Rebecca Woods

Initially I was concerned I wouldn't get much out of the book because of the plethora of unique ingredients mentioned in the beginning of the book, and having to look up what all of them are. Sorrel, pink peppercorns, pomegranate molasses, kaffir lime leaves, smoked tofu, and samphire are some of the more obscure and difficult-to-find ingredients that were in the recipes early on. Although she does mention the occasional butcher shop or garden center, it would help if she could give suggestions as to where to get some of the more obscure ingredients (author based in the UK). However, past that first chunk of pages, I started flagging recipes that looked doable, and before I knew it I had almost half the book flagged!

The beginning of the book itself is quite valuable with some simple recipes for homemade stocks, croutons, and ideas for how to zhuzh up some of the more plain soups. The author also takes the opening of the book as an opportunity to encourage creativity and experimentation. Throughout the book, she has mini-recipes for the accompaniments to soup, which I feel would have benefited from being consolidated in the front of the book with the stocks and croutons recipes, or in another section in the back, thereby making it easier to zhuzh and experiment as the author encourages. For example, the maple seed brittle would be something I would make just to snack on, however I have to rifle through much of the book to track it down as there is no mention of it in the opening or the index.

With very few “traditional” soups, the author takes a lot of powerful and challenging flavor profiles and blends them together to make something uniquely balanced. I’m particularly intrigued by the generous incorporation of root vegetables, which I’ve always struggled with cooking because of their bitter, and often overpowering, taste. Although pretty well balanced between vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, I am also curious to see how some of the meat-based recipes, such as the Five-Spice Duck pho, fare when adapted as a mostly-vegetarian dish – certain meat textures and flavors do not agree with me, but the broth should be okay.

Overall, I found the recipes in this book to be very intriguing and health conscious. A number of them might pose a challenge when tracking down ingredients not as readily available in a typical U.S. grocery store. However, in terms of skill, they seem very simple. If I end up actually making a good number of the soups, then I will be sure to post a follow-up review on how they taste.… (mehr)