Here is the best way to warm up in Denver on a cold, winter day: Take 6th Avenue west until you hit Federal Boulevard. Make a left. The road here will be neglected and bumpy, but thatap why cars have shocks, right?
Drive south past the payday lenders, the liquor stores and the car repair shops. Once you see the big sign, on your right, for the Denver Clone Store (yes, the Denver Clone Store), be ready to make a quick right. Look for the big red letters and the little soup bowl and you’ll have arrived at your destination: Pho 79.
An alternate destination: Stick to the city and warm up with Sugarmill’s chicken ginseng soup.
Or, if you live south, head to Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse for spicy jalapeño corn chowder.
Or just stay home and heat up a pot of chicken noodle.
The point is, when the temperature goes down (or up, and then down again, as Colorado is wont to do this time of year), you want to warm up with soup. Thin and clear or thick and creamy, you want a hot, steaming bowl of goodness to make everything right with the world once again. Trust us.
Even the word “soup” is so soothing that you can see people soften at the mere mention of it. But what is soup? Liquid food? That description sounds more like something you’d be forced to swallow after dental surgery than a culinary cure-all.
And what of all the varieties? There’s cioppino, chowder, bisque, bouillabaisse, pho, dashi, gumbo and consommé; not to mention all the “cream of blank” varieties.
Soup may conjure up different images depending on our backgrounds and experiences, but it evokes the same feeling in us all: comfort. Itap what we want when we’re sick, cold or heartbroken. It takes us back to that cared-for feeling we got as kids, home from school with chicken pox or on a snow day. When we eat it — or slurp or gulp or sip it — we are healed, nourished, or just made plain happy.
“When I think of soup, I think of something deep and rich in flavor, and hearty down to the core,” said Vesta executive chef Nicholas Kayser.
His pick? Lobster cioppino, a San Francisco fish stew chock-full of shellfish bobbing in a layered tomato saffron broth. No surprise, he has a strong emotional connection to the soup and his initial slurp.
“My father and I took a trip to San Francisco just after graduating culinary school, where I got my first taste of that Bay area classic. I instantly fell in love and knew I had to make my own,” Kayser said. “This soup (Vesta’s lobster cioppino) will warm you to the core on those coldest winter nights in Denver. You can taste the time it takes to make this rich seafood stew, and I know from experience that it doesn’t last a fraction of that time when it greets you at the table.”
On the opposite end of the soup spectrum: a simple, straightforward Asian chicken soup conjures up feelings of home for Sugarmill chef Ryan Witcher.
“There are a lot of nostalgic feelings associated with soup, and every cuisine has its own version and story,” Witcher said. “I would never pass up a bowl of homemade soup.”
His chicken ginseng soup – “the ultimate comfort food,” according to Witcher – uses a whole chicken, simmered all day on the stove. (And we have the recipe, below.) The aromas that fill the kitchen may as well be blankets, they’re so warm and toasty.
In terms of variety, itap possible that no other category of food can rival soup. How different is a tangy Italian-American cioppino from a milky New England chowder? A buttery bisque from a simple, straightforward chicken consommé?
Daniel Asher, executive chef at Boulder’s River and Woods, makes a mean matzo ball ramen. But itap not his own family’s recipe; itap one of the restaurantap customers. What makes River and Woods so special is that in addition to Asher’s stellar dishes, they incorporate something called community-sourced recipes. These are favorite personal recipes that diners love so much that they’re dying to share them with their community. Of course itap no surprise that a soup made the menu – it was made for being shared with friends, family and neighbors.
“Our matzo ball ramen is a really fun cultural mashup between Jewish chicken soup and Japanese miso ramen,” Asher said. “It integrates the family story of one of our guests into our culinary tale. It just makes you feel warm and happy inside.”
That’s the point. Soup isn’t liquid food – it makes you feel warm and happy inside. It just so happens to deliver that feeling in broth form.
Here are some soup recipes: Witcher’s chicken ginseng and the jalapeño corn chowder from Del Frisco’s; two that Denver Post staffers tried out, and two from a beautiful new cookbook, “Savor: Sensational Soups to Fulfill & Fortify” by Amber Locke (Mitchell Beazley, February 2017).
