Oh my goodness, do I have a recipe for you! I just finished a bowl of the most delicious soup and I can’t wait to share it. And the best part is that it uses up a whole lot of an ingredient I just didn’t know what to do with. If you’ve been paying attention (Have you? There may be a quiz at the end!), you might remember that our garden was not such a success this year. I don’t know if it was the lack of rain this summer or what, but we mostly got a whole lotta nothin’. We were, however, practically drowning in a few items, such as basil and tomatoes. But the tomatoes, although plentiful, have for the most part remained as green as a shamrock. To my bitter dismay.
Fortunately, I have a resilient nature and so I decided that I needed to make the best of what I had on hand. There was the obvious choice of fried green tomatoes, but a google search turned up quite a number of other possibilities. I was rather intrigued by a green tomato cake, but I wanted something savoury. Then I hit upon this recipe on the Food Network, by Emeril. Now that was more like it!
Of course, I didn’t follow the recipe to the letter. One change was out of necessity. The recipe calls for three different kinds of peppers: jalapeno, anaheim and pasilla. To my surprise, my local Stop and Shop actually carried quite a variety of hot peppers, but they were all in a pile and it didn’t indicate which peppers were which. Since I don’t exactly carry a field guide to chili peppers around with me, I had to take a wild guess at which ones were anaheims and pasillas. I looked it all up on the internet when I came home and I believe I came home with two red anaheims (the recipe calls for green) and two serrano chiles. As serranos are supposed to be quite hot, and I didn’t want the red anaheim chiles to muddy the green of the soup, I simply used the serranos and one jalapeno.
I also thought that the cilantro oil that Emeril used as a garnish sounded a bit boring. And because of the heat of my chile selection, I thought a cilantro lime cream might be a nice complement. I simply mixed up some chopped cilantro, a little lime juice and some greek yogurt together, and added a dollop to my soup.
The Results: I’m just going to go ahead and say it – this stuff is fantastic! Nice and spicy, but the cilantro lime cream helps tone it down. The crunchy bits of pancetta add a wonderful flavour and texture. I mean, let’s face it, green tomatoes on their own probably don’t have much flavour at all. They are simply the vehicle to carry the pancetta and the chiles. Since everything is cooked in the pancetta drippings, the flavour is warm and smokey, with quite a kick from the chiles. It’s brilliant, using up an ingredient that would otherwise go to waste. And anyone who knows me in real life knows how much I hate waste, especially food waste.
If you have a lot of unripe tomatoes from your garden this year, I implore you to make this soup! If you don’t have a garden, sneak into your neighbours and steal their green tomatoes. It is THAT good and I will be making it again very soon.
Spicy Green Tomato Soup with Crispy Pancetta – adapted from Emeril Lagasse
Soup:
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup pancetta, finely chopped
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
3 whole cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 serrano chiles, seeded and minced
1 3/4 pounds green tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
3 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Cilantro Lime Cream:
1 1/2 tbsp chopped cilantro
juice of half a lime
1/4 cup greek yogurt
For the Cilantro Lime Cream, mix all ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.
For the soup, heat oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Once it’s hot, add pancetta and cook until crispy and golden, about 8 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and let drain on a plate lined with a paper towel.
Increase heat to medium high and cook the onions until soft, about 4 minutes. Add salt and pepper, then garlic, bay leaf and chiles. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until tomatoes have softened.
Remove bay leaf and use an immersion blender to puree the soup. You could do this in a food processor or regular blender as well, just be sure to cover the top with a tea towel to avoid hot liquid squirting out.
Stir in lemon juice and additional salt and pepper, if desired. Spoon into bowls and add a dollop of cilantro lime cream and reserved pancetta.
Serves 4-6.
Bringing this one to Potluck Friday!
ravienomnoms says
Look at you go! This really sounds good! If I had any green tomatoes to be making this with, I would be making it! I am so curious about green tomatoes and this recipe I have no doubt would be a hit in my kitchen!
