I don’t generally love tomato soup because half the time it’s to acidic and tomatoey and just tastes like sauce to me. And bisque is another one I stay away from at restaurants because it’s usually way too rich with the cream base. But in this case, the squash really takes the edge off the tomatoes and the coconut milk makes it super silky with a hint of sweetness.

You can probably use any kind of squash for this, but I really like the pairing of acorn and butternut. Just roast your squash until tender with a little olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Super simple.

And same goes for the tomatoes – roast them the same way with the addition of some basil and red pepper flakes. Once the tomatoes are soft and bubbling, you pour the coconut milk over them to deglaze the pan. The milk will loosen up all those good bits that get stuck to the pan during roasting. (Side note: If you’re pressed for time you can take the short road and either boil the squash and/or use a can of fire-roasted tomatoes instead of roasting everything). Once it cools some, just blend it all up, adding water and additional coconut milk until you get to your desired consistency. I like to add the little drizzle of coconut milk on top as well cause it’s pretty.

We’ve served this soup on the food truck with great success. And it was funny to watch a lot of our customers order it reluctantly and then end up being really into it!

I think the temp ended up getting down to the low 50s so hot soup was perfect for all our truck-side diners. Floridians are so funny about cold weather. It’s like we want to fully embrace it when it comes around, but we’re simply not capable. We’re either not properly prepared or we’re simply in denial about it. Perfect example: the customer that came up to the window that night wearing a fur coat to her ankles and flip-flops on her feet. What? Only in Florida. We just don’t know what we’re doing. Anyway, the soup…the soup takes the place of boots, apparently.

I love parsnips. (see: Parsnip Potato Purée and Parsnip Carrot Pasta). They’re so magnificently aromatic, and unexpected. People are always pleasantly surprised by parsnips because they’re not all that common, which is another reason I love using them. The parsnips definitely set the tone in this soup, adding an element of sophistication to the sweet and earthiness of the carrots.

After a quick sauté, everything is boiled in some milk and water or veg stock until soft. You can blend it up using whatever device you like, but I definitely recommend an immersion blender when it comes to soups. I blended this one until really silky, but feel free to do less if you like it chunkier.

This soup is seriously fantastic. Velvety and comforting. And what makes it even better is that it’s the kind of thing that can go nicely as an accompaniment to a variety of meats or fish or pasta or whatever!

I like my watermelon best with a squirt of lemon to add another layer of refreshing flavor. Or sometimes I go chili powder, salt and lime. Sounds funny, but try it. The last couple years I’ve been pairing watermelon with a lot more savory elements and proteins. (See last year’s Watermelon Ceviche. And this summer we have a refreshing gazpacho.

Now, I have to admit, I don’t generally go for gazpacho. So if you don’t either, maybe just hear me out on this one. It’s not so much the cold soup thing that I have an issue with – it’s the tomato thing. Most gazpachos just taste like watery salsa, and as much as I love salsa, I don’t necessarily want to eat it with a spoon. Just doesn’t settle well. Traditionally gazpacho is tomato-based, but I see no reason to stick to tradition if it makes your stomach feel like a balloon filled with soda water. Anyway, I don’t order gazpacho when I’m out, but I do like to make it at home. And when I do, I go easy on the tomato.

Watermelon gazpacho is pretty awesome. I didn’t invent it or anything so I can say that. There are actually tomatoes in it, but the sweetness of the watermelon juice curbs the acid from the tomato, and then I blend avocado in there too, which smoothes it all out. Gives it a nice velvety texture.

Aside from that, there’s lemon juice, garlic, shallots, cucumber and a good amount of fresh box basil (like basil, but smaller and more delicate in texture and flavor) and a nip off of one of these mature jalapeño peppers that turned red because I neglected to pick them for so long (super spicy though).

It’s totally raw and only takes a few minutes to whip up. I do put it in the fridge or about an hour though to get it really cold and allow the flavors to set.

So good with some sourdough bread!

P.S. Lasts four days in the fridge.

