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soup garden: growing vegetable soup ingredients

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homemade vegetable soupI DON’T THINK I HAVE EVER planted a theme garden—you know, a Children’s Garden, for instance, or White Garden or Shakespeare Garden, the kinds of demonstration plots you might see at a botanical institution. But the joy of a winterlong supply of homemade vegetable soup from my 2012 harvest changed that, and I suppose I have at least informally grown a Soup Garden each year since—all but one or two very specific varieties of the ingredients are sown, with thought of soup-making in mind.

A summer earlier, I’d learned how to make vegetable soup from my friend Irene, a longtime food writer. (My adaptation of her recipe.) The ingredients include garlic, onions, carrots, celery, kale or chard or collards, broccoli or cauliflower, summer squash, shell beans (such as chickpeas or cannellini), green beans, tomatoes, tomatoes, parsley and basil. As I gained my confidence with the basic recipe, I also made some batches with shelling peas or even snap peas, instead of a portion of the green beans—lending a slightly sweeter flavor. And some batches even included a little of each.

I don’t grow the celery, nor the chickpeas (nor water, olive oil, salt and pepper, of course), but everything else is under way once the garden gets going.

Juliet small paste tomatoesWhat was most interesting: While, say, any yellow onion or type of garlic will do, certain varieties of vegetables proved particularly well adapted to soup-making, and I want to recommend them:

  • ‘Juliet’ tomatoes (above) are smallish but flavorful, not-too-thick skinned, and heavy producers; my choice for sauce and soup. I never peel them.
  • ‘Piracicaba’ broccoli provided many months of tender foliage, florets and even stems. A cut-and-come-again heirloom variety of excellent quality. I also add kale that I cut into a chiffonade, then crosscut, for extra green goodness.
  • ‘Aunt Ada’s Italian’ heirloom pole bean (below) was unique, and gave a rich flavor to the soup. Unlike other green beans eaten fresh, you wait to pick this one until the seeds really plump up and show in the pods. The whole thing goes into soup–pods and all. I can’t imagine the soup without Aunt Ada.
  • Shelling peas, such as ‘Lincoln’ or ‘Mayfair’ or some of these goodies. Some years I have used what my friends at Peace Seedlings call “puffer pod” peas, sort of a cross between a snap pea and snowpea, such as ‘Schweizer Riesen’ or ‘Green Beauty.’ I cut the pods in half or even thirds crosswise.

Aunt Ada's Italian pole bean

what if the ingredients don’t ripen at once?

SOMETIMES I HAVE fresh-picked broccoli but no peas, or green ingredients but no tomatoes. No worry, because I have a freezer. As certain soup ingredients come available out of synch with others, I stash freezer bags away (prepping the contents first if tops need nipping off beans or peas, for instance, or they need stringing). They won’t be in there long before a botanical harmonic convergence occurs and I have everything on hand for yet another batch of homemade soup. Add frozen ingredients as-is; don’t defrost first.

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10 comments
April 19, 2013

comments

  1. Jackie DiGiovanni says

    April 19, 2013 at 9:00 am

    I love the way your mind works. In my kitchen, the soup ingredients are whatever I have on hand plus some rice, beans, or noodles to complete the picture. I have been known to freeze the water from cooking vegetables to add to the next batch of soup.

    Reply
  2. Becky says

    April 19, 2013 at 10:50 am

    What a great way to plan what you’ll plant! I’ve seen some seed catalogs selling collections of plants for “The Salsa Garden” or “The Tomato Sauce Garden.” “The Vegetable Soup Garden” is a great one!