Soup’s on.
Chicken Ginseng Soup
Provided by Ryan Witcher, chef at Sugarmill
Serves 6
Ingredients:
- 3 cups Ginseng, dried root (try H-Mart, Amazon or Whole Foods)
- 2¼ cups Korean rice
- Whole chicken
- 6 roasted carrots
- Micro basil for garnish
Directions:
Roast the chicken until fully cooked; pull apart the meat and reserve the bones.
To make ginseng glacé: In a medium saucepan, soak the dried ginseng in 7½ quarts of water overnight.
On low heat, take water and reconstituted ginseng and add chicken bones. Reduce to half of its volume.
Strain and discard the ginseng, reserving the ginseng stock (glacé).
Cook the Korean rice in enough ginseng stock to cover until al dente.
When ready to serve, heat up 2 cups of the ginseng stock, rice, 1½ cups pulled chicken and 1½ cups water until boiling.
Serve with a roasted carrot split in half, and garnish with micro basil.
Jalapeño Corn Chowder
Provided by chef Mario Hernandez of Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse
Serves 6
Ingredients:
- 1 cup julienne bacon
- 1 cup diced onion
- ¼ cup diced jalapeño
- 1 tbsp chopped garlic
- ½ cup diced celery
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup diced cooked potato
- 2 cups fresh shucked corn
- 1½ quarts chicken stock
- 1 tbsp corn starch (corn starch dissolved in a small amount of cold water or milk)
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- ½ cup heavy cream
Directions:
Sauté bacon until golden brown.
Add onion, jalapeño, garlic, celery, salt and pepper and sauté until translucent.
Add potatoes, salt and pepper, corn and mix well.
Add chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Add corn starch slurry and mix well.
Add cream and parsley and turn off heat. Let cool before serving.
Slow cooker red wine beef stew
This rich stew is perfect for those cold, wintry days, the ultimate one-pot meal. And it’s especially easy, thanks to a slow-cooker, not to mention it makes your entire house smell amazing. Serve with crusty bread and extra parsley — wool socks on your feet and a fire crackling in the fireplace are optional. Six servings. Adapted from delish.com — Alison Borden
Ingredients
- 1½ pound beef chuck, cut into 2-inch pieces
- kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ bottle dry red wine (Merlot or Cabernet)
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 red potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 4 carrots, chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 3 celery stalked, chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 2 onions, chopped into quarters
- 1 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large rosemary sprig
- 2 cups low-sodium beef broth
- 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
- ½ cup chopped parsley
Directions
In a large mixing bowl, pat beef dry with a paper towel. Season generously with salt and black pepper.
Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat the skillet with olive oil and sear meat on all sides until golden brown with a crust, about 10 minutes.
Transfer meat to the slow cooker. Add butter to the skillet and scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen all browned meat bits. Stir in red wine and tomato paste, simmer for about 4 minutes; transfer to the slow cooker.
Add remaining ingredients, season with 1 tablespoon salt and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Meat should be very tender; remove stalk of rosemary.
Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.
Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
By Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman
Finally, the perfect — flavorful but not too spicy (unless you decide to make it that way). There’s no need to pre-brown anything so cleanup is super easy. It serves 12 but freezes well. — LeeAnn Colacioppo
- 3-4 chicken breast halves
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 whole medium onion, chopped
- 1 whole red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1 whole yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1 28-ounce can whole or diced tomatoes, with juice
- 1 can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chile
- 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 4 ounces tomato paste
- 1 whole chipotle pepper in adobo (you can use 2 or 3 if you like chipotle flavor)
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 lime
For garnish: sour cream, avocado, cilantro leaves, grated cheese, crushed tortilla chips
Directions
Place the chicken in the slow cooker. Sprinkle with chili powder, cumin, and salt and pepper. Add the onion, bell peppers, tomatoes, chicken broth, tomato paste, chipotle, and black beans. Stir, place the lid on the slow cooker, and cook on high for 5 hours or high (or 8 hours on low.) Stir in the lime juice.
Using 2 forks, break up the chicken into chunks (or you may shred it more fine.)
