Hello, Lazy Genius listeners.
This is Jenna Fisher.
Don't worry, you're in the right place.
The reason you are hearing my voice instead of Kendra's is because Kendra lost her voice.
She caught that winter crud that's going around and she has no voice.
She could not record a new episode of Lazy Genius this week.
So the Lazy Genius team decided that they're going to re-air an episode of Lazy Genius while Kendra recovers.
And when they reached out to me and asked if I might like to intro the podcast today because of Kendra's zero voice, they also said I could pick the episode that re-airs.
And I immediately knew the one I wanted.
So today, we are going to re-air one of my favorite podcasts of all time.
And not just like Lazy Genius podcast episodes, but of all podcast episodes ever.
It's the one where Kendra teaches us how to make soup without a recipe.
As many of you may already know, this episode goes way back, like early, early Lazy Genius days.
It is the first episode that I heard and I was hooked.
First of all, After listening to this episode, I 100 learned how to make soup without a recipe, which is amazing because Kendra breaks it down in her usual lazy, genius way.
The very first soup I made was delicious.
So of course, I kept listening to Kendra.
I mean, this woman just changed my whole soup life.
And then eventually she had this podcast at one point about out-of-town guests, which we know is fun but also stressful, particularly around meals, because meal planning is already a lot, but then you add more people and sometimes my family is coming from different time zones.
People get hungry at different times and when i get out of towners i always feel particularly stumped about lunches like dinners.
I got that we're gonna probably grill or there's a casserole involved.
So I'm listening to Lazy Genius and I get an idea.
I've got family coming in town.
I am going to bundle and decide once what all of our lunches will be.
Can you guess where I'm going with this?
It's soup.
I love doing soups and chilies when we have out of town guests, because people can just go grab a bowl and heat it up when they get hungry midday.
It is so much easier than getting out all the sandwich stuff.
It's warm.
It's comforting.
People love it.
And you know, if I have the bandwidth, maybe I'll make some cornbread.
We'll keep that on hand, but it's the soup.
And now when my family comes to visit, they know to look for the soup at lunchtime.
Many times I've been asked for my recipe and I probably say no recipe.
And then I go tell them about this episode of the lazy genius.
In fact, it's funny.
In an upcoming episode of Office Ladies.
We got a fan chit chat suggestion that said hey, it's flu season.
Could you all talk about your favorite soup to eat when you're sick?
And in that episode, which is coming out in a couple of weeks, I talk about this episode of The Lazy Genius.
So it all feels very serendipitous.
It's that time of year, people are getting sick, turning to soup for comfort.
Kendra might be eating soup right now.
I hope she is.
So thank you everyone for understanding that she couldn't be here today.
And thank you for letting me fill in for a moment and just nerd out on soup with y'all.
Kendra will be back next week with an all new Lazy Genius.
We will take a quick break and then on to soup.
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Hi, friends.
You're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast.
I'm Kendra and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't.
Okay, so on to the episode.
You're listening to number 54, The Lazy Genius Makes Soup.
Yes, soup.
We are continuing our series on food basics, and soup is the most comforting food.
It's so very basic and therefore totally worth doing well.
In the playbook today I'm gonna share three soup parameters, the basic order of making just about any soup and my three soup rules.
Yes, I have soup rules.
Let's start with the three parameters you have to consider every time you make soup.
Okay, light versus heavy, smooth versus chunky, mild versus strong.
I hate the word chunky too, but we're leaning into it, y'all, I'm so sorry.
Okay, now these considerations are a bit more geared toward you making your own soup rather than following a specific recipe.
There are some awesome soup recipes out there, but once you know the order and you pay attention to those considerations these three that we're gonna talk about you can create dozens and dozens of soups from what you have in your fridge and pantry.
So first, light versus heavy.
Heavy soups are usually ones with a lot of fat Cream, coconut milk, something that has a cream base more than a broth base.
So like a seafood bisque is heavy.
A tomato vegetable soup is light.
A coconut curry is heavy.
A chicken noodle soup is light, right?
So it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how filling the soup is.
Light soups can be super filling.
It's more to do with like how it feels as you eat it, you know, and maybe a little bit after.
You've eaten heavy stuff, you know the feeling.
The reason this and the other two parameters are important to consider is so you can decide what you want your soup to be.
If you want something light, don't add cream, right?
It just helps you make decisions on what ingredients you're gonna use in order to get the final result that you want.
Next parameter, smooth versus chunky.
I think you want to be fairly extreme here.
Have you ever had a soup that was supposed to be smooth, but wasn't quite smooth, right?
If you're going to go smooth, go smooth.
