I've never ever made a brothy soup before and with the right ingredients, a wide open Sunday evening, and a little inspiration from Bon Appetit magazine, this past Sunday seemed like the perfect time to add broths to my cooking repertoire. Somehow it made me feel mature. I have beautiful childhood memories of my mom making incredible rosoł (chicken soup) and barszcz (borscht). In addition to beautiful ingredients, she added love, patience and utmost care in preparation to her recipe. The transfer of the nutrients from the veggies into the water takes precious time, but the result is a beautiful belly warming soup and a broth you can reuse for the next several days. The best part is you just chop up the veggies and then the pot handles the rest so you don't have to be in the kitchen the whole time!
I was inspired by Bon Appetit's Cleansing Ginger-Chicken Soup. I altered it slightly by substituting the chicken with cod and adding a few more fun veggies and greens I had hiding in the fridge. It's a wonderful soup you can enjoy when the weather outside is freightful!
Ingredients
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 8 ounces unpeeled scrubbed ginger, cut into 1/2"-thick slices
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 10 whole black peppercorns
- 5 coriander seeds
- 3 sprigs parsely
- 1 small celeriac
- 1-2 lbs cod (I found that it break apart pretty easily so if you want left overs and you're cooking for two people, 1.5-2lbs is a nice amount).
- Sea salt
- Pepper to taste
- Cilantro leaves (optional for garnish)
Preparation
- Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large heavy pot. Add 6 quarts water (preferably filtered or spring water); bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover with lid slightly ajar. Reduce heat to low; simmer until broth is fully flavored, about 2 hours.
- While broth is simmering, salt and pepper the cod. Toward the end of the 2 hours, gently put the cod in whole. Continue simmering until cod is cooked through. Season broth with salt and pepper to taste.
- Garnish soup with cilantro leaves, if desired.
- If you'd like a nice clean broth, you can strain it by placing a fine mesh sieve over another pot and pour the contents over the sieve. You can keep the solids (I find the ginger a bit bitter so I discard it, but keep everything else) in a little bit of the broth and then add more broth to them when you reheat the next day.
Enjoy and as always, if you make it, let me know how it tastes!!