Love Soup: 160 All-New Vegetarian Recipes

by Anna Thomas

Delicious recipes for vegetarian soups from the author of “the most influential cookbooks in the history of modern vegetarian cuisine” (Chicago Sun-Times).

Anna Thomas’s Vegetarian Epicure cookbooks have sold millions of copies and inspired generations. Now she describes her love affair with the ultimate comfort food. “From my kitchen to yours,” Thomas says, “here are the best soups I’ve ever made.” Her wonderfully creative recipes make use of fresh, seasonal produce—try black bean and squash soup in the fall, smoky eggplant soup in midsummer, or seductively perfumed wild mushroom soup for Christmas. Silky puree or rib-sticking chowder—each recipe has room for variation, and nearly all are vegan-friendly.

Love Soup also provides recipes for breads, hummus, pesto, salads, and homey desserts—and simple menus that put soup at the heart of the meal. Throughout, Thomas offers expert advice on shopping, seasoning, tasting, becoming a cook. With soups that delight and nourish, Thomas invites us all into the kitchen, to the most old-fashioned food and the newest, to the joy and good sense of home cooking. line art.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Vegetarian, Reference, Vegan

528 pages, Paperback

First published August 25, 2009

About the author

Anna Thomas is the author of The Vegetarian Epicure cookbooks and a screenwriter. She lives in Ojai, California.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

After receiving this book for Christmas, I officially declared 2010 The Year of Soup. It's actually only been the past couple of years that I've been eating soup, and only a few different ones at that. I've loved the idea of soup however: simple, nourishing, comforting & timeless. Creating soup was a revelation for me. For the first seven weeks of the year, we made a different one every week, usually with homemade stock & fresh homemade bread. It makes me feel a bit frontiersy and connected to women who've come before.

Anyway, for just a couple of hours of peeling & chopping on Sundays, my husband & I dine on these delicious soups for 3 or 4 days of the week. Dinnertime has never been easier, when all you have to do is gently re-heat a soup & slice some bread. I love that the recipes can be easily doubled & the soup (and breads) freeze perfectly. Every recipe we've tried has ranged from 3 to 5 stars (even Beet, which was going waaay outside my comfort zone) & the flavors deepen after a day or two (making it even more sensible to make them ahead of time on the weekend). They're somewhat flexible depending on what you have on hand & most are Vegan or can easily be made Vegan. All of them have tasted fresh, wholesome & satisfying!

[Chadi Raheb]

I’ve always hated soup (or any other watery stuff!). But I’d like to give it another shot even though I’d never consider it as an actual food 🙄

[Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cookbook honestly made me weep, everybody should read this.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the new book in my cookbook collection. I think it's because as soon as the weather hinted it's autumnal crispness to come I started craving soup in a big way.

I've been browsing through this and so far I think it's very approachable and I really love that it's separated into seasons. So I can focus on the fall and winter soups for the next few months and go to my winter farmer's market and use what I see there. The author is very flexible in some of the ingredients and offers a variety of homemade stocks which I plan on making as soon as I clear out my freezers because right now there is absolutely NO room. I agree with the author's suggestion that if you are new to cooking or feel like you can't cook, SOUP is a great place to start.

I would give it 5 stars for inspiration so far and making my mouth water... but I have to withhold an official rating until I test-drive a few recipes. So stay tuned. :-)

I want to try
Green Soup or Green Soup with Mushrooms (this will probably be the first one since I'm very intrigued by it)
Sopa de Poblanos
Pickle Soup
Sopa de Ajo (Garlic Soup)
Roasted Root Vegetable Soup
Old Fashioned Split Pea Soup
Mushroom-Barley Soup with Cabbage
Fennel and Onion Soup

And that's just from the Fall and Winter Soups. I haven't looked at the Spring and Summer Soups yet.

There is also a section on things to serve with soup to make it a more substantial meal like breads, popovers, biscuits, parmesan and fennel biscotti, hummus, pestos, salsa (I really want to try the Table Salsa recipe which uses three different kinds of chile peppers), spiced nuts, salads, and even desserts.

