The Season for Soup

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There's a lot to love about soups. The tastes, the textures, the endless varieties, and let's not forget the comfort food factor. While soups are often thought of as a wintertime food, there's no reason they can't be a year-round favorite. Many of the heartier soups can be a complete meal. And for the hottest days, you can always switch to chilled soup if you prefer. Below are some of are some of the basics about the types of soups you can make.

Most soup can be separated into hose made with a stock base and those that are non-stock based. Then there fruit soups as well, which generally do not use stock base. Stock based soups can include broth, bouillon, and consomm while non-stock based soups are typically your cream soups, purees, chowders, and bisques.

Soup stock is typically made from meat. The classic meat choices are commonly beef, lamb, turkey, veal, chicken, and fish. Lighter color meats such as poultry will create a light soup stock while the other darker meats will make a brown colored stock. To flavor the stock you'll typically add vegetables such as carrots, celery, and onion. These soups stocks are the basis for your family favorites including chicken soup, tomato soup, broths, and beef vegetable soups.

Purees and cream soups often make a great main course for lunch or for a lighter dinner since they're quite thick and rich. Varieties can include split pea, creamy corn or tomato, clam chowder, potato and bean purees bisques like lobster or oyster, and vegetable cream soups such as cream of broccoli or mushroom.

Fruit soups are a wonderful chilled alternative enjoyed year-round, but especially in the heat of summer. Varieties include strawberry, peach, melon, cantaloupe, and cherry. You'll find certain cold soup recipes use vegetable based stock and others list fruit juice in the ingredients instead. Either makes a wonderful vegetarian dish.

There's nothing like well-made, scrumptious, homemade soup to make any meal complete. Remember to top your creamy soups with a simple garnish for that finishing touch. Serve soups like bean or onion in a covered soup dish, while your cream soups are best served in a round, flat soup bowl. Don't be surprised if everyone asks for seconds.

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