Monday's Soup

We HAVE MOVED!

2010-05-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

Soupies we have moved here: http://mondayssoup.wordpress.com/
Please visit us! And change us in your google readers and what not.

Thanks for ladling us into your bowls,
Alayna & ML

Veggie Soup for the Meat-Eating Soul

2010-05-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

That's not soup, foo, that's rhubarb crisp! Okay. So Alayna and I have been discussing this and as we note time and time again we're both Virgos, so we're anal about details. That and we've been doing this blog for almost a year and a half and we also have this other neglected blog, Friday's Dinners, which I like in theory but as we have since realized we should just have a one-stop shop with all our recipes. Also, as Alayna and I expand our cooking reach into the delicious far corners of the kitchen (I made strawberry chili preserves this weekend what what!) we want to include those recipes here. More than soup yes, but the theme is to highlight that we shouldn't be afraid of soup OR cooking. And all our recipes fall into that theme.

So what to do? Basically for some dumb reason we decided to create this blog on blogger, which I think is far inferior to wordpress. I want to transfer platforms but I'm not sure how to do that easily without hand plucking all this content. Dos Mios! Does anyone have tips? I need to re-structure this monster so it's more easily searchable. I need seperete pages. I need so many things. But what don't I need? Soup. This soup is wonderful, as always. So make it, then tell me how to re-do this blog.

Thanks for coming to soup Lindsey!

Veggie Soup for the Meat-Eating Soul

In a separate pan, heat olive oil and cook six boneless skinless chicken thighs (or breasts) cut into bite-sized pieces until done and turn off, reserving juices
while chicken is cooking, use a clean cutting board and knife to chop up six cloves of garlic and saute with two sprigs of fresh rosemary and some generous shakes of red pepper flakes in your soup pot
when the garlic is fragrant/opaque, add in a chopped whole yellow onion
when onions are translucent, add on bunch of broccoli rabe, also chopped, including everything except the very bottom of the stems and cook covered
next add two yellow squashes, cut into slices then quartered, and one bunch of swiss chard torn into bite-sized pieces, covering back up
when squash is mostly done, add two cans of drained black-eyed peas to the pot, along with the chicken in it's juice and cover the rest with broth
bring to a simmer and serve with mary's delicious carrot bread!

Rhubarb Crisp

Take about one pound of rhubarb and strip the stringy parts of off the rib of the rhubarb by pulling them off with a paring knife (if you were a really particular child, you may remember doing something like this with really stringy celery, but i promise it's easier than that was). When you're done, the ribs will look like naked rhubarb and kind of green.
Cut into bite-sized pieces and put into a bowl
Add one pound of strawberries, halved or quartered and one can of drained cherries (or more rhubarb or more strawberries... I just had a can of cherries)
Squeeze about a tablespoon of orange juice onto the fruit, grate some zest onto the mix and then stir in half a cup of white sugar, then place into a buttered square brownie type dish
in a food processor or with a hand mixer, take six tablespoons of cold butter, add some cinnamon and salt, then half a cup of brown sugar, half a cup of flour, half a cup of rolled oats and half a cup of almonds or pecan, and pulse or mix until there are pea-like sized balls. it's important to use cold butter so it doesn't just melt!
put the topping onto the fruit in chunks and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes until the top of the crumble is browned
enjoy!

Dark & Stormy Mushroom Soup

2010-05-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Alayna and I surprise ourselves. I feel like here, bathing in soup bowl #64, we are still making some pretty awesome soups with unique and rich flavors. The thing that's particularly wild about that is that they are all so simple. We were discussing how we've never incorporated tools beyond a blender, oven and stove. This attests to both our zen and lazy personalities.

Further, with each passing soup bowl ladled and served I feel more like ... I'm feeling heady so excuse me ... but soup as a way of life. (WWYSBD = What Would Your Soup Bowl Do? ... well, probably just sit there.) I have been making a point to utilize local farmer markets more and more and make and use our own broth-- the idea of knowing exactly what I'm putting in my bowl (the bowl that Alayna made in pottery) and that it's good and simple is quite the rarity in these fast, strange New York City times.

So as I sit back at my desk at work, sipping a Diet Coke, a product I have no clue what it actually is, where it came from, or how long it can last, though I have a feeling an awfully long time-- the fact that I am totally aware of the stuff in my soup bowl is a delight.

To think Alayna never saw a purple potato before!

cut up about a handful and a half of baby potatoes into bite-sized pieces (we used multicolor ones) and put into a separate pot to boil
fill a medium sized bowl with water and about two ounces of dried porcini mushrooms and microwave for five minutes, letting the mushroom steep until needed
saute 6 cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil with one sprig of fresh rosemary and a few sprigs of fresh thyme, adding half a yellow onion when they begin to be fragrant
when the onion is translucent, add six chopped carrots (the skinny kind or two of the fat kind) to the pot and cook covered
wipe off 3 portobella mushrooms and chop into bite-sized pieces, adding to the pot and stirring
cook until the portabella mushrooms are done all the way through, then add the porcini juice (straining out the mushrooms) and potatoes (strained), topping off with bouillon cubes and water
when broth is heated, add a bunch of chopped chard and cook five more minutes until done
serve with Gouda and/or Swiss cheese

Asparagus and Pea Soup

2010-05-04T19:36:00.001-07:00

Yup, that there is a bowl of spring if I ever did see one. This Monday Alayna and I had a soup party. Friends as far as Vermont came for a bowl of blended vegetables and artichoke leaves, or rather, another vehicle to melted butter. "People ask me, what's my favorite food? And I always say lobster of course," Alayna tells the group. "But I really just mean butter."

P.J. might have said it best- "Peas are so hot right now." Peas ARE hot right now. Do you guys utilize a pack of frozen peas as often as you should? Those things are like popcorn. I love when they are still a little bit frozen in the center so they sort of burst in your mouth like a veggie-gusher. I swear, that tastes good.

If you live in NYC, which you probably don't because my Google Analytics say you're more likely to live in Canada or Dubai, you'd know it's been a hot week. Probably not as hot as Dubai right far flung soupettes? This is a great soup warm but I can imagine would be wonderful cold with a dollop of yogurt. Okay friends, enjoy!

Asparagus and Pea Soup

in a medium saucepan, put 4 chopped medium red potatoes in water to boil and take a bag of peas out to thaw. you don't really have to thaw them if it's warm enough outside that they'll melt (they also make a delicious cooling snack in the meantime)
chop and saute one large yellow in olive oil on medium low heat
add 3-4 leeks, white part only, also chopped and half a bag of baby carrots (or 2-3 large carrots)
cook covered until onions are translucent
add two bunches of asparagus, also chopped, bring heat up some and cook covered
when asparagus is bright green, add the thawed peas, and min
when asparagus is easy to poke through with a fork (about five minutes) add potatoes in their water, a handful of parsley and top off with as much more as you need, adding vegan bouillon
voila! vegan soup

Delicious artichokes

cut the stems off your artichokes
cover with cold water and bring to a low boil
boil for 35-45 minutes.. when they are done, you should be able to easily poke through the bottom with a fork and pull leaves out of the center
drain and serve with melted garlic butter (microwaved or stove melted butter with two cloves of chopped garlic)
TO EAT: pull the leaves off, dip them in butter and scrape them with your teeth to get the meaty part, discarding the rest. the further in you go, the more tender the leaves will be. when you get to the tiny leaves, grab a spoon and scrape the babies leaves and the thistles (which you do NOT want to eat b/c they hurt when you swallow them, so clean thoroughly) to get to the HEART, which you can just cut into bite-sized pieces of butter dipped heaven and eat

Garden Soup

2010-04-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

If you're a regular Monday's Soups reader you'll know there is nothing Alayna and I like more than discovering a new vegetable or ingredient. To the point that after our first "meeting" we often refer to it with a surname and sort of suggest that we have just made a new friend. (Ernst the Eggplant, Mr. Kale, Ms. Swiss Chard, etc.) So today, gang, it's time to say hello to little Ms. Dandelion Green.

We have been saying we should use dandelion greens for some time, Alayna even went as far to say they're trendy. I mean, that seems lofty, but they are healthy. Did you see that counter picture I took? That's like vegetable porn. Oh my gosh, SOUP QUIZ! From left to right list the greens on the counter, the winner will get a jar of soup.

Alayna was a little late coming to my apartment so I started making the soup. Taking a sip of it I discovered it was essentially like drinking garden water. Alayna even casually mentioned maybe I ought to clean the vegetables better. Let me just say I did scrub those guys, it's just that I bought it all at the farmer's market and they really have that just-pulled-out-of-the-ground feel. So you know, sometimes I miss a pocket of dirt and you get a little crunch in your bite. Big deal. Anyways, Alayna worked her magic by adding salt, lemon and a bunch of cheese, and suddenly our garden water tasted a little more like dinner.

Okay, enjoy friends. With a post like that, how aren't ya'll salivating at your desk?

Hello cross-promotional plug. Book Club meets this Sunday!

Garden Soup

Heat olive oil in your soup bowl
Add 2 leeks chopped, let them simmer for 5 minutes on medium to low heat
Add 4 to 6 big cloves are garlic, heat until fragrant, about one minute
Add handful of finger potatoes chopped
Add a bay leaf
Add greens. You can really add any greens, these are the greens we added: 3 heads of Dandelion greens, 1 bunch of beet greens, 1 bunch of yellow chard greens
Add six or so cups of chicken broth (mine was homemade, what! what!)
Let cook on low for 20 or so minutes
Add the following to taste: 2 generous pinches of sea salt, 3 sprigs of thyme, a sprig of rosemary, 3 generous squeezes of lemon and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese

Persian Lentil Soup

2010-04-20T08:20:00.001-07:00

I love when Mo is in town because it makes Monday's Soups feel like a whole lot less work (uhm, maybe just for me) and a whole lot more wine. Mo introduced us to the mung bean, explained how to make our own yogurt, and told us about how wonderful sour cherries are from her uncle's trees in Iran. That all sounds nice doesn't it?

