Serve cold soup on a plate with a bed
of crushed ice. Photo courtesy Meli Melo restaurant.

You can create an easy at-home presentation of chilled soup that looks like it was served at the finest restaurant.

Chef Bernard Ros of Meli Melo Restaurant in New York City shares his recipe for Chilled Pea Soup With Goat Cheese Crumbles. But you can serve any of your favorite summer soups, from cream of tomato to vichyssoise, on a garnished bed of crushed ice. 

COLD PEA SOUP RECIPE

Ingredients

Preparation
1. Bring chicken broth to boil. Add peas and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until tender (do not overcook).

2. Purée in food processor or blender. Add diced potatoes a scoop at a time and purée soup to desired consistency.

3. Refrigerate for three hours or overnight. Check prior to serving and adjust salt as needed.

4. Serve cold. To plate, place small bowls into large bowls or on dinner plates or chargers. Surround with crushed ice. Pour soup and add goat cheese and croutons. Garnish with herbs or pea shoots; sprinkle more garnish onto ice. Serve immediately.

Serves 8.

A few days ago in our post on using raw corn, we promised the recipe. Here it is, courtesy of The Kitchenista, Alissa Dicker Schreiber.

After you’ve removed the kernels from corn-on-the-cob for a recipe, don’t throw away those corn cobs: make corn stock. It couldn’t be easier, and the stock is delicious.

CORN STOCK RECIPE

1. Place the corn cobs in a pot and add enough cold water to cover the cobs by an inch.

2. Bring to a boil over medium to high heat. Cook for 30-45 minutes, or until the liquid tastes like corn.

3. Discard the cobs and strain the liquid. Use the corn stock in place of water or chicken/vegetable broth when making soups or cooking pasta, couscous, even rice. You’ll love the sweet corn flavor it adds to dishes.

Turn your corn cobs into delicious corn
broth. Photo courtesy SXC.

CORN BROTH RECIPE

You can turn the corn cobs into a drinkable broth with a few more minutes of work. You’ll need:

Ingredients

Start dinner with a gazpacho shot, with or
without a splash of tequila. Photo
courtesy SKYY vodka.

Start a summer dinner with a gazpacho shot. You can:

Even a small amount of soup can add another portion of veggies to your daily intake.

How many fruit and vegetable servings do you need each day?

The government’s prior “five a day” recommendation has been modified based on age, gender and physical activity. Calculate your personal requirements.

Soup will be dished out more cheerfully at
the reopened location of the original Soup
Nazi. Photo courtesy OriginalSoupman.com.

As many soup lovers are aware, the International Soup Kitchen immortalized 15 years ago on “Seinfeld” (the episode was first broadcast on November 2, 1995) is a real place. The small, modest storefront has stood since 1974 at 259A West 55th Street in Manhattan, just east of Eighth Avenue.

After the place, its owner and the Larry David-penned catchphrase, “No soup for you!” entered the national consciousness, a group of investors enlisted owner Al Yageneh (who abhorred being called the ‘Soup Nazi’) to turn his name and likeness into a franchise operation. The first The Original Soupman store opened in 2004.

The franchise did not find the same success as the little shop on West 55th Street. Outside of New York City, people resisted paying $7.00 for a cup of soup. Some franchises closed, including the first The Original Soupman store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Others are still ladling out the soup.

Now, the original International Soup Kitchen location, which has been shuttered since 2004, is reopening as The Original Soupman.

Al Yageneh will not be in the kitchen, behind the counter or even at hand. Instead, baseball great Reggie Jackson and Chef Dan Rubano will be there to cut the ribbon—with a chef’s knife instead of a scissors.

What will the soup be like without the original soupman at the helm? We’ll drop by to check it out—but not on opening day, when Reggie Jackson and the draw of free tee shirts will have lines wrapping around the block.

The ribbon cutting is at noon on Tuesday, July 20th. If you want to be part of the opening day crowd, show up between 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. But if you want to meet Reggie and get a shirt, come early. Otherwise: No shirt for you—and no Reggie, either.

Do you know a bouillon from a consommé? A chowder from a gumbo? A menudo from a mulligatawny?

Our new Soup Glossary is the latest of our 70+ food glossaries: mini-courses in learning in everything from A (antioxidant foods) through Y (yogurt—there’s no Z yet, but zucchini is in our Squash Glossary).