Sandra says
i grow one or two tomato plants each year like a beef steak or other meaty (not so seedy) tomato just to pick green, b4 they start to ripen. I use them in lots of stir frys, sautees braising, anywewhere you wewant a tart flavor with gentle texture. they can stand out or blend in as how u cook them varies. dipped in crumbs or cornmeal and fried is DELISH!
Belinda @zomppa says
This is so incredibly flavorful! With the pancetta, hard to say no.
Emma says
I've always been curious about green tomatoes, they aren't a common taste here in Australia but I've always wanted to try them. The soup looks really good too.
Merut says
This sounds perfect. I have tomatoes coming out of my ears, but like you a lot of them are still green. It's getting colder faster and there might not be enough time left in the season for them to turn. This sounds like a fantastic idea. Thanks for sharing!
A Little Yumminess says
Never thought of making green tomato soup. Looks yum. Emeril to the rescue! I can think of many other uses for the cilantro lime cream
Indie.Tea says
I'm not normally an Emeril Lagasse fan, but this soup sounds quite good 🙂
baking.serendipity says
This looks delicious! I think that when recipes include any of your own homegrown food, they are espcially wonderful. PS, I've got a giveaway going on that I think you might be interested in 🙂 Stop by and check it out!
Torviewtoronto says
lovely picture
Karen says
Ooooohh…I really like the spiciness in this. I have to work at not adding hot peppers to everything I make, so this is right up my alley. This sounds fantastic!
Donna says
Looks so good! Looks like crispy pancetta is the go-to soup topper of the week:)
The Cilantropist says
This would be the perfect way for me to use my green tomatoes! Now, I wonder if I have enough… 😛 Great post, and LOVE the idea of cilantro lime cream!
Erin @ EKat's Kitchen says
Caroline, this sounds fantastic!!! I love soups, love tomatoes, love spice, and love love love cilantro! Very creative and I do believe I'll pick up some green tomatoes at tomorrow's Farmer's Market!!! Thanks so much for bringing this to my Friday Potluck!
Erin
http://www.ekatskitchen.com
Mary says
This sounds delicious; perfect for fall!
Great blog! So happy I found you!
Mary xo
Delightful Bitefuls
Linn @ Swedish Home Cooking says
I'm a soup addict and I'm constantly looking for new inspiration and recipes. I think I just found one!! Thank you for a great tip.
mummy's kitchen says
Brilliant, I was wondering what to do with all of our tomatoes which didn't go red! Thank you.
The Mom Chef says
Ok, the soup itself looks fantastic, but when I read about your cilantro lime cream, I went, "Ooooooh!" That sounds like it would be amazing. Heck, I'd probably dump a whole bowl in, not an artful drizzle like you did!
Lawyer Loves Lunch says
What a delicious, summer soup! And I can imagine drenching quesadillas and enchiladas in that cilantro lime cream 🙂
Francine says
This sounds amazing! This afternoon we got 2 buckets full of green tomatoes. I'm looking for interesting ways to use them. I think I'll give this recipe a try over the weekend. And that cilantro lime cream sound extra yum! Thanks for sharing.
Kim says
I live in Mexico for half a year and grow a wonderful winter garden here. My tomato plants are LOADED with green tomatoes right now (end of April) but we’re heading north this next week. No way was I going to let those tomatoes go to waste. I stumbled across this recipe while checking out the fried green tomato recipe on your site. So, I made the soup today. I had no pancetta, but the bacon here is paper thin and worked as a fine substitute. I also am out of my homemade Greek yogurt and subbed sour cream for the cilantro lime cream topping. Wow!!!! This is an amazing recipe and was so easy to make. My husband commented on how good it was and I told him, sincerely, I have not made a single recipe from your site that wasn’t phenomenal. Every single one. Thank you so much for your hard work that makes my time in the kitchen so easy and so appreciated.