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Simmer this: 3 soup ideas from local chefs

Plastic containers of orange soup on trays.
Nikita Buley
Soups from Joe's Kitchen in East Montpelier.

Soup is one of those meals that inherently brings people together — maybe it's the warmth, the fusion of ingredients and spices, or the act of ladling into carefully clutched bowls. Soup is also part of the culinary tradition of cultures around the globe.

Vermont Edition brought together chefs and listeners to share soup-making tips. We collected a few of our favorite suggestions for you here.

Our guests were Joe Buley Jr. of Joe's Kitchen at Screamin' Ridge Farm in East Montpelier, and Caroline Hannon and Bex Slatterly of the Queer Soup Night event series in Brattleboro. This episode also featured Seven Days food writer Jordan Barry. She joined us for our monthly chat about food and beverage news.

Tip 1: Take it slow

Many soup recipes benefit from a long, slow simmer. Buley remembers his French Canadian grandmother in East Randolph simmering vegetable and chicken soups on the stove for hours, and his mother would make split pea soup with long-simmering ham hocks for added flavor.

"Soups that need a little bit more time tend to have meat or broth in them," he said, like a minestrone with white beans. These soups also benefit from resting for a day to let the flavors meld.

Tip 2: Center local or fresh ingredients

Having trouble picking a recipe? Start with a fresh ingredient and go from there. If you're craving ginger, for example, you could try whipping up some ginger chicken soup with fresh lemon and lime juice and zest.

Some veggies need to be used on the earlier side, like summer corn. Buley recommends using summer corn the day you pick the ears. "It starts to get really starchy the longer you keep it around," he said. Potatoes, onions, zucchini or leafy greens don't need that type of hand holding. Brown them with a little butter or olive oil, add water or broth, toss in some herbs, garlic, and tomato paste, and you've got yourself a soup.

Tip 3: Don't forget the toppings

Slatterly loves to serve soup alongside a toppings bar, especially when there are kids at the table. For a Queer Soup Night event in November, they made a baked potato soup with fried potato skins, cheese, sour cream and green onions on the side.

Buley suggests slicing shallots really thin, dusting them with flour, and then pan frying them into "tiny onion rings." "But I guess the easiest goodies I could recommend," he said, "are just chopped fresh herbs of almost any kind, and then any your favorite cheese."

Broadcast live on Thursday, December 19, 2024, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

Have questions, comments, or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Mikaela Lefrak is the host and senior producer of Vermont Edition. Her stories have aired nationally on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Marketplace, The World and Here & Now. A seasoned local reporter, Mikaela has won two regional Edward R. Murrow awards and a Public Media Journalists Association award for her work.
Andrea Laurion joined Vermont Public as a news producer for Vermont Edition in December 2022. She is a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., and a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. Before getting into audio, Andrea worked as an obituary writer, a lunch lady, a wedding photographer assistant, a children’s birthday party hostess, a haunted house actor, and an admin assistant many times over.