Yehuda’s Not Chicken Soup

So my son Yehuda has a grand obsession with soup. Specifically, with chicken soup. He can put away 5-6 bowls in a row without a moment’s hesitation and has this ginormous pot at home which was always filled with soup.

So, when he was told to basically eliminate or drastically cut down on his beloved soup, I sprang into action. I told him I would immediately work on a vegetarian version of chicken soup for him without any powdered stuff in it.

Whilst this is a challenge to me, I didn’t think it would be easy to come up with something that approximated chicken soup, especially since I really didn’t want to use the commercial powder (full of salt and other junk). So I scoured the internet for vegetable stock but the problem is they are giving you vegetable stock, not imitation chicken soup. And, since I wanted it to taste awesome enough that Yehuda would happily down a few bowls without feeling deprived, even the really appealing recipes didn’t seem to cut it.

I decided to try the roasted vegetable approach, which I saw on a few sites and the closest one to what I hoped for was on the NYT site by Mark Bittman*. He has a few versions but he was going for veggie stock not chicken. So I thought about it and decided to go with the basic mirepoix which is onion, carrot and celery cut up more or less and to work from there. So preheat your oven to 450 degrees. This takes awhile till the oven reaches the temp so do that first before any other prep. Then take 2 large onions

Clean very well and leave a bit of peel on since this gives extra color to the soup. Wash well and chop off most of the leaves of a head of celery, peel 3 carrots (nice sized)

and then quarter the onions and chop carrots and celery into even (approximate) pieces. Don’t make yourself crazy about perfect pieces, it’s fine if it’s more or less.

Then scrub a head of garlic (no need to peel, yay) and scrub 2 nice sized potatoes leaving some peel on but peeling most of it and cube. Throw this all into a tray pan which will hold all these ingredients without it being squashed on top of each other. You want to caramelize this in the oven so it’ll get lovely flavor and a bit of brown color.

Toss into the pan and pour 1/3 of a cup of oil over the lot and toss till coated, right in the pan. Take the pan and put in your hot oven and time for intervals of 15 minutes since you should toss the veggies, till 40-45 minutes and they do not need to be uniformly brown but just a bit all over.

I know this is an added step and you might think why bother with oven roasting? Why not just plunk into water right away? The answer is you will never achieve the depth of flavor that you will get otherwise. It’s like saying why not boil a chicken instead of roasting? So really, do it if you want the right flavor.

Onward! Take your caramelized veggies and shake into a nice big stockpot, enough to hold the veggies and 15-16 cups of water. This is alot but also remember you will cook it down somewhat.

As you can see, they aren’t that browned but it still gave great flavor. You could roast for a bit longer just make sure not to burn them, cuz that’d be a shame.

Fill the stockpot with water, 15-16 cups and add a pinch of tumeric (for that golden color of chickie soup) 1/8 cup of soy sauce, yup for the umami flavor (thanks Mark Bittman for that suggestion, would’ve never thought of that on my own- he uses more but he wants veggie stock, we want chicken soup) 2-3 bay leaves, a teaspoon of peppercorns, a small bunch of parsley, a handful of well cleaned celery tops (not too much, they are powerful in flavor) and some dill and once the soup has cooked about 1/2 an hour, 2-3 tablespoons of salt, maybe more according to taste. That seems like a lot of salt but this is a ginormous amount and you will need it. Just taste so you don’t over salt it.

Simmer on a low flame at least one hour, I did it for two, adding a bit more water so it shouldn’t cook out.

Now at this point, Mark strained the soup for stock but we want the full chicken soup effect and yet, here it is in strained form

It has just the right amount of rich flavor and a hint of fat without being fatty (and remember, it’s vegetable based) since 1/3 cup of oil to such a large stock is really not a big deal.

I tried it both with veggies in it and as stock and OMG I truly would’ve thought it had chicken in it! I was truly pleased because it’s totally vegetarian but tastes amazing and I think my Yehuda will be a happy boy. I’m gonna bring him a nice big container for Shabbat – or whenever he wants it 🙂 .

Yehuda’s Not Chicken Soup

a large stockpot, big enough to hold 16 cups of water and lotsa veggies

3 large peeled carrots, chopped into thick “coins”

a small head of celery, well washed, with a few celery tops (toss the rest or freeze for another use in another soup) and cut into chunks

2 large potatoes, scrubbed and peeled but leave some peel on and cubed

2 large onions, well scrubbed and leave some peel on, quartered

1 head of garlic, scrubbed and sliced in half (see pic above)

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I do not prefer olive oil for this, too dominant a flavor, I suggest a mild one like canola)

a small bunch of parsley, washed

a small bunch of dill, washed

a teaspoon of whole black peppercorns

3 bay leaves

1/4 teaspoon of tumeric

1/4 cup soy sauce

2-3 tablespoons of salt (adjust to taste but you will need the salt)

15-16 cups of water

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 450. Do this first since it takes at least 15 minutes to reach this temp and you can prep your veggies meanwhile.

Take a large tray pan and put the onion, carrot, celery, potatoes and garlic (they are all washed and chunked as written already) and toss right in the pan with the 1/3 cup of mild oil. Put in the hot oven and (put on a timer) after 15 minutes, take a spoon and toss the veggies. Put right back in and roast another 15 minutes and toss one more time. Let cook an additional 10-15 minutes till they develop some brown color but do not let get dark brown or they will get bitter, so really, time this.

Next take your large stockpot and put all the roasted veggies into the pot – be careful not to burn yourself and then using about 2 cups of your water allotment, gently swish in pan to gather up all the yummy roasted goodness of the veggies. You might need to do this twice.

Put in the parsley, dill, peppercorns, bay leaves, tumeric and soy sauce and a tablespoon of the salt. Pour in the rest of the water, bring to a boil and lower to a low simmer. After an hour, taste, adjust the salt seasoning (you will almost 1,000% need the rest of the salt, that is 2 more tablespoons and if you need more, don’t be shy. Don’t oversalt but this is a very large quantity of soup and it’s not a crazy amount of salt. You can stop cooking it at this point but I let it continue for another hour and it produced a golden gorgeous soup with a hint of fat that imitated the chicken flavor so well that I’m not gonna tell my guests Friday night that it’s vegetarian and I’ll let you know if they realize. Mmmmm mmm good. Yehuda my son, I think we’ve got a hit!

Mark’s original version of vegetable stock a few ways –

*
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/style/dining/the-minimalist-in-a-stockpot-home-brew-beats-storebought.html