    Reply
  3. Hannelore Passsonno says

    April 21, 2013 at 9:55 am

    Dear Margaret:
    May I suggest that you also grow “Lovage” in your soup garden. In Germany it is called “Maggi Kraut” as it smells and tastes like beef boullion, similar to the liquid Maggi Seasoning which is used in soups. It is a perennial and grows to about 2-3 feet. I use about 4-5 branches when I start the soup and later take them out or pulse them into the soup. In the fall, I freeze them in bundles of 5 by wrapping them tightly into plastic wrap and keep them in a baggie in the freezer to be used in soups during the winter.
    Hannelore

    Reply
    • margaret says

      April 21, 2013 at 10:26 am

      Hi, Hannelore. Good idea — and I do have a big old lovage plant here, so I can use it, you are right! Thanks.

      Reply
  4. Nadia@Loveliveandgarden says

    April 22, 2013 at 12:41 am

    I may have to try that because I make a lot of soup. But generally speaking, I grow a salad garden and an ‘antique reproduction’ rose garden! :-) Although I’ve never quite called them that.. I may just start calling them by those names now though!

    Reply
  5. Boodely says

    April 22, 2013 at 10:17 am

    Since you posted your vegetable soup recipe, I’ve made it at least a dozen times. It’s SO good, and SO simple.

    Over the winter I was a member of a CSA providing frozen local vegetables, and most of those veggies went straight into that soup. Thank you for the recipe!

    Reply
  6. sallie says

    April 24, 2013 at 9:39 am

    Good morning Margaret! I want to eat that beautiful soup just from viewing your photo! Do you have the recipe on your website any where?

    Reply
  7. Elizabeth F says

    April 24, 2013 at 2:27 pm

    Lovage…I want to hear more about that. Someone mentioned it as a beef substitute on a blog somewhere and I asked for more info and was never responded. So is it more of an herb? Will I find it as a plant at the greenhouse? Or do I start it from seed? Grow it in pots?

    Reply
  8. Elizabeth F says

    April 24, 2013 at 2:31 pm

    I make vegetable soup when finds lots of odds and ends. I have been adding sweet potatoes in my old age now. I have never liked them but husband and children do so I feel obligated to cook them. I cut them in triangle shapes though so I can distinguish them from carrot half moons and don’t eat them by mistake. Growing up I hated mistaking a chunk of parsnip for potato in my mothers soup. Broccoli I just like the stems as I only like broccoli barely cooked, as in a stir fry.

    Reply
  9. elizabeth says

    May 6, 2013 at 8:50 pm

    Does celery not grow well in your garden? I started growing the Tango variety in my garden here in Montana a couple years ago and it grows very well, but must start early or buy starts. I like to put it in the food processor and make frozen celery cubes for Winter soups.

    Reply

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Podcast: Soups, Soups & More Soups

I’VE FOLLOWED a vegetarian diet for decades, but it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I mastered a really good vegetable soup. Now I’m learning variations on vegetable-based soups, plus ones with beans and even ideas for mushroom soups, too–all thanks to Alexandra Stafford and these recipes. (Stream it below, read the transcript or subscribe free.)

https://robinhoodradioondemand.com/podcast-player/6211/vegetable-soup-ideas-with-ali-stafford-november-5-a-way-to-garden-with-margaret-roach.mp3

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mad gardener, nature addict, award-winning writer & podcaster, rural resident, corporate dropout, creator of awaytogarden dot com and matching book.