It especially sounded nice on red wine bottle number 2.5. This soup might win for overall bulk. See picture below. Not even that time we used an entire Halloween pumpkin have we filled the soup pot so high. This soup took longer than normal to cook, because we had to soften all those beans, but that was fine by me. We ate Alayna's baba ghanoush, I realized I need to buy a small food processor, and we talked about how stupid the Atkins Diet is and my new obsession with potted herbs and how maybe putting them all on my bathroom windowsill isn't the smartest idea. A few hours later I walked home, all 30 blocks north, with the heaviest giant pickle jar of soup I've carried yet. So many lunches. So exciting.

saute one large yellow onion in olive oil with a generous bit of turmeric until soft
add three cups of mung beans and cover with water and bring to a low boil
after the mung beans have been simmering for about ten minutes, add about two cups of green lentils, one cup of rice, and about 3/4 a stick of butter (butter is delicious), adding more water if necessary, and get back to a simmer for another 30-40 minutes until all parts are soft and mushy
at this point you can also chop 2-4 carrots and throw them in (optional)
chop up two bunches of chard (red or swiss) and put them in about the last ten minutes, as well as a generous handful of parsley
adjust turmeric, salt and pepper flavoring as necessary
serve with a dollop of plain yogurt or sour cream

Martha Stewart = My Hero

2010-04-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

Alayna doesn't know this yet but what did I go ahead and do? Applied to get tickets for Martha Stewart's show for food bloggers! That's right soup lads & laddles, hope Alayna isn't busy May 5th because we're headed to the Martha Stewart TV Studios in midtown!

How can anyone say no to my request? My Martha Stewart submission is pasted below:

Tell us about yourself and the guests with whom you'd like to attend the show. Are you crafters, food enthusiasts, gardeners, or part of a school group? The more details, the better!

We are soup enthusiasts! Alayna and I have a maintained a weekly soup blog for over a year. Monday's Soups; Don't be afraid of Mondays and Don't Be Afraid of Soup! In addition to making soups, which we believe sets a solid foundation for cooks of all levels, I would also like to add here that I have been a fan of Martha Stewart's since the age of 9 when my friend (Alison Smith) and I would make videos of ourselves cooking. I pretended to be Martha, while Alison was "Nartha," Martha's evil sister. She would try to ruin Martha's perfect plans to make everything beautiful and just-right. Don't worry, Nartha never succeeded. When I was 11, Martha came into a small lobster restaurant where my family and I were eating in Maine near Bar Harbor. My mother encouraged me to go over and say hi as that whole summer I would wake up at 8am to watch her early show. But instead, overwhelmed, I couldn't breath and had to rest my head on the table for the rest of the night.

Calabash/Calabassa Soup

2010-04-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

Annnnd I'm back! I am back from the jungles of Guatemala. I come back with new parasite friends, wall to wall hand woven carpeting that looks ridiculous in my apartment, and the new ability to carry laundry on my head.

It was exciting to see Alayna because it's been weeks. Or months, I swear. We talked boys and soup and then went to Back Forty, best bar ever. Best bar because they make delicious cocktails and it's perfectly situated between my apartment and Alayna's. Lovely Mo was there and taught us the ways of the Texan belt. Texan belt? Did I just make that up?

In other news, Alayna's moving. I know we've been touching on her grad school application process over the last few months but somehow I never put together that applying to grad school in different states means, you know, you will probably then move to a different state. Horror of horrors, I know.

So we're figuring out how Monday's Soups can not only go on, but can prosper, as we report live from two different states. Don't fret folks, the principal of everything you need to know about cooking, which is soup... will go on. Suddenly Celion Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," just started playing in my mind. And I like it.

This meal was da bomb. Roasting stuff and then cooking it and then blending it always makes for deep rewarding flavors. Or, what we say in the biz, "RCB'ing." I mean, no one says that but I'm going to start right now. Oh, I also wanted to shout out that I had the best black bean soup of my life in Antigua. I think it's because it was filled with pig lard. And let me tell you pig lard is delicious. And so is this, sans lard.

Take 3 half calabash (this is how they're usually sold at the market... no idea why) and roast them at about 400 for 30-40 minutes by punching some holes in them with a fork, putting a splash of water in each and covering in tin foil
when your squashes are pretty soft, roughly chop one white onion and saute in olive oil until opaque, adding a few shakes of cinnamon and chili powder
add one zucchini, chopped, and cook covered, stirring occasionally until mostly cooked... at this point if your squash are done, you should take them out so they have time to cool off a little
add two cans of drained sweet corn
scoop out the innards of the calabassa and add to the soup
top off with veggie broth and blend
Delicious with avocado on top!

Almost Summer Soup (Porcini and zucchini soup with walnut basil pesto)

2010-04-07T09:20:00.000-07:00

So, we're having a warm snap in New York right now and I LOVE it. Windows open, sandals on and air drying my hair instead of bundling up on the way to work (and having SUNSHINE when you leave for work instead of freezing cold darkness and/or snow and rain) is pretty amazing.

We're a day late because Mary had to catch up on work after her vacation, but don't worry, this soup is worth it. It's vegan, but surprisingly filling. Sounds complex, but is really simple to make. And it straddles that line between a hot day and a cooler night quite well. It's also delicious and I made up the recipe, so I'm feeling super proud. SO:

Almost Summer Soup (Porcini and zucchini soup with walnut basil pesto)

THE SET-UP (things to do while you're doing other things)
Chop up 3 red potatoes and bring to a boil in a separate pot until you can stick a fork in them easily, but they aren't too soft
Throw about half a cup to a cup of walnuts onto a cookie tray and put in the oven at 250 for 5-10 minutes until toasted, then set aside to cool
microwave about 4 cups of water for about 5 minutes and put in an ounce of dried porcini mushrooms to soak, re-heating as necessary
THE SOUP
Chop about 5 cloves of garlic and sauté in olive oil with a sprig of fresh rosemary and a few sprigs of fresh thyme
Add half a white onion and the white and light green parts of three leeks, chopped and cook covered to reserve liquid
Once fragrant, add two zucchinis, chopped and cook covered
When the zucchinis are starting to cook, add 4 portabella mushroom caps, chopped and cook covered, stirring occasionally
PESTO BREAK! Now you have time to make the pesto! Take a big bunch of basil, take out any bad leaves, and rinse thoroughly. In a food processor, layer in the basil first, then add some walnuts, then parmesan cheese and 2 cloves of garlic with a generous amount of olive oil. You may have to do in batches as things get copped up and move down. Adjust flavoring to your taste (I love garlic) and put in the fridge for later.
By now your veggies should be cooked through, so add your potatoes (drained) and your porcini juice (with the mushrooms strained out and squeezed for juicy flavor)
Blend (taking out your rosemary and thyme stems) and serve with a dollop of pesto in the middle.
YUM!

A Light Leek Soup

2010-03-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

First, lets start with a pretty picture of ingredients so that no one loses faith in me as a cook:

Rosemary, thyme and garlic

I'm not going to lie. Soup night was BIT of an adventure last night.

Mary is in Guatemala this week with some college friends (jealous!) so I decided to meet up with my partner from Amigos in 2000 (that's right, a DECADE ago) for a drink before soup night. But I also had some dried chickpeas and homemade chicken broth, so first a ran home and threw them into the dutch oven on low so they would be ready when I got home.

When I got back, I was greeted with this:

my apartment

Oh yeah, that's a smoke filled apartment.... and some really burned chickpeas.

The mystery is that I really DID leave the stove on very low. Dutch ovens don't need much heat, that's the whole beauty of them! So I'm blaming the cat. Although I probably shouldn't have left the apartment with the stove on. Safety first!

LUCKILY, I was still able to make a delicious soup.... just not as chickpea-y as I expected. And yes, I am that girl who rescued as many chickpeas as she good and likes the taste of lightly burned (or, in my mind, toasted!) things. You may want to stick to canned though.

separating the weak from strong

And yes, my apartment DOES still smell like burned chickpeas. So does my hair. And my hands. I had to scrub my dutch oven for about 45 minutes to get all the burnt parts off after soaking it overnight. Don't drink and dutch kids. Or don't dutch and then just step out for one drink because you might end up smelling like a Mediterranean market and not in a good way.

On the plus side, my mom always told me eating burned things would make my hair curly.... cheap perm, here I come!

Without further ado....

A Light Leek Soup

saute 6-8 roughly chopped cloves of garlic in olive oil with a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme
add the roughly chopped white and light green parts of 3-4 leeks and cook until they're getting a little floppy
add one bunch of broccoli (include the thin parts of the stem too, and if you want to blend, the whole stalk)chopped into small pieces/florets
add one large zucchini, sliced and quartered, and about 3 tablespoons of butter, sliced around the pot and stirred in
cook, stirring occasionally, until broccoli is bright green and zucchini is mostly soft
add chicken (or veggie) broth, barely covering veggies and about 1.5 cups of cooked "toasted" chickpeas.... or just an unburned can of chickpeas
- note: I used a broth that I'd already infused with lemon, which was GREAT, but you can also just squeeze the juice of 1-2 lemons in at this point
simmer a little while until veggies are done all the way through and serve!

Garlic Soup Two (Electric Boogaloo)*

2010-03-23T09:59:00.001-07:00

Last night Mary was spending quality time with Gavin for his birthday, and guest-of-the-blog Jocelyn called out sick with a fever. With my roommates nowhere in sight, I souped alone. I thought I would hate it, since I'm kind of a social person, but here's the thing:

For the past six months, my life has been a little bit of a whirlwind. In September I started studying to take the GREs and putting together a fundraiser for AMIGOS. Test-taking and fundraising segued pretty quickly into applications and the holiday season, and in the new year it's been financial forms, catching up with book club and helping a certain someone plan a wedding (yay!). Now, because I'm me and love a full plate, I've put together a (long) list of the things I want to do in NYC before I head off to school (like actually see all those museums) and have signed myself up for a ceramic show at the beginning of the summer. It makes for a busy schedule, especially when you also want to see your friends and have people coming in to visit.

