We Took a Reddit-Well-known Tortellini Soup and Made It Even Higher

There are two members of our group who’re continually lurking on Reddit: our editorial director Daniel and me. After I’m not laughing on the silliness of boards devoted to eggs in strange places or slices of bread stapled to trees, I’m perusing the cooking subreddits, the place I get inspiration for recipes and, occasionally, anonymously reply culinary questions. Not too long ago, my feed’s been stuffed with posts devoted to what Redditors are calling “the soup,” “updoot soup,” or “upvote soup,” a creamy slow-cooker soup with rooster, spinach, and tortellini. 

Apparently the soup has been making the rounds on Reddit since at the very least 2017, and whereas some customers love the meal sufficient to incorporate it of their common rotation, others describe it as an “aggressively mid” recipe that requires many tweaks with the intention to style good. (There’s even a thread wherein individuals share their favourite variations on the unique recipe.) Curious to see what the hype was all about, I made a decision to offer the original recipe, or what’s supposedly the unique recipe, a attempt. 

The recipe instructs cooks to microwave onions, flour, basil, garlic, and tomato paste with a drizzle of olive oil earlier than tossing it right into a gradual cooker with rooster broth, diced tomatoes, and boneless, skinless rooster thighs. The soup cooks for a whopping 4 to 6 hours on low warmth earlier than you end it with tortellini, spinach, Parmesan, and heavy cream. Whereas it was extremely simple to make, it simply wasn’t flavorful sufficient for my liking. However I felt it had loads of potential. So, like my fellow Redditors, I made a decision to place my very own spin on the soup. This is what I did to take this soup from, sure, “aggressively mid,” to really scrumptious.

Learn how to Make Really Good Creamy Tortellini Soup

Ditch the microwave and gradual cooker. I perceive the enchantment of a set-it-and-forget-it meal, however it is a fast, simple dinner that actually doesn’t require (or profit from) both equipment, and also you’re a lot better off taking the time to brown your aromatics.

Swap out the rooster for sausage. As an alternative of chucking in a number of boneless, skinless rooster thighs, I began the soup by sautéeing juicy Italian sausage, which has a candy, floral observe from fennel seeds, in a big pot. Then I additional constructed taste by utilizing the leftover fats from the sausage to prepare dinner my fragrant soffritto (extra on that beneath) proper in the identical pan.

Sauté a soffritto. Italian soffritto has the identical constructing blocks as mirepoix—a combination of onion, carrots, and celery incessantly used as a flavorful base for dishes in French delicacies—although it might additionally comprise fennel, parsley, and/or garlic. For a soup with layers of taste, my soffritto features a mixture of onion, garlic, celery, carrot, and fennel, plus fennel seeds and a pinch of crushed crimson pepper flakes. As talked about above, I cooked this combination within the sausage fats, scraping up the fond to kind essentially the most flavorful base attainable for the soup.

For a pleasant dose of umami, use tomato paste as an alternative of diced tomatoes. Although recent and canned tomatoes comprise loads of glutamic acid (a chemical that offers food an umami observe), reaching for them of their concentrated kind—tomato paste—is a simple, minimal-effort technique to give the soup an intense savory taste with hints of tangy sweetness.

Thicken with flour. To assist thicken the soup and provides it additional physique, I coat the greens with flour, then prepare dinner the combination for a number of minutes. Not solely does this assist take away the flour’s uncooked taste, but it surely additionally prevents disagreeable and unpleasant lumps from forming within the soup.

Skip the spinach and use a hardy inexperienced. Spinach is scrumptious, but it surely doesn’t have fairly sufficient heft to face up on this creamy, sturdy soup. So as an alternative of spinach, I like to recommend utilizing a hardy inexperienced like curly or lacinato kale, Swiss chard, or collard greens, which received’t get misplaced among the many tortellini and items of sausage.

Cook dinner the pasta by itself. As tempting as it’s to make this a really one pot meal by cooking the pasta within the soup, it’s price taking the time to prepare dinner the tortellini individually. This lets you management the doneness of the pasta and prevents the tortellini from overcooking and dissolving into the soup, creating an unappetizing mushy mess.

