Spring Soups: A Vittles Cooking Supplement

Three recipes by Melek Erdal, Songsoo Kim and Ixta Belfrage

Spring can sometimes feel like a series of false starts, with the promise of brighter, warmer days giving way time and again to cold and darkness. In the period of uncertainty as we move from one season to another, time can be difficult to inhabit. There are days when deciding how – or what – to eat proves challenging.

To help you to navigate this shift, we asked three of our favourite recipe writers to come up with recipes that reflect the duality of the season. Almost immediately, we landed on ‘soup’ as a connective thread for this first Spring Recipe Supplement. Although more usually associated with winter, soup captures something of the anticipatory ambivalence of spring: light and vibrant enough to embrace the potential for change on some days, yet hearty enough to encourage slowing down on others.

Our three recipe writers – Melek Erdal, Songsoo Kim and Ixta Belfrage – all have different ideas of spring. ‘We often speak of the power of breaking bread together, but nothing seeps into you like soup,’ writes Melek in the lead essay of the supplement. In it, Melek explores her attempts to recreate a düğün çorbası (lamb and rice soup) made for her by legendary chef Musa Dağdeviren. Her version of this rich, unctuous soup has one foot in tradition and the other in experimentation, capturing the push and pull of building from the past to forge into the future.

In her recipe for rapini doenjang guk (flowering spring greens soup), a comforting, deeply umami broth bursting with seasonal greens, Songsoo writes that to eat spring vegetables is to mirror ‘the act of blooming itself … the first push of life at the start of spring’. For Ixta, meanwhile, spring is a bright, red bowl of spicy fish soup, lifted by a hot red pepper rouille. Her vibrant take on the classic French bouillabaisse draws inspiration from Italian, Turkish and Mexican flavours and is bursting with the vitality of the new.

Some of these recipes can be pulled together quickly, and make for a perfect quick al-fresco meal; others require a bit more time bubbling away on the stove, ideal for Sundays with loved ones. All are very straightforward to make, requiring little more than time and patience. These recipes are worth it though: as spring shows us year after year, good things come to those who wait.

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Melek Dreams of Soup

Melek Erdal recalls her attempts to recreate düğün çorbası (‘wedding soup’), a lamb and rice soup prepared for her by master chef Musa Dağdeviren.

‘As I sit with Luis, I think about the fortifying power of sipping soup together. The many people I’ve made soup for or who’ve made soup for me. I think about the corbacıs (soup canteens) that punctuate the working day back in North London, serving affordable, sustenance to the people who make the city run: soup to ease people into the day and to ease them out … The soup was transportive: the depth of the broth with thin strands of lamb, thickened by rice but still with a fluidity; the smoky heat from the pul biber, and slight acidity from a subtle touch of lemon.’

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Rapini Doenjang Guk (Flowering Spring Greens Soup)

Songsoo Kim shares a comforting umami soup made with Korean fermented soybean paste and verdant seasonal produce

‘In Korea, there are many genres of – and many different names for – what in the West is all broadly categorised as ‘soup’. This recipe sits within the guk (국) category, which can easily be translated as broth, and is often served as an accompaniment to a meal … In this guk, doenjang-massaged greens are paired with a deeply umami soup made from dry seafood stock, which complements the dark chlorophyll and sweet flavour of the greens. The result is a deliciously balanced, comforting dish.’

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Ixta Belfrage’s Spicy Fish Soup with Rouille

For this bright, zesty riff on the classic bouillabaisse, Ixta Belfrage draws on bold Italian, Turkish and Mexican flavours

‘French cuisine tends to be bound by rules of what ingredients can and cannot be used in a classic dish … These recipes hold no national or cultural allegiances, borrowing inspiration from Italy (the tomato-rich base), Turkey (the red pepper paste) and Mexico (guajillo chilli, cinnamon, lime). The moment I most look forward to is when you’ve just added the rouille to the hot soup: the two begin to meld into each other, but both elements are still distinct, marbling. Add a squeeze of lime, and it’s a party.’

Credits

The Vittles Spring Recipe Supplement was written by Melek Erdal, Songsoo Kim and Ixta Belfrage. It was photographed by Emil Bendixen at Quality Wines in Farringdon. The recipes were tested and prepared by Georgia Rudd. The shoot was styled collaboratively by Georgia and Emli. The full Vittles masthead can be found here.