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The Soup Bible: All the Soups You Will Ever Need in One Inspiring Collection
Soup is a food that can be infinitely varied in order to perfectly suit any season, taste, or imagine, for example, the lingering aroma of a hot, delicious soup on a frosty winter's evening, or the zesty, refreshing taste of traditional homemade Gazpacho on a sweltering summer afternoon. The Soup Bible is a stunningly beautiful collection of over 200 recipes for the tastiest soups from across the globe, and each is carefully selected to provide readers with a wide overall range of soups to both perfect and improvise upon. This volume features soups of every imaginable texture and consistency, including light, refreshing soups, rich and creamy soups, hearty soups, warming broths, meal-in-one soups, vegetarian soups, all-time favorite soups, and special occasion soups. The recipes featured include Miami Chilled Avocado Soup, Indian Beef and Berry Soup, Saffron Mussel Soup, Shrimp Bisque, Green Lentil Soup, Cold Cucumber Soup with Walnuts, Roasted Tomato and Pasta Soup, Curried Carrot and Apple Soup, and Salmon Chowder. The Soup Bible features an informative introduction that focuses on the history of soup and soup-making, essential ingredients, tools and utensils needed, and how to create the underlying stock for each type of soup. This gorgeous book also includes recipes that are low in fat, fat-free, low in cholesterol, high in fiber, dairy-free, vegetarian, diabetic-friendly, and gluten-free. The Soup Bible is thus guaranteed to please a wide range of tastes and health requirements from all climates and cultures, and will enable each reader to create and customize a plethora of delicious homemade soups.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
August 6, 2018
Well Illustrated and Reliable Source of Soup Recipes
I have to admit that reading cookbooks is my personal form of pornography. Now it may be possible that I have too many cookbooks - they run over the tops of my kitchen cabinets and can be found in the oddest places in my home. Many of them have a sentimental attachment either to a place we've visited or to a friend or relative.
In most cases I'll try two or three recipes and put the book aside. This book is different - I refer to it frequently when I'm in a soup making mood and there are 29 recipes (at last count) here that I've tried, checked off and often returned to. It's not the only source of soup recipes that I have, it's just the most frequently used.
Of the more unusual recipes my favorites include: Watercress and orange soup (pp28) or Pear and Watercress (pp228), spiced Parsnip (pp51); African Groundnut (peanut based pp 126) and the delicious Moroccan Harira (pp200). There are are also a fair number of simple recipes such as gazpacho, vichysois and tomato soups suitable for beginners. And at the moment I'm emptying out the freezer for a defrost: used up the corn last night to make a chowder and made a mint pea soup to finish off the frozen peas - both recipes from the book. Only a couple of recipes have fallen flat - the Chilled Almond Soup and the Mushroom and Bread. I've also found better recipes for French Onion Soup. (pp97).
Unlike baking,soup recipes are very flexible and its almost never necessary to follow them exactly Nor is it necessary to always make your own stock (this book tells you how); I usually keep a supply of Ossem or Tema brand soup base around for that purpose - useful when you have young teens who drift in and out of vegetarianism. By all means experiment by using the text as a springboard, substituting quantities, bases and seasonings as one sees fit.
I've owned this book for about 7 years - the current 2010 edition appears to be quite similar. The binding is flexible and strong; the glossy pages and plasticized cover either resists splatters or I've been extremely lucky. I also own Appetizers Finger Food Buffets and Parties from the same publisher which contains the entire contents of this book as a subset, but I find the smaller form factor more useful to pull off the shelf and move around.
Excellent book to own and learn from. Recommended as personal purchase or a housewarming gift, even for the neophyte or kitchen klutz
I have to admit that reading cookbooks is my personal form of pornography. Now it may be possible that I have too many cookbooks - they run over the tops of my kitchen cabinets and can be found in the oddest places in my home. Many of them have a sentimental attachment either to a place we've visited or to a friend or relative.
