Every spring, I welcome the new crop of produce available at the market, as well as the flowers starting to poke through the soil in front of my condo: hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips all represent the beginning of spring to me.

I may not yet have flowers to enjoy, but I can at least start cooking. I saw an easy recipe for cream of asparagus soup in Everyday Food, and I couldn’t wait to try this soup on a cold, grey day. The time arrived earlier this week. I was a little short on the amount of asparagus needed (the original recipe calls for three pounds), so I decided to add some green beans that had been hanging out in my freezer a little too long. Even with my changes, the taste of asparagus was the most prevalent in this soup. The lemon helped brighten things up and cut through the fat a bit, resulting in a nice overall balance.

I made the cheesy croutons to go with the soup because, frankly, the soup alone for lunch wouldn’t be enough to get me through to dinner. I used gruyere because I adore it, but as I ate the first crouton I realized that parmesan probably would have been a better choice. Oh well, next time. . .

Cream of Asparagus Soup
adapted from Everyday Food

3 tablespoons butter
5 large shallots, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
3 tablespoons flour
5 cups water
1 1/2 pounds asparagus, chopped into 1 inch pieces
½ pound green beans (fresh or frozen), chopped into 1 inch pieces
salt
1/3 cup cream
juice of ½ lemon (or to taste)
baguette, sliced into ½ in pieces
olive oil
gruyere or parmesan slices

for the soup:
Melt butter in medium saucepan over moderate heat. Add shallots and cook until soft. Add flour and cook, stirring frequently, for one minute. Add asparagus and water, and season with salt. Cover and bring to a boil; reduce heat and cook for 3-5 minutes, or until asparagus is bright green. Uncover and remove from heat.

Puree using an immersion blender (or in batches using a standard blender). Add lemon juice and cream, taste for seasoning, adding more salt if necessary.

For the croutons:
Preheat oven to 450*F. Arrange bread on a rimmed baking sheet and brush both sides with olive oil. Bake for 5-7 minutes or until golden.

Turn the broiler on. Place a slice of cheese on each crouton and broil until bubbly. Serve the croutons with the soup.

For my next installment of French country cooking, I wanted something fairly simple, yet seasonal. This winter vegetable soup seemed perfect.

I had to trek to a couple of grocery stores to find celery root, though around here that’s not all that surprising. This soup is perfect for a cold winter’s night, and it will warm you up night after night without getting boring.

This soup was worth the trouble it caused me: the vegetable scraps clogged my garbage disposal and sink. Whoops. I’ll refrain from going into detail, but let’s just say that it wasn’t a pretty sight.

Soupe Savoyarde (Winter White Vegetable Soup)
recipe from The Country Cooking of France

3 turnips
1 small celery root
2 large potatoes
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion, chopped
5 leeks, white and light green parts, thinly sliced
salt and pepper
2 cups water
2 ½ cups milk

12 baguette slices
4 tablespoons butter
5 ounces gruyere, shredded

Peel and quarter the turnips, then slice ½ inch thick. Peel the celery root and cut into eight wedges, then slice ½ inch thick. Peel the potatoes and cut into small chunks; place potatoes in a bowl of cold water.

Melt two tablespoons of butter in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until soft but not brown, about five minutes. Add the turnips, celery root, and leeks; season with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Press a piece of aluminum foil directly on the vegetables. Cover the pot and reduce heat to low. Sweat the vegetables for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally, until translucent.

Drain the potatoes and add them to the vegetables. Add the water, cover the pot, and simmer until the vegetables start to get tender, about 25 minutes.

Warm the milk in a small saucepan until its steaming, but don’t let it come to a boil. Add the milk to the vegetables and taste for seasoning. Cover the simmer lightly until the vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes. Do not let the soup boil, or the milk will curdle.

Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Heat the remaining butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the baguette slices to the pan and crisp on each side. Top the slices with gruyere and place on the bottom of soup bowls. Ladle hot soup over the bread and serve immediately, so the cheese is melted but the bread remains crisp.

Leftover soup will keep in the fridge for about three days

I’ve tried to like lentils. I really have. I even started my lentil adventures with soups, figuring lentils blended with other flavors might appeal to me more than just a dish of cooked lentils.

Or not.

In defense of lentils, it’s really the texture that I can’t handle more than the flavor, though I suspect I have some issues with the flavor as well, based on my soup experiments. For the record, I don’t like beans either, and that is based on 99% texture, 1% flavor.

But for all of you out there who do like lentils, this post is for you. This soup is gorgeous to look at, and it’s perfect for seasonal transitions: in early fall, when the weather cools but you’re still hanging onto the days of summer, this soup will comfort you; in spring, the vivid apricot color will hint of warmer days to come.