So souping alone? It was a nice break. I went to the gym, did some prep for a dinner party on Wednesday and even cracked a non-bookclub book. And the soup was great. Light, easy, delicious and, most importantly, did not involve a trip to the store.

Garlic Soup Two (Electric Boogaloo)*

In a medium sized sauce pan, bring some chicken broth to a simmer along with three crushed or grated garlic cloves and a few sprigs of fresh thyme (I used some lemon chicken broth I made the week before, so add some lemon for extra flavor), and salt and pepper to taste
Once the broth is fragrant (about 5 minutes of simmering) add on zucchini, thinly sliced, and a handful off soup pasta (I used egg noddles) and cook another 5-7 minutes
Turn off the stove and mix in a few handfuls of spinach
In a separate bowl, beat one egg with a fork, adding in a few generous spoonfuls of pecorino or parmesan cheese and some ground black better. Add a spoonful of the hot broth to the egg bowl while still mixing, and then put the whole thing back into the pot
Enjoy!

* I only made two servings of soup since my fridge is full of produce for the dinner party and I'm running out of tupperware. I also made a HUGE amount of food on Sunday night for no discernible reason.

Ham Hock Soup

2010-03-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

Look at Toaster pretending she is a lion who is gnawing on a freshly slaughtered gazette.* 2 lb. Toaster cat actually pulled that ham bone out of the trash and carried it with her tiny teeth across the apartment. Alayna and I squealed in delight and immediately started snapping pictures like we were in Animal Kingdom.

Ham bone explanation, probably one month ago my mom bought a ham. I have been prying for this ham bone ever since. Finally I was able to snag it when I went home for a wedding last weekend. I texted Alayna excitedly that I had the bone. The big, big bone. And thus we were able to make our first ever HAM SOUP.

This is a southern comfort and while it simmers it basically smells (and tastes) like bacon soup. Mmmhmm. Go pigs. This was also the best soup ever because right when the soup was done Alayna found out she was accepted into Georgetown for grad school. I was so excited I called my parents before Alayna called her parents. My parents are really excited.

So we enjoyed this soup. Talked about Georgetown, talked about our future summer canning plans, I completed my census Alayna texted her friends with the good news, we realized we are very prude and awkwardly squirmed our way through Gossip Girl and then we split a tart. Great soup night, great ham bone. Enjoy, but keep away from cats and other wild beasts.

*This just in, allegedly gazettes aren't animals.

Ham Hock Soup!

Pour 10-12 cups of water in pot, 1 lb. of pinto beans, ham bone, 3 bay leaves, black pepper, 3 big carrots, 5 stalks of celery (both chopped), 1 onion and extra cubed pieces of ham if not a lot of ham on the bone (2 cups)
Allow water to boil, once boiling bring to a simmer and cover with lid. Let simmer for 1-1.5 hours.
Add swiss chard, taste broth, add vegetable bullion if desired.
Pull out ham bone, pull meat off the bone and throw back in soup. If the beans taste cooked, start eating!

Sweet (Potato) Thai

2010-03-10T08:48:00.000-08:00

Sawadeekah. Alayna had a hankering for tom kha gai soup. But since we made a similar soup in the past we decided to do something wild and add scallops, sweet potatoes and carrots! Alayna's creative twist resulted in a genius outcome. The broth is really, really good. Really good. PJ, our new soup buddy for the week, thought so too. Thanks for coming PJ!

The big coconut milk cans were on sale so I bought two of them instead of three smaller cans. Alayna poured in one big can and then asked for the other as I skimmed the Nutrition Information. I paused to consider how one cup of coconut milk had 254% of my daily intake of saturated fat. And thus began The Coconut Milk Mystery.

I am one of those sorts who believe that any fruit or vegetable or natural, minimally processed grain is probably pretty good for you and pretty much eat all of that stuff blindly. So I was very confused how the natural milk of a coconut had the nutritional value of a Big Mac. Twist! Coconut Milk has no cholesterol, which adds to the mystery as saturated fat and cholesterol go hand in hand. BUT obviously this isn't an animal product.

Let me share with you an article I found brilliantly titled: "Coconut Nutrition... Controversy Abounds"

Some scientists argue that it is high in cholesterol, whereas others argue that because of the combination of fats contained in coconut milk, it reduces rather than raises cholesterol in the human body. High-density lipoproteins (HDL) and low-density lipoproteins (LDL) are both necessary to good body function, and the balance between them is key in determining whether we have high or low cholesterol. Coconut oil is a saturated fat. Saturated fat is one of the bad fats known to raise LDL levels and consequently cholesterol levels. However saturated fat is now being disputed in the medical and scientific communities as more cultural diets are studied. As an example, Polynesians, who consume a diet rich in coconut milk, a rich source of saturated fat, do not suffer widely from high cholesterol. Scientists do not understand why that is so.

You know why I think that is so? Because plants are always good for you. I mean, I'm not going go guzzling coconut milk, and I am going to say, Alayna, I think one giant can of coconut milk is fine for tonight, but I'm not going to avoid our big-ball hairy coconut friends either.

This brings me to my last piece of news. I joined a CSA. My dream of all dreams. I can already visualize the soup blog post of me visiting my farmer friend upstate. As if this farmer is one of those children in India you give money to and put their picture on your refrigerator. I want to put a picture of my farmer on my fridge. And I want to be his penpal. And I want to eat his turnips. Well, thankfully the latter I am guaranteed to do.

Sweet Potato Thai

roughly dice about 8 cloves of garlic (maybe less if you're not sick and/or trying to keep away vampires) and saute in olive oil with some dried red pepper
once garlic is fragrant, add one chopped yellow onion and about 3 inches of peeled and chopped fresh ginger and cook covered for about 5 more minutes until fragrant
add 4-5 chopped smallish sweet potatoes and two large chopped carrots
Add a 25.5 ounce can of coconut milk, about two can-fulls more of chicken broth and the juice of five limes
Bring the heat up and cook for about 20-30 minutes until the carrots and potatoes are soft enough to put a fork through, but not too mushy
in a separate pan, lightly saute about 3/4 lb of bay scallops in olive oil until they look opaque
add the scallops to the soup (with the heat off) and let sit for a few minutes to cook the rest of the way, topping off the pot with a handful of roughly chopped cilantro

Smoky Tomato Soup

2010-03-03T05:48:00.001-08:00

Consider yourself lucky if this is the first time you are hearing that I've been sick. I can't stand when I'm sick and I have tendency not to be able to talk about anything else. I also am highly suspicious of medicine. So I often avoid it, which you could argue, might be why I'm still sick. But I swear gurgling warm salt water and eating a strange amount of brussels sprouts is working and really, tomorrow I think I'll be totally fine.

And the reason I'm sick? Soup. I know, I know.

Gavin came home sick early last week so I decided to make him soup after work because I'm 27 going on 60. I wasn't worried I'd get sick because I believe I have a superior immune system. I was so not worried that when he didn't finish his bowl of soup I finished it for him. I even had a passing thought that this probably wasn't brilliant but was so egotistical about my soup strength that I didn't care.

Sniffle sniffle cough cough. And that is why I had to miss this soup night at Alayna's. And I'm souper sad (can't help it) that I did because how good does this soup look? Roasted tomatoes. Amazing. When I'm stronger I will recreate this masterpiece in a bowl and I'll never be sick again.

The Soup!

Cut 6-7 very ripe tomatoes in half and put face down on a baking sheet with half a head of unpeeled garlic (or whole, I only had half) with the top cut off and a little olive oil sprinkled on. Put in the oven at 375 for about 30-40 minutes, until the skin easily comes off the tomatoes and the garlic is soft

Put 3 dried chiles pasillas and 2 dried chiles anchos on a different baking pan and put in the oven for about 5-10 minutes until they are puffed up. Take out and let cool.

Once cool, cut the stems out of the peppers and take out the seeds. Put all the other parts into the blender

When your tomatoes and garlic are ready, put them into the blender as well. The garlic should easily squeeze out of it's casing. You will want to wait a little bit for your tomatoes to cool so that the lid doesn't fly off the blender, so in the mean time....

.... chop one yellow onion and saute in olive oil

Once translucent, add one large can of diced roasted tomatoes with juice and slowly heat

Blend your chile/fresh tomato/garlic mixture thoroughly and add to the pot

Top off with chicken broth and like, simmer about 30 minutes

In those thirty minutes, cut up an avocado, grate some sharp cheddar cheese and heat up a pan of oil to cook up some tortilla strips.

When all the elements are in place, serve yourself with avocado, cheese and tortilla strips on top

Mushroom Soup with Parsley Dumplings

2010-02-23T07:45:00.000-08:00

So Alayna had a board meeting and in a strange swing of ambition I decided that I'd tackle a hard soup all by myself. And tackle is exactly what I did. I feel like this soup and I had a love hate relationship for the entire 2.5 hour cooking process. Maybe it was after going to the food store and spending $35 mostly all on ingredients (dried mushrooms, $8- actually you can remove this step if you want and just add 2 more cups of broth- it is less of an earthy taste but I mean, I'm cheap and sort of regret it, so just sayin.' Also, note I bitch that I spent $35 on soup supplies, which is way more than we normally spend, but still I have 6+ meals out of it. Not bad.)

Or maybe it was getting home, exhausted with 5 bags in my hands from work/gym/grocery store (this is essentially my gym/tan/laundry only it ends with a book in my bed and not a makeout in the bar) and the prospect of starting this big cooking process seemed daunting.

But I knew if just gave up and put veggies and lentils in a soup pot again and called it a different soup because I added say, both kale and chard, Alayna would kill me. So I embarked.

Note in this picture how I'm using all my burners. Then note how the cabinet above my stove which holds pots is totally empty. God bless dishwashers. All in all this soup was really good. I sort of butchered those dumplings because I never used an electric mixer or processor and instead did it all with fork and bowl. So they were eh, a little lumpy. Whatever, I'd eat lumpy dumplings over washing two more things any day. This soup was souper good though. At 10:30pm when I finally sat down with my bowl of mushroom soup and dumplings I was pretty proud of myself. Soups up laddles!

