Twelve Months of Monastery Soups: International Favorites by D'Avila-Latourrette, Brother Victor-Antoine (1996) Hardcover

I can not wait to dive into this cookbook ,so many soups I want to try...

This book is full of unique, simple soup recipes. As a Catholic mom this has become a treasured cookbook that I also love to gift to others.

This book offers an astonishing variety of healthful and tasty soups. Some soups have complex flavors and others are elegantly simple. All the recipes I have tried have been worth making again (and again, and again...) Every winter I make many batches of the book's parsnip soup (parsnips and potatoes accented with curry), and guests ALWAYS rave about it, though they are never able to identify the ingredients!Whether you want to give a gift that's sure to be a hit or simply want to feed your family well, this is the cookbook for you.

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.

Never can you go through this cookbook just once. There are so many recipes to choose from that are both healthful, delicious, and fun to make. The author has opened a window onto new cultures. Not only does the book contain recipes, but I was delighted to find scriptures about the soups themsleves: advice on how to prepare them, when they should be served, and things about the cultures where the soups come from. I enjoyed the poems woven throughout the book that made it even more special. A word of thanks must go out to Victor Antonie D'Avila Latourrette. You have brought great pleasure into cooking through many wonderful recipes that I would love to try over and over. One word of advice: some of the soups come out slightly bland. Experiment with the ingredients until you are satisfyed. This is the the NUMBER 1 book to have on a cookbook shelf.