Cookbook: Soup Bible

Are you one of those people who can't walk past the bargain rack at a bookstore without taking pity on the poor overstocks and remainders and slightly hurt volumes? I am, and I'm so glad. On my last trip to our local Barnes & Noble, I snagged this Penguin Books edition of Soup Bible, compiled by the editors at Penguin and published exclusively for B&N.

Packed into this tiny volume, 130 recipes cover the range from soups that are mainly chicken, fish or meat, to vegetable soups, puréed soups, cold soups, and quick soups. And, though you've seen many of the recipes before, there's more than enough that's new. See all of the stickies I have marking recipes I want to try? That's just from my first quick pass through this book.

The photos (of most, but not all, of the recipes) give a good idea of how the finished soup should look, with well-written recipes that are easy to follow for beginners as well as more experienced cooks.

There are so many great ideas in this book that I need your help to decide what to make first. Here are my choices:

• Indian-spiced mushroom soup
• Roasted vegetable soup with lentils
• Chicken laksa, a Malaysian chicken and rice noodle soup with lemongrass, ginger, cilantro and chiles and a coconut milk base
• Clear soup with homemade chicken wontons
• Celery root, leek and apple soup with ginger
• Tunisian chickpea soup topped with eggs

What looks good to you? Please leave your vote in the comments, and I'll get to work.

If you're looking for an addition to your soup cookbook library, I highly recommend Soup Bible (actually, there are several books with the same title, and I recommend all of them, but especially this one). Look for it on the bargain shelf at your local B&N, for the budget-friendly price of $8.95.

Comments

I can never pass up a bargain cookbook. Ever.

I love Chickpeas....Chickpea Soup Please? =)
And BTW, I've never commented but found your blog a while ago, and since I LOVE Soup, your blog is the best!!

Clear soup with homemade chicken wontons sounds great to me.

Yum! I am also guilty of not being able to pass through a B&N without picking up at least one bargain book!

They all sound good but I am especially interested in the Indian-spiced mushroom soup and the Chicken Laksa.

Great Find!

The chicken laksa gets my vote this morning as the most seductive.

Double YUM!! I think you should start at the top of the list and just move downward. Any of them sound like winners to me.

You know I'm one of those people! And I still use the Tapas book I picked up off the table off the sidewalk when we were walking along in Boston.

They all sound good but I'm voting for Chicken Laksa, always wanted to try that.

They all look good, but my vote is for the Chicken Laska!

No question -- Indian spiced mushroom soup!

The Tunisian chickpea soup topped with eggs sounds intriguing; let's have that one please!

It's a tie between chickpeas and mushrooms... to go?
Another fan of the remainered table. So many orphans looking for a good home, wanting to go to bed with me, and share my table.

Indian spiced mushroom soup or Roasted vegetable soup with lentils.

Celery root looks fabulous.

Those bargain cookbooks are great! I used to work at Borders and have several cookbooks from the bargain area on everything from Indian to baking cookies. Often better than the expensive ones!

Celery root, leek and apple soup with ginger sounds fabulous!

I vote for:

Celery root,leek, apple and ginger;
Tunisian chick pea soup with eggs;
Roasted vegetables with lentils

chicken laksa

Tunisian chickpea please because I have no idea how to make it; some of the others I can guess at.

My vote goes to the Indian Spice Mushroom Soup

I am on the look out for a good mushroom soup recipe!
Indian spiced mushroom soup looks great!

I also picked up the Soup Bible and love it! We like the Pork and Noodle Broth with Shrimp and the Tomato and Bean Soup. Tonight we're doing Butternut Squash Bisque. This book is awesome for soup lovers.