ask "Where do I find local food, or a farmer?"  The answer?  They are all around.  If you put as much time into sourcing local food as many people put into picketing and political posturing, you will discover a whole world that Wall Street doesn't know exists.  Think of the Chinese proverb: "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."  This nonindustrial food system lurks below the radar in every locality.  If you seek, you will find.


Buy What's In Season
After discovering your kitchen and finding your farmer, the third declaration of food independence is to eat seasonally.  Eating seasonally does not mean denying yourself tomatoes in January if you live in New Hampshire.  It means procuring the mountains of late-season tomatoes thrown away each year and canning, freezing, or dehydrating them for winter use.

For the first time in human history, a person can move into a community, build a house out of outsourced material. heat it with outsourced energy, hook up to water from an unknown source, send waste out a pipe somewhere else, and eat food from an unknown source.  In other words, in modern America we can live without any regard to the ecological life that surrounds us. 

The most unnatural characteristic of the industrial food system is the notion that the same food items should be available everywhere at once at all times.  To have empty grocery shelves during inventory downtime is unthinkable in the supermarket world.  Let's refuse to participate in the nonseasonal game and throw a huge blow to the industrial food system.

Plant A Garden
My final recommendation for declaring your food independence is to grow some of your own.  I am constantly amazed at the creativity shown by individuals who live in urban areas and who physically embody their independence by growing something themselves.  For some, it may be a community garden where neighbors work together to grow tomatoes, beans, and squash.  For others it may be a small herb garden.

Clearly, so much can be done right here, right now, with what you and I have.  The question is not "What can I force someone else to do?"  The question is "What am I doing today to declare my food independence to the industrial food system?"  For some, it may be having one family sit-down, locally-sourced meal a week.  That's fine.  We haven't gotten where we've gotten overnight, and we certainly won't extract ourselves from where we are overnight. 

Fritatta with Onion and Tarragon
This recipe was sent to me by my CSA, and I want to share it with you!  It is amazing and full of flavor!

Ingredients:
Two medium onions

Garlic chives

Fresh French tarragon

Parmesan cheese

Cream

Six eggs

Olive oil

Butter

Salt

Sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 325 F. Place a 10 inch oven proof skillet over medium heat and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter. Coat the bottom and sides of the pan with the melted butter and olive oil.
2. Slice two medium onions and add to the skillet along with ¾ teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Stir onions, cover skillet with lid and reduce heat to low. Allow onions to soften for 10 minutes. Remove cover and raise heat to medium-high and allow the onions to caramelize to a golden brown. Stir the onions occasionally and scrape the brown bits that form on the bottom and sides of the pan to facilitate caramelization.
3.  Adding one tablespoon of water half way through caramelization will help to achieve a uniform color. Add ¼ cup of finely chopped garlic chives and reduce heat to medium.
4. In a separate bowl beat 6 eggs with 1/3 cup cream and 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Coarsely chop half a sprig of tarragon and add to the onion and chive mixture.
5. Add the beaten eggs, cream and cheese to the skillet and stir to combine spreading the onions uniformly throughout the skillet. Heat for 1 minute, transfer to the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. If you prefer softer more custard like eggs cook for 10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Shave Parmesan cheese on top of the fritatta and top with fresh tarragon leaves. For an additional treat lightly sprinkle with truffle oil.