In most cases I'll try two or three recipes and put the book aside. This book is different - I refer to it frequently when I'm in a soup making mood and there are 29 recipes (at last count) here that I've tried, checked off and often returned to. It's not the only source of soup recipes that I have, it's just the most frequently used.
Of the more unusual recipes my favorites include: Watercress and orange soup (pp28) or Pear and Watercress (pp228), spiced Parsnip (pp51); African Groundnut (peanut based pp 126) and the delicious Moroccan Harira (pp200). There are are also a fair number of simple recipes such as gazpacho, vichysois and tomato soups suitable for beginners. And at the moment I'm emptying out the freezer for a defrost: used up the corn last night to make a chowder and made a mint pea soup to finish off the frozen peas - both recipes from the book. Only a couple of recipes have fallen flat - the Chilled Almond Soup and the Mushroom and Bread. I've also found better recipes for French Onion Soup. (pp97).
Unlike baking,soup recipes are very flexible and its almost never necessary to follow them exactly Nor is it necessary to always make your own stock (this book tells you how); I usually keep a supply of Ossem or Tema brand soup base around for that purpose - useful when you have young teens who drift in and out of vegetarianism. By all means experiment by using the text as a springboard, substituting quantities, bases and seasonings as one sees fit.
I've owned this book for about 7 years - the current 2010 edition appears to be quite similar. The binding is flexible and strong; the glossy pages and plasticized cover either resists splatters or I've been extremely lucky. I also own Appetizers Finger Food Buffets and Parties from the same publisher which contains the entire contents of this book as a subset, but I find the smaller form factor more useful to pull off the shelf and move around.
Excellent book to own and learn from. Recommended as personal purchase or a housewarming gift, even for the neophyte or kitchen klutz
December 9, 2021
What a fun book. Picked up as part of a massive book sale haul I started reading it, then made one of the soups, then read it some more, then set it aside. Next week picked it up, made another weird soup from scratch that was EASILY the best soup I have tasted this year, then read it some more. Stuck a bookmark at the next soup to make.
Now an honoured permanent member of my kitchen cookbooks.
Now an honoured permanent member of my kitchen cookbooks.
July 29, 2011
I recieved this book as a present over the weekend, and while I have only made one soup so far (potato-cabbage with caraway seeds), it is a cook book with a wide range of soups, outstanding photos, not too complicated--the recipes are not long on details, so for a beginner, it might not work as well, and tips about when to use stock to enrich the soup are not here, but for an experienced soup maker, there are alot of choices, and not all of them things that I have had experience with. For instance, there is a whole seciton on adding grains to soups, and I had never made a soup with oatmeal in it before, and there is a whole section on soups with oatmeal that I am eager to try (Irish in origin if the chapter is to be believed). As I cook more out of it I will add to my review, so as to better assess the potential for the recipes.
September 25, 2014
This is one of those large format cookbooks Borders used to sell in their bargain section. It's beautifully photographed. Everything looks enticing. I would estimate about one-third of the recipes require a food processor or blender, and none are overly challenging for a home cook. There's only one recipe I wouldn't make, Stargazer Vegetable Soup, which requires you to cut star shapes from thinly sliced vegetables with a tiny cookie cutter...to be fair, it is in the section "Special Occasion Soups." Perhaps it's for a dinner to celebrate your new doctorate in astrophysics.
November 10, 2022
I have made three soups from this book so far and each one came out perfect! I can't wait to make the rest of these soups. I made it a mission of mine to make every recipe in this book over this winter.
June 11, 2019
Very clearly for anyone who absolutely loves soup. The beginning of the book has an essential stocks for all sorts of recipes, including garnishes. Every single soup is delicious to make.
September 15, 2021
Grandma's present 2016
June 6, 2022
My favourite book ever!
September 6, 2022
Soup, soup, and more soup recipes. If soup is your comfort food, this should be a go to book.
October 23, 2022
A household favorite for winter soups
December 31, 2022
I have made lots of soups from this recipe book.
