The Cook's Encyclopedia of Soup

I have owned this book for about nine years (my copy was published 1999). In this time I have made many of the soups, and everyone is more delicious than the last. I have bragged about this cookbook to many people and given copies as gifts many times to friends or family for whom I have made soups from it that they loved. BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU LOVE SOUP. There are recipes from almost every ethnic group and region of the world. It is my favorite cookbook, and if I ever lose it for some reason, I would search out another copy! All of the "Cook's Encyclopedia" series are wonderful, and I too buy them whenever I see them, regardless of the cuisine they are about. Each recipe tells a bit of the history of itself, the ingredients are authentic to the ethnicity of its origins, the books are printed on good quality paper, with excellent instruction and illustrations. My favorites are the Leek and Thyme soup, the Noodles in Soup, Hot & Sour Shrimp Soup with Lemongrass, and the Chaing Mai Noodle Soup. I can't say enough about this soup cookbook. Buy three copies; one for yourself and two for soup-lovers in your life.

Soup lovers, do not be deterred! This wonderful little book is worth searching for. I started by copying a few recipes from a friend's and quickly realized that I wanted to make them all and bought the book. I make soup every week and this book is a favorite source. Recipes are clear, relatively simple, and always delicious. Also has a solid selection of vegetarian soups or easily adaptable recipes. Directions are well written and the beautiful color photographs let you know where you are heading. This a well worth having in your collection and you will really use it.

This book is truly value for money. I bought it 2 weeks ago and have already made and enjoyed several of the soups. Each recipe is accompanied by a color photograph and easy to follow directions. I am doing the South Beach diet and most of the recipes are easily adaptable to this diet as well as the Atkins diet - this book made it easy for me to lose 10 pounds! I would recomment starting with the Harira (a Moroccan soup). It tasted excellent and was easy to make too - most of the ingredients were available from the normal grocery store.

I have five books from this series, and they are all uniformly excellent. Whenever I see another one, I immediately buy it without bothering to look inside. Not one of the recipes I've made from these books was a dud, and most of them were exceptional. The most recent recipe I made from this book is Spicy Chicken and Mushroom Soup, which turned out to be one of the best things I have ever made. Many of these recipes are somewhat exotic, pairing ingredients that you would never think to pair, like watercress and orange, but the results are often spectacular.The book wanders the world, delivering absolutely-authentic recipes. When a friend called to say his date had cancelled, so instead he was bringing a Moroccan friend, I was quickly able to serve what she enthusiastically claimed was the best Harira she'd ever had.Sometimes, the author will take an ethnic soup, and greatly modify it, to its eternal benefit. One recipe I was already familiar with -- a Ghanaian recipe for okra and banana soup, gets completely transformed here by the addition of smoked cod.But don't let me put you off by suggesting that this is a purely exotic cookbook: of the 30-odd recipes I've made, five of them were variations on tomato soup. Since there are 200-odd recipes in the book, there are still eight variations on tomato soup that I have not yet tried.I have four or five cookbooks that are dedicated only to soup -- this one is my favourite.

I have been collecting as many of the "Cook's Encyclopedia of..." books as I can find. I have twelve currently. Like the Soup book all these books have colored pictures of each recipe and illustrations on how to make each recipe. I love that the soup book is not full of common soups, because I can get recipes anywhere for those. Of course these recipes are not so strange or unappetizing that you won't make them. In fact they look down right delicious. Most are simple and easy to follow. These recipes range from hot, chilled, vegetarian, creamy, spicy, seafood, seasonal, from other countries... The point is there is a great variety of soups to choose from. I never considered making home made soup until I found this book.