Armenian Apricot Soup
adapted from The Soup Peddler via 101 Cookbooks

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, diced
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
3 cups red lentils, rinsed
10 cups water
12 ounces dried apricots, chopped (I used half Turkish and half California apricots)
salt

Heat oil over medium heat in a dutch oven or large soup pot. Add the onions and carrots and saute for 10 minutes. Add the cumin and stir. Lower the heat, cover, and let the vegetables sweat for 10 minutes.

Add the lentils and add enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until the lentils and carrots are tender. Add more water as needed during the cooking.

Remove from heat and add the apricots. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth (or use a regular blender and blend in batches); season with salt to taste.

Serves 8-10

After being sick for a week and consuming a diet of chicken soup and toast, I feared I wouldn’t have anything to post. And then I thought of the soup itself. It’s such a simple recipe, and you can take advantage of convenience items like rotisserie chicken and chicken stock when you really have no energy to cook and wash extra dishes.

I learned a few lessons from this past bout of sickness. Lesson One: no matter how lazy I feel, go to the second store to pick up the rotisserie chicken (I chose to buy and poach chicken breasts instead…not much extra work under ordinary circumstances, but when ill, I practically needed a nap after this step). Lesson Two: Do NOT try to do math in my head when my head feels like it will explode at any moment. Use a calculator, or else I will keep adding 32 and 14 and getting 64. And then I will realize my mistake and decide to just add water to rectify the chicken stock shortage, resulting in a soup with no flavor.

Ah, well. When made correctly, this soup delivers comfort in a bowl.

Chicken Soup

64 oz chicken stock or broth
2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded or diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 celery stick, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 T fresh thyme
1 T fresh parsely, chopped
2 tsp olive oil
4 oz egg noodles

Heat oil in large pot (about 5 or 6 qt size) over medium heat. Add onions and saute until soft, about five minutes. Add carrots and celery and saute for another two minutes. Add chicken stock, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for fifteen minutes.

Remove cover and add chicken, parsley, and thyme. Cook for about three minutes to allow flavors to meld. Turn off heat and add noodles. Allow the soup to sit for five minutes so the noodles can absorb the stock. Test for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

What’s more comforting than a pot of soup cooking on the stove? Making soup used to intimidate me, and the thought of making soup stock made me want to run away from my kitchen. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that both are quite easy. If you’ve ever roasted a chicken, you may as well make your own chicken stock, as the process is incredibly simple.

Chicken Stock

1 chicken carcass*
2 carrots
3 stalks celery
1 parsnip
1 onion
1 bulb garlic
a few sprigs of thyme
a few sprigs of dill
bay leaf
bunch of parsley
peppercorns
salt

To make your soup stock, simply take the leftover chicken carcass and the neck and throw them into a stock pot or dutch oven. Cut the carrots, celery, and parsnip in half or thirds, and throw them in the pot. Cut your bulb of garlic in half, crosswise, and toss it in the pot. Cut the onion into quarters, and toss it all in (no need to peel). Add the herbs, a teaspoon of whole peppercorns, and about a teaspoon of salt.

Cover all ingredients with water and simmer (don’t let it boil!) away on the stove for about four or five hours, or put an oven-proof cooking vessel into the oven at a very low temperature so the stock doesn’t boil. The reason you don’t want the stock to come to a boil is because your stock will be cloudy and not very appealing to look at. Keep the temperature low enough (under 212 F or 100 C), and perhaps even use a thermometer to warn you if the temperature is getting too high.

Remove the carcass and veggies, and strain the stock into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, skim the fat off the top of the stock. Either use the stock within three days or put into containers and freeze for up to six months. With homemade stock, you’re getting superior quality soup stock with no preservatives. It tastes better, and it’s better for you.

*If the chicken came with the neck, go ahead and throw that in the pot. An inexpensive way to save stock ingredients is to save the peelings, ends, and skins from carrots, celery, an onions – just start a large freezer bag of stock ingredients. When you make chicken, throw the extra bones or carcass in the freezer until you’re ready to use them. If you have leftover parsley sometime, chop it up and freeze it into ice cubes, so you can just toss the cubes into your stock or any soup that you make.

Growing up, I was a fairly picky eater. It wasn’t until I reached my late 20’s that I began to go beyond my comfort zone when it came to food. I told my mom I was making this soup, and I think she was a little shocked. Then again, she’s surprised that I now occasionally eat pork, chickpeas, and a host of other foods. Soup may actually be on that list, as well.

I’m a big fan of Michael Pollan, and having read both In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I’ve been making efforts to expand my culinary horizons and venture into the world of plant-based proteins. That brought me to lentils. I have to say, the lentils in my pantry have only served one purpose before today: pie weights. But, lentils are high in protein and fiber, and enough people seem to like them that I thought I’d give them a try.

I came across a highly rated soup recipe that seemed perfect for my experiment. So I embarked on a new culinary adventure. I do admit that I’m not sure what I think of it yet, but I am willing to experiment a little more with lentils.

