Love Soup: 160 All-New Vegetarian Recipes from the Author of The Vegetarian Epicure [Paperback]

Anna Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2009

Winner of the James Beard Foundation Book of the Year, Healthy Focus: 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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With its title and a kitschy illustrated bright cover with hand-drawn lettering, along with all vegetarian recipes, it's hard not to think the blandly healthy vibe of the 1970s, but Thomas (of the Vegetarian Epicure cookbooks) presents 160 new and enticing recipes that may just charm even a die-hard carnivore. Soups are organized by season and range from hearty selections like rustic leek and potato, and minestrone for a crowd, to lighter summer options including tomato and fennel soup with blood orange and sweet corn. A deconstructed hummus soup, along with pickle soup, make the collection anything but tired. Inspired by a temporary housing move that included a kitchen less than seven feet wide, the author knows what it takes to make a recipe manageable and doesn't skimp on advice when it comes to time- and space-saving tips like freezing, doubling and garnishing. Recipes for breads, dips and spreads, salads and a collection of desserts, as well as sample menus at the start of each chapter, make it easy to plan a full meal. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

“Every page is a new original soup that I want to try. This is a fantastic book... a great resource.” (Macheesmo.com )

“Anna Thomas is back with her most inspirational cookbook to date.” (Project Foodie )

“Thomas (of the Vegetarian Epicure cookbooks) presents 160 new and enticing recipes that may just charm even a die-hard carnivore.” (Publishers Weekly )

“Love Soup is a must companion for everyone with a vegetable garden, or a kitchen (this means everybody).” (Margaret Roach - A Way to Garden.com )

“Is anything better than soup?... You'll be delighted and inspired by Thomas's collection of 160 recipes... Each one a bowl of shining good health.” (Weight Watchers.com )

“Anna Thomas is a visionary, pure and simple. She opened our eyes and enlightened our palates—and a new world of garden-based eating began to unfold for a generation and beyond. In her latest book, Love Soup, Anna is as present as ever--consistent in her passion, skill, and pure delight. This book makes me want to run to my kitchen and get lost in her soups.” (Mollie Katzen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (September 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393332578
• ISBN-13: 978-0393332575
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 1.3 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 65 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm actually using this cookbook! October 13, 2009

By Janice

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have lots of cookbooks sitting on the shelf gathering dust - but not this one. I've already used it 3 times in as many weeks, and as the weather gets colder I anticipate trying more recipes.

There's a whole chapter on "green soups" that use those dark leafy greens the nutritionists are always urging us to eat (unsuccessfully in my case). In my first attempt vast quantities of kale and spinach almost overflowed the soup pot, but after being cooked down and pureed with seasonings the greens were transformed into a delicious soup that was creamy without the need for butter or cream. It was so good I made it two weeks in a row.

Next I made the zucchini basil soup which uses a full 2 cups of basil to 2 pounds of zucchini - easy and delicious.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars So healthy and yet so delicious October 16, 2009

By L. Ogden

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am not a vegetarian! My family loves meat. Yet, I know that I need to offer meat-free meals at least twice a week that are satisfying and filling. This cookbook has those meat-free satisfying meals in the form of soup. My family and friends could not believe that I didn't put heavy cream in the "Winter Squash, Yam, and Poblano Pepper" soup that I made. It was that filling. Only roasted veggies and vegetable broth was used. Every soup has a little story behind it. I really enjoy that aspect of the book. You can't go wrong buying this book. Next up for this family: The Original Green Soup. Just a little side note. My daughter does not like veggies, but when they are pureed in these soups, she will eat them. A healthy bonus for us.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthusiastically recommended for vegetarian and vegan cooks everywhere September 15, 2009

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Paperback

A follow-up to "The Vegetarian Epicure", Love Soup is a compendium of delectable vegetarian broths, soups, gumbos, and more, from "Pea Pod Broth" to "Creamy Potato and Roasted Garlic Soup", "Green Soup with Ginger", "Winter Squash and Yam Soup with Poblano Peppers", "Cauliflower Bisque", "Three- Bean Vegetable Chili", and even holiday-themed treats like "Chestnut Soup". Many of the proffered soups have a theme or flavor meant for the different seasons of the year. Featuring easy-to-prepare vegetarian (and many vegan!) soups for almost every occasion, "Love Soup" is enthusiastically recommended for vegetarian and vegan cooks everywhere.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What is not to love about Love Soup??? October 18, 2009

By me

Format:Paperback

I recently purchased LOVE SOUP after it caught my eye on the table at a local book purveyor's. Ages ago, a dear friend had gifted me (complete with inscription with doodly bugs and googly eyeballs) with Anna Thomas's THE VEGETARIAN EPICURE. It remains a favorite. But LOVE SOUP, if you love the soup, and who does not love soup?, is da bomb.

Seriously, in less than a week I have made three of her recipes (Carol's Finnish Pea Soup with Apples, Red Lentil and Squash Soup & Roasted Kabocha Squash and Celery Root Soup) and each one has been a joy to prepare and divine to eat/slurp. Serving sizes are generous so luckily we have lots of leftovers to freeze and enjoy later.

Even if someone is not a vegetarian they would be hard pressed to not be wowed by the delicious flavors and heartiness (particularly regarding the colder weather soups).