Instagram post 2190297402408409324_444552553 Snow day. To be followed by a snow night. #awaytogarden #wavehillchairs
Instagram post 2177779417009402040_444552553 No matter that it was 11F and 17F on mornings this week; my lifelong companions and I are all tucked in, each in our respective offseason spots. Three giant pots of #cliviaminiata that are actually pieces of my long-gone grandmother’s original plant from many, many decades ago, love the offseason bright cold of the mudroom, and get no water till around the new year or so. They need a chill (under 50 but above 35) for about 40 days to trigger timely bloom in late winter/early spring (without it they will bloom whenever, later, like June or even summer). The #alocasia reacts to the cold of the mudroom by shutting down and going dormant and leafless, and then I’ll let it sleep till late winter, when I give it a drink to see if it awakens. That one sleeps and wakes on its own timetable because I do not have a proper spot for it (ideally warm, like 60 or 65 at least, and humid and bright...no can do the humid part here). We have been together probably 10 years anyhow, despite my shortcomings as a #plantparent . #alocasiaamazonica #clivias #houseplantsofinstagram #houseplants #awaytogarden
Instagram post 2172580656557749859_444552553 Gardener: “I raked all the leaves!” Nature: “Oh, really?” (Cue sound of demonic laughter from on high.)
Instagram post 2170506606641504178_444552553 I wanna tell you how it’s gonna be You’re gonna give your love to me I wanna love you night and day You know my love will not fade away Not fade away Nope. Not this #cotinus leaf’s fiery hot love at least. Like the 1957 #buddyholly song I first heard by #therollingstones in 1964, it keeps going. #awaytogarden #fallfoliage2019 #cotinusgrace #notfadeaway
Instagram post 2168987273989949378_444552553 “Jack Frost nipping at your, er, geraniums...” And here it comes.
Instagram post 2166837817953503284_444552553 Constant companions: If you want to keep good company all winter, grow some good keepers. My house is stuffed with piles of #cucurbita awaiting their time in the oven or soup kettle. Each one is a character, distinctive. On one chair in the mudroom two close cousins in #cucurbitamoschata — the horse collar-shaped one called ‘Tromboncino’ or ‘Tromboncino Rampicante’ snuggles with some ‘Butternut.’ The ‘Tromboncino’ are better eaten green and small as #zucchini but I can’t resist their eventual mad size and shape, big enough to wear around your neck. I use their meat for enriching vegetable stock; the ‘Butternut’ are far more rich and delicious. Seed respectively from sandhillpreservation.com #sandhillpreservationcenter and @turtle_tree_seed (whose ‘Butternut,’ selected for “lastingness” for decades, will keep and keep into next spring or more). #wintersquash #awaytogarden #goodkeeper #cucurbitaceae
Instagram post 2162565040882902064_444552553 Furry fall friend: I look forward to crossing paths with this woolly caterpillar of the #giantleopardmoth this time of year, when its fiery intersegmental bands and plush coat seem to be just the right autumn-into-winter look. Miraculously this tiny animal will overwinter in a woodpile or in the leaf litter, even here in the North, building up a concentration of antifreeze (glycerol I think?) in its cells before the worst weather begins to avoid disaster. (Reminds me of the super-hardy #woodfrog who does similarly. Such heroes.) Swipe to see a beat-up pic of the adult moth, tattered with scales missing at its wing margins, but still dramatic. Unlike various spine-covered caterpillars that can sting you, this one’s hairs (or setae) won’t, but he will roll up tight if touched, in self-defense. I am in awe of such complex strategies of survival, I am. #mothsofinstagram #caterpillars #awaytogarden #hypercompescribonia #hypercompe
Instagram post 2161992098629435854_444552553 Beans are life. I mean, not only do I live on them daily (as I have as a vegetarian for 40+ years) but each one is a seed, a living embryo, a distinct and gorgeous little DNA miracle. I have been inspired by the hashtag #31daysofbeans by @lukasvolger lately, loving watching someone unknown to me (um, who shares my oatmeal thing too apparently...also see his #28daysofoatmeal) dish up the #phaseolus. We both admire bean ambassador Steve Sando @rancho_gordo and this photo might be my fave bean of all that I “met” via Steve years back, big and flat and chestnutty ‘Christmas Lima.’ My advice: don’t wait till Dec. 25 to dig in.
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Welcome! I’m Margaret Roach, a leading garden writer for 25 years—at ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ ‘Newsday,’ and in three books. I host a public-radio podcast; I also lecture, plus hold tours at my 2.3-acre Hudson Valley (NY) Zone 5B garden, and always say no to chemicals and yes to great plants.

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