Ingredients

2 cups water
3/4 ounce dried chanterelle mushrooms
3 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound crimini (baby bella) mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon thyme
Fine sea salt
3 tablespoons dry white wine
1 big onion
3 thinly sliced leeks
4cups vegetable broth (such as Swanson)
A big pinch of cayenne pepper
a couple handfuls of carrots
1/2 bag of spinach

Parsley Dumplings

3/4 cup (scant) low-fat cottage cheese
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, room temperature, divided
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup all purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

Preparation

Soup

Bring 2 cups water and dried mushrooms to boil in small saucepan. Simmer for 20 minutes. Put aside (with liquid)
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic; stir 30 seconds. Add baby bella mushrooms and thyme; sprinkle with sea salt and sauté until mushrooms are browned, stirring often, about 12 minutes. Add wine; stir until liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute. Set mushroom mixture aside.
Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in another heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook until translucent and beginning to brown, stirring often, about 6 minutes. Add leeks and carrots reduce heat to medium, sprinkle with sea salt, and sauté until vegetables are soft and golden, stirring often, about 15 minutes.
Bring broth to simmer in large pot over medium-high heat. Pour in reserved mushroom cooking liquid, leaving sediment behind. Add all mushrooms, onion mixture, and cayenne. Add spinach. Keep this pot simmering while you make your dumplings, occasionally giving it a stir.

Parsley Dumplings

Puree cottage cheese in mini processor until smooth. Using electric mixer, beat 3 tablespoons butter and eggs in medium bowl. Add cottage cheese, 1/2 cup flour, 1 teaspoon sea salt, and nutmeg; beat on low speed just to blend. Stir in 1/2 cup flour, cheese, and parsley.
Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Using teaspoon, scoop piece of dough about size of cherry. Holding spoon just above boiling water, use second spoon to push dough into water. Working quickly, repeat about 10 more times. When dumplings rise to surface, simmer until cooked through, 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer dumplings to large plate. Repeat with remaining dough.
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium heat. Working in 2 batches, add dumplings to skillet. Cook until brown in spots, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
Bring soup to simmer. Divide dumplings among wide shallow bowls. Divide soup among bowls and serve.

Split Pea Soup

2010-02-16T13:09:00.000-08:00

New York has had a series of disappointing snowstorms in the last couple of weeks... the kind that make you sit inside because instead of sticking to the ground they just melt and slush on impact. Last week some people even had a snow day (which pretty much never happens), although I'm pretty sure that was out of jealousy over Washington D.C. since it barely even snowed and trains were delayed less than they are when it rains. I never thought that living in New York I'd be wishing for snowstorms like they have in the South, but stranger things have happened, right?

Anyway, Mary went off to her skiing in Vermont and I had a not incredibly productive but very relaxing weekend in the city, hanging out with coworkers, watching terrible movies, throwing some pots at the studio and finding a new (to me) speakeasy in my neighborhood. After a visit to the MOMA Monday, split pea soup, a kitten on the lap and a few hours to get work done were just what the doctor ordered. And the best part about this soup is that it only involves about ten minutes of actual work, then two hours of cooking, so you can wander off and cozy up until you get hungry. So without further ado...

Split Pea Soup

Warm up your dutch oven (or regular soup pot) on low heat.
Saute about five finely chopped cloves of garlic in a little olive oil, adding one chopped white onion when they are getting translucent.
When the onion is translucent, add three chopped leeks (white and light green parts only) and one or two large chopped carrots
Add 2lbs of dried split peas and fill the pot with broth to about 2 inches below the rim (I used home-made broth from a chicken I roasted earlier in the weekend, this time with the addition of LEMON which was phenomenal, but if you're not using home-made broth, at this point I would also throw in a few sprigs of rosemary, thyme and oregano, and one whole lemon, cut in half)
Cover and let simmer for about two hours, adding water if necessary, until peas are mushy and delicious
After about an hour and a half, add in the leaves of one bunch of swiss chard, torn into bite sized pieces.
Season with salt and pepper and serve!

Chunky Veggie Barley

2010-02-08T17:42:00.001-08:00

Look how big my new soup pot is! It's the size of my torso!

In Michael Pollan's new book, "On Food Rules," he separates "food products" from "food." When did feeding ourselves become so complicated? Pollan's main thesis is to "Eat real food, not too much of it, and more plants than meat." Alayna and I discussed this while eating our soup last night.

The thing I can't wrap my head around is the fact that I am 27 years old. I have a graduate degree. For most of the last decade I've had a moderate interest in eating well and yet I still don't feel like I'm close to mastering it. I've spent years thinking about this and reading books and articles. I feel like I have a strong basis about the world of marketing tricks and how food marketers get you. Yet I still fall for traps (sugar free jam with fiber anyone?) So how on earth do people who aren't neurotic nutbags like me even stand a chance?

It is a rare day when I can confidently say nothing I ingested was processed. Even last night we had pearl barley in our soup, which is more processed than hull barley. But I don't even know where to find hull barley. The thing that annoys me about Pollan is that he makes me feel like such an idiot for having these moments. He makes it sound so simple. But it's not. I've been working on my cooking for a solid two years and I still feel like I'm at the very, very beginning of it. The crest of the wave (of soup!).

Maybe it's because unlike Alayna, I didn't grow up in a cooking household. My mom claims it used to be a cooking household when I was young, but as I often bring up, when I was 11 my mom gave up cooking for Lent and then never looked back. No one yelled at me for drinking Cokes in the morning and Oreos after school (Eileen and Jessica, please confirm). I know there are some underlying issues here, like how it wasn't even an option that my dad would ever pick up the cooking slack for my mom, but my point is I didn't have a strong cooking mentor growing up, so for much of this I feel like I'm learning things for the first time now.

I like Pollan's idea of eating in moderation. That feeling of can't-move-full is obviously not a healthy feeling. It's akin to putting ourselves into a comatose state. We aren't alert. (But have you noticed eating too much homecooked food is a different feel entirely from eating too much processed food?)

But I get uncomfortable when his stuff starts to sound like deprivation (i.e. eat sweets on days that start with an S) I like saying, "Hara Hachi Bu," mainly because it's funny to say outloud but also because it means "eat until 80 percent full." A cultural habit, practiced on the island of Okinawa; the healthiest place on earth. Pollan highlights an old wive's tale: If you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you're not hungry.

I actually just ate an apple and I'm still hungry.

Clearly folks, I have issues with Micheal Pollan that perhaps I should just keep in the closet. Maybe I just want more of a gold star from him and less of a long sigh and shrug that I have so much left to do. I don't know. I'm interested in your thoughts. Are your current eating habits reflective of how you were raised? Do you often to cook for yourself? Do you even care? What are your food rules?

Chew on that and then go ahead and chew (and slurp!) on this...

Chunky Veggie Barley OR Ain't got no Gout Soup

in a separate pot, cook one cup of barley as suggested (should take about 45 minutes)
roughly chop 3 cloves of garlic and saute in olive oil with herbs des provence
add one onion, thinly sliced, and saute until lightly browned
add two parsnips (chopped) and a handful of carrots (chopped) and cook covered until they begin to get soft, adding more olive oil if needed
add two bunches of chopped brocollini and stir, then cover again until brocollini are a little cooked through (2-3 minutes)
add a handful of kale and stir and a box of chopped mushrooms
once kale, brocollini and parsnips are mostly cooked through, add the barley with it's hot water to the pot, filling the rest with water and chicken boullion for flava
bring to a simmer, salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Greek Wedding Soup

2010-02-02T07:53:00.000-08:00

Sit down folks. Today marks the first day that we cooked soup with ground beef! I think Alayna and I are going to become mega carnivores now. Like Acrocanthosaurus-type carnivores. Because meat tastes good. I also discovered some weird satisfaction from the feeling of rolling the meatballs in my palm.

Which was when, actually, Alayna said something casually like, "Who doesn't love the taste of raw meat?" I was taken aback as I had already washed my hands 3 times because of my close proximity to raw meat which I assumed if I didn't continually clean myself I'd obviously, you know, die. I probed further and Alayna admited that though she wouldn't eat "a whole raw meatball" she would "lick her hands afterwards.*"

Just like a cat. Which makes sense because for the first half of this soup I read Alayna's cat behavoir book outloud. We learned all sorts of helpful tips about what cats are trying to say when they bunt your hand and turn back their ears. I also began to feel super guilty that Toaster is an indoor cat and had a moment where I vowed I'd buy one of those cat climbing towers for her.

That'd just be awesome. Little meaty Mary with that cat climbing tower in her apartment. What a prize I'm becoming.

Anyway, this soup is really good. I know I say that every week. But this week I really, really mean it.

I love meatballs!

*Editorial Note: Alayna would like to point out that it is perfectly acceptable, even FANCY, to eat your steak practically raw, and that it's all cow anyways. Also, sushi.

Greek Wedding Soup!

Bring about three quarts of chicken broth to a boil, then down to a simmer (we used a combo of leftover real chicken broth from last week and water/fake broth)
In the meantime, combine about a pound of ground beef or lamb, two eggs, a handful of finely chopped parsley, about four finely chopped garlic cloves, 1/3 a cup of breadcrumbs, 1/4 a cup of crumbled feta cheese and 2-3 sprigs of finely chopped oregano into a bowl
Use your hand to mix up the ingredients until smooth, and then roll up 1 inch balls and set aside on a plate
Once your broth is boiling, add the meatballs and about a mug and a half of orzo to cook for about 8 minutes
Bring down the heat and add any leftover parseley, a handful of roughly chopped mint, the grated rind of one lemon, one large grated carrot and a box of arugula. Let cook another five minutes and serve!

