Sunday, January 3, 2010

Winter is for Soup

Winter Walk

I love winter, its my favorite season. Winter means cold walks, warm sweaters, hot chocolate, skating, hockey, I can go on and on. One of my favourite things about winter is a good old blowing snowstorm, there is something about them that reminds me of being a little kid and staring out of windows during thunderstorms in the late summer.

Winter Walk

With this in mind, when I woke up this morning I was very excited to see several inches of fresh snow. I decided to grab a camera and take the 30 or so minute walk over to my local grocery store, snap a few pictures and get a few odds and ends to make some soup. What could be better than a nice, hot bowl of soup after a cold walk.

Winter Walk

Enter problem #1 - Ive never made a homemade soup (at least a real one).
Solution? - Using some simple ingredients, including some leftovers, cobble together
a basic soup and go from there. Oh, and read Christie's book about soup.
Yeah, that would help.

So, back on track to the soup. This time last year, I watched Christies brother Eric cook a beautiful pot of broth. This pot of broth simmered away for quite some time, and when it was ready to eat, everyone excitedly got together and ate a soup I had never seen before. The result was one of the simplest, and yet delicious soups that I have ever had. Here is my take on it

Tortellini Soup

Tortellini Soup

6 cups of Chiken broth
Bouquet of fresh Thyme, Rosemary and Sage
2 Celery Stalks, chopped
2 Carrots, cut into 1/4 in slices
400gm (small package) of your favorite Tortellini
Parmesan
Salt & Pepper to taste

-In a large pot, add broth and herb bouquet,bring the broth to a near boil, and lower the heat so that the broth is at a gentle simmer, and allow to infuse for approx 1o minutes. Remove bouquet, and strain to remove bits of herbs if desired, though simply removing the big bits works for me.
-Add in veggies, and cook until the carrots are cooked through (a fark should easily pass through one), though still firm.
-In a seperate pot, bring some water with a pinch of salt to a boil, and add Tortellini. Once cooked, strain and add to the broth.
-Grate some fresh Parmesan and sprinkle over the soup.
-Serve with finely chopped flat leaf parsley or chives and a nice bread roll
-Enjoy!

7 comments:

♥peachkins♥ said...

I love soup..perfect for chilly nights..

Hilary said...

This reminds me of 'tortellini in brodo' that they serve as a first course at my favourite Italian restaurant in Ottawa. Yummy!

A.D said...

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmm sooooouuuuppp

Ian said...

Hi Hillary, thats actually what it is, "in brodo" just means in broth. It is soooo good, so simple too. I think im actually going to go and have some right now as a matter of fact!

Chocolate Shavings said...

Winter and soup go together like milk and cookies.... or should I say chocolate milk?

Ian said...

hahaha, im doing the chocolate milk dance right now just for that

Sook said...

I love all your pictures! They are beautiful!