For the many of you in the midst of a summer heat wave, I realize posting a big, wintry soup right now might seem a little unhinged. I cooked it this week out of necessity. I tend to keep our freezer full of frozen homemade soups, sauces, dumplings, and anything else that can come together into a quick, feel-good meal when I’m short on time or motivation. It’s a system I absolutely rely on, but my freezer supply was completely tapped out, and building it back up started here. Soups like this are some of the easiest homemade meals-in-a-bowl that I know, whatever the season. This one is full of beans, lentils, all manner of vegetables, and a robust mushroom-tomato broth. Top it with a swirl of good pesto and you’ve got a kiss of summer, and a go-to lunch.
Ingredient Notes
A few notes related to the main ingredients in this soup.
- Beans: I cooked both the beans and the lentils from dried here. I wanted both to retain structure and a bit of firmness throughout the cooking and simmering of the soup, and that’s never going to happen using canned beans or lentils. The Santa Maria Pinquito beans were calling to me as I scanned the pantry, and they held up wonderfully. Their bean broth combined especially well with the mushroom powder to form the base of the soup. Other types of beans I suspect would work well with this soup: Alubia Blanca beans, cannellini, cranberry or borlotti beans, Good Mother Stallard.
- Lentils: The key here is choosing a lentil that will its shape. A lot of lentils really break down over time, especially in a soup that will be reheated. I rarely go wrong with French green lentils / Lentils du Puy, and this was no exception. I cooked them in their own pot, and then drained the remaining broth before adding along with the beans to the soup.
- Mushroom powder: You can buy mushroom powders, but I tend to make my own by blending dried mushrooms in a grinder or high-speed blender. I tend to use a lot of porcini mushroom powder in particular, and it’s the mushroom I went for here. I wanted an assertive mushroom broth that could stand up to the tomatoes, beans, lentils, and kale and not get lost. As a side note, related to turning ingredients into powders, Andrea Nguyen turned me onto one of my favorite kitchen appliances when I was telling her I was struggling to get a true powder when grinding chiles into powder. She sent me a link to the Cuisinart SG-10 Electric Spice-and-Nut Grinder and I’ve never looked back. Turns everything to the consistency of baby powder.
- Kale: Use what you have. A combination of lacinato and curly kale, stemmed and chopped well worked nicely here. Add it toward the end of cooking so it keeps some structure and brightness.
Other Soups & Stews Like This
Here are a few other soups and stews that are freezer-friendly and full of all the things you want in a one-bowl meal. I make this ribollita every other month or so, using day-old sourdough, it freezes nicely. The fragrant saffron and fennel combination in this white bean soup make it special, just a tad offbeat and unexpected (in a good way!), it also freezes well. And if you just want to poke around a bit, here’s a list of all the soup recipes.
One rule of thumb I follow is I don’t usually freeze soups with noodles or pasta in them. The pasta just tends to get overcooked on reheating. And all of these welcome a poached or fried egg on top as a bonus!
Other Freezer-friendly Staples
- This mushroom ragu is a bit of an effort, but makes future pasta nights easy.
- Load up on summer basil and keep this pesto in the freezer year-round.
- Keep pie dough at the ready for easy pies, tarts, galettes, and hand pies.
- Related, peach hand pies, mushroom hand pies, and apple cinnamon hand pies – ready to bake from the freezer.
- This mushroom lasagna freezes well. The instruction are on the page.
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