Syrian Lentil and Chard Soup

2010-01-26T14:56:00.000-08:00

Alayna: Swiss chard tastes like everything I love about the jungle when it rains (don't post that on the blog)

Soupsters, meet our new friend Mr. Swiss Chard. What's one of my favorite things about Monday's Soups you ask? It's getting to know new vegetables that I used to be scared of and would avoid in the market. And then getting to know them so well I start to call them by names (think Ernst the Eggplant).

Last week, somewhat impulsively, I was meandering around Whole Foods when I noticed they had big leafy bunches of swiss chard. Even though it was a Saturday (aka not Monday) I bought it and immediately texted Alayna. You see Alayna and I have been occasionally swapping in kale for chard because sometimes it's difficult to find chard. I think deep down inside we both knew we were sort of avoiding chard because we are both creatures who do not like change (not "change" as in living in a different cultures/meeting new people, but "change" as in not eating an apple at exactly 11am every morning. We're Virgos, it's a weakness.). Regardless, I should have tried chard earlier. I am hyper aware that it's so freaking healthy for you. So why on earth was I scared of a leafy vegetable that tastes like our natural habitat, it's way up my alley... I am proud to say that today my friends, we are no longer chard virgins.

Last night, as Alayna and I very happily enjoyed this WONDERFUL soup and said how much we love chard we mused how last time this year we met Ms. Kale. To think a year ago I didn't cook with kale. Ah. Mazing. How did I eat kale chips? What did I add to stews? I have no idea.

I sense Swiss (and Rainbow) chard will enter my life with the same sustainability and joy-- yes, joy-- as kale has. Man, do I love leaves.

Lastly, enjoy rainbow chard's red stems! I might have had a little freak when Alayna added them to the soup and I thought Red = Poison. But yeah, I'm a neurotic nutbag and we're both still ticking today.

Syrian Lentil and Chard Soup

*Little known fact, although I have measuring cups, I mostly just measure things in mugs. Not sure why, but it's true. Also: still don't have measuring spoons... don't find it impedes baking at all
** This soup apparently is supposed to be served cold, although it was delicious warm

in a smaller pot, put two mugs of green lentils in with 2 mugs of water and one mug of chicken broth (or all water if your vegan/veg), cover and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally and adding more broth or water as necessary to keep it pretty liquid
after about twenty minutes of pot one cooking, chop up about 6 cloves of garlic and saute in olive oil, adding one chopped yellow onion and 4 chopped celery sticks when the garlic gets fragrant (about 5 minutes)
tear two bunches of rainbow (or regular) swiss chard into pieces and chop up the stems, rinsing before you put them into the pot
when the onion and celery are getting translucent, add the chard to the big pot and cook covered for about 5-7 minutes until wilted
add in the lentils and stir in the juice of one lemon, salt and pepper to taste and more chicken broth or water to get it to a soupy consistency
Let it all simmer together a few more minutes and enjoy!

Cock-a-Leekie Soup (yes that's a real name)

2010-01-19T19:54:00.000-08:00

So this weekend my dear friend and fellow-blogger Mary-Lorraine left me to my own devices for not one, but TWO blog-meals. She went to the wilds of Vermont DESPITE Friday being national soup day AND Monday being Martin Luther King day, which, like all no-work Mondays, is a day of extra complicated (or at least long) souping. And sometimes bread baking. I know, intense.

The upshot was that I had a wonderful weekend with some friends I don't normally see. Friday I hosted Alexa, Elizabeth and Drew (all former Amigos volunteers and incredibly entertaining) for a vegan Ethiopian feast that featured not one, not two, but three stews and some hand-purchased-from-a-restaurant traditional bread, and then Monday Lindsay came over to share some Martha Stewart inspired cock-a-leekie soup with home-made rolls from Kate's Mom's recipe. Deeeelicious.

You'll have to check Friday's Dinners for the Ethiopian food, but here is some good old chicken soup with a twist of... prunes? Don't worry, it was delicious.

Cock-a-Leekie Soup

This soup starts in the afternoon, so make sure you’ve got enough time on your hands!!!
• Start off my taking a 3-4 lb chicken and put it in a dutch oven. Chop one onion into eighths, two large carrots into big sized chunks, about 4 celery sticks and peel about 6 cloves of garlic. Arrange them all around the chicken except two of the garlic cloves.
• Stuff a bundle of fresh rosemary, thyme and oregano into the body cavity of the chicken (check to make sure they don’t have the bagged intestines inside... gross, but important) with the two cloves of garlic, and spread a smaller bundle around with the onions and carrots. Sprinkle the whole she-bang with salt and pepper.
• Cook on very low heat for about two hours
• When the chicken is cooked, let it cool off for a little bit and then pull it, the veggies and any herbs out of the pot, leaving any liquid in the bottom of the dutch oven and set aside
• Put about four pints of broth into the pot and bring to a simmer
• Add half a cup of barley (dry), about 7 leeks (white and light green parts only) lightly chopped and about fifteen dried and pitted prunes cut into quarters. Cook for about forty minutes until the barley is cooked through
• While the soup is cooking, let the chicken and reserved veggies cool.... roughly chop them and set them aside. De-bone the chicken, discarding the skin and keeping the bones to make broth later, and shredding the meat into bite-sized pieces.
• Once the barley is cooked through, add the veggies and about half of the chicken meat back into the soup, along with a handful of fresh parsely
• Simmer for about ten more minutes and eat!

Egg Buns (From Kate’s mom)

This is another one that takes a while! Just so you know!
• Soften 2 teaspoons of dry yeast in 2 tablespoons of warm (not hot) water. Let it sit while you get the rest of the ingredients together.
• Beat 2 eggs, 5/8 cup of whole milk and 1/3 cup melted butter together. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, 3 tablespoons of sugar and yeast mixture. Stir well.
• Slowly beat in flour, first a cup, then in half cup increments or less. The MOST you should use is 3 cups, but you might not need it all. When dough is no longer runny, turn it out onto a well-floured surface (really put a lot of flour on there, not just a dusting) and knead for 10 minutes. Add more flour as needed to keep it from sticking to the surface, but try to use as little flour as possible. You want your dough to be very tender and soft, like a baby’s bottom, not stiff.
• Put dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a moist cloth or plastic wrap, and set in a warm place for 1- 1.5 hours until it has doubled in size. If you stick your finger in the dough and the depression bounces back, let it rise a bit more.
• Turn the dough out onto the floured surface (just a dusting this time) and cut into 12 equal pieces. Form each into a roll and place on a baking sheet that has been dusted with cornmeal (or greased with oil or butter) about 1” – 2” apart. Cover the rolls with the cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until double in size (same test with your finger).
• Bake in preheated oven at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until brown.

National Soup Day: Jan 15

2010-01-14T09:58:00.000-08:00

BREAKING NEWS!

In the world of soup, not that much happens that is so jaw-dropping I have to post on a THURSDAY. Well folks, something just did. Let me share an email I received just moments ago.

Lesley Anne Stalvey: "im sure you're aware, but i read friday is national soup day."

NO LESLEY, I WAS NOT AWARE. But it's true! Check out this captivating piece of journalism, thanks NBC Philadelphia.

So as I finish my leftover bowl of turnip soup at lunch I sit back, smile, and wonder what soups I'll have for all three meals tomorrow in celebration.

Happy holidays.

Turnip Soup

2010-01-12T07:36:00.000-08:00

Email chain:
Alayna: remember how i facebook stalk people before 8am? i am creeper.
ML: hahah. it's kewl. i have a bag of spinach and bread and my soup jar right next to me.
Alayna: i have parsnips and radishes and an onion
ML: we are bunnies
Alayna: we could make a costume

If I gmail search "soup" I get "hundreds" of past emails and gchats. As does Alayna. I decided to search back to see what my first "soup" email was. An archival tour, friends.

...Well, that took me 20 minutes. I have 754 emails with the keyword "soup." And my first was in Thailand when Caitlyn was talking about how much soup she has to eat with a chicken blood base. My first "soup" conversation with Alayna had to do with her just eating veggie soup because she was sick but had a job interview. We've come a long way.

Either way, we have moved our attention to turnips. Turnips are high in dietary fiber and low in cholesterol and saturated fats. Plus they have protein and a lot vitamins. I did a little google search while the soup simmered. I always fight not to peal turnips. My rule of thumb is that peels are good for you. Does anyone know if this is ridiculous? I have no idea.
Either way, good soup. If you decide not to add spinach then it would be a white soup, which Alayna and I thought would be very exciting.

Spoons up.

Turnip Soup!

melt about 1/4 stick of butter in your soup pan
add 3-4 chopped yellow onions, and cook until soft
add about 5-6 chopped red potatoes and 9 chopped small turnips and stir into the pot, stirring to coat with butter, adding ground nutmeg, chili powder and ground red chili to taste
cover with broth, bring to a boil and simmer until veggies are soft (about twenty minutes)
add a few handfuls of spinach
blend and serve! (even better with shredded cheese on top!)

Chicken Curry Soup

2010-01-05T08:11:00.000-08:00

Wait, who's that cupping her soup bowl? Oh right, it's our old friend and roommate KZim, traveling across the county from sunny Berkley to the frozen tundra of the Lower East Side to join us in soup night. Not so much has changed since Kate decided to run away to a place of higher education, golden prospects, and life coaches, well except Zizi cat is enormous... As I write that out I am acutely aware Alayna is going to protest that I delete that line. And I won't.

You know why I won't? Because while everyone ate their warm soup I was forced into manual labor, sanding away a spice rack until my hands bled. I have a welts on my once soft, indoor kid hands to prove it. So now I'm getting my revenge and am telling the whole world, little baby Zizi isn't so little anymore. But I love her more for it. I love fat cats. We all remember blessed Big Boy Snauffer don't we?

So hurray for this soup. Put the word "curry" in a soup title and I think it's going to be a lardy mess of goodness--fatty goodness. This is not that sort of curry soup. There isn't a dairy product to be found- just curry powder. It's tasty and super healthy. So indulge in this non-indulgence. Even Zizi can have a few licks.