Lentil & Tomato Soup
adapted from cooking light

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 1/3 c water
2 1/3 c dried lentils
1/3 c chopped fresh cilantro
5 1/2 c chicken stock
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
chopped fresh tomatoes (optional)
cilantro sprig (optional)

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion; sauté for 3 minutes or until tender. Add the turmeric and the next 6 ingredients (turmeric through garlic); sauté for 1 minute. Add water and next 4 ingredients (water through diced tomatoes); bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 1 hour.

Reserve 2 cups lentil mixture. Place half of remaining mixture in blender; process until smooth. Pour pureed soup into a large bowl. Repeat procedure with other half of remaining mixture. Stir in reserved 2 cups lentil mixture. Garnish with chopped tomatoes and a cilantro sprig, if desired.

Notes: The soup is okay. I think it needs more salt, but that could be because I used homemade stock instead of canned broth. I increased the black pepper a bit, as well. Next time I make it, I will make sure I have some turmeric on hand, so I can actually follow the recipe. Otherwise, it’s a nice change, it’s very filling, and I have a freezer loaded with soup for those days I run out of food and there’s yet another blizzard or ice storm.

I have somewhat of a fascination with French bistro cooking, which may have been obvious considering the name of this blog. Perhaps it’s the thought of eating in a cozy little bistro, the idea of getting a homey meal when eating out, or simply that it’s far removed from the perceived glamour of French cooking. It’s likely a combination of all three, and perhaps a little something more.

To me, bistro cooking is really the perfect Sunday lunch. On a rainy day like today, what better to soothe you than a steaming bowl of soup topped with toasted bread and melted cheese? Now, imagine this soup has taken three hours to cook, you’ve deglazed the pan not once, not twice, but three times, and you’ve taken the time to search out imported Swiss Gruyère and a freshly made baguette. Doesn’t this labor of love sound like heaven? Okay, I admit, it’s heaven after the first hour or so. The first hour that the onions are in the oven, my nostrils stung and my eyes watered, and I feared my home would never smell the same.

But after that first hour, as the slices started to turn golden in my oven, a sweet aroma filled the air. As my onions were about to come out of the oven for the first time, both my giddiness and trepidation grew. Would this soup meet my high expectations? Would it be worth the time and effort? At that point, I could still only wonder, and continue to cook.

French Onion Soup*
from America’s Test Kitchen

Ingredients
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
6 large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices
Table salt
2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing
1/2 cup dry sherry
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups beef broth
6 sprigs fresh thyme, tied with kitchen twine
1 bay leaf
Ground black pepper

1 small baguette , cut into 1/2-inch slices
8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)

Directions
1. For the soup: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place butter in pot and add onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, for 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook for 1 hour. Stir the onions and scrape the bottom and sides of the pot. Return the pot to the oven and cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, 30 to 45 minutes longer

2. Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in broths, 2 cups water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

4. For the croutons: While soup simmers, arrange baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in 400-degree oven until bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

5. To serve: Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

*This soup is definitely better the second, or even third day. It’s a wonderful dish to prepare ahead of time, then simply reheat and serve.

The first time I ever cooked butternut squash, I made this soup. And since the cookbook that contains the recipe just came out in October, you could say that I haven’t been a lifelong fan of squash. I just was never crazy about it, no matter how much butter and brown sugar it was swimming in. Flavor can’t cover up texture, and texture was where I took issue with this vegetable.

I wanted to give squash one more chance, and soup seemed the obvious choice. After all, I would be roasting the squash, then taking my immersion blender to it, thereby completely doing away with the texture issue. The result? Fabulous.

Roasting the squash, apples, and onions lends a sweetness to the soup that is irresistable. The hint of spice from the curry prevents the soup from being overly sweet, and the result is a feeling of contentness.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
adapted from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics

Ingredients
4 pound butternut squash
1 large yellow onion
2 McIntosh or Cortland apples
olive oil
salt
pepper
5 cups chicken stock
1 tsp curry powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.

2. Cut the bottom off the squash so it sits level. Peel the squash and then cut in half above the bulb, separating the base from the neck. Cut the base in half length-wise and scoop out the seeds. Cut the top off the neck, then cut squash into 1 inch pieces. Peel and core the apples, cut into 1 inch dice. Peel and cut the onions into 1 inch dice. Place pieces onto 2 baking sheets, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread pieces out, roast for 40 minutes, turning once.

3. Heat chicken stock to a simmer in a large stockpot or dutch oven. When squash mixture has finish roasting, add to the chicken stock. Puree with an immersion blender (can also use a regular blender to blend in batches). Add curry powder and season with salt and pepper to taste. Heat over medium-low heat for an additional fifteen to twenty minutes, check seasonings and serve.