Eggplant Soup Parmigiana: Giving an Old Recipe a New Start for Souper (Soup, Salad, & Sammie) Sundays

I love going through vintage and retro magazines and cookbooks looking for recipes to try or to update which is why I love looking at RuthReichl.com. In her Ruth's Words, Reichl has posted lots of recipes from vintage cookbooks and old issues of Gourmet Magazine and it's fun to go through them.

In a post on three soups, the Eggplant Soup Parmigiana caught my eye. I liked the thought of giving a classic dish a new start as a soup and the "floating" tomato baked with Parmesan top sounded fun.

pics of Gourmet magazine clipping from RuthReichl.com

I did think that it needed a few changes, so I made them, noted in red below. Mainly I added canned fire-roasted tomatoes to add flavor and color, bumped the spices, pureed half of the soup in a blender, and thought that toasted bread crumbs would be a welcome addition to the topping. It turned out really well. (I may have to try that Basil Soup one of these days too...)  

Eggplant Soup Parmigiana 
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, September 1977 & RuthReichl.com
(Serves 4)

2 Tbsp butter (I reduced from 3 Tbsp)
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic (I used 3 large cloves)
2 lbs eggplant coarsely chopped (I used Japanese eggplant)
2 cups chicken stock (I used non-chicken bouillon paste & water)
(I added 1 can diced fire roasted tomato, plus the liquid)
1/4 cup minced parsley
1/2 tsp oregano (I used 1 tsp + I tsp dried basil)
sea salt and black pepper to taste
4 slices of fresh tomato
Parmesan cheese, grated--about 1/2 cup
(I added Toasted bread crumb--about 1/4 cup)

In a large soup pot, add the butter and saute the onion and garlic over medium-high heat until softened. Add the eggplant, broth, chopped tomatoes and their juices, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper to taste and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmering the soup for about 30 minutes. Taste and add additional seasoning as needed. (I decided to blend about half of the soup in my blender to give it a thick and chunky consistency.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Ladle soup into ovenproof bowls and float a tomato slice on each. Top each with 1 Tbsp toasted breadcrumbs & 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese and bake about 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbling and golden.

Notes/Results: This soup smells so good cooking and has all of the flavor of Eggplant Parmigiana too--even if it may not be the prettiest soup out there. If you use the tomato, or even replace it with bread, you may want to serve it with a knife for cutting as it gets a tad messy. I liked the addition of the tomatoes--it made it more like the dish I am used to making and pureeing the soup made the texture nice and hearty. It would be good with some garlic bread to sop up the broth. I would happily make it again.

Linking up with I Heart Cooking Clubs where this week's theme is A New Start.

 
Now let's take a look into the Souper Sundays kitchen:

 
Tina of Squirrel Head Manor brought hearty Taco Chili and says, "This is my first submission for Souper Sunday in 2019. I hope to participate most Sundays and try new soups, stews, chili, salads and sandwiches. That's a good goal for the new year and will keep me on track eating healthier. ... This is a Taco Chili that was inspired from Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook.  Lucky me, I won a copy from The Book Club Cookbook. Thank you!"

Shaheen of Allotment2Kitchen is back at Souper Sundays with Cream of Parsnip Soup with Lemon. She says, "Over the festive season I decided to make the Cream of Parsnip Soup with Lemon. I served it with homemade sourdough bread. ... Sarah Beattie's original recipe for this soup is made with cream, but I felt the soup once blitzed was naturally thick and creamy, so I decided to omit the addition of cream. I think this is the kind of soup you ant to be tucking into when you are feeling a bit under the weather or a little poorly. It was a very warming soup with uplifting undertones of ginger and lemon."

Thank you Tina & Shaheen for joining in this week! 
 
About Souper Sundays:

Souper Sundays (going since 2008) now has a format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches at any time during the week and I post a recap of the entries the following week.

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 
If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up her in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to it on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (optional).

 

An InLinkz Link-up

 Have a happy, healthy week!