Chicken Curry Soup

roughly chop one large yellow onion and saute in olive oil
also roughly chop one large sweet potato, three turnips and 5-7 large carrots, to add once the onion is getting translucent.
sprinkle generously with garam masala and curry powder and stir until all veggies are covered
cover in chicken or veggie broth and bring to a low boil, simmering for about 20 minutes
add two chopped apples
in a different pan, cook 3 chicken breasts in olive oil and set aside
once veggies are all soft, blend then together. add in chicken, and salt, pepper and lime to taste
serve!

Garbanzo Lentil Soup

2009-12-28T19:35:00.001-08:00

Meet Toaster. She's got an eye for trouble and eye for good soup. Alayna is in Florida so I have to do soup solo. I invited my best pal Zach over who pretended at first he wasn't madly in love with my new feline bestie, until she starting purring all over him and now look at them. All soupin' in love.

The few times I've had to make soups without Alayna they turn out a little Mehhhh but this one is a winner. It's just spicy enough to be exciting but not over the top. Lentils are good for us too.... Dang, I just did a little research, check this out:

Lentils, a small but nutritionally mighty member of the legume family, are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber. Not only do lentils help lower cholesterol, they are of special benefit in managing blood-sugar disorders since their high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising rapidly after a meal. But this is far from all lentils have to offer. Lentils also provide good to excellent amounts of six important minerals, two B-vitamins, and protein-all with virtually no fat. The calorie cost of all this nutrition? Just 230 calories for a whole cup of cooked lentils. This tiny nutritional giant fills you up--not out.

Zach! It's a mighty good thing you ate two bowls of this stuff maybe your shockingly high cholesterol levels will start to decline. What, did you not want me to tell the world about that?

Zach liked this soup so much he wrote a haiku:
I love lentil soup
Because it's as fun to eat
As it is to poop

Zach, that's disgusting. But it's sort of true. You know why? Because lentils are such an excellent source of fiber. Alright soupies, go and clean out your clogged post-Christmas systems with this winner.

Garbanzo Lentil Soup

Heat olive oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat.
Add 1 onion & 3 cloves of garlic; sauté until golden, about 13 minutes.
Mix in 1 teaspoon of cayenne and 3 dried red peppers chopped and a handful or two of chopped carrots
Add 6 cups of chicken broth and 1 bunch of kale
Increase heat; bring to boil.
Add 1 lb of lentils and 1 14 oz. can of garbanzos beans, 1 package of mushrooms; reduce heat to medium, a twig of thyme and rosemary
Cover; simmer until lentils are tender, stirring twice, about 30(ish!) minutes

French Aspargus Cream Soup

2009-12-22T11:54:00.000-08:00

One Year Of Soups

We made it. This marks our one year anniversary of Monday's Soup. Things have changed in both my life and Alayna's in that year but when you flip back over the months and months of soups everything feels solid and stable and good. Soup steadies us.

There have been a small handful of Mondays when we had to do a soup solo. When I was in Alaska, when Alayna was sick. That said, we never missed a week of making soup completely.

So what have we learned? A lot, actually. Alayna was ahead of me in the kitchen all along, from when we met in France and had those big dinner parties, I'd just drink the champagne in the corner or buy the last minute groceries we had forgotten at the market. We talked about it last night on her couch, my legs crossed with my soup bowl balanced on a pillow on my lap. Alayna said before she only felt comfortable making a handful of soups. This has obviously changed. We also have made friends with a bunch of different vegetables that before, we weren't totally sure what do with. Kale, parsnips, a giant pumpkin... to name a few.

And what's next? Ethnic soups. We feel we have gone through the round of vegetable soups, French and American, simple broths, gazpachos, chicken and shrimp and sausage... now it's time to move into lentils and spices and richer stews. Lets travel to India and Thailand and China and Bhutan. Yes, Bhutan.

What does a year of soup taste like? It tastes like a nice stable routine that grounds you and roots you in a city that can sometimes spin you off. So it's good. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the truth of the truth? The marrow of Monday's Soups? Is this:

Soup is good.

P.S. I have a cat now. Toaster. Zizi and Toaster are going to be bestfriends. And I just thought ya'll should know.

French Aspargus Cream Soup

melt about 1/4 stick of butter in your soup pot
saute a small yellow onion and the white parts of 5 small (3 large) leeks until translucent and fragrant
add your home-made chicken broth* and bring to a simmer
add 3-4 thinly sliced (pinky width) red potatoes and four carrots, similarly chopped, and let simmer for about 20 minutes
when potatoes and carrots are getting softer, add in a bunch of chopped asparagus... simmer all together for about five minutes, then approximately a cup of heavy cream (more or less to taste) and 3-4 handfuls of spinach
turn off heat, stir in spinach and let sit about five minutes before serving with Parmesan cheese on top

Broth

de-bone a chicken thoroughly (we used two since both were small)
stick the bones in a pot with a few cloves of garlic (4-5), some roughly chopped onions, carrots, celery and herbs (we used oregano, thyme and rosemary) with salt and pepper
simmer on low for 2 hours, adding water if necessary
strain through a colander or cheese cloth, discarding 'bits' and cool in the refrigerator overnight to let fat congeal
skim the fat off (it will look yellowy-white not brown) the broth will be kind of gelatinous. that's okay, it'll liquefy when it's warmed up

Chicken Noodle Soup

2009-12-15T18:51:00.000-08:00

chicken

Gang, holy heck but next week is OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF SOUP. Dang, time flies when you're spooning ladles and peeling garlic. Can't believe it only took us 47 soups before we decided to make CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP. 47 soups? Is that how many we made? Golly.

And look at us now. Back in the old days we only sliced up sausages, now we're de-boning, breaking wish bones (I won) and slaughtering pumpkins... and yet I'm still wearing the same ridiculous glasses that are my Dad's. Awesome.

Alayna got a dutch oven. She hasn't really been able to stop talking about it but I understand. It's cool to come home and see your chicken soaking up flavors in a pot on the stove. Homey. And that chicken tasted good. Even the breast meat which Alayna is weirdly adverse to, she admitted, was tasty.

Chicken Soup for the Soul. Remember that book series? Jeez, they really have a book for everyone. Good thing they have a Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul, and for a second I didn't know what to get Alayna for Christmas...

Chicken Noodle Soup

roughly chop about 6 cloves of garlic and saute in olive oil
add half a large yellow onion and cook on low until translucent
add two chopped parsnips and 3-4 carrots, cooking covered until they begin to get soft
add some sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme and oregano, and about 3 bay leaves. cook more until fragrant (five more minutes). at this point you should put your water on to boil the noodles (two large handfuls of egg noodles)
defrost a package of frozen peas, adding them to the pot with broth. DON'T fill all the way, because you're still adding things
put in about two handfuls of shredded chicken. we roasted our own with our awesome brand new dutch oven this weekend, but you can also just debone a rotisserie chicken.

once the noodles are done, drain them and put them in the pot as well
add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for about five min

Look at baby Zizi cat eat kale chips, that's a kitty who was raised right!

Green Machine

2009-12-08T18:48:00.000-08:00

As promised, our top five BEST soups of all soupie time.... (Uhm, Alayna is insisting instead of "Best" I say "some of our favorites" as if our other precious soups like Roasted Root Soup and Fennel is Fantastic will have their feelings hurt. Alayna is very attached to these little bowls of miracles.)

This is based on nothing but Alayna and my personal opinions and casual soup banter. Honestly, none of the soups we make are that tricky to pull off. Well, slaughtering that pumpkin was sort of intense... but that soup didn't even make the cut (even though it was delicious). So new soupies, don't be intimated that these are SOME OF OUR FAVORITE soups, just be inspired to make them. And enjoy them. And share them.

In no particular order:

More Than Tomato Soup

West African Peanut Soup

Cucumber Heaven

"It Was Really Good" Mushroom Soup

Lime Soup

P.S. Our top five happens to also be really cheap soups to make. Only the West African has meat. We're talking less than $10 soups here (well, for non-Manhattan residents at least, put us in the $15 range-- but still-- remember, these are BIG portions)

Tonight's soup? Not on the top five list of best time soups, but probably on the top five list of healthiest soups. This was sort of one of those, lets just toss in what we have in the fridge in a pot with broth and then put it in the blender soups. Those soups never fail. Well, depending on your fridge.

Either way, it's a nice during the week meal, especially as the weekends seem to be increasingly filled with holiday sugar madness. So it's nice to level out the playing field. Okay, soup out buddies.

The Green Machine!

roughly chop 6 cloves of garlic and saute with red pepper flakes and herbs de provence
add one large roughly chopped yellow onion, 3 small-medium red potatoes, a large carrot, a head of broccoli (with the top part of the stalks), 2-3 large zucchini and two tomatoes and cook covered
when potatos and carrot are starting to get soft, add your veggie broth, 1/2 a bag of spinach (or more, whatevs), bring to a simmer
blend and serve!

Turkey Soup

2009-12-01T07:34:00.001-08:00

After Thanksgiving Detox Soup

Everyone talks about what to eat for Thanksgiving. And I have seen more than one article about what to eat before Thanksgiving. (Egg white omelet, thanks Self.) But do you know what to eat AFTER Thanksgiving?

No? Well you're in the right place old friend. Alayna's sister made turkey broth from her leftover carcass. (Recipe below- my favorite line: "break bones into small pieces." Sounds badass, right?) And I know what you're thinking, but I'm so full. That's why this soup is SO great because it's super light (think Detox Soup). It's a great light meal for the day after. A perfect after Thanksgiving soup.

Dang. You think, those soupies do it again. Knock your socks off with a spot on soup. I know, I know. We're so good at this by now-- month 11 of soup laboring- scratch that, I mean ladling- that we should probably get a book deal. Any day now, folks...

I bumped into a closet soupie while in my hometown in Jersey, she suggested a good idea for the new comer soupy- to make a top five list of best soups for easy navigation when a first timer wants to make a winner (or an old timer). I know, all the soups are winners, but some are like, big time lottery winners.

