My Adult Children LOVE to Make

I’ve always loved soups in the Fall, and now that my daughters are in their own apartments, they love to make them too. When I was working full time, I would throw a bunch of ingredients into the crock pot (all of these can be made in the crock pot if you want) in the morning and come home to a great-smelling house and ready-made dinner. You can’t beat it when everyone is tired and hungry.

These are tried and true recipes that my girls have either made and introduced ME to, or asked for the recipes to make on their own. I’ve included wine pairings, and our recipe for bread bowls, too!

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1. French Onion. Do you love this soup? You will not believe how similar this recipe tastes as compared to eating it in a restaurant. This is an inexpensive dish too- buy your onions in a big bag and you’ll always have some on hand. 

Ingredients:

• 5-6 large onions (yellow or red)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup dry red wine- see wine pairing below
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 quarts beef broth
• Salt, pepper, thyme to taste

For the topping:

• Crusty bread like French or Italian
• Cheese such as gouda or gruyere (flat pieces are easiest to work with but any style will do)

Steps:

• Melt butter on medium high in a stock pot (this kind is so colorful!)
• Cut onions- in slices like this:

• Throw them into the hot pot with garlic, and let them cook away. Stir frequently
• Continue to cook until the onions are translucent (and smell amazing)
• Add the wine and cook until it’s evaporated. Then add the flour and cook about 10 minutes more
• Most important step- pour yourself a glass of wine to enjoy as you continue the process
• Add the beef stock, cover and turn temp down to simmer. After a bit, taste test and add salt, pepper and thyme to taste. You’ll likely want to do this again when serving
• As this continues to simmer, cut some slices of bread and cheese to fit on each slice (in cute leaf or whatever shapes you’d like are fun too!) 
• Put the slices of cheese over each piece of bread (cut with cute cookie cutters if you’d like!), and toast in the oven. When the soup is done (another hour or so on simmer), ladle it into a bowl, top with a piece of cheese toast

• When heating up a bowl, you can put the bowl into the microwave to melt the cheese for a minute or so. You can also put the bowl (with cheese and bread) in the broiler, assuming you’re using oven-safe bowls. Any way you do this, it will be delicious, trust me!
• Wine Pairing. Apothic Red. This is a delicious red blend, much like a Pinot Noir that pretty much goes with any food. It’s perfect, because you literally use it in the soup itself, so you have it on hand already! It’s somewhere between dry and sweet, with notes of cherries and blackberries. The fruitiness balances the more pungent taste of the onions perfectly.

2. Roasted Vegetable Soup. I cannot pass up the incredible home-grown veggies at the Farmers Market, and ours goes well into October. In the Fall, there are beautiful root vegetables for sale like carrots, potatoes, beets, turnips and sweet potatoes. The soup I make using these vegetables is truly the easiest thing ever.

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• Root vegetables of your choice
• 2 or so onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• Salt and pepper to taste

Optional (cooked):

• Noodles like fusilli or rotini
• Rice
• Quinoa

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Cut as many of the veggies you’d like into big chunks-  I like to cover the whole tray
• Cut up the onions and garlic and add to the tray
• Cover with a few pours of olive oil
• Roast for about an hour
• Set up a soup pot on the stove and pour in the two quarts of chicken stock
• Set to high heat and add the roasted vegetable to the pot
• Bring to a boil, then take the temp down to simmer
• Ladle the soup and veggies into the blender. Blend just until mixed well, then return the soup to the pot. Do this a few times, taking ladles of soups from the pot, blending it, and returning it to the pot until most of the vegetables are blended
• Cover and take soup off the heat
• Cook whatever starch you’d like to add (if you desire a heartier soup), and stir it into the soup. Salt and pepper to taste.

Wine Pairing. This is a meatless soup (unless you’d like to add a protein), so I prefer a semi-sweet white to match the lightness. Just a bit on the sweet side, riesling works really well. I find the best are from cooler climates like Chateau Ste. Michelle. We actually visited this winery outside of Seattle and it was wonderful. Much closer to us is the Finger Lakes, who are well-known for their rieslings. They didn’t ship them out of NY state until a few years ago. If you’re looking to order some from a really good FLX winery, my suggestions are Americana and Glenora. See more on an upcoming post about navigating Finger Lakes wineries.