This soup works so nicely because, unlike most tortilla soups, it’s not super heavy. Instead of a thick bean & cheese base, I did a refreshing tomato/veggie and lime based broth with lots of fresh cilantro. The fresh and tangy broth is the perfect complement to the nutty yucca and avocado flavor.

I was so pumped on this new recipe that I decided to share it at a recent soup swap party hosted at my house. (Kind of like a cookie swap, but with soup instead. Everyone brings a pot of soup to split up amongst each other so that each person/couple gets a variety of soups to take home and freeze.) It was a pretty big hit, receiving 4.5 out of 5 kiwis (stars) on the rating scale developed by one VERY enthusiastic participant.

A little on yuca…

Okay, so it’s not the prettiest, but yuca happens to be one of my favorites. Beneath it’s thick brown and often waxed skin, is a nutty, sweet and creamy starch like no other. It’s no wonder that it’s the basis for tapioca!

Some of you may have seen it spelled yucca instead of yuca before, so just to clarify:
Yuca = yummy edible tuber grown from the cassava shrub.
Yucca = mostly ornamental plant (looks like an agave plant) with some edible seeds and flowers, but rarely roots.

Yuca root is as essential a food to people who live in the tropical lowlands of South America and parts of Africa, as corn is to the people of Central America and Mexico. Despite this, when we come across the strange looking tuber in the grocery store most of us don’t know where to begin. I’ll tell you where.

First thing you need to do is remove its barky skin. There are actually a couple layers (the top brown, a pinkish and then a white layer) that need to be peeled before cooking. I just use a sharp, handheld vegetable peeler and peel it from tip to tip like you would a carrot. The only difference here is that you’ll need to peel like 3 layers down until you reach the chalkly white part of the yuca.

From there it’s no different than cooking a potato. It can be boiled, baked or fried. Yuca is also great mashed! In this case I just threw it in with the soup and let it boil until soft. The yuca should be cooked until it’s gooey on the outside and soft through the inside, and at that point, the soup is done. I topped each bowl off with some fresh cilantro, tortilla chips, cheese and cold avocado slices just before serving.

And it just gets better with every bite as the cheese becomes incorporated with the broth and the tortilla chips soak it all up!

If you decide to make a bunch, it freezes really well. Just leave the cheese, chips and avocado slices out and put those on once you reheat.

p.s. All of the above is even better with a little hot sauce!

I was so eager to eat these chanterelles right up while they were as fresh as possble that I really didn’t want to think too much about how to prepare them. I kept it super simple. Just sliced them up and let them cook in their own juices on a cast iron pan. No oil, just a tad of salt and some scallions. I’d never cooked mushroom quite like that and was iffy about not putting any oil on the pan, but was advised to do it that way so I did. Worked out great! Look how much of their own juices the release!

Once soft, I added a little drizzle of olive oil and some white wine. We had a batch on some flatbreads, but I ended up eating most of them straight out of the pan!

Next up were the matsutake mushrooms a.k.a. “pine mushrooms”. Highly regarded and pretty hard to come by. Apparently these babies can go for $200 per pound in the U.S. and up to $1,000 per kilo in Japan, where they’re considered a delicasy. They have a flavor like no mushroom I’ve ever tasted before. Very meaty and fragrant and almost spicy, if that is even possible. Not like hot spicy, it’s spicy in an earthy, nutmeg/clove kind of way. I don’t know…that’s my take.

They’re stems are tough like little tree trunks so you really just cook the caps. I sliced them thin because I read that they can take quite some time to cook.

Matsutakes are often used in soup because of their strong flavor creates a nice broth. The soup I made is a combination of a few recipes I found. Very simple too – just let the mushrooms cook in water with some carrots, soy sauce (or tamari) and rice vinegar and a pinch of salt.

I added the bok choy close to the end so it wouldn’t overcook and topped it off with a tad of sriracha hot chili sauce and some fresh scallions.

P.S. I like to wash bok choy in a white vinegar and water bath and separate it into individual stalks to make sure all the dirt that likes to hide in the cracks comes out.

This soup has a really nice and clean flavor. One of those healthy and satisfying soups that makes you feel physically good and rejuvnated immediately after eating it.

