So a scientist winds up in a scientist concentration camp in the middle of the desert. Escape seems impossible: barbed wire, guards, desert for miles. Despite the obstacles, he lives and dreams of his desperate move. His closest comrade in the prison is his confidant. Over the years, he offers him advice, support and encouragement.
Finally, he makes his break! After days of wandering through the desert, he is brought back, barely alive, to the camp. His comrade says, "Yea, I figured..." The guy is surprised. "What do you mean?" "Many of us have tried the same; none succeeded." "Why didn't you tell me, it was impossible?!" the guy asks. "Well, you know, who publishes negative results?"
Sound familiar? All these recipes around the internet you've just been dying to try. Then you do, taking pictures for your blog, hoping you'll have something to share... And flop. You wind up eating a can of soup in place of the elaborate dinner you spent half the evening preparing, clean up the mess and hope to forget the whole thing... Or do you share disasters, too? Well, at the risk of being a critic, I have decided to start publishing my negative results. Perhaps it'll be helpful to myself to find a pattern of what works and what doesn't. Perhaps it'll help others.
Yesterday, I tried the Paleo Plan cream of mushroom soup. Interestingly, no cream. For the creaminess, it uses avocado - neat idea. The recipe is not a complete flop. But there is a major problem. Every spoonful tastes like something is missing. The flavors are simply out of balance.
It uses grapefruit juice, giving it nice citrusy flavor, but it is not counteracted with anything, leaving it with this floating citrusy avocadoyee sensation. I would experiment with the following to ground it:
- coconut milk or, if you do dairy regular cream
- sautéing mushrooms in bacon and garnishing with bacon bits
- grain-free starch thickener, such as arrowroot or tapioca
powder
- chicken broth or soup base
Those might settle the flavor some, bringing it back down to earth.
Though personally, since I like my dairy, I will go with a real cream-of-mushroom approach next time.
Fortunately, I had a lot of chicken legs & thighs to enjoy for dinner, and they made an excellent entree for the next day's lunch box.
Have you tried cream-of- soups? Do share your favorite as I'd like to figure out something I can make batches of and freeze.
I tried it the other day as well, followed it for the most part but only adding about 1TB lemon juice instead of GF, because I didn't have it and also i think its to keep the avocado from browning.
ReplyDeleteWhen followed as written, wasnt so hot, so I tweaked it with 1/4c coconut milk, curry powder, pepper, used an additional cup of liquid (ck broth) because I thought it was just too thick.
Didn't use any thickeners, am trying to keep my food as real as possible.
I thought the taste was much better, the red peppers seemed odd at first but are very sweet and make it interesting. {but the idea was to get away from another curry tasting soup as well, didn't happen}