Tag: soup

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
🍋  🐓 🍲 🥕 🌿
With Carrots, Dill, and Parmesan

Bright with lemon and fresh dill, this comforting chicken dish falls somewhere between a hearty soup and a light stew. Everything comes together easily in one pot, making it a good choice for serving a crowd.

For our recent dinner party, we started with a goat cheese and vegetable salad dressed with an orange-balsamic vinaigrette—served alongside homemade artisan bread—then followed with the hot soup as a second course for a relaxed, satisfying meal. A chilled glass of Petit Chablis Domaine L. Chatelain 2024 was a perfect match, its crisp citrus and mineral notes complementing the lemony broth and fresh dill.

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup Recipe

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Seaweed Soup with Pork and Tofu (Miyeok Guk)

Seaweed Soup with Pork and Tofu (Miyeok Guk)

Miyeok Guk
🥣 🌊 🥢
Seaweed Soup
with Pork and Tofu

Miyeok guk is one of those quietly meaningful Korean soups that carries far more significance than its simple ingredients might suggest. In South Korea, it is traditionally eaten on birthdays to honor mothers, since seaweed soup is commonly served to women after childbirth for its nourishing and restorative qualities.

In Korean, guk simply means soup, and it’s a fundamental part of everyday meals — savory broths that accompany rice at the table. Classic miyeok guk is most often made with thinly sliced beef, though some coastal versions use mussels. The version here is a personal variation rather than a traditional preparation, with ground pork adding a savory backbone that pairs nicely with the clear broth, garlic, and sesame.

Seaweed Soup with Pork and Tofu (Miyeok Guk)

The dried seaweed (miyeok, often sold as wakame) unfurls into silky ribbons as it simmers, lending a gentle ocean note to the soup. Traditional miyeok guk usually relies on water, beef broth, or a Korean anchovy-kelp stock for its base. In this recipe, I add a small spoonful of hondashi — a Japanese-style dashi powder — as a quick way to bring extra umami to the broth.

Cubes of firm tofu are added at the end to heat through, holding their shape while taking on the flavor of the soup. Together, the tender tofu and pleasantly chewy seaweed create a satisfying contrast that gives each spoonful layered texture. Finished with a generous grind of black pepper and a drizzle of toasted sesame oil, the soup is excellent alongside steamed white rice or enjoyed on its own as a warm, savory bowl.

Seaweed Soup Recipe

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Soupe de Volaille à la Truffe en Croûte

Soupe de Volaille à la Truffe en Croûte

Soupe de Volaille à la Truffe en Croûte

Valentine’s Day calls for something a little special—unique, beautiful, and just indulgent enough to feel like a celebration. This Chicken Truffle Soup is exactly that kind of dish. Served steaming hot beneath a golden, flaky crust, it feels luxurious and romantic.

What makes this recipe especially appealing is that it delivers true truffle character without requiring an extravagant splurge. By using sliced black truffles from a jar, a touch of truffle oil, and truffle salt, you get depth, aroma, and richness in every bite. And of course, if you’re lucky enough to have access to fresh black truffles, by all means use them—they will only elevate the dish further. Either way, this soup proves that a memorable Valentine’s dinner doesn’t have to be complicated or costly to feel truly special.

Happy Valentine’s Day
❤️❤️❤️

Soupe de Volaille à la Truffe en Croûte

Chicken Truffle Soup Recipe

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Dolly Parton’s Stampede Soup (Cream of Vegetable)

Dolly Parton's Stampede Soup (Cream of Vegetable)

Dolly Parton’s Stampede Soup
(Cream of Vegetable)

🦋 Happy 80th Birthday Dolly! 🦋
Born January 19, 1946
Pittman Center, Tennessee

Dolly Parton’s Stampede Soup is best known as the creamy, comforting vegetable soup served at Dolly Parton’s Stampede Dinner Attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Branson, Missouri. It’s one of those quietly nostalgic dishes that people remember just as much as the show.

The soup is a smooth but not overly fancy cream-style vegetable soup, traditionally made with a blend of canned vegetables cooked with onion and butter, thickened with flour, and finished with milk or cream. The flavor is mild, savory, and gently sweet from the vegetables—meant to be crowd-pleasing and soothing rather than bold or spicy.

Texture-wise, it’s typically partially blended: mostly smooth, but with a little body so it doesn’t feel thin or watery. It’s served hot at the beginning of the meal alongside a biscuit, setting a cozy, down-home tone before the rest of the Southern-style dinner arrives.

Dolly Parton's Stampede Soup (Cream of Vegetable)

Like a lot of classic Southern restaurant soups, its appeal isn’t complexity—it’s familiarity. Stampede Soup is simple, comforting, and nostalgic, very much in keeping with Dolly Parton’s brand of warmth and accessibility.

In honor of her 80th birthday, I decided to make Stampede Soup—and to my delight, it exceeded all expectations. I briefly considered using fresh vegetables, but that wouldn’t be true Stampede Soup; it would just be a standard cream of vegetable. So I stuck with the canned mixed vegetables, and sure enough—it was delicious! Surprisingly easy to make, it’s a recipe I would happily recommend to anyone. Thanks, Dolly! 🦋

Dolly Parton's Stampede Soup (Cream of Vegetable)

🐎 Stampede Soup Recipe 🐎

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Hoppin’ John Soup with Collards

Hoppin' John Soup with Collards

Hoppin’ John Soup with Collards

We serve black-eyed peas and collard greens on New Year’s Day, following the Southern tradition meant to usher in good luck and prosperity. The peas are associated with good fortune in the year ahead, while collards, with their leafy green bundles, symbolize money and abundance.

Hoppin’ John is the classic Southern dish that brings these elements together with rice and pork, and this year we turned it into a soup — keeping the same soulful ingredients but letting them simmer in a smoky, savory broth, with rice served on the side to preserve the texture of the soup.

Most often, Hoppin’ John is served with collard (or mustard or turnip) greens on the side. Here, the collards go into the soup. Cutting them into a fine chiffonade allows the sturdy greens to soften more quickly and evenly, turning silky rather than bulky. The collards add color, flavor, and a boost of healthy greens.

Hoppin' John Soup with Collards

Hoppin’ John Soup Recipe

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