Beat back the chill with vegetarian soups

Jay Weinstein, Forecast Earth Food Correspondent

As autumn chill takes hold, nothing warms the house and comforts the body like hearty soup. When I studied cooking at The Culinary Institute of America, nearly every soup was made with meat-based stock. I thought that that was the only way to go, until I took a job in a small restaurant where all of the soups were vegetarian. These were such excellent soups; I realized that there was often no need for a meat element in soup. It was liberating.

Since then, I've made hundreds of soups using water or vegetable stock with fantastic results. The key is to "sweat" the essential juices out of the main ingredients before adding the liquid. That enriches the broth, unlocking flavors that are sealed inside the cells of the aromatic vegetables.

Sweating is not the same as sauteing, even though they both involve cooking the vegetables in oil. In sweating, the technique is to cook slowly, gradually coaxing out flavors. The idea is not to brown the vegetables at high heat, which would be a saute. Some browning may be desirable in sweating, but that comes after the vegetable shave softened, released their juices, and begun to caramelize onto the bottom of the pot, creating complex flavors that can be stirred into the broth with a wooden spoon. The flame for sweating is medium, and the process usually takes from 15 to 20 minutes. That's a small price to pay for some rich broth.

Some particularly warming soups for cold weather are mushroom-based ones. Their earthy, "meaty" character brings real comfort. The mushroom, barley, and collard greens soup below is rich not only in flavor, but in nutrients. It contains complete proteins, cancer-fighting antioxidants, folate-rich greens, and calcium for strong bones. It makes an excellent main course soup with some crusty bread.

Mushroom, Barley, and Collard Green Soup

• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 pounds mushrooms (any variety)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 Tbs. fresh or 2 teaspoons dried marjoram or oregano leaves
• 1½ tsp. fresh or ½ teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
• 2 tsp salt
• ½ tsp. fresh ground black pepper
• 2 cups pearl barley, rinsed
• 3 quarts vegetable stock or water
• 1 bunch fresh collard greens, cooked until tender in boiling water and chopped, or 2 packages (10 oz. each) frozen chopped collards

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat for 1 minute. Add mushrooms, onions, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaves, marjoram, rosemary, salt and pepper. Cook until vegetables have softened significantly and are stewing in their natural broth, about 15 minutes. Stir in barley and stock. Bring the soup up to a full boil, then reduce to a medium simmer and cook until barley is tender, about 40 minutes.

Add the collards; cook about 10 minutes more. Season to taste.

Serves 12