The power of simple

I come from a family that always has one or two containers of homemade soup in the freezer. My dad makes soup throughout the winter: vegetable soup, chicken soup, usually a combination of leftovers and whatever vegetables are left in the fridge. Every Christmas, we enjoy a traditional Slovak sauerkraut and sausage soup, a recipe passed on from my great-grandmother to my grandfather, my aunt and this year, my brother. I find soup amazingly comforting and on a cold, windy and wet day like today, preparing a large pot of soup to enjoy for dinner is truly one of life's little pleasures.

I'm always surprised when I invite friends over for lunch or dinner and get so many compliments on the soup. It's so simple to prepare! I've become a fan of vegetable soup, but instead of leaving pieces whole, I puree the cooked vegetables with a hand mixer, which creates a thick, almost creamy soup. No need for salt, pepper, or cream, it's usually delicious as is. Tonight's soup was cauliflower, carrots, celery, half an onion and spinach. My trick is to cook the onion in butter first, to get that sweet taste. A few spoonfuls of powdered chicken broth also add to the taste (and probably explain why the final soup doesn't need salting). Don't ask me for quantities, I just took whatever in the fridge was beyond being consumed fresh ;)