Thursday, November 22, 2007

Help Required - The Soup's Too Spicy


I made this delicious Tomato, Chorizo & Beet Green Soup today, inspired by one that Kalyn made. It had wonderful things in it like beet greens to temper the chorizo, chick peas, tomatoes, fennel, oregano, basil...BUT and it's a really big BUT...it was so spicy we could hardly eat it, even with the sweetness of the Roasted Carrots & Beets Salad that I served with it. I thought that would be enough Yin/Yang - sweet/spice for balance. Not so! This particular chorizo really packed a punch.

And how is one to know just how spicy it will be? After all one person's "spicy" is another person's "mild", so simply asking the butcher doesn't necessarily work, and tasting raw chorizo doesn't appeal to me. I suppose I could have sauteed a small bit and tried it, but that would be too smart. Next time, I'll ...well, I think it will be a while before I try any more of the local chorizo. Probably the next time I make this soup I'll use some sweet fennel sausage from my local Italian grocery store. I know what that tastes like and I can always add a little crushed red chilies for a mild heat factor.

But I have a huge pot of soup sitting on the stove. I thought it would be perfect for the weekend. So here's where I need help fast - Today is Thursday. What can I do to take some of the heat out of the soup?

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm finding it a bit hard to imagine eating the soup (never cooked this kind of thing), but once when I made a very hot curry by accident I added double/heavy cream and it did the trick. Since then I've always use it in situations like these....Just my two cents! :-)

Ruth Daniels said...

Michelle, thanks for the tip. It would be a shame to throw this out. It is delicious.

Anonymous said...

You could also try sour cream. Dairy products seem to help cut the heat.

Finla said...

Like michelle said adding cream would do the trick or sugar :-))

Ferdzy said...

Eh, yes, the "solution to pollution is dilution", at least when it comes to soup. If some potatoes might be suitable, they too would help.

Amanda said...

If I have something too spicy, I add half or double the other ingredients to thin out that heat. Extra stock, perhaps another can of tomatoes, and some sour cream would go. And how about a squeeze of lime?

Ruth Daniels said...

All great ideas, and I especially like the lime juice! Thanks all.

In fact, I'm going to do a post on askRuth with all the great ideas.

Anonymous said...

I looked at this site for help with my venison stew. I also made it too spicy, and added sour cream. It already had potatoes, but it's still too spicy. Am going to try lemon juice and add more milk..the spices are home grown, and I over-did it! :) Thanks for the help, I will be bookmarking this site!