Falling temperatures and shorter days make a comforting bowl of vegetable soup irresistably appealing. But you know me. Not just any soup recipe will do. So I went searching recently for a Fennel Soup that met my criteria: easy and quick with fresh ingredients.
First I checked with "Chef Google". I found recipes for fennel with potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, white beans. Why are they afraid of fennel's mild anise flavor? The recipes also called for boxed or canned broth.
Recipes for Soupe à la Fenouil on Google.fr were much the same except that the French prefer adding water and bouillon cubes to infuse more flavor. But a salty cube of concentrated seasonings is not much of an improvement on thin-tasting boxed broth.
In fact, I already I already had the recipe I was looking for. (Does that happen to you?) We had prepared it with squash in Avignon early this month. It was simple to recall because it contained only three ingredients: hard winter squash, shallots and enriched milk. We simmered the squash, skin on, but without the seeds, in milk and cream until it was very tender. The mixture was pureed and seasoned to taste. Full disclaimer: we added powdered turmeric and ginger as well as salt and pepper. And then there was the sauteed chanterelle mushroom garnish. This was France, after all.
Back in Chicago at the Alliance Francaise, we prepared a fennel version that really hit the mark. The small, organic fennel I found at Whole Foods was outstanding. Smaller bulbs have a concentrated flavor often lacking in larger bulbs. We substituted rubbed sage for the turmeric and garnished it simply with fennel fronds. It was a 'Voila' moment.
Here is a link to the recipe Fennel Soup