I look forward to making my way through all of them, very ambitious I know, as thus far I have yet to read one that does not appeal to me.

Another aspect of this cookbook is the fact that in addition to stating how many, the user is offered the weight. Medium to me may be another size to someone else and I have been off eyeballing it but because a weight is also offered I am saved. My kitchen scale get quite the workout when I prepare one of these recipes.

Thanks Anna for the great tasties!!!

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book once I got past the intimidation factor! September 8, 2011

By parker6126

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The introduction of this book was excerpted in Yoga Journal last fall and I was instantly hooked (you can still find it on their web site -- just google "Anna Thomas Yoga Journal"). Anna Thomas' ability to paint a picture with just a few simple sentences is nothing short of awe inspiring and I wasn't surprised to find out later that she is an award-winning screenwriter. I ordered it immediately and couldn't wait to "read" the rest of it . . . which is all I did when it arrived a couple of days later. The stories with each recipe are so engaging that I really enjoyed reading the book but was too intimidated by the recipes to actually try making any of them. Before this book, my typical veggie soup consisted of carrots, onions, and celery with a few herbs, a can of crushed tomatoes, and a box of organic vegetable broth. At first glance, many of the recipes seemed like you need to buy out the produce section of Whole Foods in order to make them and I had never worked with fennel or parsnips or dark leafy greens before -- I was intimidated.

A few months later we joined a CSA for the summer and I found myself baffled by what to do with the swiss chard that arrived with our bi-weekly basket. I tried a couple of chard recipes I found on the internet but kept finding myself being drawn back to "Love Soup". I finally realized that, as long as you already have broth on hand, many of the recipes just involved chopping up 3 or 4 different kinds of vegetables and pitching them into a pot with some herbs -- in other words, no more effort than the veggie soup I've made for years, just with some different vegetables. And, after all, didn't we join a CSA in the first place to try new vegetables?

So, I set off to make the basic light vegetable broth from the book.... We cook a lot so I already had all of the herbs on hand, the carrots and celery and onions. The chard was from my CSA basket, so I found I only needed to buy the leeks, fennel and parsnips. I could handle that. Anna Thomas says in the book that "making your own broth is both a big deal and not a big deal at all" and I now completely understand what she means. I am a product of the hamburger helper generation, even though I moved away from that as soon as I could cook for myself, but the idea of making vegetable broth from scratch seemed needlessly indulgent. In the end, it really wasn't much effort but the end product is light years away from any mass produced broth I've ever had. In short, a big deal but not a big deal at all.

Since the broth recipe only uses the tops of the fennel and the leeks, and just the stems from the chard, what to do with the rest of it all? Luckily, "Love Soup" has probably the best index of any cookbook I've ever used. I looked up "leeks" in the index and had more than 30 recipes to choose from. I had yukon gold potatoes on hand so made the Rustic Leek and Potato Soup, which is hands down the best soup I have ever had, and that's saying something. I made White Bean and Garlic Soup With Greens with some dried beans and the leftover chard and discovered the secret to tempering the bitterness of chard is to pair it with carmelized onions. Beets arrived with our next CSA basket and I still had some leftover leeks and parsnips and fennel so I made Beet Soup with Ginger - fantastic! Beet soups had never appealed to me because of the earthiness of beets, but this time they were perfectly balanced by the other ingredients.

Now completely trusting the brilliance of Anna Thomas with making any vegetable, no matter how healthy, taste like a treat, we threw all caution to the wind and made Green Soup last night. You put an enormous pile of kale and chard in a pot with some green onions and cilantro, a bit of salt, and a chopped up potato and watch it all boil down, thinking all the while "there is no way this is going to taste like anything other than the ground". Meanwhile you carmelize an onion and brown some garlic, then dump it in with the pile of cooked-down greens, along with a few ladles of broth. It cooks for a couple of minutes and then you puree the whole mess in a food processor (or blender), add some cayenne and lemon juice, and doubtfully eye the very green results. Of course, we should have had more faith because it tastes amazingly good, as in I could eat it twice a day for a week and not get tired of it.

One caution: I think that Anna Thomas didn't include pictures because she doesn't want people to get caught up in what the soup "should" look like. She encourages you to make the soup your own. However, I strongly recommend you trust the recipe the first time around. Many of her soups have garnishes that are an integral part of the soup, and she takes care to point that out when it applies. For instance, I tasted the Rustic Leek and Potato Soup and thought it was very good but that there was a bit of something missing. I looked at the recipe again and realized she tells you to add 3 Tbsp of heavy cream to the entire pot right before serving. Once I did that, I tasted it again and the difference was significant. Just that little bit of cream finished the soup (and was cups shy of the amount of cream most potato leek soups include!).

I cannot recommend this cookbook highly enough. Anna Thomas has made all sorts of vegetables you know you should eat into something you actually want to eat. My husband is the definition of a die-hard carnivore and he has loved each and every one of these. The brilliance is that the soups in this book are so delicious that it is only as an afterthought that you realize they are low in calories and fat, jam packed with nutrition, and cost very little per serving. Also, many of them have only 1 tsp of salt in the entire pot but don't sacrifice any of the flavor.

Next up - roasted poblano soup! Read more ›