Pumpkin takes the soup crown – again
PREPARE TO be bowled over. Google has ladled up New Zealand’s top 10 soup recipe search habits and the winner, for the third consecutive year, is pumpkin.
But the perennial favourite shouldn’t rest on its laurels. Broccoli has surged into third spot (from 10th place last year) and, for the first time, international favourites from Japan and Thailand have made the top 10 list, with miso and tom yum soups coming into ninth and 10th place, respectively. Traditional vegetables including potato, leek and onion have all dropped out off the list.
Annabelle White, celebrity cook and food writer, says it’s about time broccoli took a star turn.
‘‘I tour the country with my broccoli soup. It’s a super food! But it’s really important not to overcook it. If you do that, it changes colour and it starts to look like the Rotorua thermal hot pools.’’
White’s secret? Really good chicken stock – and a hunk of blue cheese in the bottom of the bowl.
Meanwhile, Masu restaurant’s Nic Watt says he’s not surprised to see miso in the list. Masu, the Auckland-based Japanese eatery named Cuisine magazine’s 2014’s new restaurant of the year, adds Cloudy Bay clams to its $8.90 miso offering, but Watt says the basic soup is easy to make at home.
‘‘My 72-year-old mum does a restaurant grade miso with a coffee plunger. If you can make a good strong builder’s tea, you can make restaurant grade miso.’’
New Zealanders have a long connection with the pumpkin, says John Seymour, Wellington-based senior business manager with Vegetables NZ.
‘‘In the pre-war days, when there was a lot of poverty, it was a lowcost way of providing food. It has longevity. The pumpkin was something that sat in your shed, and if you were ever short of something, the easy solution was to make pumpkin soup.
‘‘Broccoli is more of a new food – the volume being purchased and consumed has increased significantly over the past few years.’’
Sid Sahrawat, of Auckland’s Sidart restaurant, says cauliflower soup is popular. He routinely serves up a cumin-spiked version as an amuse bouche.
His top tip for pumpkin: ‘‘Add a little bit of cardamom. It makes it a lot more exciting.’’