February 14, 2025
This one is a winner. So many great recipes and not made for massive quantities. Perfect for small family
March 5, 2015
When the days become long, the body becomes lethargic and even the tar is beginning to melt, the last place one wants to be is in a hot kitchen. Summer is the season for quick, light meals that don't take a lot of time, but restore your energy. But if you do have to get into the kitchen, rather than throwing together the customary salad, how about a bowl of soup after that dip in the pool?
Consulting editor Debra Mayhew has combed the four corners of the globe to bring together a collection of wonderful recipes in The Soup Bible.
Stirring in tips for making stock, garnishes, and notes on how to pick the best ingredients, these soups are designed not just for summer, but those occasions that call for something special, as well as those chilly winter nights when all you want to do is curl up with a good book and a warm hearty bowl:
Light and Refreshing: Gazpacho (the ultimate in summer soups), Vichyssoise, Summer Tomato Soup, Watercress and Orange Soup (what an interesting combination)
One-Pot Meal Soups: Seafood and Sausage Gumbo, Spinach and Lemon Soup with Meatballs (traditionally known in Greece as Avgolomono without the meatballs), and Creole Shrimp
Hearty Lunch and Supper Soups: Lentil Soup with Rosemary, Italian Arugula and Potato Soup, Pistou (a scrumptious French vegetable soup), and New England Clam Chowder
Special Occasion: Butternut Squash Bisque, Tomato and Fresh Basil Soup, Spinach and Rice Soup (a nice and sneaky way for parents to add a vegetable in a meal for those picky-eater kids) and Saffron-Mussel Soup.
The book is full of exquisite, mouth-watering photographs and even the soup bowls both rustic and elegant are beautifully displayed.
With over 200 recipes to prepare for friends and family, it's a world tour of soups.
Fresh bread required.
Consulting editor Debra Mayhew has combed the four corners of the globe to bring together a collection of wonderful recipes in The Soup Bible.
Stirring in tips for making stock, garnishes, and notes on how to pick the best ingredients, these soups are designed not just for summer, but those occasions that call for something special, as well as those chilly winter nights when all you want to do is curl up with a good book and a warm hearty bowl:
Light and Refreshing: Gazpacho (the ultimate in summer soups), Vichyssoise, Summer Tomato Soup, Watercress and Orange Soup (what an interesting combination)
One-Pot Meal Soups: Seafood and Sausage Gumbo, Spinach and Lemon Soup with Meatballs (traditionally known in Greece as Avgolomono without the meatballs), and Creole Shrimp
Hearty Lunch and Supper Soups: Lentil Soup with Rosemary, Italian Arugula and Potato Soup, Pistou (a scrumptious French vegetable soup), and New England Clam Chowder
Special Occasion: Butternut Squash Bisque, Tomato and Fresh Basil Soup, Spinach and Rice Soup (a nice and sneaky way for parents to add a vegetable in a meal for those picky-eater kids) and Saffron-Mussel Soup.
The book is full of exquisite, mouth-watering photographs and even the soup bowls both rustic and elegant are beautifully displayed.
With over 200 recipes to prepare for friends and family, it's a world tour of soups.
Fresh bread required.
October 2, 2016
Pretty There were seven participants in this research. We attacked this book with gusto! We came away with the feeling that the book was pretty and had a good collection of soups but if you’re a serious cook you could do better and the groupings were not to our liking and there really should have been way more suggested substitute ideas with the soups. Best Soup - Oyster Soup, and it was the easiest. ‘Stock making & Garnishes’ was short but important to the coming recipes. ‘Light & Refreshing Soups’ - None of us were interested in of them. ‘Rich & Creamy’ – We made nine of them. The standouts were Fresh Green Pea St. German, Butternut with Horseradish Cream, and Cream of Celery Root and Spinach. ‘Warming Winter’ – We made nine of them. The winners were Leek, Parsnip & Ginger, Onion & Pancetta, and Spicy Peanut.‘Hearty Lunch & Supper’-We made nine of them. The winners were Smoked Haddock & Potato, Plantain & Corn, and Ribollita. ‘One Pot Meal’ – Here is where there were some bummers, The Mulligatawny was boring. Chicken Chayote had no information on how to handle a Chayote. Spinach & Lemon with Meatballs turned an odd color. The Winner was Seafood Laksa. ‘Special Occasions’- Honestly made little sense. Those soups should have been incorporated into the other chapters.
