Cookbook: Love Soup
Anna Thomas wrote the very first vegetarian cookbook I ever bought, and I still have my tattered and food-stained copy of The Vegetarian Epicure from 1972. The bible for impoverished students on my college campus, the book taught us to cook beans and vegetables and meatless meals, and we redecorated our dorm rooms with jars of lentils and filled our mini-refrigerators with sprouts and greens. A lifetime later, I've fallen in love with Anna Thomas again. When Soup Chick turned one year old a couple of weeks ago, I celebrated by treating myself to a copy of Love Soup, a compendium of vegetarian soup recipes plus some sweet and savory sides to enjoy with them.
The recipes are organized according to the seasons, with additional chapters devoted to bean soups, green soups, big soups and holiday soups. In the dessert section, the recipe for bittersweet chocolate brownies tempts me because, well, what soup doesn't taste better with a brownie?
On my first pass through the book, I marked more than a dozen recipes I want to try right away, so as always, I need your help. Which of these vegetarian soups shall we make first?
- Red lentil and squash soup, with ginger and lemon and sweet potato
- Spicy black bean soup with sweet peppers, flavored with an interesting-sounding ancho and quajillo chile puree
- Sopa de ajo, a Spanish garlic soup with smoky pimentón
- Asparagus bisque with fresh dill (cream optional)
- Spicy Indonesian yam and peanut soup, with tang from tamarind and lemon
- Charred zucchini soup with yogurt and pine nuts
Please leave your choice in the comments, and I'll get to work.
And, if you're looking for new inspiration and vegetarian soups for any season, Love Soup should be on your cookbook shelf. Anna Thomas has inspired me for nearly four decades -- I own all of her cookbooks -- and she won't let you down.
I vote for: Sopa de ajo, a Spanish garlic soup with smoky pimentón - sounds delicious!
SpicY black bean soup!!
OOh, I vote for red lentil and squash soup.
I had The Vegetarian Epicure too; not sure if I still have it though.
I vote for the Indonesian Yam and Peanut Soup.
I too, am a big fan of Anna Thomas and her cookbooks.
Wow- you're asking us to make a tough choice. For a first recipe to try I would either go with Sopa de ajo, a Spanish garlic soup with smoky pimentón or the Asparagus bisque with fresh dill (cream optional).
Happy anniversary Soup Chick! We are the lucky ones!
I think the charred zucchini soup sounds divine! Don't know what the recipe will really be but I've certainly got an imagined taste in my head just from the title.
I think I would like to try the red lentil.
Asparagus bisque - eager for spring!
Charred zuke soup gets my vote. Then we'd know
what to do with all those zucchinis which mysteriously
appear on doorsteps late in the gardening year.
Asparagus (my favorite veggie) and fresh dill...makes my mouth water just thinking about it!!
Spicy Indonesian sounds wonderful to me. However they all do, so I can't be disappointed!
Mmmm ... the spicy Indonesian soup gets my vote!
Looks like you are going to have to do them all because every one is getting votes! I go for spicy black bean soup with sweet peppers
I vote for red lentil and squash
I vote for the spicy black bean soup with sweet peppers. I love black bean soups.
Happy Birthday, Soup Chick! I vote for the spicy Indonesian yam and peanut soup first.
Charred zukes! But really, the red lentil & squash sounds wonderful too. Or the black beans...Hmm, I may have to look for the book somewhere!
Any or all, but if there's only one, Sopa de ajo -- my mother made Julia Child's French garlic soup, so this should be the next generation.
I took this book out of the library, and it's like this list, page after page of "make me!" soups, and the extras are appealing too. Now, i'm tempted to buy it (of course), to join my VE Books I and II, and her New Vegetarian Epicure. She's like an old friend!
They do indeed all sound yum. Spicy Indonesian gets my vote.
Can't choose only one - Sopa de Ajo and Asparagus Bisque with fresh dill for starters
I couldn't resist: I bought the book! (Through your link, so I assume that gets "credited" to Soup Chick?)
Thanks, everyone! We have a four-way tie, so you'll be seeing more than one of these recipes in the coming weeks. (Really, I couldn't choose just one; they all look so good.)
My copy arrived in yesterdays mail....awesome book and as a previous comment went: all 'make me' soups. Also, well laid out and tip heavy which is nice when you don't know anything like me HAHA many thanks for posting about it
I just picked up this book from the library and the sheer number of recipes I have bookmarked has made me buy the book. I can't wait to see your verdict on the soups.. It looks like wonderful collection of soups for all seasons. :)