Either way, ballots are open. Cast your vote: Best soup.

In the meantime my little pilgrims and native americans, eat up.

The perfect post turkey day light soup without losing the spirit of the holiday:

roughly chop about 5 pieces of garlic and saute in olive oil, adding half of a chopped yellow onion when becoming fragrant
add a fennel bulb (only the white parts) 4-5 carrots, 4-5 celery sticks, all roughly chopped, and cook covered with a few bay leaves until you can stick a fork through them
cover with FRESH TURKEY BROTH* (or any other kind of broth if you don't have an awesome sister) and bring up the heat, adding a handful of chopped parsley, three heaping handfuls of sugar peas, and your leftover turkey torn into little pieces
serve once it's heated through!

Turkey broth, courtesy of my sister:

first, thoroughly clean the meat off the turkey carcass, then break the bones into small pieces and bake them at 400 for about an hour until they look crispy
put them in a pot of water with the onions, apples and celery, (adding salt and herbs) and boil for about an hour with the lid on, on low heat
pour through a colander to get out the 'gross stuff' and refrigerate or freeze for later use!

Ginger Asian Soup

2009-11-24T06:50:00.001-08:00

I came home sick from work yesterday and promptly fell asleep. I woke up for the last 45 minutes of Legends of the Fall, wept like a baby when Isabel 2 was shot by the prohibitioners' stray bullet when they were trying to intimidate Tristan- like that's even possible. Once again I was left feeling cheated I wasn't born as a native American two hundred years ago. Then I fell asleep again. Woke up to Alayna buzzing up with groceries. I said what should I help cut? She looked at me with disgust in her eye as if I were a leper and said, Nothing. I sat back and she cooked me soup and it was pretty fantastic.

Then Paul came over. (Mom, stop reading this now.)

Paul came over with bloody hands.

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red."

- William Shakespeare, Macbeth 2.2

Paul had just ended the lives of two pigs, with two bullets, a slit to their throats and four large man's knees holding their squealing piggy cries down in the dirt while they died. Paul ate our soup and shared the (curly) tales of the pig slaughter in a cold barn in Vermont just the day before. (Paul will go back to Vermont to cut and salt and store all this meat- he is in culinary school and this acted as his first butchering experience.)

I felt bad that we made our soup with chicken but didn't say anything.

So this Ginger Asian soup is dedicated to our chicken and pig friends. And once again I am inspired to make one of those promises to myself that when I do happen to buy meat it's the more expensive kind that says it's slightly more humane than the other ones.
Because it can't be good- for our bodies or our karma- for those mass slaughters of those industrial animals with those shitty lives- who die without anyone giving them much thought. Or being sad. Or sitting on my couch eating my soup marinating over the experience- and the life- thoughtfully. Like someone probably should when something dies for our benefit.

I thought about this after Paul left but then I fell asleep again.
I was really tired afterall.

Ginger Asian Soup

chop 5-6 cloves of garlic and a generous amount of fresh ginger and saute in olive oil

Your ginger doesn't have to be growing stems like mine...

add a bunch of roughly chopped broccoli rabe (include the stems in leaves! they're delicious, i promise... just not the very bottom of them)
add in mushrooms (we had shitake, baby bellas and... something else that came in the three pack. if only one option is available, i would go for shitake)
once the rabe is getting to be a darker green and the mushrooms cooked through a bit, add your veggie or chicken broth and bring up the heat to get to a boil
in a separate pan, cook up a few chicken breasts in bite-sized pieces
once the broth is boiling, add a packet of udon noodles (snapping them in half first) and two generous handfuls of fresh sugar snap peas with your cooked chicken

Flavor with soy sauce (and salt and pepper if you are a sodium addict like moi)
Once the noodles are cooked through (about five minutes) enjoy!

Garlic Breath Soup

2009-11-17T06:45:00.001-08:00

Poor little baby Zizi cat hated this soup night. But our new buddy Tater-tot loved it! Especially because he got to lick the bowl. The bowl of rich garlic goodness. This soup is a nod to our vampire friends Edward and what's-her-face from Twilight. Or New Moon. Whatever. You know. I should probably know. I can probably take a swing through What Would Justin Bobby Do and figure it out.

Nods Bella and Beau.

Okay soupies, time to start seriously thinking about the great soup pot day coming up, that's right, A Year of Monday's Soup Anniversary Gala. The date should be sometime in January, details will follow, but these are a couple things that should be on your radar in the meantime:

Review this blog: Take a stroll back to your favorite soggy recipe; was it Veggie Detox (it actually was, I have analytics and that is our most popular soup-- you alcholoholics, you), or African peanut soup (that was MY favorite soup), or Lime Soup (Alayna?). Either way, check out our past hits and remember all the good times we had together. Remember when the blender broke? Classic soup memory.

Make your request early! If you have a soup you really want to make (you will bring this soup to our party in a soup pot... that's another thing, you might have to buy a soup pot)... email one of us and we'll cross that one off the list. All the soups must be different!

Start singing and tapping your toes: We are currently looking for songwriters, poets and dancers to help us write and choreograph the group "We Aren't Afraid of Soup" song that we will videotape and then repost on our blog and it will quickly go viral.

So let us know who could help us out. I'm not joking about any of this. At first Alayna thought I was and then she saw the soup ladle sparkling in my eye and knew. Knew I was serious. Souperious. And when you're souperious nothing can stop you.

Bad Breath Soup

Roughly chop 3-4 onions and two heads (that's right, HEADS, not cloves) of garlic and saute in a sprinkling of olive oil and about 3 tablespoons of butter on low
Add chopped fresh parsley, rosemary and thyme (we cheated and used dry thyme) and cover, stirring occasionally, letting it cook for about 30 minutes
Add chicken stock or vegetable broth and bring to a boil
Cube half a loaf of french or otherwise delicious bread and add it to the pot until soft (add more broth if it's too chunky)\

Blend and serve over the leftover pieces of bread
Try to avoid sitting to close to strangers

Chickpea Rosemary Soup

2009-11-09T20:47:00.000-08:00

While Melinda, our Monday Soup's dinner guest, was in the other room Alayna introduced me to her new buddy Ernst the Eggplant in the kitchen.

Alayna met Ernst at the Essex Street Market and at first she thought he was a deformed eggplant but then realized he was actually a great new pal. She sent me a message on Saturday night that we have a new soup buddy in our lives. I just pray he never rots. Notice that we discuss produce on Saturday nights? Cool.

Man, this post is weird, huh? Maybe it's because it's 4 o'clock and it's already dark outside. Maybe it's because I just watered my desk cactus for the month and I'm tired out. Or maybe it's because last night Alayna and I ate an entire mammoth bunch of kale. (P.S. Check out our kale chip recipe below. THEY'RE AWESOME. They're like potato chips for health conscious weirdos.) Anyway, yeah, I don't know.

But this is what I do know. Chickpea Rosemary soup is a comforting thing. Sort of like a potato soup. I also know that I really enjoy New York City in the fall. I keep realizing this over and over. Especially the Lower East Side. I felt all full of goodness and chickpeas when I set out to walk home Monday night at 10pm from Alayna's. I smiled when the street kiddies pretended to beat each other with baseball bats on Suffolk, or those rats that always run under your feet on the corner by Houston, or that drunk person you always run into because you can't see the corner because of the plywood fence that is covering the empty lot which always has movie posters for really good indy movies and meditation spots. You know what I mean. Anyway right, soup...

Friends 4-eva.

Chickpea & Rosemary Soup!

Roughly chop about 4-5 cloves of garlic and saute in olive oil with some hot red pepper, adding a roughly chopped yellow onion when beginning to get translucent. Add about 4 stripped sprigs or fresh rosemary, leaves only.
Increasing the heat a little, add 4 parsnips (also chopped) and then a zucchini. Cook another five minutes or so until everything is a little softer and you can stick a fork through them
Add 4 drained and rinsed cans of chickpeas and two tomatoes, then cover with vegetable broth and bring to a simmer (not a full boil! it will make the rosemary bitter)
Drain and season with lemon juice and black pepper!

Kale Chips!

Tear leaves up into medium sized pieces and place in a brownie pan
sprinkle with olive oil and sea salt and mix with your hands
cook at 375 for about 30 min, stirring once and checking to make sure tops aren't burnt

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup / Ode to Beets

2009-11-03T06:43:00.000-08:00

Union Square Market. Where I buy my beets & they play the Amelia song and I want to die because I'm so filled with joy.

Hello soup lads and ladles. (O.M.G. I'm good at this.) November is here. Which means all of our little vegetable friends are burrowing deep into the ground to stay warm, thus the perfect time for root soup.

Root soup sounds cool, doesn't it? Like Alayna and I somehow have morphed into two heavy set frontier women surviving the winter with only one donkey and a plow. It sounds almost as cool as when Lauren Cook casually mentioned how she pickles AND CANS her beets. My jaw dropped I was so impressed.

The thing is, I've been eating beets every day since Saturday afternoon. And I plan to eat them again in a few hours for lunch. Everything that comes out of my body is red. I love it. Poor little Zachy who had beet dinner with me on Saturday doesn't so much.

Via text message:
Zach: My poop was red and it scared me and I'm never eating beets again.
Mary: I ate the leftovers today and now my pee is red too!
Zach: I feel ill.

Of course, Zach didn't feel ill. He is just nervous because he has a marathon to run in 12 months and he's freaking. Don't worry Zach, keep eating nutritious foods like beets and you'll do fine.

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

chop about 4 parsnips, 4 turnips, 6 regular sized carrots, one large yellow onion, and 3 medium sized beets into bite sized pieces and put into a brownie pan
add 4 whole peeled cloves of garlic
sprinkle the whole mix with sea salt, black pepper, herbs De Provence and olive oil and mix with your hands to coat
bake in the oven at 450-500 degrees for about half an hour, stirring once or twice, until you can fork through all the veggies fairly easily
transfer to a soup pot, cover with vegetable broth and bring to a boil until the veggies are easily mashed
blend and serve!

