These are still a holiday favorite and are even better the next day with leftover cold cranberries. Use your favorite type of sweet potato, or mix all varieties in a single dish.
Here’s a simple and tasty soup that I think of as a “starter soup” —even someone who has never cooked could make this without any trouble. The amounts are pretty flexible, and the technique basic, and the result delicious.
Sturdy black kale, leeks and sweet potatoes keep their distinct textures and flavors in this chopped green soup, and the combination of tart, fresh lemon with toasted cumin just shines.
This chard and spinach soup gets complex flavor from slowly cooked onions and lemon juice, while a sprinkle of rice gives it body and a velvety texture. Serve with a swirl of fruity, fragrant extra-virgin olive oil for richness.
Ingredients
Once, wherever chestnut trees grew, the nuts were important food for the poor, and yet their taste is luxurious. This chestnut soup, one of my very favorite soups, presents its main ingredient beautifully. It happens to be French, although chestnut soups are made in many places. Chestnuts can be had only during the end-of-the-year season, of course, and the flavor of the soup depends on their quality — the best, when hot, have an aroma of honey — and on the clear flavor of the chicken stock. Along with that, milk is a light, traditional addition that respects chestnut flavor, but for years I’ve instead added cream, as below. Make your stock with a generous quantity of leeks, or reboil it with leeks before adding it to this soup.
Time is on the side of this soup; it mellows with a day or two in the refrigerator, and freezes well.
So forgiving, you can calibrate this roast around your needs instead of the usual other way around. It will hold happily in a low oven (180°F. or so) for an hour.
Sautéeing the cabbage ahead, even a day ahead, works well, but finish it with the butter and mustard just before serving.
What chicken soup is to us, pea soup is to the Dutch -- an everlasting standby and cure-all.