The Art of Making a Comforting Soup: A Journey Through Flavor and Texture

While many people rely on store-bought soups to warm them up during the cold winter months, making your own soup from scratch can be a truly therapeutic experience. In this article, we'll explore the process of creating a rich and comforting soup that's sure to cure any case of sadness.

To begin with, it's essential to have some basic ingredients on hand. These may include leftover brown rice, shredded chicken breasts, chopped parsley, dill, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, and your choice of protein (such as chicken or pork). It's also important to have a good quality chicken stock as the base of your soup.

Now, let's talk about tempering eggs. This is an essential step in making our soup thick and rich. To do this, you'll need to whisk together some beaten eggs with a small amount of hot broth while constantly whisking until they reach room temperature. This process may seem daunting at first, but trust us when we say that it's worth the effort.

Once your egg mixture has cooled down, you can slowly stream it into the remaining broth while whisking constantly. Be careful not to add too much at once, as this can cause the eggs to scramble and ruin the entire soup. With patience and practice, you'll be able to create a smooth and creamy texture that's simply divine.

Now, let's talk about our toasted rice powder. Traditionally, this ingredient is made from sweet glutenous rice, but we're going to make do with brown rice instead. We'll toast it in a dry pan for about 15 minutes before cooling and grinding into a fine powder. The results may not be ideal, as the flavor will be quite earthy and not very pleasant. However, this won't deter us from using it in our soup.

Moving on to the actual meat salad that we'll be serving alongside our soup. We'll start by sautéing a pound of ground pork in about two tablespoons of vegetable oil until it's lightly browned and no longer pink in the center. This will give our soup a nice depth of flavor and texture.

Next, we'll add some grated lemon zest to the pan for about a minute, followed by two teaspoons of fish sauce, half teaspoon of brown sugar or muscovado sugar, a little pinch of Thai chili powder, and about two tablespoons of our toasted rice powder. The mixture will start to come together nicely, with all the flavors melding together in harmony.

Now it's time to add the fresh herbs and spices to give our soup its final touch. We'll add five or six large, freshly torn mint leaves, two large scallions, and one small shallot thinly sliced. The juice of one to two limes will also be added to give our soup that perfect balance of acidity.

Finally, we'll season the soup with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. With a quick stir, our soup is now ready to be served. And let's not forget the lettuce wraps – traditionally, these are piled high with the dreaded herb, cilantro. But for those who can't stand its pungent flavor, don't worry! We'll pick it off before serving.

