it’s halloween: vampire soup

I’m not one for kitchy names, but I had this soup for dinner last night and it’s one and only purpose was to get rid of a cold. I woke up feeling under the weather and I didn’t want to get sick, so I culled all the vegetable remains in my crisper along with a little bit of bacon and got to work. While chopping the vegetables, I decided that instead of just a few cloves of garlic, I’d add in the whole head. Perfect for fighting off vampires and nasty bugs. And just to add in a bit of Eastern European flavour, I threw in 2 different kinds of Hungarian paprika. The soup was good and hearty and today I woke up feeling much, much better.

I’m not going to give you the recipe because while the soup was good, it’s a good example of taking random ingredients and making dinner without a recipe. So instead of a recipe, you’ll get just a minimal guide and hopefully a kick in the pants to get you started to make your own soup. Soup is easy and usually ends up turning out well if you just remember to taste as you go along. For this soup, I had half a parsnip, 2 strips of bacon, a quarter head of red cabbage, half an onion, a couple stalks of celery, a can of chickpeas, a near empty bag of pasta, along with some homemade turkey stock. These ingredients were chopped, sauteed and the liquids reduced before I had my first taste. It needed more, so in plopped a large squirt of ketchup for zing and after tasting it again, I added in a large spoonful of sweet paprika and another large spoonful of a smoked hot paprika. Now I was getting somewhere. I added in half the garlic at the beginning and half near the end. For me it was important to really taste the garlic and have it fresh so it could kick start it’s fighting powers. The ingredients themselves don’t inspire very much on their own, but put them together in a haphazard way, tasting as you go along and boom! You’ve got some mighty fine soup.

And yes, I’m giving this vampire soup all the credit. This soup warded off the evil and now I’m ready to make some caramel apples and watch horror movies all night with friends. Happy Halloween!!

15 comments to “it’s halloween: vampire soup”

  1. 1
    VeggieGirl   October 31, 2008 at 9:41 am

    OOOOOH, love the soup – hooray for “no recipe” meals!! They’re less complicated, haha ;0)

    Oh and it’s TOTALLY worth the “kitchy” name, no worries.

  2. 2
    Bijoux   October 31, 2008 at 10:39 am

    What’s wrong with Vampire soup? I feel all giddy and kid-like just reading it 🙂

    I stand by garlic 100% for curing what ails you. Seriously, garlic and ginger root are two things I always have on hand during the winter months. And also, COLD FX works wonders if you take it at the onset of cold or flu symptoms. I was coming down with some bug a few weeks ago and took COLD FX religiously for 3 days following the directions on the bottle and it totally went away. A bit on the pricey side but so worth it in the end to stave off a cold.
    Glad to hear you’re feeling better. Which movies did you decided to view tonight?

    Happy Halloween. Enjoy your evening!

  3. 3
    hag   October 31, 2008 at 10:24 am

    OOOH scary! looks good. like the fun noodles

  4. 4
    Jan Scholl   October 31, 2008 at 5:51 pm

    http://eatsnothingwitheyeballs.blogspot.com/2008/03/vampire-inhibitor-garlic-soup.html

    Here is my version of garlic soup and this is seriously one of my favs ever. I just am too lazy to load photos and recipes lately.

  5. 5
    Carolina deWitte   October 31, 2008 at 8:29 pm

    This looks so wonderful. I came here from flickr to see how you made it. Don’t I see some potatoes in there as well? I wish I had enough things on hand right now to make this, but I will go shopping tomorrow and hopefully make something similar tomorrow night. Since I don’t feel up to making my own broth, I will probably start with Trader Joe’s chicken stock or broth. Thanks for sharing.

  6. 6
    Meg   October 31, 2008 at 4:24 pm

    I LOVE GARLIC, but I’m seriously allergic!

    I love mustgo soups, perfect cure for colds and needing to clear out the fridge!

  7. 7
    Joanna   November 1, 2008 at 6:23 am

    i’m glad you’re feeling better! it sucks being sick on a holiday… even though i don’t know how much of a holiday halloween really is. haha love your guide on how to make soup without giving a word by word recipe. it’s definitely true. anything thrown into a pot is soup!

  8. 8
    Dawn   November 1, 2008 at 8:47 am

    It must be magic soup then if you felt better the next day. Love these one pot ideas.
    Oh! I read your food tv article…really well-done! I enjoyed it.

  9. 9
    kickpleat   November 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    i agree, veggiegirl! thanks 🙂

    hag, it's a little bit scary looking 😉

    glad to hear it, bijoux! i've got ginger and garlic and thanks to your tip, i just picked up some cold FX. i hope it works for me!!

    allergic to garlic, meg? that's awful! but i agree, mustgo soups are the best 🙂

    nice looking soup, jan. thanks for sharing!

    good eye, carolina! yes, there were 2 potatoes!

    joanna, throw it into a pot and you've got soup. so easy & good!!

    dawn, i agree, it is magic! thanks dawn 🙂

  10. 10
    havecakewilltravel.com   November 2, 2008 at 2:48 am

    anything that has a whole head of garlic in it cannot not be good. would the fact that my cat’s name is Buffy be of some concern, though?
    good to hear you’re feeling better already!

  11. 11
    kickpleat   November 2, 2008 at 3:10 pm

    havecake, haha i love that your cat’s name is buffy. i’ll tread carefully!

    amanda, i never noticed the vampire fangs in the pasta! love it!!

  12. 12
    Amanda   November 2, 2008 at 11:07 am

    It’s a nice touch that the pasta in one of the photos has flipped over and filled with broth, like a swamped boat. But, since only its little outline remains above the surface, it looks like a set of plastic vampire fangs.

    : )

  13. 13
    Erik   November 2, 2008 at 9:28 pm

    Clever recipe!

  14. 14
    eatme_delicious   November 8, 2008 at 3:19 pm

    I’ve never attempted soup without a recipe. I should. Though many of my “creations” aren’t super delicious (the healthier ones anyway)…

  15. 15
    kickpleat   November 11, 2008 at 9:21 pm

    eatme, if you want to make things up as you go along, soup is the perfect start! try it….i’ll bet it tastes good!

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