This week we’re giving away a great kitchen reference book, “The Spice and Herb Bible,” by Ian Hemphill. As an extra bonus, we’re also going to give away”Sunday Soup,” Betty Rosbottom’s book full of a “year’s worth of mouthwatering, easy-to-make recipes.”
One of these cookbooks could be yours. All you have to do is tell us your favorite place to get soup in town, and what kind it is. Or simply submit your favorite soup recipe. Put your comments and/or recipes in the space provided below.
You have until 9 a.m. Monday to enter. We’ll throw all the entries into a pile and pick our winners at random.
Meanwhile, don’t forget to check the food blog regularly for recipes of the day, restaurant news, and bits and pieces we pick up regarding food. And don’t forget to check out the newly designed Food Web page for lots of newsy information — including new stories daily.
I like Mimi’s Cafe for their Corn Chowder. It’s a good comfort food on those days you don’t want a lot to eat, yet it makes you feel full and your tummy happy. Plus pair it with one of their muffins and you become a very happy person.
I love Sweet Tomatoes’ Chicken Noodle Soup. It reminds me of my Mom’s, so whenever I’m missing NY or just feeling bad, a nice bowl of Sweet Tomatoes Chicken Noodle Soup helps to cheer me up!
The Food Conspiracy on 4th Ave. has a daily pot of homemade soup to go. I am a real soup lover; and today they had one of the best soups I have ever had: Indian Corn Chowder- made with local onions. What a deal at $4.49 for a large takeout bowl.
Beyond Bread…the Basil soup is fantastic. I would love to win the soup cookbook and The Spice and Herb Bible. Soups of all kinds are the best and use the herbs I raise.
Don’t go out much for soup, but here’s a recipe for my daughter’s favorite soup that we make.
Minestrone
1 to 1 1/2 cups dried kidney or white beans
4 slices bacon, cut in 1/2 inch lengths
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 potatoes, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 quarts beef stock or broth
bouquet garni (bay leaves, parsley, and thyme)
3 cups thinly sliced cabbage or escarole
1 cup ditalini, tubettini or other small pasta
Grated Parmesan cheese
Optional: Sprinkle of very good extra virgin olive oil
Soak beans overnight and drain. Cover with fresh water and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until tender.
Cook bacon in oil in a stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat, until lightly browned. Add the onion, carrots, celery, potatoes and garlic, reduce heat and cook for 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes more. Add stock or broth with bouguet garni and simmer for 10 minutes. Add cabbage or escarole and simmer an additional 5 minutes.
Drain the beans and add to the soup. Simmer for 10 more minutes. Add pasta and cook another 15 minutes or until the pasta is soft. Remove bouquet garni and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with grated Parmesan sprinkled over the top.
Optional: Sprinkle a few dashes of very good extra virgin olive oil over the top when serving.
any soup from Sweet Tomatoes in Tucson is awesome. the soups are made fresh daily and they have a variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian soups to choose from daily. My absolute favorite is“Three-Bean Turkey Chili (Low-Fat)”.
Beyond Bread’s Baked Potato soup in the bread bowl is the best!! We love soups all year long. I make big kettles full of soups at home and like soups with lots of vegetables and use up leftovers whenever I can. I freeze in quart containers for quick meals for the two of us. I would love to win the Soup Cookbook!!
El Charro Cafe offers ‘Carlotta’s Chunky Chicken and Vegetable’ soup. It is thick with pieces of chicken and hearty vegetables served in a rich broth. It is one of the finest I have enjoyed in town. I begin any meal at El Charro witha cup of this ‘Mother’s Elixar.’
Don’t have soup out much. Here’s my favorite easy soup recipe. I got this recipe from “Open House” a Phoenix TV Show
October 11, 1974. It’s so easy and my kids loved it. I still make it just for the two of us.
Calico Main Dish Soup
1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 Tab. Chili powder
1 tsp salt
2 cans Golden Mushroom soup
1 soup can water
1 16oz can tomatoes
1 can corn (undrained)
1 pkg. frozen cut green beans
1 cup quick cook rice
In large heavy pan, brown beef, add green pepper and onion with seasonings cook until vegetables are tender.
