French Country Soup with Sage Salt Croutons
1/2 cup onions, sliced
1/2 cup celery, chopped celery
1/2 cup carrots, thickly sliced
3-6 red and/or purple potatoes (depending on the size), cut into small wedges
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
coarse sea salt, to taste
1/4 cup white wine
6 cups water
3 plum tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 lemon, juiced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 long or 4 short whole sprigs rosemary
3 whole sprigs tarragon
10 sage leaves
4-6 cups rustic Tuscan bread, diced (depending on how much you like to load up on croutons)
green onions, for garnish
fresh parsley, for garnish
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F for croutons. Put onions, carrots, celery, potatoes and olive oil in a pot with 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, on medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Next, add the wine, and 6 cups water. Add tomatoes, lemon juice, soy sauce, rosemary and tarragon. Bring to a boil, then cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes. Take out the rosemary and tarragon sprigs before serving. Add more salt if desired, to taste.
3. For sage salt, take sage leaves and about 1/2 to 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt. Put them in a coffee grinder and blend. Toss bread cubes with 2 tablespoons olive oil, spread on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with the sage salt and bake for 10-12 minutes.
4. Take out rosemary and tarragon sprigs from soup before serving, and add more salt, if desired. Ladle out some soup, and top with green onion, fresh parsley, and lots of croutons.
Source of recipe: I wrote this recipe. pjpriest.tumblr.com
SO HOW'D IT GO?
I used tamari, too. That shouldn't make it bitter. Did you use canned tomatoes? I could see that making it weird. I used really firm, almost under-ripe roma tommatoes and my broth was a beautiful light orange. I don't love tarragon either so i used half as much and a little dill.
ok i was so excited to make this. dont know what happened. first off the soy sauce and tomatoes cooking turned my broth like reddish. and something about the flavor was off, kinda bitter, maybe beacause i used tamari ?. i would try this again but i wouldnt add the tomatoes until near the very end of the cooking time and i would cut way back on the tarragon. maybe im just not super wild about tarragon.. the croutons were awesome.
ok i was so excited to make this. dont know what happened. first off the soy sauce and tomatoes cooking turned my broth like reddish. and something about the flavor was off, kinda bitter, maybe beacause i used tamari ?. i would try this again but i wouldnt add the tomatoes until near the very end of the cooking time and i would cut way back on the tarragon. maybe im just not super wild about tarragon.. the croutons were awesome.
Really delicious and easy soup! The croutons were delightful. Thanks!