Best Vegetable Soup... Stay Tuned

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WhateverYouWant

Sous Chef
Joined
Oct 29, 2019
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609
Growing up, my Great Aunt and her family ran a tea room/restaurant in Westwood Village, CA that was named El Encanto. It was renowned as having the best vegetable soup in southern California (maybe the whole state).

As a young kid, vegetable soup was not my thing, but this stuff was so good we regularly hung out there, playing with the adding machines in the office, and the dishwashing machine in the kitchen... and having a free lunch.

Talking with my Brother on Thanksgiving day, he mentioned he had run across a recipe for this soup in a bunch of papers he was going through to thin things out. I was amazed when he seemed to think it was done in our Aunt's handwriting. It is enroute to me as I write this. While it is not a simple recipe (according to my brother), I can assure you it is worth the effort and I will share it here as soon as I transcribe it.

Stay tuned.
 
That's very generous, thank you.

I've thought of vegetable soups. Never made one, well aside from tomato bisque. What I thought of when I did, the vegetables have to be cooked perfect and vegetables obviously cook at different rates. So yeah, I can see it needing a bit more care.

Many stock options.

Really curious to see the recipe.
 
Definitely right up my alley. I too am eagerly awaiting the recipe. I have soup multiple times a week throughout the year, and in the winter , almost daily. I'd love to add another one to my list of go to soups.
 
All of my soups are great vegetable soups. They just happen to start usually with a beef soup bone or roast chicken, etc. But then I add lots of veggies
 
Sorry... this recipe turned out to be a serious head scratcher with the initial version having parts either illegible or nonsensical. Turns out this recipe was dictated to my sister-in-law by my Mom. After getting the head scratchers corrected from my S-I-L, I am disappointed.

It calls for home made stock (with virtually no details), but directs you to add 2 cups of Swanson packaged stock as well... WTF? Additionally, there is not a trace of tomato product anywhere, which is not how I remember it.

Instead, I believe this is a recipe handed down from my great aunt, to my aunt, to my mom, to my sister-in-law, with much lost in the translation. It is NOT a recipe I would waste my time making, nor is it the intricate recipe as initially described, and I see no point in posting it. It is stock, onions, celery, bay leaf, dry sherry, and peppercorns, which "at best" seems incomplete to me.

It is NOT the soup I remember from El Encanto growing up.
 
That is disappointing to lose a recipe that could have been passed down.
I remember sitting by my grandmothers hospital bed as she dictated her vegetable soup recipe to me. Was it the greatest soup in the world? No, but it was Grandma's soup, so in that sense it was. I still make it, to this day for my self and at least one family occasion so everyone can taste a piece of my families history and reminisce. She used to make extra and give us a jar each to take home ( usually an old Sanka jar). What I remember most about her recipe was 1) 16 string beans. To this day I use exactly 16 strignbeans ( no more, no less). and 2) after adding al the ingredients , fill the pot up to 1 inch from the top with water. ( This makes the recipe only truly reproducible if you have the same pot she always mad it in, and guess who had the pot passed down to them when she was gone ( me). So now, the recipe is in my hands. ( from my other grandmother I inherited her pastry board and rolling pin, which I also used regularly).
 
I usually use my meat as a stock I roast it to get that mmmm home cooked base of flavour. I’ll admit I have some favourite vegies but what’s the trick for that hearty taste
 
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