Also on my "soup want to cook" list are a few from Deborah Madison's Vegetable Soups book:

-Broccoli Cheddar Soup is likely tonight's dinner
-Garden Soup with Cauliflower & Kale
-Quinoa, Corn, and Spinach Chowder

Boy, I sure am hungry!!

I've been wanting to have a monthly soup night at our house for years ever since first reading about this idea in Cooking Light long ago. I'd make two pots of different soups and invite friends over to gather and eat.. it would be a potluck in that our guests would bring something small that would be good with soup... a loaf of bread, a salad, a wedge of cheese, a bottle of wine, etc. Fall is a great time to start this and this book might just make it happen! Yay!

[Maze Branch Oak Park Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does it have pictures? Can you read the whole recipe on two facing pages? Are the page numbers easy to find? These are the questions the What's Cooking group asks of every cookbook. Despite the fact that the answer was No to all of these questions, our group (well, most of them) really enjoyed this book.

We sampled the following recipes...

- Jeri's Spicy Nuts
- Stewed Root Vegetables with Moroccan Spices
- Quinoa with Spinach, Potatoes, and Chard
- Cauliflower Bisque
- Parmesan Crostini
- Cream of Mushroom
- Potato Pizza
- Foccacia
- Popovers
- Beet
- Apple Crumble
- Butternut Squash with Ginger
- Tomato Basil

We enjoyed most of the selections very much. The cream of mushroom soup and the cauliflower bisque were the only ones that some of us did not like at all.

Overall, we found the recipes were written well, and we appreciated the suggested menus that Thomas provides as well as the multiple forms of measuring ingredients (i.e. grams, cups).

[Dani · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the author's attitude inspired me to get in the kitchen, the recipes contained items that I never see in my local grocery store. The book is sectioned into warm-weather and cool-weather soups, so it would be great for someone who shops by the seasons. I would recommend this book to someone who has easy access to a farmer's market.

[Cherie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A+ I adored this cookbook (sorry about the original wrong review!). This is full of amazingly delicious soups (soups are my favourite thing to cook) - and all of them vegetarian! I put this book on my "to own" list b/c it is so absolutely wonderful. I want to try all of these recipes...! YUM!

[Kandi A. Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some Odd Combinations

This is a very nice book for veggie soup. I find the combination of ingredients something I never though of and I am not sure about some of them. However there are a lot of familiar soups as well along with some interesting other things including deserts. I have been looking for a good gingerbread recipe and the one in the book looks good and I cannot wait to try it. All in all, I can see why this is an award winning book. The only thing missing are pictures of the finished dishes which is something I always like, and gave it 4 stars for the omission.

[Rosemary Race · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've cooked soup before but Anna is the Queenie of Soups as far as I'm concerned.
She's out done herself with soups and treats of all sorts which I've recommended to friends and on Facebook as they ask 'Where do you get THAT book from, our book shops don't have it?" Well no, not in Australia you have to order it as I get my books from Booktopia.
BUT I must say I do get Margaret's a Way to Garden Blog sent to me which is why I have so many different USA books on my shelves.

[Chrissy Das · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anna Thomas is a delight! This tome makes a wonderful gift for friends who are looking for extra comfort. I've sent it as a gift to close friends who were in the beginning stages of grief. The recipes and stories nourish the soul as much as the body.

[Jerilyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

back of book is better.

I didn’t find any soup recipes I had a desire to try. That doesn’t mean they weren’t good recipes, just not good for my tastes. Having said that, the second half of this cook book is great, the bread, dips, sandwich recipes are much more appealing.

[Carol Tietsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm vegetarian so I'm always looking for new recipes.

[Beth Polebaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many good recipes in this book! Try the green soup with mushrooms and the spicy Indonesian soup! I got this book from the library but it was so good, I just bought it!

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vegetarian soups organized by season AND compiled by a good writer? Sign me up. Big fan.

