Product Description

"Of soup and love, the first is best." Brother Victor-Antoine makes a passionate  case for this Spanish proverb in Twelve Months of Monastery Soups, bringing easy, delicious, soul-satisfying soup recipes from the monastery to your kitchen. From simple, clear broths to thick, hearty soups, there's a recipe to appeal to every taste. Arranged by month with an eye toward seasonal variety and at least one recipe for every vegetable native to North America, the 175 soups include classic favorites such as Cream of Corn and Tomato and more unique recipes such as Jerusalem Artichoke, Provenþal Rainbow, and Danish Onion-Champagne. With inspirational quotes proclaiming the goodness of soup sprinkled throughout and beautiful period block prints, Twelve Months of Monastery Soups is a celebration of the art of soup-making.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38287 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-05
• Released on: 1998-01-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

From Amazon.com
Offer your guests a big bowl of warmth and comfort--stir up some homemade soup! Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette, author of From a Monastery Kitchen, follows the months of the year with simple recipes using seasonal ingredients. The soup recipes are international as well--try some Polish Pearl Barley Soup in February and Traditional Austrian Cheese Soup in November. Brother Victor-Antoine recommends chilled soups in the summer for refreshment; June's creamy Chilled Carrot Soup features the zest of ginger and lemon, and the Cold Zucchini Soup in August is delightful with the recommended lemon basil. The simplicity of the recipes makes them suitable for beginning cooks, who will learn that a great variety of flavors can be produced just by changing the order in which the vegetables are sautéed or by using vegetable broth instead of beef bouillon. Twelve Months of Monastery Soups is a delicious introduction to the art of soup making. As Brother Victor-Antoine notes, "soup remains a faithful friend during all of life's occasions."

From Library Journal
Latourrette, a Benedictine monk in a monastery in upstate New York, is the author of several cookbooks, including From a Monastery Kitchen (HarperCollins, 1989), which sold more than 100,000 copies. Brother Victor grew up in France, and his background is evident in his soup recipes, which also reflect other cuisines?from Mexican to Italian to Arabic. He offers close to 180 seasonal recipes, the majority of them vegetarian, all of them simple and easy; historical woodcuts add charm to the book. [BOMC selection.]
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ingram
Brother Victor-Antone brings easy, delicious, soul-satisfying soup recipes from the monastery to your kitchen in Twelve Months of Monastery Soups. From simple broths to thick, hearty soups, there's a recipe to appeal to every taste.

Customer Reviews

Excellent collection of simple soups
This cook book has a very good collection of simple soups (mostly vegetarian) that can be made quite easily. They are grouped by month and take advantage of the fresh produce that are in season. One of the great benefits of these recipes is that most of the ingredients are relatively inexpensive and healthy (e.g., carrots, onions, celery, beans). The recipes vary a great deal in taste, although many have similar ingredient lists. A great testiment to the diversity of soup. I have, however, noticed that many of the recipes call for a rather large portion of oil and turn out somewhat greasy. I recommend cutting the oil if it seems excessive.

Best soup I've ever made.
I received Twelve Months of Monastery Soups as a gift for Christmas and I love it. Most of the soups have been a big hit for everyone in my family. I highly recommend this book. The recipes are easy with usually only two or three steps for each soup. I have found a couple of soups that I didn't like in here, but the overwhelming majority of them have been excellent. I especially love the Cream of Broccoli and Cream of Asparagus as well as the Potage du Jardin and Spinach Soup. I think I'm going to buy this book as a gift for several of my friends and family, since I think it was a great gift choice for me.

Practical soup from a practical monk
Twelve Months of Monastery Soups is an excellent, seasonally based cookbook for practical soup making. However, you must take its estimation of servings as dubious - his "two servings" is eight servings as a meal in my house. Three things separate this volume from other soup cookbooks: (1) the soups are arranged by month that the ingrediants would be readily available in your garden or green grocer's. (2) the recipes are international but are the cooking "of the people" not of exotic chefs (3) delightful line drawings, quotations, odds bits of trivia etc. are sprinkled throughout the pages.

To give you a flavor of the variety of recipes presented: for March we find a German Saint Lioba Beer and Mushroom Soup, a Spicy (East) Indian Soup, a Basic Onion Soup, a Tuscan Green Vegetable Minestrone, an Everyday Potato Soup, a Garlic Soup, a Lima Bean Soup, a Beguine Cream Soup, a Saint Patrick Irish Cheddar Soup ... All the recipes are easily made; they have clear instructions and ingrediate lists.