Serve it with dollops of pesto and loads of Parmigiano-Reggiano. As an alternative of incorporating basil into the soup, which many variations name for, I high the soup with pesto for a contact of candy, herbaceous taste. A beneficiant bathe of nutty Parmigiano-Reggiano brings all of it collectively, and makes every chunk splendidly savory.

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• 1 tablespoon (15ml) extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 1/2 kilos gentle or spicy Italian sausage, faraway from casing

• 1 medium onion (8 ounces; 227g), finely chopped

• 3 medium cloves garlic (1/2 ounce; 15g), finely chopped

• 3 medium celery ribs (about 5 3/4 ounces; 165g) with leaves, finely chopped

• 1 massive carrot (about 2 3/4 ounces; 75g), finely chopped

• 1 medium fennel bulb (8 ounces; 226g), finely chopped

• 1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds

• 1/4 teaspoon crushed crimson pepper flakes (non-compulsory)

• 1/4 cup tomato paste (3 1/2 ounces; 100g)

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (about 1 ounce; 32g)

• 6 cups (1.4L) home made rooster or vegetable inventory or store-bought low-sodium broth

• 4 ounces lacinato or curly kale or different hardy greens, resembling collards or Swiss chard (about 113g; 2 cups)

• 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream

• 6 ounces (170g) recent or frozen cheese tortellini

• Pesto, home made or store-bought, for serving (non-compulsory)

• Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving (non-compulsory)

1. In a 5-quart soup pot or Dutch oven, warmth olive oil over medium warmth till shimmering. Add sausage and prepare dinner, stirring to interrupt up the meat and scraping backside of pot, till nicely browned, 6 to eight minutes. Utilizing a slotted spoon, take away sausage from pot; put aside. If meat has rendered an extreme quantity of fats, use a steel or different heat-safe spoon to ladle most of it out, leaving 2 to three tablespoons within the pot. (If, conversely, you might have lower than about 2 tablespoons of fats left, add additional olive oil.) Add onion, garlic, celery, carrot, fennel, fennel seeds, and crushed crimson pepper flakes (if utilizing), and prepare dinner, stirring and scraping backside of pot, till greens are softened and launch some moisture, about 8 minutes.

2. Add tomato paste, stirring to coat greens evenly, and prepare dinner till paste is a darkish crimson, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle flour over greens and prepare dinner, stirring incessantly, till evenly coated and flour begins to stay to backside, about 2 minutes.

3. Slowly pour in inventory or broth, stirring till flour is absolutely included. Convey to a boil over medium-high warmth. Add kale and return sausage to soup; cut back warmth to a simmer till kale is tender and flavors meld, 8 to 10 minutes.

4. In the meantime: Convey a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add tortellini and prepare dinner, stirring, till simply shy of al dente, about 2 minutes lower than package deal directions. Utilizing a colander, drain tortellini; put aside.

5. Take away soup from warmth. Add heavy cream regularly, stirring to mix, adopted by the tortellini. Season to style with salt and pepper as wanted.

6. Divide into bowls and high with pesto and Parmigiano-Reggiano, if utilizing. Serve instantly to forestall tortellini from overcooking.

Particular Tools

5-quart soup pot or Dutch oven, medium saucepan, colander

Make-Forward and Storage

The soup could be made via step 3 and refrigerated in an hermetic container for as much as 5 days or frozen for as much as 1 month. Thaw in a single day within the fridge if frozen, then reheat over medium-high warmth till simmering earlier than continuing with step 4. 

Leftovers could be refrigerated in an hermetic container for as much as 4 days (use a slotted spoon to take away cooked tortellini and retailer in a separate hermetic container to forestall it from absorbing an excessive amount of liquid). Gently reheat soup in a pot over medium-low warmth till warmed via and return tortellini to soup. Simmer till tortellini is heat, about 3 minutes.