We’re big fans of wet food, especially when cool weather settles in for the season. Sauces and broths add warmth and comfort to any meal. Here are six soups, stews and other wet food favorites from the Blue Kitchen archives.
Soupe au Pistou
The hearty, traditional Provençal vegetable soup shown above takes its name from pistou, the French take on Italy’s pesto. Made with fresh basil, garlic, Parmesan, salt and olive oil, the key difference is that it doesn’t contain nuts. It does contain plenty of flavor and fragrance when you add a big dollop to each bowl of soup when served.
Black Bean Soup with Ham Hocks
This soup is filled with big flavors—cumin, garlic, celery, red bell pepper, tomatoes, jalapeño pepper and deliciously smoky ham hock. Making it a day ahead intensifies its Southwestern kick.
Seafood Bourride
Okay, this decadent seafood stew, made with shrimp, sea bass, scallops, calamari and clams (along with butter, cream, loads of aromatics and Israeli couscous), is one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. Our friend Mellen whipped up this classic Mediterranean dish for us when we visited her and Steve in Washington, DC.
Patatas Riojanas: Rioja-style Potatoes with Chorizo
At the heart of this satisfying one-pot meal is Spanish chorizo, a dense, flavorful sausage. Besides flavoring the dish, it gives the potatoes their red color. Instead of slicing the potatoes, you “crack” them with the knife, giving them their rustic, uneven shapes.
Minestra del Sedano: Italian Celery Soup
Celery, long consigned to walk-on roles in recipes, is enjoying its moment in the spotlight, as celebrity chefs give it a star turn on upscale menus. And that makes me happy. Here, it teams up with bacon, chicken, carrots, tomato paste, aromatics and rice in a robust traditional Italian soup.
Moroccan Braised Beef
This meaty stew reflects Morocco’s location on ancient spice trade routes, its proximity to Europe and roots on the African continent. A mix of spices, aromatics and golden raisins give it a rich, mysterious flavor, with a hint of sweetness and a little heat.
Hungry for more soups and stews? Look in the left sidebar here for ten more recipes, including Marion’s soul-satisfying Vietnamese Beef Stew, a delicious blend of Asian and French influences.
We’re big fans of wet food too, particularly at this time of the year! Something about the cool, crisp weather does that. Not that we’ve had much cool, crisp weather yet, but we soon will! And the quality of light changes so at this time of the year, putting us in the mood even if we’re not yet wearing sweaters. Great collection here. And glad to see celery in a starring role.
We love soups and stews in the fall and winter!!! My DH made an amazing curried pumpkin soup and we pureed it smooth the other weekend. It was amazing!!!
They all look good! This is my favourite time of year for food.
High temp this Saturday is expected to barely break 60; accordingly, I had just started rummaging around in my beans and rice and pasta shelf, eyeing the slow-cooker. Thank you!
Um, I think I have to make the Moroccan Braised Beef this weekend. It looks fantastic.
John, St. Louis is particularly beautiful in the fall, isn’t it? And glad you’re a fellow celery fan.
That curried pumpkin soup sounds wonderful, Heather.
Autumn is a great time of year in general, Randi.
Perfect slow cooker weather, Anita!
Arika, if you do make it, let us know what you think.
OK, you asked Arika to comment, but I’m answering. And in a very incomplete way, since the stew is still in the oven (just stirred), but hey, I’m drinking the rest of the wine, so deal with it!
The Moroccan Braised Beef is in the oven. I may have said that already. I hate people who go on websites and say “oooh, I made your recipe, except I substituted tapioca for the cayenne, and milk for the vodka, and it wasn’t very good.” Having said that, I had no sherry, so just dumped in more red wine. I’ll let you know.
I used spice combo number 2 because I had all of those spices, but no garam masala. I turned off the kitchen fan because WOW, the apartment smells beautiful. Making me want to make some gingerbread a good 2 months before when I should be making gingerbread, but I can deal with that.
My meat came in a package of 3.16 pounds. Your recipe called for 2.5. I consider myself almost grown up for not freaking out about that. I did take out a ruler to figure out what exactly 1 to 1.5 inch cubes should look like, but then gave up because I had to cut out all the fatty parts, so the meat wound up in rhombozoid shapes anyway.
How brown is “browned”?
Did I mention I drank some of the red wine?
2 onions are approximately 2 cups. I peeled 3 onions before I figured that out. I will have onions over the weekend.
I used my garlic press for the garlic. Why do so many sites sneer on garlic presses. Please do not sneer.
Anyway, off to boil the ditallini. Dittalini? Ditalini? Nope, spell-check doesn’t like any of those version. Anyway, I bought the pasta you suggested. Will have no more wine.
Love you guys!
Anita, you are so cute when you’re drunk. I think this is one of my favorite comments ever. And I would never sneer at a garlic press—I just don’t care to clean them. Of course, I developed that attitude before we had a dishwasher.
Perfect for the coming christmas. One slurp of soup is so relieving. I can imagine sipping in a bowl of black bean soup with ham hocks. Hmm Yum!! I also love cooking soup and my specialty is the dumpling soup, with a side dish of tasty peking duck, this is a family favorite. I also prepare this when my sons get cough and cold.
Em. A little embarrassed about the long post above, but – there it is. I came back here to find the recipe to make it again, and realized I had never said anything about how it all turned out in the end. Key phrase: I’m making it again. Thank you!
Anita, we were absolutely charmed by your long post above. Glad it’s on your “make it again” list!