Garnish with avocado, sour cream, grated cheese, cilantro leaves and chips.
Sweet Potato Soup
From “Savor: Sensational Soups to Fulfill & Fortify” (Mitchell Beazley, February 2017)
This makes a beautiful deep-golden soup. You can set its color off with a contrasting purple topping of finely shredded radicchio and purple tinged mint leaves, purple basil or chopped red chard stems, purple shiso leaves, or sprouting beet seeds. Add a topping of grated raw sweet potato if you’d like: It’s surprisingly good eaten raw and gives a contrast in texture to the velvety smooth soup. Spiced crispy chickpeas (recipe below) are a great alternative to crunchy bread croutons. Serves 4.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil
- 1 large white or red onion, finely chopped
- 2 to 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon ras-el-hanout spice mix (a Moroccan seasoning made by McCormick’s, among others, or you can make your own), plus extra for sprinkling
- 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and coarsely grated
- 1 quart hot cooked vegetable stock (recipe below)
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- Salt and pepper
Directions
SOUP: Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and garlic, and fry gently until softened. Add the ras-el-hanout and cook, stirring, for another few minutes, or until the spices release their fragrance. Add the sweet potatoes, reserving a little to garnish, and stock. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are tender and cooked through. Stir in the tahini. Remove the pan from the heat and blend until silky smooth using a hand stick blender, or in a food processor. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with the roasted chickpeas, reserved grated sweet potato, and an extra sprinkling of ras-el-hanout. Scatter with herbs and radicchio.
NOTE: Stir in some cooked shredded chicken or pulled pork to turn this into a more substantial meal. Add cooked mini lamb and mint meatballs and a handful of cooked couscous for a Moroccan-type stew.
Cooked Vegetable Stock: Place 4 small carrots and 3 celery stalks, all cut into medium dice, into a large saucepan. Add 2 large onions or 2 medium leeks, cut in half, 1 bay leaf, 1 small bunch of mixed herbs (such as parsley, thyme and rosemary), and 2 teaspoons black peppercorns. Add 2 quarts of water (or more to completely cover the vegetables by 3 inches or so). Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 40 to 50 minutes, occasionally skimming off any froth that rises to the surface, until the stock tastes rich and full. Do not overcook the vegetables or the flavor will become stale and flat. Strain the stock, discarding the solids. Use immediately or store in the fridge for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 2 months.
Spiced Roasted Chickpeas: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drain a 14-ounce can of chickpeas and tip them onto paper towels, rubbing until completely dray. Discard any loose skins. Placed them in a bowl, add 2 tablespoons olive oil or melted coconut oil, and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon garlic salt, a few pinches of chili powder, and salt and pepper. Mix gently to coat the chickpeas. Spread the chickpeas evenly onto large baking pans and roast for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Eat immediately or store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
Confetti Soup
From “Savor: Sensational Soups to Fulfill & Fortify” (Mitchell Beazley, February 2017)
You can make this soup using any clear soup, consomme, or light vegetable broth. The trick is that you should be able to see the “confetti” in the soup, all the way down to the bottom of the bowl. You can make “confetti” out of any raw vegetables as long as you slice them finely enough.
Serves 2-3
Ingredients:
- 2 to 3 baby zucchini
- 3 to 4 baby corn on the cob, thinly sliced crosswise
- 3 to 4 large radishes, cut into thin matchsticks
- 1 small root vegetable, such as a carrot, beet or parsnip, cut into small dice
- 3 cups vegetable bouillon, or clear soup
- 1 small handful peas or sugar snap peas
- 1 small handful of delicate herbs, such as fennel, basil, dill, and chives, finely chopped, plus extra to garnish
- 1 small handful of pomegranate seeds
- salt and pepper
Directions:
Score the skin of the baby zucchini lengthwise to make shallow, v-shaped grooves, then slice very thinly crossways. Gently mix the zucchini with the baby corn, radishes and diced root vegetable of choice. Gently heat the vegetable stock and stir in the confetti vegetable shapes, peas or sugar snaps, herbs and pomegranate seeds. Simmer for a few minutes to warm everything through then season to taste with salt and pepper. To serve, ladle the broth into bowls and scatter with a few extra herbs.