I cooked some soba noodles on the side to eat long with it. Tossed them in some sesame seeds and a touch of oil and soy sauce and topped with Togarachi chili powder.

Their firmness makes them unique in the lentil universe and the ideal choice for salads – and in my opinion, soups because they hold their form so nicely. They take a little bit longer to cook, which works out great with soups or stews because your herbs, seasonings and veggies have more time to stew and flavor up a nice broth.

Of course there are a million ways to make lentil soup and I think I might just love them all, but at the moment, this is my new favorite recipe. What makes this soup so great is the broth. It’s just so rich! The trick was using a tomato base, and I know it’s going to sound weird, but I also added miso paste and Worcestershire sauce to create the kind of smoky flavor that is often hard to achieve in vegetarian soups. I incorporated diced herbs and onions into the soup itself and then also put together a little herb packet for extra flava. So incredible…

Love the chunky carrots – don’t want to skimp on those!

I made a GIANT pot of this soup a couple weeks ago with the full intention of freezing most of it, but in the end, it was just so delicious that I had to feed it to as many people as possible. (Lunch for all the guys at the Makr Studio, and what was left, Jason happily devoured over the course of the week. Lentil soup for breakfast? Hey, do what ya gotta do, honey)

Okay, this post is really making me crave this soup now…Luckily I did manage to put a one small baggie of it in the freezer… so guess what we’ll be having for dinner!

It may not look like much, but this creamy broccoli, avocado and arugula soup was especially phenomenal. One of the better soups I’ve had in a while. And, talk about soups you would have never thought to make, right? Can’t take the credit. I modified the recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow’s, GOOP and thought to add avocado because of a different recipe a friend shared with me.

This soup packs a ton of greens and good fat and I think, all that combined, really kept me full longer and gave me more energy than most of the things I was eating during my cleanse.

The process takes just a few minutes. Steam your broccoli (I like to leave the stems long cause I like the texture of them). Sauté some onions. Add some water then blend everything up with some ginger, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper. I also added some red pepper flakes and honey for extra heat and sweetness.

This was my first time using arugula and avocado in a soup and I was so pleasantly surprised by how well the flavors came together. Hot avocado is my new jam. I’ll definitely be adding this soup to my list of regulars. It’s great hot or cold like gazpacho.

As you know, I’m a pretty healthy eater (and by that I mean balanced and fresh with some decadence here and there because I think that’s important too), but every once in a while I develop some weird habits…like eating a bunch of crackers with butter and honey right before bed. I know that’s not a huge deal – it’s not like I’m gorging on fist fulls of Cheetos or anything. But, the issue lies in that I just don’t FEEL my best when I eat a lot of refined sugars, cheese, meat, etc.

So I’m cleansing. No cheese. No grains. No refined sugars. No frozen yogurt! I’m taking a break from all of it and sticking to purely fruits & veggies for the next…um maybe 10 days. The idea is to keep everything pretty light and packed with nutrients. It’s been almost a week now and I feel petty great. I’ve been eating a lot of nuts and potatoes and avocados and making a bunch of healthy and energizing soups (with ingredients that have detoxifying properties) to offset offset all the ruffage.

Like this miso based veggie soup with the powers of parsley and asparagus to cleanse your kidneys and urinary tract and beet to purify and strengthen your blood. The energizing fresh ginger and protein-rich miso are known for reducing the harmful effects of stored and environmental toxins like radiation, pesticides, cigarette smoke, and air pollution.

One thing about cooking with miso: You have to dissolve the miso paste with a little hot water (a ladle full of hot soup water will do) before adding to the pot of soup. Do this in a small bowl on the side AND THEN add to the large pot of soup and continue cooking. Skipping this step will result in the miso clumping up in the soup and never fully dissolving.

I’m no nutritionist, but I can tell you that this soup feels like exactly what my body needs.

P.S. I didn’t think this would be challenging at all because I’ve done a lot of cleanses/detoxes in the past and I eat a ton of veggies anyway. But then last night, when Jason suggested we have grilled cheese sandwiches and I almost punched him, I realized that it must be starting to get to me a tiny bit.