March 10, 2014
I've never been into cooking, but this year (2014) I decided to become a soup maven (because homemade soups are a pleasure to eat), and so I bought this book and started making a soup every week. I've enjoyed drooling over the familiar and exotic soups in the book (lovely pics!), and choosing some to make, and putting them together for my family. I learned that cooking can be easy and pleasurable, so I'm converted. :) It's a great book, and even when it calls for making things from scratch like stewed tomatoes, its clear instructions make it simple and non-intimidating. I just wish it listed prep times and cooking times. Now I just need to get a new food processor so I can make the recipes that call for one.
February 21, 2012
Another cookbook where recipes looked good enough to eat, but not really worth cooking, except for one. I made the Garlic Chickpea Soup, which was tasty, but called for cream, which I don't usually make a habit of cooking with. It was tasty, though.
The weird thing about this book is that there's another soup book right next to it in the library, The Soup Bible, by the same author, and upon further inspection, it appears to be the same exact book. Why the library has both, I have no idea. I picked the one with the more appealing cover.
The weird thing about this book is that there's another soup book right next to it in the library, The Soup Bible, by the same author, and upon further inspection, it appears to be the same exact book. Why the library has both, I have no idea. I picked the one with the more appealing cover.
February 7, 2014
Some excellent sounding recipes. The illusrated steps will help the cook a great deal. I am looking forward to trying some of these recipes if the company who is renovating our kitchen ever finishes this particular renovation !!! I an somewhat disappointed in this book as a 'bible' cookbook should have every term needed, as many questions answered as possible relating to the making of soup, and a wider variety of the kinds of soups than the ones included here. The photography makes this book a lovely book.
November 30, 2009
OK.... so it is the holidays and I am cooking crazy! This is an AWESOME- not your stone soup variety- cookbook. I got it about 4 years ago on the Barnes and Noble sale shelves (and I still see them every time I am there). The receipes are interesting/ some are unusual takes on common soups AND are not complicated to make! If you love soup- you will love this!!!! Watch out Cambell's!!!!!
March 20, 2011
Best soup recipes around, but I really bought it for the pictures. Not good for beginners since it leaves a lot unsaid. Example: in the parsnip soup it says "add herbs" but doesn't tell you what kind. Many more things like that pop up. But if you just want a good guideline and some great pictures to see if it comes out right, it's a bargain. Best tomato soup EVER.
September 29, 2008
I tend to bring this book out at this time of year. Something for evey palette for sure! This is one cook book I will never bore of! My only complaint is I have so many to choose from I don't know if I'll ever get through them all!!
February 11, 2017
Good, general book about making soups. Lots of ideas and variations. The kind of book a soup lover will refer to often. It got me to try soups I never would have thought to make like the tamarind soup with peanuts and vegetables or the cream of parsnip soup.
August 28, 2007
A vast collection of soups from around the world. There's something for every time of year. A soup lovers delight!
May 19, 2008
Yeah it's just a cookbook but it's hard to make a good soup and the recipes in here are really great.
August 7, 2009
the only soup we really didn't like was borscht but maybe it was the thickness of the soup.
October 29, 2009
Lots of variety. Didn't love all the recipes but there were enough good ones to make this worthwhile. Cooking times are not always accurate.
February 2, 2011
Mmmmmmmmm...excuse me while I slurp. I absolutely love soup and this book is chock-full of over 200 delicious sounding meals in a bowl.Inviting illustrations of every recipe add to the appeal.
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July 5, 2011I'm a soup fanatic and this is a great recipe book to get my fix!
September 2, 2016
mmmm soups.)
great selection.)
great selection.)
February 9, 2013
I love this book! It is one of my favorite cook books and has its own spot on the counter. There is a large variety to choose from depending on your mood. I am slowly trying to make them all.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews