=A Good Vegetable Soup.=--For a vegetable soup scrape and cut
into dice a root of salsify, a turnip, and a carrot; mince enough
cabbage very finely to make a tablespoonful, slice very thin two
parboiled potatoes; cut two stalks of celery into small pieces; rub
a cupful of canned tomatoes through a sieve, slice one onion in thin
slices; measure out a half cupful of canned green peas, and the same
quantity of canned Lima beans; chop fine, enough parsley to make two
teaspoonfuls. Into a pot put the carrot, salsify, turnip, and cabbage,
and cover with salted boiling water; bring again to the boil, add
the beans and the peas, and cook slowly for half an hour. Drain the
vegetables and set to one side. In the bottom of the soup-pot fry the
sliced onion in three tablespoonfuls of butter, and when the onion is
a light brown colour, stir all the other vegetables and cover with a
quart of cold water, or, if you have it, a quart of weak soup stock.
Cover closely, and simmer for an hour steadily. At the end of an hour
add the parsley and celery, pepper and salt to taste. Rub a large
spoonful of butter into two tablespoonfuls of brown flour, and stir
into the soup. Cook, stirring steadily, until smooth and thick, then
serve.
=Almond Soup.=--Three ounces of ground almonds, one pint of new milk,
three ounces of milk powder, one tablespoonful of flour, one onion, a
good stick of celery, one ounce of butter, pepper, salt, and mace.
Place the milk in a pan, and when ready to boil, put in the milk
powder, almonds, onion, and celery. Boil for one hour; then take out
the onion and celery, mix in flour and butter, add seasoning, then let
all come to the boil again, and serve with toast.
=An Excellent Vegetable Soup= (_Mrs. C. W. Earle._)--Take two carrots,
two onions, two turnips, a little spinach, lettuce, endive, and sorrel.
Tie up a sprig of every sort of herb you have in the garden. Boil all
in water. When the hard vegetables are cooked take out the sweet herbs,
rub the whole through a fine sieve, make it not too thick by adding the
water the vegetables were boiled in; add a little butter, pepper and
salt, and serve hot.
=Bouillon aux Herbes, for Invalids.=--Take a good handful of chervil,
add a lettuce and some sorrel. Chop up the whole, and boil it in a pint
of water, add a piece of butter and a very little salt.
=Bouillon Maigre.=--Put in a saucepan ten carrots and as many turnips
and onions cut into squares, two lettuces, two heads of celery, a
handful of chervil, half a cabbage and a parsnip cut into thin slices,
add to the vegetables three ounces of butter and a pint of water,
simmer slowly, stirring frequently until all the liquid is absorbed,
then fill it up with water and add a quart of peas (green peas, if not
in season dried peas previously soaked), two cloves, salt and pepper.
Let it boil for three or four hours, then pass it through a sieve.
=Brazil Nut Soup= (_Mrs. C. W. Earle’s “Third Pot-Pourri”
Recipe_).--One pound of ground nuts stewed for twelve hours in two
quarts of water; flavour with celery and a few fried onions, add one
quart of boiling milk. Pass through a strainer, season, and serve with
fried bread dice.
=Celery Soup= (_Mrs. C. W. Earle’s Recipe_).--One head of celery, three
potatoes, one tablespoonful of butter, or nutter, two tablespoonfuls of
cornflour, one quart of water, one pint of milk. Boil the celery and
potatoes (cut into pieces) in the water till soft, then add the milk,
butter, and seasoning. Stir thoroughly. Mix the cornflour in a little
water, stir it in; boil about twenty or thirty minutes, and serve. All
soups should be eaten with bread or toast. Bread cut in slices and put
in the oven to bake a pale brown is very good; odd pieces may be used
in this way, and served broken up on a dish.
=Cherry Soup.=--Stem and wash one quart of morella cherries. Simmer
slowly in a quart of water until tender. Rub through a sieve and return
to the fire, sweeten with half a cupful of sugar. When boiled, thicken
slightly with a tablespoonful of arrowroot rubbed to a paste with a
little cold water. As soon as the soup looks perfectly clear take it
off the fire, add one tablespoonful of lemon juice, and put aside to
cool. Serve in sherbet glasses.
=Chestnut Soup.=--Take one pound chestnuts, one or two onions, half a
pint of vegetable stock, and one ounce of nut butter.
Boil the chestnuts for fifteen minutes, and peel them. Put these with
the onions (sliced) into a roomy stewpan with the butter, and fry
briskly for five minutes. Now add the stock, with seasoning to taste,
and bring to the boil, simmer gently until the onions and chestnuts are
quite soft. Pass through a hair sieve, dilute with milk until it is of
the consistency of a thin cream. Serve with croûtons.
=Chicory Soup.=--Prepare the chicory as for a purée, bring a pint of
vegetable stock up to boiling point, add the purée, and boil for about
twenty minutes, then rub it through a sieve, heat it again, skim, and
add some cream, a little salt, and a pinch of white sugar.
=Fruit Soup= (_A Danish Recipe_).--One cupful of pearl tapioca, half a
pound of prunes (stoned), half a pound of stoned raisins, three large
apples, chop three slices of lemon, add sugar, cinnamon, and whole
cloves to taste.
Soak the tapioca until soft, mix all the other ingredients with
this, and boil slowly in water enough to make it, when cooked, of the
consistency of a thick soup. This will require the addition of water
from time to time. When the tapioca is thoroughly dissolved and the
fruit is cooked, add the desired amount of sugar, and half a pint of
water. This soup may be eaten hot or cold; if the latter, whipped cream
is an agreeable addition in respect of both flavour and appearance.
=Gruyère Cheese Soup.=--To begin with, have ready your vegetable broth,
half a pound of Gruyère cheese, grate half of it and the other half cut
in very thin slices. Put at the bottom of the saucepan a little butter,
then a thin layer of the grated cheese, cover this with more very thin
slices of bread. Over this again put the thin slices of cheese, then
another layer of bread, then again the grated cheese so that each layer
is alternate bread and cheese, till you have used up the latter. The
top layer should be of the slices of cheese, on which place some little
pieces of butter, pour over a little of the broth and simmer until all
is absorbed, then add the remainder of the broth very hot, and serve.
This soup should be rather thick.
=Leek and Potato Soup.=--Cut in little pieces eight good leeks, put
them in water in a casserole with some salt, pepper, and some potatoes
cut in pieces, let them boil till well cooked, and the potatoes can
easily be mashed; add a good piece of butter, mix all well, and pour
the whole on some small slices of bread placed in a tureen.
=Milk Soup= (_Another of Mrs. C. W. Earle’s Recipes_).--Cut one onion
into small pieces, put into a saucepan with some butter, let it fry
till it is chestnut colour, then add a pint of milk; let it boil for
some minutes, then pass it through a strainer, season, and serve. Fry
well in butter small pieces of bread, and serve separately.
=Mock Turtle Soup.=--Fry six good-sized onions in one ounce of butter
till nicely browned, add two breakfast cups of German lentils, a good
handful of spinach leaves, a few capers, about six chillis, and three
pints of water. Let this simmer for two or three hours, then strain
off. Return the soup to the pan and add two tablespoonfuls of small
tapioca which has been soaked for an hour or two. Boil till perfectly
clear, half an hour to three-quarters. When ready for serving add salt
to taste, and one teaspoonful of “Odin.” Some small custard quenelles
should be put in a tureen. These are made by beating one egg, adding
two ounces of flour and half a pint of milk and a pinch of salt. Bake
until firm, and cut into dice or circles.--_Sidney Beard’s Guide Book,
“Order of the Golden Age.”_
=Nettle Soup.=--An excellent and nourishing soup can be made from young
nettles by boiling them, putting them through a sieve, and adding a
little grated cheese and milk or cream and salt and pepper to taste.
=Onion and Potato Soup.=--Slice two or three large onions. Fry them
in a tablespoonful of butter, or nutter, until they are soft. Then
add two tablespoonfuls of flour, and stir until it is absorbed in the
onion juice. To this, add slowly a pint of boiling water, stirring all
the time so that it will be smooth. Boil and mash three good-sized
potatoes. Add to them slowly a quart of scalded milk, stirring well.
Add the potato mixture to the onion mixture. Season with salt and
pepper. Let it get very hot and strain into a hot tureen. Sprinkle
parsley over the top and serve with croûtons.
=Onion Soup Maigre= (_French Recipe_).--Take a dozen middle-sized
onions, cut in slices, cook them over the fire with a good piece of
butter, keep turning them till they are cooked and well coloured, add
a tablespoonful of flour, let it boil up, add some slices of bread and
one pint or more of water, let it simmer a little, and serve. Some may
prefer to strain off the onions. A cupful of milk and a little cream
added last thing would soften the flavour.
=Onions with Rice.=--Prepare your onions as above, add boiling water,
pass your onions through a sieve, and then add some rice instead of the
bread and let it boil for an hour or longer.