And, like the other side, it can be a little gross.
Maybe to eat, not gross, maybe that's a harsh word, but it's not super desirable to eat a soup that isn't necessarily smooth.
Like it has pieces of stuff in it, but not a lot of stuff.
So like some bites are just all broth.
Like every time you dip into the bowl, like some, it's just all broth.
And then another bite might have like a random bean on your spoon.
Right?
So with this parameter, you really want to swing pretty strongly one way or the other.
It's extremes.
You want to make it really smooth or you want to load it up with stuff and make it really chunky.
Final parameter, mild versus strong.
If you have a cold, simple chicken soup with mild carrots and an aromatic broth is absolutely what you want, right?
You don't want to load that puppy with sauces and Chipotle.
That's not great.
That would be a strong soup.
So think about flavors.
Sometimes you want one or the other.
Sometimes you want mild and sometimes you want strong.
So just be intentional.
Again, this just gives you a framework for figuring out what ingredients to use in your soup.
If you want something that's light, not smooth, and definitely with strong, bold flavors, you'll make a soup with a simple broth made from chicken stock and tomato.
You'll load it with vegetables and chickpeas and definitely you'll add spicy like kielbasa sausages and then offer like jalapeno relish to swirl in.
Do you want a heavy smooth, mild soup than a creamy potato leek soup that's blended to perfection is what you want.
It's heavy with cream and carbs, right, the potatoes.
It's definitely smooth, but simple, mild flavors that aren't gonna knock you over, right?
But it will certainly like.
It's gonna be a comfort to your belly and to your soul, and sometimes that's what you want.
So from here on out, when you make soup, pay attention to those three parameters and what the soup is doing.
It might be that you can lean one way or the other based on how you're feeling, and get even better at doctoring soup recipes like existing recipes, to kind of fit your preferences on any day right.
So now you're like, are armed with soup tools.
Now, let's get into the order of making soup.
This is so important.
I'm gonna quickly reference my first soup rule, and that is don't dump and stir.
You just don't get nearly the same flavor from a dump and stir soup as you do from a soup that follows this order.
If you do this for every soup you make, you will love me forever.
You will love me forever.
Okay, so here's the basic order.
Number one, saute aromatics.
Number two, quickly saute any other vegetables.
Number three, add liquid.
Number four, add heavies.
I call them heavies.
We need a better word for that.
Things like meat, beans, potatoes.
And number five, finish with fresh.
Okay, so let's break it down.
First, you saute the aromatics.
Here's what we think we're supposed to do.
Throw everything in a pot with some liquid and some dried herbs, bring it to a boil and let it simmer.
Like soup, yay.
Okay.
Kind of, you get soup, but this is better soup.
Like loads better.
I said it in the beginning, soup is one of the most comforting foods to come out of your kitchen, and doing it well can literally be life-changing.
So there will be no dumping of vegetables and simmering here.
First, you saute your aromatics.
What are aromatics, you might ask?
They're usually vegetables and sometimes herbs that release a fantastic aroma and flavor when they're cooked in fat.
So onions, carrots, celery, leeks, green pepper, garlic, chili, ginger, that kind of thing.
I found, I found this super cool infographic.
I will post in the show notes of this episode thelazygeniuscollectivecom slash lazy slash soup.
That lists out all the aromatic combinations based on cuisine.
It is so great.
Onion and garlic are sauteed for almost everything I make in my house.
If you just add them to the pot without sauteing them first, you don't even come close to the same amount of flavor.
So choose any combination of aromatics you like. dice them fairly small, and then saute them in fat.
Olive oil, canola oil, butter, coconut oil, a combination, it doesn't matter.
Anything is great.
It all just depends on what flavors you're going for in your soup and the parameters you're after.
You can add them all at the same time if you want, all those aromatics.
I will say you're in better shape if you start with onions and end with garlic.
Onions are almost impossible to cook too long.
I mean, they burn if you have like a really high heat, but if you're just paying attention to them kind of on a medium heat, they just get better and better.
They get sweeter and more awesome.
So starting with them is never a problem.
And since garlic burns fairly quickly, I like to add it last before I move on to the next step.
But before you do that, when you add those aromatics in the beginning, salt them.
This leads us to our second soup rule, which is season every layer.
Every time you add something new to the soup, season it with salt, and maybe black pepper or red pepper flake if you want, but definitely salt.
There are two reasons for this.
First, salt makes things taste the most like themselves.
I never think people add enough salt to food.
Even recipes, like some recipes from like famous food personalities, and it's a shame.
Well-seasoned food, it doesn't equal salty food.
It equals food that tastes like the absolute best version of itself.
Salt is essential.
