shilton's Reviews
11 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 11Sort by: Title 
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Best-Ever Soups
By Anne Sheasby
Hermes House - 2006
Avgolemono with Pasta : page 146
This is my favorite soup, and it just screams comfort. With homemade stock, it's divine. The eggs lend a creaminess to the lemony chicken broth that is spectacular, and the orzo lends a nice texture that I prefer to rice. The recipe halves easily, but why do that when you could eat the whole thing?!
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Black-Eyed Bean and Tomato Broth : page 134
Using standard ingredients from the pantry, this soup is spicy and colorful (if you use red chili peppers). It's delicious with the freshness of lemon and can easily be doubled or tripled as needed for crowds!
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Butter Bean, Sun-Dried Tomato and Pesto Soup : page 129
This soup couldn't be easier, assuming that you have the four ingredients on hand. This is a good winter soup, with complex flavors reminiscent of summer though no fresh ingredients are required.
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This recipe has a lot to offer. The squash is pleasantly sweet and tender, the gorgonzola is salty, the arborio rice is creamy, and a little sage pulls it all together with an earthy sort of undertone. I'm pretty sure they just called this recipe a soup so that it could be included in this cookbook!
I halved the recipe to two servings, which worked fine (though mine is less soup-like and more risotto-like than what the cookbook showed). This isn't a terribly complicated recipe, but it does take about an hour and a half to prepare it. That's largely because it takes both time (particularly to peel and chop the squash) and (more time) and patience, as you go through the whole risotto routine - add broth, wait... add broth, wait..
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Carrot and Orange Soup : page 60
This soup is very easy to make, particularly with an immersion blender. It is delicious freshly made, and good as leftovers, too. The element of orange adds complexity to the carrot flavors.
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Corn and Potato Chowder : page 98
This soup is more milky than creamy, but has a nice flavor. It isn't thick like I want chowder to be, so I might look for a different recipe in the future. I used kidney beans instead of flageolet, and that was fine.
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Fresh Tomato Soup : page 76
Another quick and easy soup from this cookbook, and delicious as well. It's a spectacular way to use up tomatoes that are quickly ripening on the counter top, too! Peeled and quartered, the tomatoes hung out for a few days in the fridge before I made the soup itself. In place of the paste that it calls for, I pureed some sundried tomatoes in their oil, and that worked fine.
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Grandfather's Soup : page 115
I'm not sure if this isn't a type of soup that I enjoy, or if I really bungled the recipe. I made a rather hopeful note in the margin: "Tried once, unsuccessfully... try again before giving up!"
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Leek, Potato and Rocket Soup : page 65
This is one of my favorite soups, and I particularly like how this recipe pulls the flavors together. Made as written, this tastes very luxurious and the arugula provides a nice peppery kick to the creamy broth. However, I've used milk and spinach in place of the cream and arugula, and that worked fine, too.
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Parsnip Soup : page 61
This is an acceptable soup, but it was the dish that taught me that I don't like parsnips. I suspect that if you do like them, this would be delicious.
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Roasted Root Vegetable Soup : page 64
This soup is flavorful and rich, and was a huge hit at a dinner party that I threw one winter. It's really quite straightforward, particularly if you have an immersion blender. Keep in mind, though, that it makes terrible leftovers. Eat enough for one sitting, and don't bother with the rest!
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