=Peanut Soup.=--One leek, half a teaspoonful of salt and pepper,
two teaspoonfuls of flour, cold water to make a smooth paste, two
teaspoonfuls of peanut butter. Scald the water in a double boiler, and
add the peanut butter. Blend thoroughly, put seasoning with flour and
water, mix, and add to the leek and peanut mixture. Stir until well
cooked, about two hours.
=Potage à la Crécy.=--Choose good red carrots and make a purée with a
few turnips, a leek, and an onion, a little salt and ten peppercorns,
moistened with broth, pass them through a sieve and stir on the fire
without letting it boil. Skim and pour on to some bread fried in
butter, which must be placed in the soup tureen.
=Potage à la purée de Marrons.=--Take a quarter of a pound of blanched
chestnuts, and place them in water hot enough to enable you to peel
the second skin easily. When peeled, place them with a piece of crumb
of bread dipped in broth in a mortar. Dilute this paste with some hot
bouillon maigre and pound well. When done, pass the whole through a
tin strainer and with care add as much broth as is necessary to make
a smooth purée, then boil about thirty minutes, season well, and pour
over croûtons fried in butter.
=Potage aux Herbes.=--Take some chervil, white beet (poirée), lettuce,
purslane, and sorrel, in equal quantities, wash them, cut them into
moderate-sized pieces, then dip them in butter. When well soaked, add
the water and a little salt, and boil for twenty minutes, then thicken
it with four yolks of eggs (it must not boil after) and pour it over
minced bread in the soup tureen, some may like to add more chervil. If
preferred, the eggs can be omitted.
=Potage Panada= (_French Recipe_).--Put in a casserole some slices of
bread very thinly cut, with some water, some salt and pepper. Cook on
a slow fire without stirring, till the bread is well soaked, then add
a good piece of fresh butter, and mix the whole well, serve without
replacing on the fire. You can add, if preferred, two yolks of eggs,
some cream or milk, at the same time as the butter. Some may dislike
the crust of bread, but the potage panada is more wholesome made with
the crusts than only with crumbs.
=Potage Printanier.=--After having washed an equal quantity of white
carrots, turnips, onions and leeks, cook them in good broth with white
haricot, haricot verts, green peas, small beans, cucumber, lettuce, cos
lettuce, the tips of asparagus, sorrel, and chervil. Add a very little
sugar, let the whole be boiled down; add a purée of peas liquefied with
vegetable stock, season with salt and pepper.
=Potato Soup.=--Cut two pounds of floury potatoes, put them in a
saucepan with two ounces of butter, cook them for ten minutes, do not
let them brown, then add a pint of milk and a quart of water, boil
until the potatoes are soft enough to pass through a fine sieve, add a
handful of sorrel cooked in butter. Boil up again, and add more milk if
necessary. When finished boiling stir in a cupful of cream, serve with
fried croûtons. A leek can be added if desired.
Instead of the sorrel, green peas or blanched beans can be added to
this soup; if so, it is better to add the yolks of two eggs.
=Prune Soup.=--For this soup, soak a pound of prunes in water
overnight, and add a pint of water in the morning, and let them
gradually approach simmering point. Stir in a pinch of salt and
cinnamon, three tablespoonfuls of fine sago, and let the whole gently
simmer till the fruit is quite tender, and the sago clear, then add
a wineglassful of claret, boil up, and serve immediately with small
squares of toast.
=Pumpkin Soup.=--Take half a pumpkin, peel off the skin and remove the
pips, cut it in pieces the size of a nut, and put it in a saucepan on
the fire with some water. When reduced to a pulp, about two hours is
required, add a good lump of butter and a little salt, add also some
vegetable broth. Have ready a pint, or a pint and a half of hot milk,
adding to it some sugar, or a little salt if you prefer it, and mix
it with the purée of the pumpkin. Put some bread-crumbs in the soup
tureen, and pour into it the mixture of pumpkin and milk, with a small
teaspoonful of orange-flower water.
=Sorrel and Potato Soup.=--Cook in some butter a good handful of
sorrel, then add some bread and mealy potatoes cut in pieces, add salt
and pepper, also, if you like, some small pieces of bread and some
vegetable broth. Cook slowly for an hour or more and season well.
=Sorrel Soup.=--Wash and drain two bunches of sorrel. Chop it finely
and cook with two ounces of butter until it becomes a pulp. Stir in
one tablespoonful of flour, salt, and pepper to taste and one cupful
of water. When it boils add two or more yolks of eggs and a cupful of
cream. The soup must not be allowed to boil after the yolks of eggs are
added. Serve with fried bread.
