Soups

Cara Brunetti Hillyard of Hamilton, Virginia, writes: "I come from a long line of great cooks. My father owns an Italian market in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where my mother gets a lot of the ingredients she uses in her wonderful dishes. My mother-in-law is a recipe developer, and I've been known to sit next to my great-aunt Stella with a pen and paper as she details her amazing recipes. I live far from home now, but I reconnect with my family traditions every evening when I make dinner."

Traditional Spanish gazpacho was once the food of field workers made on the spot with bread, olive oil, vinegar, garlic, and water. It has evolved and now there are numerous versions. This one, without the bread, is at once refreshing from crisp cucumber and bell pepper, creamy from avocado, sweet and crunchy with corn, and tangy from vinegar, lime, and cilantro. It also makes good use of leftover corn on the cob. You can stir a few ice cubes into the soup to thin or chill it just before serving. Remove them before you ladle the soup into bowls.

This soup is good and velvety on its own, but the chile butter adds a luxurious crowning touch.

You can make your own stock from chicken backs and necks, as Peter Davis of Henrietta’s Table does. Or use canned stock. He simmers summer squash, zucchini, carrot, celery, fennel, white beans, and tomatoes in this soup, then finishes it with handfuls of spinach and arugula.

In this pretty soup, sweet fresh peas are enhanced with a bit of mint.

I was also able wrestle away some of the sweet potatoes from Apolinaras this time (and by wrestle away, I mean hide in the back of the cabinet!), and decided to whip up a soup with them since it’s been so rainy and windy in Boston lately. I decided on a Thai twist because I was craving the sweet potato curry from Sugar and Spice, so I simmered the sweet potatoes with fresh ginger, lemongrass, red curry paste, lime juice, and coconut milk. The lovely orange hue made me smile and the flavor did not disappoint – yum!

This popular restaurant bowl is easy to make at home but the technique is a little tricky. The finished soup should have pale yellow petals of barely set egg floating in a rich chicken broth. To achieve this, you have to wave chopsticks above the surface of the hot soup with one hand while you slowly pour in the eggs with the other - without overcooking the eggs. If you’re starting with commercially prepared chicken stock, enhance it by simmering it for 10 minutes with several slices of fresh ginger and scallions, both bruised slightly with the flat side of a broad knife.