Author(s): Leslie Kaul, Bob Spiegel, Peter Siegel, Carla Ruben, Robin Vitetta-miller
Publisher: Hyperion
Publication Date: 1999-11-10
Pages: 272
Review: I love this cookbook. I have made about 10 soups from it bc after eating the Moroccan butternut squash I ended up making it about 5 times over. I need to move on bc I know there are so many more amazing recipes to make!I decided this winter that I was going to learn to make spectacular soup. I always wanted to be one of those women who could just pop over with some chicken noodle soup for a sick friend or family member. My mom makes great soup just by fiddling around with this and that, but I’ve never learned the art. Therefore, my soups were always bland since my msg allergy prevents me from throwing in a bouillon cube and calling it a day.
When my family got sick, I decided to try my luck at soup making again, this time with my Daily Soup Cookbook chicken noodle soup recipe (a variation on their chicken matzoh ball soup). Wow, was it ever great - without making any adjustments to the recipe! I went through the trouble of making my own stock (using the Daily Soup recipe with a wonderful technique I learned for broth making from “The Perfect Recipe” by Pam Anderson, which involves sautéing the chicken pieces with onion before simmering them) and then turning that stock into soup. My whole family was making yummy sounds, and they didn’t stop when I tried two more recipes, the Beef Barley soup (a variation on their Chicken Barley) and the Winter Minestrone soup. Finally, I had soup that was as good as my mom made!
I made the broth and the soup in the same day, so it was quite time consuming. I would highly recommend making the broth on one day and the soup on another. I don’t think the soup would be quite as delicious without homemade broth, but I still think it would be lots better than my previous homemade attempts.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn how to make really great soup.
(review by Mrs. Scott)
I love this book and have given it as a gift. Although I knew my way around the kitchen, thanks to The Daily Soup, now I know my way around soup. The book is readable and fun, taking any mysteries out of soup-making and encouraging improvisation. I also like its variety with some simple soups (like Tomato Basil–made surprisingly–without basil) and some more unusual (like Moroccan Chicken Curry with Couscous).We’ve loved almost every soup we’ve tried. Now that we’ve learned how to make substitutions (like Swanson’s broth as opposed to homemade, etc.), many recipes are very simple AND just as tasty. If you truly love soup, this cookbook is for you.I had sworn not to add any additional cookbooks to my collection. I came across this one and broke my own rule to myself and have been glad that I did. This is a perfect cookbook. I’ve found that for my lifestyle, soups is the way to go, and none of the recipes has been a dud. Quite the opposite. I have decided to go through the entire book and do every recipe in the book.
Many of the recipes call for the use of thyme leaves, an herb that I had not used much. I am now very comfortable with it and appreciate the flavor that it brings to these recipes.
Tried so far with great success: The cream-less asparagus soup ( buy frozen asparagus, don’t try to peel and chop 2 lbs. of fresh asparagus…takes too long), Cuban black bean ( I had three cans of black beans and one can of chick peas from a close-out sale …so I left out the salt that the recipe calls for and substituted the already prepared beans. Note: there is a minor flaw in the recipe. First, it has been proven since the book was written that you can add salt to the beans, the beans won’t toughen from the salt. But tomatoes or other acids do toughen beans and I wouldn’t add any tomatoes, canned, fresh or otherwise until I was certain my beans were cooked and tender), French onion soup (really good. I roasted my onions in the oven per the instructions).
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