Happy New Year and welcome to Winter- In Canada at least! All items with # are veggie friendly.

What’s better than something warm after a long day at work in the middle of winter. Soup is one of my favorites because you can prep it all in the morning or night before, toss it into the slow cooker and head off to work.

For those who are not cooks or chefs by trade and hey, well why not for us too. There are so many root vegetables that make the soup pot complete.
Begin with the mirepoix- the very basic culinary staple in most soup starters, 1 C diced celery, 1C diced carrots and 2 C diced onions sauteed in #olive oil or butter(depending if you want veggie or vegan base). Add your  protein (you can seer beef, chicken, pork or #legumes or #tofu cubes). Place in a pot or slow cooker and add the sauteed mirepoix.  Add your favorite spices (curry, juniper berries, parsley, sage, rosemary and at least one large bay leaf), cover with enough water and wine to have a good amount of liquid over top of the solids.

Most would tell you that you can consume the soup once everything is cooked. What I often do(and this is a big secret) is add more liquid, some added flavoring for whatever protein is within. Some bouillon, a bit more wine to top up the liquid that rendered(boiled off). The liquid is now stock that is produced and you can take all the solids away, and continue to render down to concentrate the stock, keep going…. When the stock is rendered down you can now refrigerate, you will see that stock is a semi-solid form now. Place the stock into medium sized ice cube trays and you now have concentrated flavor cubes.

You just cannot buy theses little cubes of “gold” you HAVE to make them. Now lets go into another soup recipe.

Cream of Mushroom Soup serves 3-4 Sorry not vegan friendly on this recipe.
Starting with the mirepoix (2 C onion, 1 C Carrots, 1 C Celery sauteed)
1/2 liter of veggie or chicken stock(homemade or purchased)
Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes
Process the mirepoix to a fine mince and pour back into soup pot
1 large package of Bella, porchini or regular mushrooms, sliced and then – sauteed in butter/oil and add a pinch of seasoning salt or sweet curry powder- take half of the cooked mushrooms and puree to add to soup pot and then add the rest of the sauteed mushrooms back to the soup pot.
Add 1/2 liter(or more) of veggie or chicken stock and bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Top up with more stock or water if more liquid is needed.
Add fresh sprigs of parsley or basil and even a bay leaf.
Slowly add up to 1 cup of heavy cream 35% and allow to render in a simmer a bit longer. TIP if too thick add more stock, too thin, more cream.
Add one or two of your newly made flavor cubes and depending on the protein it may change the color of the soup slightly.
Add up to a half cup of high quality sherry or a Merlot red wine.(Definitely changes color) Simmer and serve hot in a wide flat bowl.

Finally garnish with freshly cut parsley, sage or basil and french fried onions on top of the cream soup.
Serve with toasted sliced baguette cut into pointed wedges.

Improvising additions –
Some like a bacon fresh cooked and diced
Some like potatoes – cooked and riced or small cubes

Tip – This soup can be produced in place of the mushrooms with potatoes, leeks, broccoli, chicken, Corn or (fish/oyster/clams).