Soups and Stews
13 recipes found
Porchetta Beans
This is a special pot of brothy beans with ingredients reminiscent of porchetta: shreds of pork shoulder, wedges of tender fennel, and a broth heady with herbs, black pepper and garlic. Eat it as you would any braised white bean, such as over pasta or alongside sautéed broccoli rabe or kale and crusty bread. For a slow-cooker version, see here.
Lion’s Head Meatballs
Lion's head is a traditional Chinese stew, a comforting staple in many Chinese households. The dish features tender meatballs, made even more delicate by the inclusion of silken tofu. The meat mixture is vigorously worked to ensure the meatballs hold their shape and achieve a slightly springy texture. These meatballs are seared then stewed while nestled in napa cabbage leaves. As the cabbage softens, its juices infuse the broth, creating a delicate and delicious flavor profile. Steamed rice is the perfect accompaniment to this stew.
Khorak-e Loobia Sabz (Green Bean and Chicken Stew)
Lifting spirits with a medley of flavors and vibrant hues worthy of a spring garden, khorak-e loobia sabz is equal parts cozy and comforting, and also perfect for entertaining without much effort. Green beans, loobia sabz in Persian, are the seasonal star of the dish with carrots and potatoes filling it out. This version uses chicken, but you can also use stewing meat, or omit the meat altogether and serve as a vegetarian dish. Saffron, the flag bearer of many Iranian dishes, is added at the end for its distinct perfume, earthy and floral notes, and rich pop of color, but you can also leave it out without the need to substitute with any other spices. Serve khorak-e loobia sabz with rice or bread; salad-e Shirazi and mast-o khiar.
Zanzibari Mix (Urojo)
A fragrant, brothy green mango soup with a sour bite, Zanzibar mix is a staple of the archipelago’s street food stands. The soup is made with an aromatic base of onion, garlic, ginger and chile. It’s then typically topped with chunky mashed potato, crunchy bits that can include falafel or cassava chips, and a boiled egg. The essence is in the combination of ingredients, and the choice is yours. Here, the toppings include onions, tomatoes, spiced toasted panko, cilantro and any hot pepper sauce you like best, but feel free to improvise. The soup will make enough to cool, portion and refrigerate (for up to a week) or freeze (for up to three months).
Cantonese Noodle Soup
This simple Cantonese noodle soup is endlessly adaptable. Choose rice noodles or egg noodles, add pickled mustard greens, oyster sauce and chile oil for pungency and spice, or leave them out for a mellower broth. The combination of good broth, springy noodles and leafy greens makes for a satisfying foundation no matter how you zip it up.
Ras el Hanout Chickpea and Spinach Stew
This warming one-pot stew delivers the depth and comfort of a long-simmered meal in a fraction of the time. Chickpeas and spinach braise in a richly spiced tomato base, creating layers of warmth and complexity. Ras el hanout, a fragrant Moroccan spice blend, gives the dish its signature aromatic depth; gently toasted tomato paste intensifies its flavor even further. A splash of soy sauce provides an unexpected but welcome hit of umami, rounding out the dish with a richness that mimics a stew that's been bubbling away for hours. Served with a generous spoonful of yogurt (or a squeeze of lemon) and a drizzle of harissa oil to cut through the richness, it's perfect with crusty bread or spooned over grains like rice, barley, bulgur or quinoa.
Spicy Gazpacho
This bright and vegetal gazpacho is a cooling summertime soup or even a refreshing drink, straight from a glass. Red Fresno chile imparts lively heat (remove some or all of the seeds for a milder soup) along with nice fruity notes that complement the other veggies. Olive oil is simply whisked in at the end to ensure a velvety texture that eats silkier than fully blended gazpacho, which is more aerated and frothy. This gazpacho is best served cold, so make it a few hours ahead and keep chilled, or try this speedy solution: Serve it over ice.
Eggplant, Chickpea and Tomato Curry
The texture of raw eggplant is quite spongy, which is a key indicator of its remarkable ability to absorb flavor. For this reason, eggplant is an excellent ingredient for curries. Here's how this recipe proves that theory: Planks of seasoned eggplant tumble through a base of curry-infused olive oil and golden-brown onions. While the eggplant drinks in the flavors, tomatoes break down entirely to join the pool of sauce, contributing both sweetness and a light acidity. To finish the dish, a big spoonful of vinegar does something imperceptible but important, adding a cheerful quality, as do the fresh-tasting sliced scallions. Though this recipe welcomes just about any curry powder, Caribbean curry powder is preferred thanks to its warm spices like allspice, cloves and ginger, which pair particularly well with the eggplant, tomato and potato mix.
Chicken Soup With Corn and Spinners
This recipe is a more streamlined take on a Jamaican Saturday soup, a simmered-until-tender marriage of beef or chicken and starchy vegetables. Thanks to a few strategic moves, this recipe takes only one hour but tastes like the result of an hours-long endeavor. Simmering bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs in chicken stock fortifies the soup, coaxing out gelatin from the bones and releasing fat from the skin to create a rich foundation. Instead of cutting corn kernels off the cob, the corn cobs are cut into pieces, which are less fussy to prepare, and more fun to eat — with hands, as nature intended! Handmade dumplings called spinners thicken the soup further and add a chewy bite.
Summer Corn and Seafood Chowder
Slow Cooker Chickpea Stew With Lemon and Coconut
Soothing yet bright, this soup tastes like something that took careful attention, but really just requires throwing five ingredients into a slow cooker and letting it cook for hours. Dried chickpeas and cauliflower soften in the gentle heat, and the coconut milk thickens as the mixture cooks, seasoned with earthy turmeric and sweet lemon peel. While a little lemon juice balances the richness, the predominant lemon flavor here isn’t tangy but rather floral from the peels releasing their oils into the stew. Reminiscent of curries throughout South and Southeast Asia, it can be eaten over rice, or with sliced almonds or cilantro on top, but it can just as well stand alone.
Slow Cooker Chicken Vesuvio Soup
In this no-fuss recipe, chicken Vesuvio undergoes a brothy makeover: Imagine the elements and flavors of the beloved Chicago dish concentrated in a pot, with chicken, oregano, thyme, garlic, lemon, wine and more. The result is a herby, lemony and garlicky chicken soup made substantial with the addition of potatoes and sweet peas. Once the potatoes are chopped into chunks, the ingredients combine in a slow cooker. Once the chicken breast is fork-tender and easy to pull apart, frozen peas are added to the mix for an inviting sweet flavor alongside a shower of freshly chopped parsley. For the best flavor, taste before serving and season generously with salt and pepper until every spoonful is perfectly salted.
Slow Cooker Lamb Stew With Chickpeas
This rustic dinner party dish requires minimal preparation and lets time do the work to achieve meltingly tender results. Dried chickpeas become velvety under the slow cooker's patient heat, forming a hearty base for succulent lamb without any soaking or searing. Warm spices, garlic and lemon complement and brighten the stew's robust flavors. Serve blanketed in fresh herbs, with flatbread or rice to sop up the rich juices.