Easy to Prepare, Friends Recipes and Hacks, Impressive Dishes, Soups and Stews, The Daring Kitchen

Dev’s Roasted Apple, Brie & Thyme Soup

8 Comments
Recipe for The Daring Kitchen
Peta, of the blog Peta Eats, was our lovely hostess for the Daring Cook’s September 2011 challenge, Stock to Soup to Consommé. We were taught the meaning between the three dishes, how to make a crystal clear consommé if we so chose to do so, and encouraged to share our own delicious soup recipes!
This simply stunner of a recipe is perfect when you want to impress the socks (shoes, ties, belts, you name it) off your guests. The flavors sing the praises of autumn, but upon first sip, you’ll notice that the soup is as light as air and almost reminiscent of spring. It’s the kind of ethereal taste that makes you feel as if the chef slaved for hours and hours perfectly balancing flavors and textures. And yet, as you’ll see in the steps below, you couldn’t ask for a more simple or straightforward process.

This recipe comes to us from the extraordinary Devaki Das, a fellow food blogger and lover of global cuisine. You can read more about her in this interview, and visit her site for myriad drool-worthy recipes at Weave a Thousand Flavors. Just promise me that if you cook any of her food, invite me over for dinner. She is a master of her craft!

Roasted Apple, Brie & Thyme Soup

4-5 granny smith (or similar tart) apples
1 medium yellow onion
4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 celery stalks
8 oz. of brie
2 1/2 tbs. of olive oil
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 tbs. chopped thyme leaves
1/3 c. of light brown sugar
1 tsp. of butter
1/2 c. of heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 375°.  Peel, discard skin & ends from the onion and dice. Remove the stems from the apples and roughly cut into 1″ pieces.  Now separate the leaves from 3-4 sprigs of thyme and roughly chop to yield 1/2 tbs thyme leaves.  Cut and discard the leaves and bottom 2″ inches of the white colored stalks of celery. Cut the remaining stalk into 1″ pieces.  Place the onion, celery, thyme and apples on a baking sheet.  Pour 2 1/2 tbs of olive oil over the veggies and stir with a spoon or fingers to coat.  Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until the apples and all the other veggies are soft.

Empty the contents from the baking tray into a blender.  Add 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth and puree for a few minutes till completely mushy and blended.
Place a large sieve on top of a large pan. Empty the pulp into the sieve. Add 1 cup of chicken stock and with a spoon & stir vigorously.  Add another cup of chicken stock and keep stirring till all the goodness from the sieve is in the pan and all that is left is a dry pulp. Discard the pulp in the sieve.

Cut away all the rind from the brie cheese and cut into chunks.  To the soup in the pan, add the remaining 1/2 cup chicken stock, butter, heavy cream, chopped thyme leaves & brown sugar. On medium heat warm through for a few minutes until the sugar is melted and the soup is warm but do not allow to boil.  Add the cut Brie cheese chunks and stir till the cheese melts.  Once again do not allow the soup to boil and keep on medium heat.  Taste and adjust seasonings such as sugar and thyme. We found we needed no salt so none was added.  To serve, plate into individual bowls or into a tureen.

Notes
Optionally, I added a bit of olive oil and chives to the top of the soup for color.  You could also top with a few shreds of braised short rib for a decadent bistro meal.  But don’t go too crazy – this soup is a stunner all on its own.

8 thoughts on “Dev’s Roasted Apple, Brie & Thyme Soup”

  1. Reminds of cheese and apple fondue in soup form I bet it would of been delicious it certainly looks fabulous so pretty. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

    1. Indeed! This is a dangerous soup – it's light and dreamy, but belies the earthy flavors of creamy brie and sweet, hearty apples. That's a good idea though, regarding fondue. We ended up topping it with warm buttered croutons, but I think it could easily be repurposed into an out-of-this-world fondue. Must make a mental note to try.

    1. I'm pretty sure I had that same physical reaction after my first bite. VERY worth trying – it is elegant beyond belief, and so straightforward to prepare, people will think you slaved all day long!

  3. Wow! Now THAT is amazing stuff. I'm with the Monkey Queen on that one. Curls of excitement just looking at the list. Very impressive, creative and clever. I think I just found my anniversary dinner second course.

    1. A recipe for romance? LOL, ok – no more bad puns for one day. But I do think that this would make the PERFECT course for an anniversary dinner. Happy cooking!

  4. Just came across your blog while searching for ideas for my meetup group. I must make this soup this weekend! Going to Flagstaff and with the new snow up there, I think this will be perfect for eating by the fire! I also live in Phoenix , so if you are ever interested in taking a look at our cooking group, we'd love to have you stop by:)

    1. Nice to meet you, Dawn! You'll have to tell me how it turned out – Dev's Apple Brie Soup by a roaring fireside sounds like perfection 🙂

      That's great to hear about the cooking group – I'll definitely have to check it out sometime soon!

Comments are closed.