=Soup aux Choux.=--Put some dried cabbage in a saucepan of boiling
water, with an onion stuck with three cloves, turnips, leeks, carrots,
celery, some peeled potatoes, salt and pepper. Half and half of milk
and water would make this a good milk soup. Simmer slowly for four
hours, skimming carefully.
=Soup with little White Onions.=--Take a plate of small white onions,
remove the outer skin, and put them in hot water for a few minutes,
then sauté them with butter and a little sugar in a casserole, and
some fried croûtons of bread, and pour the onion stock over it (the
onion soup previously mentioned). You may add when serving, some grated
Gruyère or Parmesan cheese which is served separately, or slices of
Gruyère cheese on thin slices of toasted bread, browned in the oven,
can be put in the soup.
=Tomato Soup= (_French Recipe_).--Cut up a dozen good tomatoes
(unpeeled), put them in a stewpan with a sliced Spanish onion and a
tablespoonful of the best olive oil. Cook gently until well reduced,
pass through a wire sieve, add some good stock until of the proper
consistency, return to the pan and reheat. At the moment of serving,
flavour with lemon juice and cayenne pepper and salt.
=Turnip and Potatoes.=--Fry brown two onions, add enough water, and an
equal number of turnips and potatoes, and some small slices of bread.
When all is cooked, pass it through a sieve, and add to it some good
vegetable broth, and thicken with a little flour or arrowroot mixed
smoothly; and last thing, add half a cup of cream and a little milk,
but do not let the soup boil after that. The yolks of eggs may be
substituted for the cream.
=Vegetable Clear Stock= (_One of Mrs. C. W. Earle’s Recipes_).--Two
onions, two carrots, two turnips, one bunch of sweet herbs, a few outer
stalks of celery, peeling and leaves of any vegetable except potatoes
and cabbage. Cut it all up fine, and put it into three quarts of cold
water. Let it boil gently for from six to eight hours, skimming now and
then; it should boil down to one quart. Strain through a fine strainer.
If the stock is too pale in colour (it should be the colour of pale
sherry) a little burnt onion may be added. The stock pot should be put
on the fire every day, and any scraps of vegetables put in, but it must
be cleared out, and the cooked vegetables thrown away every evening.
Water, that vegetables (except the cabbage family) have been cooked in,
may be used.
=Vegetable Marrow Soup.=--Take six small marrows, or one large one,
peel, and remove the seeds (if formed), cut into slices, and put into a
saucepan with two ounces of butter and two onions finely chopped; let
it simmer for a few minutes at the side of the stove, but do not let it
boil. Stir in one tablespoonful of flour to absorb the butter, add one
pint of vegetable stock or water, four peppercorns, and three cloves, a
small teaspoonful of salt, and a sprig of parsley. A few celery leaves
are a great addition. Simmer slowly for two hours; remove the celery
leaves and parsley. Rub all through a sieve, return to the saucepan,
add two tablespoonfuls of fine sago, and half a pint of milk. Simmer
for twenty minutes, stirring frequently; taste to see if more seasoning
is needed. Stir in two tablespoonfuls of cream, and serve; or two yolks
of eggs may be put into the tureen and the soup poured on slowly,
stirring all the time.
It should be smooth and bland. A little cayenne may be approved.
=Green Marrow Soup.=--Make as above, with the addition of one pound of
spinach to the marrow; or vegetable green colouring may be purchased
and added to the soup just before serving.
Or it may be coloured pink by cooking one peeled beetroot with the
stock, removing the beet after the colour is extracted, and omitting
the spinach.
=Vegetable Pot-au-Feu= (_Mrs. C. W. Earle’s Recipes in “Helpful
Hints”_).--Cut up into small pieces as many vegetables as you
have--carrots, celery, turnips, cauliflowers, onions, or any other
vegetables. Fry them in butter till browned. Put in a saucepan with
water, add a handful of tapioca, and let it simmer gently all day. Skim
occasionally, season, strain, and serve with sippets of toast.
=Vermicelli or Tagliatelle Soup with Sorrel.=--Cook six sliced potatoes
in three pints of stock, then rub them through a fine sieve. Cook an
ounce of vermicelli or tagliatelle in hot water, drain it, wash and
shred finely half a pound of sorrel, put it into the stewpan with two
ounces of butter and fry for a few minutes, then add the soup to this,
boil the whole up and stir in six eggs well beaten and a gill of cream,
salt and pepper; add the cooked vermicelli or tagliatelle just before
serving.