You’ll have fun perusing pretty pictures of soup as you learn the different types of soups and the history.

Instant ramen noodle soup was invented in Japan in 1956 (and where would the college students of America be without it?). Before then everyone in Japan enjoyed fresh ramen noodle soup with hand-cut noodles, which came from China at the turn of the 20th century.

The very word “supper” comes from “soup,” which used to be the evening meal for less affluent people (i.e., most people).

Can you name this soup? Photo courtesy
MackenzieLtd.com. (It’s bouillabaisse.)

Another way to enjoy peanuts! Photo
courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

Peanuts, peanut butter, peanut butter cookies, peanut brittle, satay…. peanut soup?? Indeed!

Peanuts, which originated in South America, actually came to the U.S. with African slaves. Brought to West Africa by Portuguese and Spanish traders, peanuts were a staple crop for West Africans.

We first had a bowl of peanut soup at the King’s Arms Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. We were a young teen who liked peanut butter, but the concept of peanut soup seemed an oddity. So we had to try it.

It was love at first slurp. But in the ensuing decades, it’s been pretty hard to come across a bowl of peanut soup north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Thanks to Montebello Kitchens, purveyors of Virginia artisan foods, anyone can now have peanut soup three ways: Traditional, African Piri Piri (spicy) and Thai Curry (hot). All three simple-to-make varieties are delicious. As a bonus, they’re made from defatted peanut flour, are fat-free and only 145 calories per serving!

Sick friends, stressed students, new parents and others who need a pick-me-up would be very happy to receive a shipment of chicken soup.

Chicken soup is great comfort food for whomever needs a Spoonful of Comfort—which is the name of one of the two chicken soup gifts we tried recently (the other, not surprisingly, is Grandma’s Chicken Soup).

We enjoyed both soups, plus all the fixings: noodles, matzo balls, challah and cookies.

Is chicken soup really the “Jewish penicillin” that cures colds and flus? See the article!

You’ll also learn the different types of chicken soup: chicken broth, chicken bouillon, chicken consommé and more.

Get well, get through exams/new baby,
get a good bowl of chicken soup. Photo courtesy SpoonfulOfComfort.com.

Just in time for the cold spell come three hearty soups from Amy’s Organic.

If you don’t know this brand, try it and become one of the many fans. The products are organic, tasty and better for you than most supermarket brands.

Amy’s aims to appeal to vegetarians and vegans as well as the general audience.

The three new soups include Chunky Tomato Bisque, Fire Roasted Southwestern Vegetable and Spanish Rice and Red Bean.

Stay warm this winter with Amy’s Organic
soups. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

The line is gluten free, certified organic by QAI and kosher by Ner Tamid K. The soups are low fat, cholesterol free, high in fiber and have no GMOs.

The new high fiber soup family from
Progresso. Photo by Erika Meller |
THE NIBBLE.

Just in time for the chilly weather, Progresso has released its new High Fiber Soups to warm you up while helping you with your daily fiber intake. Each of the four varieties contributes 28% of your daily value of fiber (7g/serving), with no artificial flavors or MSG. It’s a painless way to add fiber to your diet.

The pull-top cans are convenient for work lunches with microwaves; just transfer the contents into a mug. Learn more at ProgressoSoup.com.

Dried fruit and nut mixes have probably been popular since the dawn of man. It wouldn’t have taken much for a hunter-gatherer to combine some raisins from wild grapevines with crunchy nuts and deem the combination better than either food alone.

But it’s taken until recent times for fruit and nut mixes to be seasoned so deftly that the snack is better than ever. One practitioner of the art is Lambie Stout, a mom and cancer survivor from Toledo who gives 5% of the proceeds of Comfort Crunch to cancer research.

Comfort Crunch is available in four varieties including one vegan recipe (the Original). The mixes of fresh, crunchy nuts and moist dried fruits are enhanced with crystallized ginger and pepitas, chocolate-covered ginger or chocolate-covered toffee.

A healthy, indulgent snack, the chic minimalist packaging makes a yummy stocking stuffer. There’s also lovely holiday packaging that hold two bags (see the website, ComfortCrunch.com, for gift options). If you’re looking for corporate gifts, you can’t go wrong with this feel-good option.

Comfort Crunch brings tidings of comfort and joy.
Stock up for the holidays! Photo by Hannah
Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.