Stir to separate meat. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer 20 minutes ot until rice is done. Stir occasionally. Serves 5-6
Very good with corn bread.
This is a favorite of ours:
Italian White Bean and Kale
Put olive oil, enough to just cover bottom of soup pot and saute 1-2 links of pepperoni that have been cut lengthwise and then into slices. Take pepperoni out and saute 1/2 a medium onion chopped, and 2 cloves of garlic. Add approx. 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes. More if you like it a little hotter. Put pepperoni back in pot. Add 1-2 cans of white Canneloni beans or white navy beans. Cook for approximately 3-5 min’s. Add 2-4 cups of chicken broth/stock and 1-2 bunches of washed kale cut up. Be sure to have enough liquid for the amount of kale and beans you are using. Cover and slow simmer for 30 to 45 mins. Serve topped with some grated parmesan and hard bread for dunking. You can also sprinkle red pepper flakes in your own bowl as I do. Some like it hot! Enjoy.
My daughter, grandaughter, sister, and myself are die-hard fans of Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana. It seems like it should be a wintery soup; but we love it all year round. Spicy, filling, and yummy.
We make a lot of soup at our house and this is my recipe for:
The Best Soup Broth You’ll Ever Make:
(This is too simple, but makes great stock—if you can get past the nauseating factor of using people’s leftovers!)
While you are fixing vegies for dinner, or paring vegies for the crisper, save everything one would ordinarily throw away (I even save used lemons)—except cut off the seriously dirty parts. Rinse what you are keeping. These pieces get stored in a freezer container every night. To this mix, add any chicken/meat bits and bones from all prep (I discard fat, except for seasoned crisp skin), and plate leftovers. This pile of stuff accumulates in the freezer until it is (in a plastic bag) the size of a basketball (or however much you have room for). When there is no more space, plop the whole mess into a large stock pot; cover with water, add some garlic and menudo spices; old salsas, sauces, or broth (or whatever); bring to a boil, then simmer for a full 24 hrs. While still very hot, pluck out the large pieces (they should grind easily in the disposal); strain broth into freezer containers or jars, and rest until cool enough to refrigerate or freeze. Remove solid fat before using, and strain again through cheesecloth—if more clarity is desired for something delicate. This becomes an excellent base for many soups, stews, and sauces—without any trouble, or buying extra ingredients, or wasting real meat by boiling it to death! (Quality control is interesting, because it always has different stuff in it—and it’s a very “green” way to save!)
— Sali Katz 09/07/2008 09:32 PM #
The Caldo Largo at El Merendero on South 12th is fabulous and it’s one of the house specials on Saturdays.
Mimi’s, sweet tomatoes, and olive garden…wow tucson you are a bunch of foodies. why dont you all grow up and get some normal taste buds and go to a restaurant that doesnt have a location in every podunk town in america.
I like Mimi’s Cafe for their Corn Chowder. It’s a good comfort food on those days you don’t want a lot to eat, yet it makes you feel full and your tummy happy. Plus pair it with one of their muffins and you become a very happy person.
— Kimberly J Cox 09/03/2008 06:16 AM #
The Tomato Basil soup at Beyond Bread is amazing. If you can get and print that recipe, I’d be forever in your debt!
— Bette Allen 09/03/2008 06:48 AM #
Beyond Bread has a green chili corn chowder that is to die for. Soup is one of my favorite things, so winning the soup cookbook would be great.
— Barbara Rudner 09/03/2008 09:57 AM #
I love Sweet Tomatoes’ Chicken Noodle Soup. It reminds me of my Mom’s, so whenever I’m missing NY or just feeling bad, a nice bowl of Sweet Tomatoes Chicken Noodle Soup helps to cheer me up!
— Randi Roessler 09/03/2008 11:10 AM #
The Food Conspiracy on 4th Ave. has a daily pot of homemade soup to go. I am a real soup lover; and today they had one of the best soups I have ever had: Indian Corn Chowder- made with local onions. What a deal at $4.49 for a large takeout bowl.
— Sharon Milan 09/03/2008 12:33 PM #
Love, love, love the Tortilla Soup at La Parilla Suiza.
— Deanna Kennedy 09/03/2008 02:24 PM #
Please just go to Sweet Tomatoes….My husband and I have never been dissapointed with their homemade soups and chilis. Delicioso!!
— Debbie McGlynn 09/03/2008 06:43 PM #
Beyond Bread…the Basil soup is fantastic. I would love to win the soup cookbook and The Spice and Herb Bible. Soups of all kinds are the best and use the herbs I raise.
— Patricia Hayes 09/03/2008 07:04 PM #
The french onion on the Weight Watchers menu at Applebees is great.
— Judy Krausser 09/03/2008 11:15 PM #
Don’t go out much for soup, but here’s a recipe for my daughter’s favorite soup that we make.
Minestrone
1 to 1 1/2 cups dried kidney or white beans
4 slices bacon, cut in 1/2 inch lengths
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 potatoes, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 quarts beef stock or broth
bouquet garni (bay leaves, parsley, and thyme)
3 cups thinly sliced cabbage or escarole
1 cup ditalini, tubettini or other small pasta
Grated Parmesan cheese
Optional: Sprinkle of very good extra virgin olive oil
Soak beans overnight and drain. Cover with fresh water and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until tender.
Cook bacon in oil in a stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat, until lightly browned. Add the onion, carrots, celery, potatoes and garlic, reduce heat and cook for 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes more. Add stock or broth with bouguet garni and simmer for 10 minutes. Add cabbage or escarole and simmer an additional 5 minutes.
Drain the beans and add to the soup. Simmer for 10 more minutes. Add pasta and cook another 15 minutes or until the pasta is soft. Remove bouquet garni and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with grated Parmesan sprinkled over the top.
Optional: Sprinkle a few dashes of very good extra virgin olive oil over the top when serving.
— Mike Panico 09/04/2008 09:07 AM #
Bean Soup at “A Great Location” on the east side of Sarnoff just north of Broadway
— Peggy DesPortes 09/04/2008 09:40 AM #
I like to go to Bentley’s for soup. They always have vegetarian, home-made options that are delicious.
— Ayla Rose Gilbert 09/04/2008 12:33 PM #
any soup from Sweet Tomatoes in Tucson is awesome. the soups are made fresh daily and they have a variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian soups to choose from daily. My absolute favorite is“Three-Bean Turkey Chili (Low-Fat)”.
— Linette Adina Hollyfield 09/04/2008 09:15 PM #
tortilla soup at the grill. an unlikely but supremely delectable surprise.
— Megan Cox 09/05/2008 07:59 AM #
Beyond Bread’s Baked Potato soup in the bread bowl is the best!! We love soups all year long. I make big kettles full of soups at home and like soups with lots of vegetables and use up leftovers whenever I can. I freeze in quart containers for quick meals for the two of us. I would love to win the Soup Cookbook!!
— Gayla Lukas 09/06/2008 04:23 PM #
Austin’s on Broadway has the very best tomato soup. Just like your Mom used to make – outstanding
— Joanie Marshall 09/07/2008 08:22 AM #
El Charro Cafe offers ‘Carlotta’s Chunky Chicken and Vegetable’ soup. It is thick with pieces of chicken and hearty vegetables served in a rich broth. It is one of the finest I have enjoyed in town. I begin any meal at El Charro witha cup of this ‘Mother’s Elixar.’
— Barry Infuso 09/07/2008 08:53 AM #
The Heritage Highlands Grill has great Butternut Squash Soup. Plus, there is a fantastic view from both the Grill and The Patio on the Green!
— Sandra Schulte 09/07/2008 09:23 AM #
Don’t have soup out much. Here’s my favorite easy soup recipe. I got this recipe from “Open House” a Phoenix TV Show
October 11, 1974. It’s so easy and my kids loved it. I still make it just for the two of us.
Calico Main Dish Soup
1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 Tab. Chili powder
1 tsp salt
2 cans Golden Mushroom soup
1 soup can water
1 16oz can tomatoes
1 can corn (undrained)
1 pkg. frozen cut green beans
1 cup quick cook rice
In large heavy pan, brown beef, add green pepper and onion with seasonings cook until vegetables are tender.
Stir to separate meat. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer 20 minutes ot until rice is done. Stir occasionally. Serves 5-6
Very good with corn bread.
— Barb Marquis 09/07/2008 11:44 AM #
The bean with bacon soup at Austin’s is worth the drive. Also the gazpacho at Blue Willow is a veggie delight!
— Terri Korman 09/07/2008 11:49 AM #
I like the french onion soup at Mimi’s. It has lots of cheese on top.
— Pat Allen 09/07/2008 02:36 PM #
Love Olive Garaden’s Minestrone
— Julia Shepis 09/07/2008 02:47 PM #
This is a favorite of ours:
Italian White Bean and Kale
Put olive oil, enough to just cover bottom of soup pot and saute 1-2 links of pepperoni that have been cut lengthwise and then into slices. Take pepperoni out and saute 1/2 a medium onion chopped, and 2 cloves of garlic. Add approx. 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes. More if you like it a little hotter. Put pepperoni back in pot. Add 1-2 cans of white Canneloni beans or white navy beans. Cook for approximately 3-5 min’s. Add 2-4 cups of chicken broth/stock and 1-2 bunches of washed kale cut up. Be sure to have enough liquid for the amount of kale and beans you are using. Cover and slow simmer for 30 to 45 mins. Serve topped with some grated parmesan and hard bread for dunking. You can also sprinkle red pepper flakes in your own bowl as I do. Some like it hot! Enjoy.
— Kathy Pendolino 09/07/2008 03:30 PM #
We think the Clam Chowder at Hifalutin is superb!
— Stan Clark 09/07/2008 04:58 PM #
My daughter, grandaughter, sister, and myself are die-hard fans of Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana. It seems like it should be a wintery soup; but we love it all year round. Spicy, filling, and yummy.
— Linda Old 09/07/2008 07:26 PM #
We make a lot of soup at our house and this is my recipe for:
The Best Soup Broth You’ll Ever Make:
(This is too simple, but makes great stock—if you can get past the nauseating factor of using people’s leftovers!) While you are fixing vegies for dinner, or paring vegies for the crisper, save everything one would ordinarily throw away (I even save used lemons)—except cut off the seriously dirty parts. Rinse what you are keeping. These pieces get stored in a freezer container every night. To this mix, add any chicken/meat bits and bones from all prep (I discard fat, except for seasoned crisp skin), and plate leftovers. This pile of stuff accumulates in the freezer until it is (in a plastic bag) the size of a basketball (or however much you have room for). When there is no more space, plop the whole mess into a large stock pot; cover with water, add some garlic and menudo spices; old salsas, sauces, or broth (or whatever); bring to a boil, then simmer for a full 24 hrs. While still very hot, pluck out the large pieces (they should grind easily in the disposal); strain broth into freezer containers or jars, and rest until cool enough to refrigerate or freeze. Remove solid fat before using, and strain again through cheesecloth—if more clarity is desired for something delicate. This becomes an excellent base for many soups, stews, and sauces—without any trouble, or buying extra ingredients, or wasting real meat by boiling it to death! (Quality control is interesting, because it always has different stuff in it—and it’s a very “green” way to save!)— Sali Katz 09/07/2008 09:32 PM #
The Caldo Largo at El Merendero on South 12th is fabulous and it’s one of the house specials on Saturdays.
— Sara Hammond 09/08/2008 07:05 AM #
My favorite soup in Tucson is the Cazuela soup at the Eclectic Cafe—a meal in a bowl!
— Debbie Kaback 09/08/2008 08:07 AM #
I love the Shchi (Russian cabbage soup) @ Rocco’s Little Chicago on Broadway.
— Lisa DiGrazia 09/08/2008 08:49 AM #
My favorite soup is the Chicken, rice, egg, and lemon soup at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant
— Sondra J. Prather 09/08/2008 09:10 AM #
The White Bean/Chicken Chili at Jason’s Deli is to die for… I highly recommend it summer, fall, winter or spring.
— Darleen 09/08/2008 11:52 AM #
Mimi’s, sweet tomatoes, and olive garden…wow tucson you are a bunch of foodies. why dont you all grow up and get some normal taste buds and go to a restaurant that doesnt have a location in every podunk town in america.
— paul 09/09/2008 03:15 AM #
Son’s in the Speedway plaza across from La Parilla Suiza. Great Pho!
— Jonathan 09/11/2008 08:01 AM #