Soups, minestrone and broths are fragrant, flavorful and packed with health benefits dishes that we can enjoy year-round. In summer and the warmer months Andalusian gazpacho served in a glass with an ice cube can be a refreshing snack even on the beach or poolside. On cold autumn and freezing winter days it's wonderful to be welcomed home by a steaming bowl of pasta and beans or a hearty vegetable minestrone.
Europrodotti teaches you how to use herbs and spices to enrich soupy first courses with aromas, flavors and precious nutrients.
Soup: a dish that's good for you... and tastes good!
“Either you eat soup or you jump out the window!” “It's always the same old soup.” “It's just a soup.” These typical Italian sayings associated with ultimatums or boring, repetitive situations clearly illustrate the bad reputation that soups have on our tables. This negative judgment is due to the fact that, yesterday as today, we sometimes find ourselves with a potato, a carrot and half an onion boiled in a pale, tasteless broth for dinner. The invitation to eat this unappealing dish is accompanied by the explanation that vegetables are good for you. If this is the idea of a soup then it's easy to understand why only twelve out of a hundred Europeans comply with the World Health Organization's recommendation to eat at least five portions of vegetables a day.
Vegetables, like fruit, should always be present in our diet if we want a healthy lifestyle. But they can be cooked in such a way that they're so good they'll leave us asking for more.
Let's remember that if soup is the Cinderella of the kitchen you don't need a magic wand to transform it into the princess of the table. All it takes is imagination, a few simple ingredients and the herbs and spices that always give that magical touch to our dishes. Incidentally, staying in the fairytale realm, if the carriage turns into a pumpkin again, so much the better. We'll have the main ingredient to prepare a delicious cream soup seasoned with a pinch of nutmeg, curry and pepper.
“Universal spices”: the perfect aromatic base for soups
Black pepper, nutmeg, bay leaves and cloves are universal spices suitable for any type of soupy dish. They all exude an aromatic heat that unlike the "burning" heat of chili pepper doesn't overpower the palate but rather pleasantly warms it. This characteristic is essential if our goal is to serve a dish that comforts both body and spirit during the coldest days of the year.
Another important characteristic of these four seasonings is their resistance to the long cooking times of broth-based recipes. The bay leaves gradually release their essential oils, the cloves flavor the dish for the entire time they remain immersed and the black pepper and nutmeg retain their aromatic notes well.
Let's also keep in mind their special digestive and antiseptic properties:
- pepper stimulates digestion and circulation;
- nutmeg has a calming effect on the intestines;
- bay leaves aid in the digestion of fats;
- cloves are natural antibacterials.
A little tip: cloves should be added whole to the pot and removed immediately before serving. In fact they enhance dishes with a spicy and penetrating flavor but they are hard to chew and due to their anesthetic properties can cause mild numbness to the tongue and mouth.
Light and citrusy spices to flavor vegetable soups
Spoonfuls of vegetables have countless benefits for our health and our diet: they are low in calories, so they help slim the waistline, contribute to draining toxins from the body and speed up bodily functions, such as diuresis.
For vegetable soups we suggest light and citrusy spices like coriander, ginger, dried basil and oregano which respect the delicate flavor of the vegetables.
Coriander enhances the flavor of peas and cauliflower, while fresh ginger enlivens soups made with carrots, leeks or potatoes.
A sprinkling of turmeric adds color and a warm earthy note to pumpkin or carrot and potato soups. Turmeric is also ideal for mitigating the odor released by cabbage and broccoli during cooking.
Dried basil or oregano add a Mediterranean touch to summer soups served warm with a drizzle of raw extra virgin olive oil.
Paprika, cumin and rosemary for legume and grain soups
Paprika, cumin and rosemary thanks to their intense aroma are the ideal seasoning for soups made with beans, lentils, barley, or spelt, dishes that evoke a rustic world scented with the scent of the countryside and patience.
Sweet paprika has a delicate and slightly fruity flavor that complements the taste of legumes and grains without overpowering them. Smoked paprika on the other hand has a scent reminiscent of oak or beech wood smoke, imparting a hint of embers that transforms soup into a delightful convivial dish.
Cumin, a key ingredient in Middle Eastern cooking, adds a surprising depth of spice. Alternatively, a pinch of finely chopped rosemary adds a pleasant, instantly recognizable aroma.
Cardamom, star anise and white pepper: seasonings for clear broths and refined soups
Cardamom, star anise and white pepper create an elegant contrast between sweetness and warmth in delicate soups such as noodle soup, stracciatella or vegetable broth with rice or pasta.
A touch of cardamom gives an exotic touch to the broth and thanks to its essential oils adds a deep and warm aroma.
A few star anise seeds, left to infuse and then removed, give off a gentle, almost balsamic aroma.
Compared to black pepper the white pepper has the great advantage of blending perfectly with the color of the broth or soup ensuring a uniform final appearance. From an aromatic standpoint its use is one of the tricks to achieving a flavorful broth, as it provides the desired spicy note without overpowering the other flavors and maintaining the balance of the preparation.
Some tips (including anti-waste ones) for cooking a tasty soup in a short time
Do you want to eat a good soup but don't have much time to cook? There are many time-saving and waste-saving tricks for making a delicious soup or minestrone, even if you're late home from work, haven't done the shopping, have a thousand things to do or, simply, want to relax.
Here, then, are some valuable tips to follow to quickly prepare a fragrant and inviting bowl of soup.
- Always keep a good supply of dried spices and herbs at home. They keep for a long time, so you can buy them even if you only go to the supermarket once in a while, and they really add a touch of magic to any recipe.
- If you don't like or don't have the time to peel potatoes and onions, clean carrots, slice zucchini or wash cabbage and cauliflower, pre-washed and pre-cut fresh vegetables are available in both supermarkets and greengrocers.
- Using fresh vegetables in your dishes is ideal, but if you really can't make it to the supermarket or local greengrocer keep a supply of canned or frozen vegetables.
- Broth is so important in cooking that Pellegrino Artusi, the father of good Italian cuisine, dedicated the first page of his famous manual to it. If you have time use a fresh cut of beef or veal, keeping in mind that a liter of light broth requires 250 grams of meat, while a liter of hearty broth requires 500 grams. For a quick broth, we suggest keeping stock cubes, granulated broth or meat extract in the pantry.
- In addition to spices there are many other condiments you can use to flavor our soups: extra virgin olive oil, grated Parmesan cheese, tubed tomato paste, diced speck or pancetta. All these ingredients can also be found in convenient sachets or single-serving packs, ideal if you're single and want to save on groceries by buying only the quantities you need.
- Another delicious ingredient is homemade croutons. You can find them ready-made in stores, but you can easily prepare them by cutting stale bread into small pieces and then browning them in a pan with oil and a sprinkle of salt and rosemary. Stale bread is also perfect for this purpose and using it is a real waste-reduction measure.
Conclusion
Spices are the secret that transforms soups, broths and minestrone from ordinary recipes to dishes that warm the body and soul. Europrodotti invites you to unleash your creativity in the kitchen: experiment, play with flavors and make soupy first courses a true moment of pleasure and well-being.