Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Soups for 60

Here's a couple of soup recipes for larger groups.

Vegan White Chile for 60

8 pounds dry great white northern beans
1 jar better than bullion
Water
16 ounces Earth Balance
5-6 large onions
4 pounds tomatillos
8 cups chopped grean chiles (canned is fine)
3 bricks of extra firm tofu
8 tablespoons ground cumin
8 tablespoons dried oregano
3 tablespoons black pepper
red pepper flakes
3 bunches of cilantro

I started by boiling a few gallons of water in a 6 gallon pot. The Great White Northerns took a little less than 2 hours to get to the amount of softness i wanted. When they did, I put in the salt to slow down the cooking of the beans, and I added the BTB as well. Next dice up the Onions and Chiles and Tomatillos, and put these into your pot with the rest of the seasonings. These all need to cook for at least half an hour, but letting the flavors meld together for longer only seems to help. Just a little while before serving this chile, I added the cilantro (chopped up), and the tofu, which i cut into little cubes. The tofu was probably very unnecessary, but if you like tofu, mmm. . .

Vegan Mushroom Bisque for 60

2.5 gallons water mixed with Better than Bullion
8-10 pounds of assorted mushrooms (I used white mushrooms, crimini mushrooms, portabellas, and oyster mushrooms)
5 large onions, cut into thin strips 1/2 - 1 inch long
16 cloves of garlic, sliced
3 3/4 cups of earth balance
3 3/4 cups flour
10 cans coconut milk
3 1/3 teaspoons salt
sriracha
Vegan Worcestershire sauce
Sherry

When I was in highschool I worked at a Panera Bread Company, and they had a soup called a Parisian Mushroom bisque, which was super good. This is my own attempt to clone that recipe, however, I think what made that soup really special, was it had Brie cheese in it (hence the Parisian part of the name). Since this is a vegan version of the soup, this soup is missing that element. Still, when i made it, though i felt it was missing that brie taste, no one else seemed to have that complaint.

I started by cutting all of my mushrooms into small soup sized pieces, as well as cutting up the onions and garlic. Meanwhile i had the water and better than bullion warming up in another 6 gallon pot. I put all of the mushrooms into the pot, along with the onions and garlic. I also added in the salt and coconut milk.

Then I made a Roux from the earth balance and flour. I cooked that together in a skillet until it started to brown, and then added it to the big pot. Bring that all to a boil to get it to thicken, then reduce the heat to a simmer, and use the Vegan Worcestershire sauce, the sriracha and the sherry to even out the flavors. I didn't measure at all how much I used, so you'll just have to play with it until it gets a good even flavor.

4 comments:

Abby said...

Brandon,
Thanks for posting these recipes, I had left over bisque in my lunch today and it was perfect for the wintery weather.

Chad said...

Always love reading your food stories. Just wanted to make a note that real Worcestershire sauce is not vegan. It is made by aging anchovies and tamarind in vinegar. It most definitely isn't vegan. But some of the generic brands skimp on major ingredients - so I guess you'd have no idea. I only have Lea & Perrins.

T. Brandon Lane said...

Thanks for the reminder Chad, I made note of it in the blog. There's a couple of Brands that offer Vegan worcestershire sauce, I think they're made from some sort of mushroom or mold. I don't really remember.

Unknown said...

I'm not a big mushroom fan, myself, so I ate the chile. It was SO GOOD!