As we take that first spoonful of our soup, we can feel our taste buds come alive with joy and satisfaction. This dish may be simple, but it's truly something special – a symphony of flavors and textures that will leave you wanting more. And the best part? It's quick, easy, and healthy to boot!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- This episode issponsored by Thrive Market.An online membership based marketthat is here to make healthy living easyand affordable for everyone.They carry everythingfrom essential groceriesto supplements, to nontoxic home products,to the subject of today'sepisode, brown rice.Go to thrivemarket.com/BingingWithBabishto get 25% off your first orderand a free gift when you join today.The link is in the video description,let's get down to basics.(energetic music)(gentle music)All right, so the first thingwe gotta tackle is the best methodby which to cook brown rice.Generally speaking, you'regonna be best served to followthe manufacturer's instructionsprinted on the package.Simply combine thespecified amount of ricein boiling water,cover and cook for thespecified amount of time.If your pot has a steam hole like this oneyou're best to block it upwith something like a clean kitchen towelso that you do not lose too much moisture.Then we're gonna cook without stirringfor the specified amount of time,briefly fluff with a forkand then most packagesdon't call for this,but then I like to kill the heat,cover it with a clean dishtowel, replace the lidand let it steam for like 10 minutes.The is gonna allow it tosoak up any excess moistureand it's gonna give you anice, well separated grains.Then there's the matter of seasoningif we're just servingthis as a simple side,I like to hit it with somefresh chopped parsley,for this amount of rice maybelike a quarter cups worth,a half teaspoon ofchopped fresh thyme, saltand freshly ground pepper to taste,about a tablespoon ofextra virgin olive oil.This both adds flavorand helps prevent the rice from clumping.And then it might seem strangebut I like the juice of one small lime.When paired with thenuttiness of brown rice,it adds a really nice neutral flavor.Give that a mix and it's readyfor immediate consumptionor your meal day prepper kit.A method that's more time consumingbut has a higher success rateis oven baked brown rice.In an oven safe saucepan,we are combining the specifiedbrown rice in boiling water,giving it a perfunctory mix, coveringand placing in a 375degree Fahrenheit ovenfor anywhere from 35 minutes to one hour.This is gonna depend onwhat kind of rice you are cookingbut it's gonna give youthe most consistently perfect results.As you can see I've got somenice short grain rice here,which I'm gonna givethe same sort of steamtreatment after cooking.And for this one, I'm just gonna seasonwith olive oil, salt and pepperso that it plays more nicelywith our leftover recipes down the line.And I gotta say in most contextsI prefer the short grain rice.It's stickier and it'sgot a nice chew to italmost like a sushi rice.But that's just gonna come downto your personal preference.Now, what to do with this stuff,as I mentioned beforeit makes for a lovelyand healthy side for yourstandard Sunday meal prep.Some a marinated grilled chicken,some sesame roasted broccoli.It's nothing fancy, but it's healthyand it'll get you through the week.But what if you want tojudge things up a little bitespecially if you have leftovers.Well, the first and most obvious usefor leftover rice ofany kind is fried rice.As you can see, I'm startingwith an optional step hereof searing some baby bok choyand some smoking hot vegetable oil,setting those aside, wiping out the pan,applying some additional vegetable oiland beginning to saute some ofthe vegetables of my choice.I'm going with what'sleftover in the fridge.I got some sliced baby bella mushrooms.I'm sautéing these firstand lightly salting thembecause they have a lot of moisturethat needs to cook off.Once that's doneand they are starting to brownI'm gonna add some enoki mushroomsthat I honestly can'tbelieve I had in my fridge.Saute those for a minute or twountil they start to crisp upand then I'm gonna addsome diced white onionand a very small diced carrot.Sautéing those togetherfor three to five minutesuntil softened and starting to brown.Then I'm going to grate in bothabout a half inches worth of fresh gingerand one clove of fresh garlic.Tossing together and sautéingfor like 30 seconds stops,so we gotta move fastcause this is all happeningover very high heat.Then we're scooting everybodyto the outside of the pan,adding about a tablespoon ofvegetable oil to the centerand dropping in our leftovershort grain brown rice.Then I'm going to drizzle two teaspoonsof toasted sesame oil around the outside,toss about a half cupof frozen peas on top,add one tablespoon of dark soy sauce,one teaspoon of mirinand one tablespoon rice wine vinegar.At this point, hopefully the riceis crisped up a little bit on the bottom.So we're gonna toss everybody together,make sure that everythingis well and evenly combined,taste for seasoning.Hit it with a little bit of kosher saltand freshly ground pepper to your tasteand then final stepwe're scooting everybodyto the outside of the pan again,hitting it with a littlebit more vegetable oiland cracking an egg in the center.Scoot that around a little bitwith fork or some chopsticks.And once it's cooked completelytoss it in with the fried rice.And there you have it, a super easy dinnerthat takes like 15 or 