So I think it's helpful to use it in every layer.
The other reason it's important, especially in the first step of making soup, is salt draws out moisture easily.
And it helps the vegetables from sticking as badly when they're sauteing.
So season every layer.
That's rule number two.
Now we're injecting the rules into the order of soup making.
Now let's move on to step two in the soup making process.
Quick saute any other vegetables.
So your aromatics have cooked down beautifully into a golden brown like almost paste, especially if they're diced really small.
Oh, the flavor that you get from that is so good.
If you're having trouble getting to golden brown, it might mean that you forgot your salt, which draws out the liquid, and or you don't have enough fat.
Assuming you don't have any major dietary restrictions because of your health.
Another glug of olive oil distributed over an entire pot of soup?
It's not going to wreck out your diet, right.
But it will make a major difference in how your soup comes together.
Also, Like, do your thing if you're dieting.
But as a side note I'll link to the podcast episode The Lazy Genius Loses Weight in the show notes if you want some extra encouragement on that front.
Because I think we just get a little bit too wound up in our thoughts about how we're supposed to eat and look and diet.
And I would love for us to be free of some of those things.
So you can check out that episode if you are interested in a little bit of freedom in the extra glug of olive oil in your soup.
So step two, quickly saute any other vegetables.
So examples would be asparagus, mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, green beans, cabbage.
Throw in another pat of butter or another glug of oil if the pan is dry, and then add any remaining vegetables.
Season them with salt and then saute them quickly on medium high heat for maybe like three minutes.
This helps develop the flavor in those ingredients and that second layer of ingredients.
And it speeds up the process of cooking the soup, which are both wins when you want to get yummy dinner on the table fast.
So you could certainly add them to the broth to simmer, but we've already decided that's kind of a garbage idea.
I'm kidding.
But this is kind of the same thing.
Like you're still throwing everything in a pot, right?
You're just going to season it and stir it over some heat for a little bit before you add the liquid.
So it's kind of the same thing, but you get so much more flavor that way.
Step three, add the liquid.
Chicken stock, beef stock, vegetable stock, coconut milk, crushed tomatoes, of course water.
I wouldn't use just water ever.
I think there are just too many amazing flavors left on the table if you don't use a liquid that has flavor in it.
My soup secret weapon is better than bouillon.
They have chicken and beef and maybe there's another kind.
I always use chicken.
It's a.
It's a chicken base paste which, when I say that out loud, sounds really disgusting, but it's basically the flavor of chicken stock, like compressed into a paste that you can add to water to create this like amazingly flavorful broth.
It's a literal magic ingredient and an absolute must have in my kitchen.
You have a costco.
They might sell it there for way cheaper than regular grocery stores.
So um, what you do is add your liquid to your pot until your pot is like one half to two thirds full, because you want room for any other ingredients and for the bubbling.
So if you have lots more to add, start with less liquid.
You can always add a little bit more if you need to.
If you plan on cooking a grain or like tiny pasta in your soup, fill that puppy up, fill the bowl up or the pot up.
I almost always use either chicken stock or the water with the chicken base on its own or combine that with either crushed tomatoes or coconut milk.
Those are my three kind of go-to liquids.
And any order, even all three together works great.
Those are my three favorites.
So add your liquid, season your liquid a little and turn the heat to high to bring it to boil.
Once you're boiling, it's time for step four.
Add your heavies.
Add your heavies.
So it's such a weird phrase, but like potatoes, like things that don't they're gonna fall apart if they're sauteed or they don't really need sauteing.
So like potatoes, beans, that kind of thing.
And then when you add them, you wanna turn your heat down until you get your soup to a simmer, probably medium to medium low heat.
Okay, so let's talk about heavies.
Okay, heavies are, They're like the heavy flavors and chunky items that bulk up your soup.
Mostly meat, beans, potatoes, and pasta.
You might add like frozen meatballs, sausage you already cooked.
Oh my gosh.
Oh, that reminds me.
If you plan on cooking meat for your soup, do that first in your soup pot.
Brown the sausage, brown the chicken, brown the ground beef or turkey or whatever you plan on doing.
Brown it, remove it from the pot and put it on a plate for step four.
But leave the pot alone and add your aromatics right to that pot.
They're gonna soak up all the fat and flavor left behind from the meat and it will be even more magical, so good.
So if you're gonna start with your meat, if you need to cook your meat, do that first.
I should have mentioned that in the beginning because then you get all that yummy flavor.
So then add your heavy.
So meat, canned beans, chunks of potato that are gonna simmer in the liquid and get soft.
And even like I said, like tiny pasta.
Orzo and those little pasta stars, they cook great in soups.