[Denise Stewart]

tried a few recipes and liked them

[Ania Gaska · Rating 5 out of 5]

These recipes are all a little fussy, they require a lot of ingredients and steps but they're always delicious if i'm good and i follow them

[Dray · Rating 5 out of 5]

The highest praise I can give a cookbook is that after looking through it i went and purchased it for my collection. Such is Love Soup.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trying to get more vegetarian meals in my line up; Anna Thomas is a great resource. Love the Original Green Soup.

[Linda Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fabulous soup cookbook deserves to be a mainstay in everybody’s kitchen. You’ll find lots of inspiration and plenty of delicious recipes to make all year long. Anna Thomas is creative! And her recipes are easy to follow, with great results.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautifully written with tons of easy to follow recipes. It is broken down by season so that you can prepare your soups with the freshest produce available at the time. They are all vegetarian, but most are also vegan or have easy vegan adaptations. She even gives suggestions for what to serve with your soup - perhaps some olives or cheeses first, some bread on the side, and an ideal complement for dessert. In addition to soup recipes there are recipes for dips, sweets, salads, and breads.

Early on she convinced me that it was easy and worthwhile to prepare my own broth and freeze it to get the best results with my soups and she was right! The soups I make with her broths lack all of the sharpness and tang that I dislike in pre-made broth and it is super easy to do - okay, not super easy, but easy (cleaning leeks is always a pain). I spent a couple of hours one afternoon making the basic light, basic dark, and basic root broths, and have been enjoying the ease of grabbing pre-made, super tasty broth from the freezer. They really are flavorful enough to just drink on their own.

I have not come even close to trying all 160 recipes yet, but the ones I have tried have been a success. My absolute favorite is the white bean and garlic soup with greens. It even made me like kale and I have not been a fan of kale. The Sopa de Ajo with a poached egg is a close second because it was different from any soup I'd ever had. The split pea soup was a real winner also.

The recipes allow for a lot of flexibility, but watch the amount of lemon you add at the end. She often includes lemon at the end to bring the flavors out, but if you ignore the quantities, as I did once, you will probably regret it. My lovely potato leek soup tasted like sauerkraut. My fault, not that of the author.

I actually purchased the book because somebody recommended the bread recipes, but it has been a bit too hot here to have on the oven. So it gives me something to look forward to in the fall. Also can't wait until later in the summer to try some of the summer soups!

[Bworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is no such thing as a quick soup. But that's part of the comfort of soup. The meditative regularity of cutting the vegetables, the soft sound of the soup simmering, the heat of the stove, the book you read while you wait...

Each soup has a story, which is sometimes longer than the recipe, but that doesn't matter as it sets the mood for the cook, and that somehow also helps understand the kind of flavour we are looking for. No pictures (after all, soup is not the most photogenic dish ever), just some drawings in vintage style for a nice touch.

And then the flavours come out. The one thing I learned for good with this book is that nothing beats concentrating the flavour of a vegetable, either by roasting it or e.g. as Anna Thomas does with onions, to fry them at low heat for a very long time. She also uses spices and other things, encouraging the reader to use his/her tastebuds to adjust the taste, recommending also what to use.

There is also a section "From soup to meal", with recipes for breads, salads, things like hummus, etc, which can accompany the soup to make a whole meal.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm marking this "read" but a more appropriate status would be "constantly referenced" as it is second only to Joy of Cooking on my go to list of cookbooks!

I'm not a vegetarian and as such I assert that this cookbook has wide appeal. The recipes are arranged seasonally, offering cooks' insight into excellent use of fresh seasonal ingredients. Beyond that this book offers two large "plusses"

First - its a delightful read. The authors love of food, sharing her creations with those she loves and the growth and autonomy of her reader make for an engaging and informative read.

Second - this is ridiculously good food. If you're not fond of soup or can't imagine a meatless main dish, suspend disbelief and try it Thompson's way. You might just end up with a bowl of lentils teaming with sweet winter root veggies and a bright splash of herbal flavors that fills your belly and dances on your tongue.

ENJOY!

