Last Wednesday's Soup came to be because we harvested a bunch of eggplants, tomatoes, and basil from our two 4'x8' garden boxes the previous weekend. The first thing I did was Google those ingredients and the word "Soup" to see what came up. Several candidates surfaced and I chose one from netcooks.com.
The one I chose was submitted to netcooks.com by Kevin Milstein from Australia. It was a little difficult to follow and lacked a few details but then I'm pretty detail oriented and like having everything spelled out even though I often stray far from a recipe's prescribed path. The title of my chosen recipe is "Roasted Eggplant, Oregano, and Tomato Soup" if you look for it on netcooks.com.
One thing about this recipe that had me a bit puzzled was whether to peel the eggplant or leave it unpeeled. My experience with eating eggplant was either in eggplant parmigiana or breaded and fried. I recall the peel being there but not consuming it. I checked a couple of other recipes calling for eggplant and peeling was called for so that's what I did. The recipe calls for:
Diced Eggplant
Fresh Oregano
Orzo
Onion
Garlic
Celery
Tomatoes
Fresh Basil
Vegetable Stock
Potato
Olive Oil
As I mentioned, from our garden I had enough eggplant, basil and tomatoes. In our pantry and fridge I had the olive oil, orzo, onion (I had a bunch of shallots left over from a previous misreading of recipe ingredients so I used them in addition to some red onion), garlic (I use the prepared minced garlic in a jar from Spice World you find in the produce section. This is a shortcut I'm willing to take because of the amount of garlic we use), celery and potato. I needed to buy the oregano (I've not had good luck growing oregano) and vegetable stock.
The potato acts as a thickening agent in addition to flavor. This precludes the need for butter or cream. I'm not against butter or cream in any way but this is a soup that doesn't need them.
Peel the eggplants and dice into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces. Salt them really well and set aside in a colander for 30 minutes.
The recipe calls for cooking the orzo early in the preparation. I found this to be a mistake because by the time I needed to add the orzo I ended up with a clump of pasta. So, wait until the soup is done and then cook the orzo, it doesn't take but a few minutes.
Spread the eggplant in a single layer on a large pizza pan or as many casserole dishes you need. Sprinkle with olive oil. Roast in the oven at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes and then sprinkle the chopped oregano over the eggplant and roast for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
Saute the onions, garlic and celery until onion is translucent, about 7 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes and stir to mix all the veggies thoroughly. Add the sliced basil leaves, stock, grated potato and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 20-25 minutes.
This is where I screwed up so pay attention. I didn't read the recipe well enough or enough times so what I did was add the roasted eggplant/oregano into the pot after the simmering was done.
The recipe calls for pureeing the soup at this point. I was just about to bury my immersion blender in the soup pot and hit the button when something didn't feel right and I read the recipe one more time. What it calls for is to puree the cooked soup sans eggplant/oregano and then add the eggplant/oregano. So what I had to do was pick out as much of the eggplant as I could or had patience to do before pureeing. While I'm talking about pureeing let me recommend as strongly as possible that a gotta-have kitchen toy is an immersion blender, especially if you make soups. My wife, Bertie, gave me one for my last birthday and it is the best thing ever. No more making messes and losing precious spoonfuls of soup on the counter as you transfer from pot to blender.
After pureeing add the eggplant/oregano mixture and orzo. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
As I noted in a previous posting I often use fresh squeezed lemon juice to many recipes if the taste calls for a little tang or bite. That's what I did with this soup. I used the juice of one lemon. Another kitchen toy that is a must is a lemon juicer. I use the one that you place half a lemon in with the sliced end down and bring the anvil portion of the squeezer down and it basically turns the citrus inside out as it squeezes. They are pretty common in good stores and I just happened to pick mine up at Cost Plus World Market.
The folks at work liked the soup and several people commented that they were not big fans of eggplant as a rule but really like this soup.
I haven't looked at what soup is up for next week but will be looking this weekend.
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