3. Chicken and Gnocchi. This is all-time favorite of my daughter, who first got turned on to it at the Olive Garden. This is the recipe she shared with me.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1/2 white onion, diced
• 2 tsps minced garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp thyme
• 16 oz potato gnocchi (store-bought or home-made!)
• 2 cups half and half
• 1 cup spinach, roughly chopped

Steps:

• Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat
• Add celery, onions, garlic, and carrots, sauté 2-3 minutes
• Add chicken, chicken broth, salt, pepper, and thyme
• Bring to a boil then gently stir in gnocchi
• Boil 2-4 minutes longer, then reduce heat to simmer for 10 minutes
• Stir in half and half and spinach, and cook another 1-2 minutes, until spinach is tender
• Add salt and pepper to taste

Wine Pairing. I think a creamier soup calls for a tart, crisp, dry white. My all time favorite wine is Sauvignon Blanc. New Zealand truly makes the BEST varieties, so any you choose from there should be excellent. My favorite is Kim Crawford (any year). You can definitely go for a less expensive brand like Cupcake. At $8-$9 a bottle you can’t go wrong.

4. Turkey or Beef Chili. Some may argue this is not really a soup, but I consider it in the same category- something warm and comforting that you slurp 🙂 I make this when we’re watching football games a lot in the Fall. I love this, more than any other, in the crockpot, because it is SO EASY. Like me, you can use 99% fat-free ground turkey for zero Weight Watchers points. But feel free to use whatever ground meat you’d like!

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground beef or turkey
• 2 tsp of olive oil (if you are using turkey, since it’s drier)
• 1 packet or can of chili mix seasoning
• 1 large can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Red chili flakes, salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

• Throw everything into the crockpot in the order listed
• Set on low for 6-8 hours (do this in the morning and it’ll ready for kick off!)
• THAT IS IT. Feel free to make this on the stove top if you’d like, just brown the meat first and add everything else, simmering for a nice long time.

Other than being so simple, what I love about this meal is that you can add whatever you’d like to make it heartier or healthier. I’ve added carrots, celery, and potatoes to give myself an extra serving of vegetables. It can also be served as a meat sauce over pasta!

We love this with fixings like sour cream (or nonfat yogurt) and shredded cheddar cheese.

Wine Pairing. Because this is a meat and tomato-based soup, a heavier red wine can hold up to this and tastes so nice. My favorites are Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. California wineries are known to make the best Cab Sav, so choose any like Woodbridge or Barefoot. I will say the boxed red wines are pretty good too, like Black Box. And so economical, as you get @ 20 glasses per box for only $20-$30!

5. Mulligatawny. To me, it’s the ultimate fall soup because the flavors are so warm and comforting- thanks to the special spice of curry. The balance between the curry and sweet fruit is delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup long grain rice
• 5 cups of chicken stock
• 1 lb of chicken tenders
• 1 carrot
• 1 leek
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 apple
• 1 tbsp curry powder (and more to taste)
• Pinch of cayenne pepper

Steps:

• Bring chicken stock to a boil in a large stock pot
• Pour in rice and boil for @ 20 minutes
• Cut chicken into small cubes
• Peel and dice the carrot
• Slice leek into rounds
• Heat coconut oil in a large pan
• Fry chicken cubes until nicely browned, remove from pan and set aside
• Add carrots and leeks to the pan and fry until soft
• Add chicken and vegetables back to the stock pot with broth
• Soak raisins in hot water until plump
• Dice apple and add to the soup with the raisins
• Season with curry and cayenne to taste
• Add cooked rice, pasta, or quinoa if desired- makes a heartier soup

Wine Pairing. This soup is SO flavorful, but the curry is mild. If you’re making a very strong curry (ie Indian food), you may want to consider a light red wine like Pinot Noir. The Australian winery Yellow Tail makes so many great wines, and their Pinot Noir is one of the best in my mind. For this soup though, I recommend a rosé, which has a fruity crispness to it, marrying with the fruit in this soup. Rosés are blends of dry and sweet wine so are a wonderful balance to the curry in this soup. Many people drink them more in the summers, but they are definitely a year-round wine. Try Isle St. Pierre, a lovely French variety.

SERVING

It’s super easy to serve soups in individual colorful bowls with crackers, cheese, bread, a salad bar, and some wine. But if you’re looking to be ambitious, try BREAD BOWLS!

Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 tsps yeast
• 2 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 6 cups flour (preferable bread flour but any kind works

Steps:

• Combine the yeast, sugar, salt, and warm water until dissolved, about 5 minutes
• Add the flour and mix either with a mixer or your hands!
• When in a sticky ball, cover with a kitchen towel and let sit for about 90 minutes
• After this time, pound the dough down (it should be well-risen) and divide into six pieces.
• Form six balls, and pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
• Bake for 30 minutes
• When cool, cut holes into the top of the rolls to form bowls
• Make sure they are completely cool before filling with your favorite soup!

We’ve done these a few times, and it may seem a bit of a production, but I feel they are definitely worth it. Tomato based soups, in my opinion, lend themselves the best to these. The acidity in the tomato pairs really well in a bowl with heavy bread, so the chili works perfectly in bread bowls.

I hope you get the chance to try some of these soups this Fall. Warm up and enjoy!