So does Israeli couscous or pearl couscous.
It's the same thing.
I use that.
That's my favorite actually.
I use that for our chicken noodle soup and it's absolutely a family favorite.
It's so good.
Those little couscous, it's really pasta.
It's not traditional couscous in that sense.
It really is like pasta.
And it is such a great texture and soup.
You don't want to saute those kinds of ingredients, right?
You're the beans or the dry pasta, except for the meat obviously, because they'll just fall apart or burn.
And so that's why you want to do it at this stage.
They do better just absorbing some of the flavor that you have already developed and getting happy in that simmering water, than just being added directly to that hot surface of the pan.
Okay, so your soup is done when everything inside is cooked and you feel like your broth has enough flavor to make you happy.
When I make soup it never takes longer than an hour, from like pulling the pot out to putting soup in a bowl.
The longer it simmers, usually the better, but don't think you have to let it sit for half a day in order to get good flavor.
That's why we saute our aromatics and we season every layer so we get great flavor more quickly.
Okay, so now that your soup is done, it's time for the fifth and final step.
Finish with fresh.
It's so great to top each bowl of soup with something not cooked.
Avocado, fresh parsley or basil or cilantro or green onion, sour cream, grated cheese, chili sauce.
Add something that is contrasting in temperature and texture even to create an even better flavor.
Like a squeeze of lime or lemon.
You know there are so many great options and you'll love how it elevates your soup.
So that's the order saute the aromatics quickly, saute any remaining vegetables, add the liquid and bring it to a boil, add your heavies and simmer until done and then finish with fresh.
We've already hit on two of our three soup rules don't dump and stir and season every layer.
The third and final rule has been hinted at a little bit, but i will be specific now.
Soup loves contrast.
Simple flavors are lovely, But consider a punch.
Think about serving crunchy croutons on top of a smooth soup.
Make sure all the vegetables in your soup aren't cooked exactly to the same tenderness.
So everything like basically doesn't turn into mush at the same time.
Flavor contrast, texture contrast and light and heavy contrast can make your soup that much more awesome.
I will post some soup resources and recipe ideas at the show notes at thelazygeniuscollectivecom.
Slash lazy, slash soup.
And I will link to a post that could be helpful in figuring out if a soup recipe that you find, or any recipe you find, is a good one.
It's called, the post is called how to know if a recipe is any good.
And if you do make soup using these rules this week and wanna tell me about it.
If you make soup, I wanna see.
Would you post a photo or a story on Instagram?
I'm not anywhere else, so it has to be on Instagram.
But if you post a photo or a story and tag me in it I'm at thelazygenius.
I would love to see what you make.
I would love it.
And remember to check out the show notes too for that cool like aromatic guide I mentioned.
It is such a fun resource to get your ideas Your soup juice is going.
I'm really sorry.
I just said soup juices.
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Before we head out, let's do a quick Lazy Genius tip of the week.
Our tip is soup related, and it's frozen tortellini or ravioli.
You guys, you have seen the packages cheese tortellini or spinach and butternut squash, ravioli or whatever else is in the freezer or deli section.
Those are perfect for soup.
They cook in no time because the pasta is fresh or partially cooked already and they add such a textural beauty to your soup.
It makes it, like it's just not crazy heavy, but it's filling.
It's just the best soup cheat ever.
It's so good.
It's one of my favorite soups. is a tortellini sausage soup.
I start with Italian sausage and I brown it until it's brown in the soup pot.
I take it out.
I add onion and garlic to those amazing sausage flavors.
Then I quick saute fresh spinach.
I add a can of crushed tomatoes and I finish with enough chicken stock to kind of fill the pot.
About two thirds of the way maybe.
Bring it to a boil.
Add the sausage back in along with the tortellini. top it with fresh basil and Parmesan.
And this legit is so good.
And of course like seasoning every layer to remember, don't forget that part.
It is so delicious and so simple to bring together.
I just love it.
Um, I might try to write a post, put a post the recipe on the website because it's so good and it's so easy.
So I will work on that.
Um, and if you're a freezer cook, if you like like, like to put things in the freezer, you can saute a whole mess of Italian sausage all at once, cool it completely and then store it in freezer bags to take out however much you need when you need it.
It can go straight into the soup frozen once the liquid is simmering.
Um, it's great.
So The lazy genius tip of the week was basically just a recipe.
But the point is, tortellini or any kind of stuffed fresh pasta is magic in soup.
And so great to have on hand.
And thank you for listening to this episode.
Don't forget to join me on Instagram this Thursday at 1215.
And we'll talk about soup.
Until then, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't.
Bye, guys.