[Catherine Woodman]

This cookbook kind of reminds me of the saying "do you ever forget your first love?" No, not in my case--he was a rangy Olympic butterflier and undoubtedly not good for me, but I adored him. And my first cookbook love was the Vegetarian Epicure, which I still cook from with some regularity and is the source of my signature dish, Macaroni and Cheese. Anna Thomas wrote that book when she was in college, and she hasn't written a whole lot since--but this one is really nice. I have two cookbooks that I use for soup--Deborah Madison's 'Vegetable Soup' and Moosewood's ' Daily Special'--I cook soup all the time, and i have searched high and low for another good soup cookbook to go with these two--but none compared (including some highly recognized authors) until this one. See my blog on it : http://homemadelemoncake.blogspot.com/

[penny shima glanz · Rating 5 out of 5]

While today is the winter solstice, it is most definitely soup weather, but then in my opinion every day is soup weather. I found this title on quite a few vegetarian food blogs. I placed a hold for it at the library and waited.

If I had known it was this good I don't think I could have.

I love the easy intro and I feel the passion and easy approach she takes to cooking. I love that she asks you to take these as inspiration and tweak them to be your recipes. I love that there aren't photos to discourage you. That she reminds us soups are easy. That there is an emphasis on fresh seasonal produce.

And what I really love?

A gluten free cream of mushroom soup (p76) and a no onion vege broth (for my husband who thinks onions are icky).

[Kiran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is by far one of the best vegetarian cookbooks I've come across. Recipes are well explained and the author includes several suggestions on variations, substitutions and quick ways to turn soups into a meal. The overall layout of the book is well thought out by seasonality (spring, fall, summer), type (bean soups, squash soups, green soups - kale, spinach etc.) or occasion. Vegan recipes are clearly marked and I especially appreciate the section on soup accompaniments (quick breads, rolls, biscuits etc). My only gripe is that the author/publisher did not include a single photo in the entire cookbook.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a new classic from Anna Thomas, who wrote the Vegetarian Epicure. I first cooked from Vegetarian Epicure in the '80s before I ever dreamed of becoming vegetarian. She writes wonderful recipes for anyone who wants to try them. This updated version is wonderful. She has taken some of the excess fat out of recipes such as her Corn and Cheddar Chowder and kept the taste.

Currently, I manage the kitchen at a small ashram. While I cook "intuitively" and tend to follow a recipe only the first time it is made, I find this book creative and well balanced. It is an essential component of our kitchen and always sparks a new idea when needed.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love everything I've made from this cookbook. I never understood what people meant when they talked about layered tastes - I made a black bean squash soup that was complex and definitely layered. Delicious! The soups are filling even when they are just vegetables, you will not be hungry later in the day. I know, a surprise to me too. The only thing I don't care for is that somehow every pot and pan in my kitchen must make an appearance when I'm cooking from this book. It seems like a small price to pay for several days worth of hearty soup!

[Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

My new favorite soup cookbook. I love it! I especially love how Anna Thomas breaks her recipe sections down seasonally. I've made two of the soup recipes so far and both were fabulous. I'm not a vegetarian but I eat meatless a lot of the time and I like how vegetable-centric these are, as I find it especially challenging to eat my veggies during wintertime. Plus these recipes are easy to add meat to, if you should so desire.

[Binet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've tried several soups from this book so far, and they have all been outstanding. My favorite so far has been the Charred Zucchini with Yogurt, followed closely by the Summer Minestrone. Her recipe writing style is both friendly and explicit. I would recommend to heed her warning about adding heat slowly when working with new chilies. I have a fairly high spice (heat) tolerance, but I believe her taste is much higher.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is this my favorite soup cookbook, but I'm pretty sure it's my favorite cookbook, period. Anna Thomas is brilliant. While some of these recipes are time-consuming, they're very approachable, and I have yet to find a dud among them (and I've probably cooked 25-30 of them at this point!) Also, I doubt I ever would have tried to make green soup without the encouragement of this book, but it is a-mazing.