Monday, September 07, 2009

Love Soup

I recently received a copy of Love Soup to review. Love Soup is a huge collection of soup recipes by Anna Thomas, author of The Vegetarian Epicure. The book is very nicely laid out by seasons, and broken out further into subchapters such as Green Soups, Hearty Summer Soups, Holiday Soups, Cold Soups, and also includes recipes for broths, breads, salads, sweets, spreads, and other accompaniments. There are 160 recipes provided, and the recipes are very creative and utilize fresh seasonal vegetables and herbs. While not all the soups are vegan (and this is acknowledged in the introduction), most could easily be made vegan by using nondairy creams, cheeses, and yogurts. I love to use coconut milk and coconut yogurts, and usually find most recipes don’t REALLY need cheese. Ms. Thomas offers variations and loads of helpful tips with each recipe.

As you know it hasn’t exactly been soup weather here in Texas, but I did find nice soup and salad recipes to try. For my soup I made Mung Bean Soup with Spinach and Tomatoes from the Hearty Summer Soups chapter. I have had a 2 pound bag of whole mung beans in my pantry forever. There is lots of information about split mung beans, but I’ve never been able to find proper cooking instructions for the whole mung beans. I learned from Love Soup that mung beans are easy to cook, have a delicate flavor, are high in protein, and burst open when they cook! This soup is perfectly Indian spiced and completely delicious. I did have to deviate slightly and use a large can of fire-roasted tomatoes, because our fresh tomato season only lasted a month. It’s nice to know canned tomatoes work, because I would definitely make this soup again anytime.




For my salad I chose Heirloom Tomato Salad. I had a giant heirloom in the fridge waiting to be dressed up, and finding this recipe was perfect for a hot Labor Day lunch. As you can see, it is simply tomato, onion, fresh basil, and seasonings. In my opinion, heirlooms don’t need much more than that.


If you LOVE SOUP, I would definitely recommend LOVE SOUP. Honestly, it contains wonderful background with each chapter and recipe, and the instructions are about the best I’ve ever come across. Also on my “must make” list are Kale Salad with Tomatoes and Corn; Brown Rice and Chinese Cabbage Salad; Cucumber, Rice, and Fresh Herb Salad; Eggplant and Roasted Garlic Pesto; Deconstructed Hummus Soup; and Butter Bean and Summer Vegetable Soup.

And now I get to have a delicious soup and salad dinner!

19 comments:

Chocolate Covered Katie said...

Wow, you're so lucky to receive such an awesome-sounding book. I love soup; I'll have to check this book out, huh?

Oh, and thank you so much, Diann, for the birthday wishes :)

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Excellent, thorough review!! I'm not normally a "soup lover," but those soups sound so enticing!!

nora said...

It looks and sounds delish, yet with the sheer number of vegan cookbooks I have, I'm not sure I can justify buying ones I need to veganize, you know? Like I'll never even make it through my vegan collection! But I DO love soup!

Jes said...

Love Soup is such a cute title! I want to buy it just for that. :)

The Voracious Vegan said...

I love soup and I bet I would really enjoy Love Soup! Your bowl looks amazing, so rich and thick! And what a bright and beautiful salad.

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

Oh boy, that soup looks really delicious! i am getting back into soups again as the weather here is not too good.

Unknown said...

i'm enjoying heirlooms and basil from the garden, i wish summer wouldn't end :(

Anonymous said...

YUM! I do love soup, another good use for the mung beans is to sprout them. That tomato looks so good.

Bianca said...

That mung bean soup sounds delicious. I love mung beans but haven't bought any in awhile. I always like to sprout the whole beans because they make such tasty sprouts.

Hannah said...

I was offered this book for review as well, and now I'm sad I had to turn it down due to time constraints. [hose soups you made look great!

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

both the Vegetarian Epicure, 1 & 2 have a fond spot on my cookbook shelf, I can just imagine what the recipes in this one are like! I don't know why but I super love things I make from them, maybe because it reminds me of my first apartment on my own and living with my best friend. But anyway, it looks delicious! beautiful tomato salad!

jessy said...

– i think i would love Love Soup! we don’t have a soup cookbook, Diann and this one sounds great! easy to veganize – i’m all about it! the mung bean soup sounds fantastical, and your heirloom tomato salad looks wonderful! i agree with keeping it simple & letting the tomato goodness shine on through.

Ricki said...

Great review. And such interesting recipes! I really should make soup more often. . . !

Andrea said...

Nice review, Diann. I like the soup and salad you chose to make - they both sound so delicious. One of my readers recently informed me that mung beans are also used in Chinese medicine to treat various conditions. I've also got a review copy and just can't decide what to make!

Meg Wolff said...

I LOVE soups too. This book has a great title. Like your must make list. The soup you did make looks terrific and nice garnish. Good food for hot weather. Has it cooled there yet?

amer said...

Nice work on your blogs.
I love your style of writing and your topics are well written and an interesting read.

I think its nice recipe & yummy .I really liked it

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a good book. I'll have to see if my library has a copy of it. I never used to be much of a soup person, but lately I have been making a lot of it.

The soup you made sounds good. I've never tried mung beans before.

Erin said...

Great review! I'm very interested in the hummus soup.

Anonymous said...

Well, thank you so much for the wonderful, and informative review! It's great to read it, and a ball to read the comments. (I'm new to this internet chatting) But if you all have half the fun cooking from this book that I had cooking and writing it, you'll have a fine, fine soup season.

I appreciate how well you described the book, and I'd love to get thoughts about the veganizing of recipes -- my vegan son Teddy would appreciate it too!
---Anna Thomas, author