20 minutes to make,uses stuff that youprobably have in the fridgeor in the freezerand can be garnished withall kinds of fixings.Baby bok choys, scallionssesame seeds or my personal favorite,some tongue numbing sichuan chili crisp.Maybe not the healthiestthing in the worldbut still pretty healthy.Vegetarian packed withtons of fiber from the riceand can be gleefully servedas a side or a main course.But what if it's been a really long dayand it's the dead of winterand you want a rich,comforting but healthy soup.Well, lemme tell youabout my favorite soupthat's very hard to pronounce,avgolemono.In a large saucepanwe are bringing four cups ofchicken stock to a bare simmer.While that comes upwe are beating together twolarge eggs in a large bowlusing a large whisk.Once the eggs are nice and frothywe're gonna add one third of a cupof freshly squeezed lemon juice.Sometimes I do more like half a cupif I want it to be extra agvolemony.Then once the chickenbroth comes up to a simmer,we're gonna treat thisvery much the same waywe would custard,slowly ladling in about acup's worth of the hot brothwhile whisking constantlyto temper the eggs.This is eventually what's gonna makeour soup thick and rich,but first we have toheat up our leftovers.Set the egg mixture asidewhile to the remaining brothwe add one cups worthof leftover brown rice.You can see I'm using the Arby one here,that's gonna be fine.And maybe a cup and a half's worthof leftover shredded chicken breasts.Then additionally, I'm gonnaadd maybe two teaspoons eachfresh chopped parsley and dill.Then we're gonna kill the heatand as soon as the soup stops bubblingwe're gonna slowly stream inour tempered egg lemon mixture.Whisking constantly becauseeven after temperingyou can still curdle your eggsand no one wants scrambled eggs soup.Once all that's addedyou can stop right thereor if you want your soupto be thicker and richer.You can put it back over medium low heatwhisking constantly until it reachesyour desired consistency.As always give it a taste for seasoninghit it with some kosher saltand freshly ground pepper and that's it.In like 15 minutesyou've got the richest and mostcomforting soup imaginable.I might be biased because it's my favoritebut I really think thatthis stuff cures sadness.It's rich and savory and lemonybut it's also pretty healthy.If you think about it,all that's in this bowlis an egg, some chicken,some chicken stock,lemon and herbs.Which you can tell yourtaste buds all you likebut they will staunchlyrefuse to believe you.Next step of brown rice version of a dishthat I'm going topurposefully mispronounce.Larb, a Thai meat salad that I do not knowhow to say correctly.One of the key components of this dishis a toasted rice powdertraditionally made fromsweet glutenous rice.I thought I'd try makingit with some brown ricejust to see what happen.Toasting it up in a drypan for about 15 minutesbefore cooling and grinding into a powder.And the results I gotta saywere pretty, not very good.It brings the desired texture of the partybut the flavor is very earthy inand I'm gonna say borderline undesirable.So try it at your own risk.Now to make the actual meat saladwe're gonna saute a pound of ground porkin about two tablespoons of vegetable oil,breaking it up into piecesand cooking until lightly brownedand no longer pink in the center.Then you could just servethis with brown rice as a sidebut I kinda like to adda cup right to the mix,so picks up all the delicious flavors.First up some optional grated lemon grassthat we're gonna sautetogether with the rice forI don't know, a minute.Then we're killing the heatand adding two teaspoons of fish sauce,half teaspoon of brownsugar or muscovado sugar,a little or large pinchof Thai chili powder,depending on how spicy you want itand about two tablespoonsof our toasted rice powder.Again, the brown rice version is not idealbut it'll get the job done.Give everybody a little mix togetherand then we're gonna addfive or six largefreshly torn mint leaves,two large scallionsand one small shallot thinly sliced,the juice of one to two limes,depending on how limey you like it.And of course, season to tastewith kosher salt andfreshly ground pepper.Give it a taste for seasoning,add more lime if youare a lime freak like meand serve in lettuce wraps.Then traditionally you aresupposed to pile these guys highwith the most dreaded of herbs,at least for me cilantro.So once you've done that for camerathen picked it right back off,grab yourself a wrap and tuck in.The whole time cursing yourdefective genetic markersthat make you hate what should bean inoffensive, evenpleasant herb garnish.But no matter what's wrongwith your taste buds,they are sure to enjoy this quick, simpleand healthy weeknight meal.Thanks again to Thrive Marketfor sponsoring this episodeand for inspiring me totackle some healthy meals.Thrive Market providesits members with thousandsof the highest quality healthyand sustainable productsin grocery, supplements, home and more.They have groceries that are gluten-free,non-GMO, keto and more.If you're concerned aboutthe environmental effectsof having your groceries delivered,Thrive Market has you covered.Your package will be deliveredwith carbon neutral shipping methodsfrom their zero waste warehouses.You can also choose the membershiptype that works for you,one month or 12 months.Add link in the videodescription to sign upfor a Thrive Market membership.You'll get 25% off your first orderand a free gift when you join today.(upbeat music)\n"