Happy soupies.

Halloween Soup

2009-10-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

Putting sausage guts in our soup. Awkward to write out, delicious to eat.

It's so spooky that Alayna and I weren't even trying to make HALLOWEEN SOUP. Neither of us put together that soaking the black beans in water for an hour and 45 minutes and using that water as the broth would dye the entire soup black. Making it the purrrrfect ghoulish soup.

Wait, what? Soaking the beans for an hour and 45 minutes? I KNOW. That's a really long time to wait. So what did we do? Uhm, figured out six different Halloween costumes based on Alayna's closet and dressed up by the soup. Because that's soupies do on Monday nights.

Here we go! Monday's Soups first Halloween! And please don't judge me for writing some of the worst captions ever.

An Egyptian adding poison to her father's soup.

"Looking into my soup bowl I see many leftovers in your future."

Stepford wife cooking away her sadness and dreaming of a future where she can take her mind out of the kitchen and into the workforce!

A Mayan Indian thinking about traditional Mayan life and how we only have 2 more years left on the calendar. What will be the last soup she makes?

Holy smokes, Bond girl is tied to the hot soup bowl and is about to die!

Thanks James Bond for annihilating that pot of soup with an electric screw driver.

Just kidding. We didn't annihilate our soup! We ate it. And now you can, too!

Shrimp / Sausage / Black Bean Spook Soup!

put 1.5 16oz bags of dried black beans into a soup pot and fill halfway with water, bringing to a simmer
while that's simmering, chop one fennel bulb, a white onion, three cloves of garlic, 3 large carrots and a red pepper into smallish pieces and dump into the pot
cut open the casings of 2 sweet and 2 spicy italian sausages (or 4 mexican chorizo sausages) and break the raw meat into little pieces, dropping them into the pot
ADD WATER WHENEVER THE SOUP DOESN'T COVER THE BEANS.... also add veggie broth powder (or salt and pepper) to taste
after about 1.5-2 hours (when the beans are soft all the way through) bring the soup back up to a boil and throw in a pound of thawed frozen shrimp (no shells) for 3-4 minutes until cooked through (this is optional, but delicious)
serve with shredded cheese on top

Carrot Coconut

2009-10-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

The texture revolution.

This is what I mean, these are the things I've started to do differently. I buy the New York Sunday Times at the store on 25th and 3rd even though I can read it for free online. I drink coffee in a mug which I refill and refill and refill on the long part of my couch and pick apart the paper. I bought a hard covered book (Sherman Alexie, War Dances) at the store. It was new and cost $23. I just re-read all the underlined parts of "For Whom the Bell Tolls," my copy is taped up the spine. I read it in Galicia. I lent it to a boy to read in Galicia. I lent it to a boy to read in Barcelona. I re-read it in Barcelona. I mailed it home on a box that took a ship across the Atlantic.

"There is no such thing as safety. There are so many seeking safety here now that they make a great danger. In seeking safety now you lose all."

I underlined that. But I didn't add any stars on the margin next to it. Which means those sentence were my lowest priority of underlining. I have a structure. Two stars is as high as a sentence can be. I won't tell you what those are though.

I meant to write about something else for this post but then I started looking through books because I was looking for Something. A line or something. And instead I remembered how much I miss the feeling of books. I remember pretty much almost exactly what I was thinking when I underlined everything I have ever underlined. It's a gift. I paged through a Mary Oliver book of poems, and then a Frances Driscoll book of poems, which I don't think is a big name but I found her in a used bookstore in Maine-- which place in Maine, Brunswick? and I cried sitting in the corner reading it because it was sad. And then I probably pitched a tent somewhere.

Alayna and I haven't discussed the texture revolution that thoroughly yet but I know she's part of it, too. She forgot what it felt like to receive mix tapes and then she did in the mail and remembered. She builds pots in her hands. That's a good one.

What do you do to keep texture in your life? Making soup counts, too.

Carrot Coconut Cah-Cah-Cah

4-5 garlic cloves chopped in olive oil, saute
Add 2 shallots, 5 stalks of celery chopped, 1 head of broccoli chopped
a few generous shakes of garam masala, chili powder and coriander
Add 2-3 large leeks, a "decent" amount of ginger chopped
4 small red potatoes, skin on, add a bag of regular carrots chopped
Pour in a can of coconut milk

Add enough chicken broth to cover the veggies

Bring to boil and then let simmer for about 25 minutes until veggies are soft

Blend!

Alayna and the soup. I cannot smile while spooning soup. We tried. We took 8 pictures. I can't do it.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

2009-10-13T06:49:00.001-07:00

Pumpkin slaughtering. That was our Monday night. Did you know you can buy a pretty big pumpkin at Key Foods for under $5. I know, right? We gutted this pumpkin, roasted the seeds, knifed it into sections, peeled the outside skin, chopped those into bits. Roasted the bits. I sort of felt like we were hunters tearing apart our prey. I liked it.

For those non-New York City readers, yesterday was cold. That morning as I was getting ready for work I heard a hissing sound I could not identify and it began to drive me crazy. Eventually I realized it was the building's heat being turned on for the first time this season. I decidedI should probably take out the air conditioner.

This is how we look when we have food in our mouths.

You are encouraged to mimic our Autumn harvest. It was pretty awesome. We drank pumpkin special beers. We snacked on roasted pumpkin seeds, crackers with homemade baba ganoush, pesto with hazelnuts (recipes below), and St. Andre cheese.

Then the soup was ready. New soup record with the sheer amount of soup we made. A big pumpkin goes far. And Alayna and I like to cook as if we had 10 sons coming home from war.
Whatever, I was pumped to have a full pickle jar of pumpkin soup to schelp 30 blocks home with me. So many lunches!

P.S. This soup was under $10, and it made what? 20 servings? Souper cheap, souper tasty.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup!

take one medium-sized pumpkin (as in, not more than 5-6 pounds, because that's a lot of pumpkin! like, enough for 6-8 people), wash the outside, take out the seeds and set them aside in a colander.
OPTIONAL: Rinse off the seeds and put them on a cookie sheet with some olive oil, salt and pepper... cook at about 350 and take out before they burn (we burned ours, so I don't have a time estimate)... you can snack on these or just put them on your soup
Peel the pumpkin with a vegetable peeler (we found peeling it in pieces easier) and cube, placing pieces in a brownie pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Cover with tinfoil and pop into the oven for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees (should be easy to fork through when they're done)

Saute garlic, raw ginger, half a white onion, a handful of fresh sage leafs and 3-4 large carrots until carrots are getting soft. Add the pumpkin and some vegetable broth
Blend and serve!

Pretty Pesto!

buy a bunch of fresh basil for no reason other than it's pretty
toast about two handfuls of hazelnuts (or walnuts) in a frying pan with no oil on low heat, stirring occasionally
almost fill your food processor with basil leaves, then add 3-4 cloves of garlic, about half a cup of parmesean cheese (or just the amount you had left), the toasted nuts, some salt and pepper and a generous pouring of olive oil
taste and adjust... for more saucy pesto add more olive oil, if serving as a dip, maybe a little less
serve with crackers or use as a marinade, in soup, etc etc... keeps for a while in a well sealed container and can be frozen!

Asparagus & Brown Rice Soup

2009-10-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

Alayna and I chose this soup because I had a bunch of asparagus at home I didn't know what to do with it. We found a recipe that incorporated asparagus and brown rice and we were tentatively planning to work off that until we re-read the recipe at home and realized adding soy sauce and hot sauce sounded sort of gross. Plus it instructed us to use multiple dishes.

We did not like this.

We altered the recipe so we only used 1 soup pot and 1 pot for rice. No other dishware was dirtied! (Minus our feeding bowls... I said that with a southern drawl and I hope you did, too.) This soup set a lot of records actually. Alayna came over at 7pm and we were sitting down eating by 7:40. This never happens. Not necessary because soup takes that long but because we have a habit of dilly dallying over things like kittens and craftware. And Alayna ate, I kid you not, 4 bowlfuls of this soup. To make her feel better I ate three. And my second bowlful was REALLY big.

When she asked for her fourth bowlful she reasoned, well it's just vegetables and water, really.
It's true.
Now enjoy this soup yourself and don't be shy with the Parmesan cheese. Trust me.

Oh! I was asked to include an Obituary for Gourmet Magazine in here. It's true, it was the Vogue of cooking. Alas, I too, miss paper.

Cook a cup of rice (mixed brown and wild is best) in a seperate pot
Sauttee one chopped yellow onion, adding 3 finely chopped shallots at the end
Adding as you chop, put in about 5 celery sticks, 4-5 smallish carrots and a bunch of asparagus, keeping the pot covered on medium heat
Add a handful of chopped parsely, several sprigs of fresh thyme and some ground black pepper
Once the veggies are cooked through but still have some crunch (the asparagus should be bright green), add in the cooked rice and fill the pot with chicken or vegetable broth
Squeeze in the juice of one lemon, bring to a simmer and serve with a sprinkling of parmesean on top

French Lentil & Baba Ganooooooooush

2009-09-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

As the lentils simmered Alayna used plumber's clay to fix her vase and I highlighted special lines in Jack London's biography I had earmarked not having a pen at the time. The soup smelled wonderful. Zizi couldn't stop waiting for shadows to move on the wall.

It smells like autumn now. This is good. I'm wearing two sweaters right now. Which is excessive but the room is chilly.

While the soup simmered Alayna and I went through her craft box. Thick oils and sandpaper, somewhere. I paged through her sketchbook from France. A drawing I did from a rooftop in Fez drinking mint tea. A picture of the corner of my apartment over the art gallery. And a lot of hollowy trees. A letter never sent to a boy. Van Gogh's bedroom. I miss textures.

We started eating the baba ganoush before the soup was ready and it was wonderful. We drank ginger tea from the elephant mugs before that. I walked home 30 blocks and the sky was purple and blotted with clouds and it felt spooky like Halloween. I howled when I tripped over a rat running across the street.

This soup tastes like France and a little bit of fall. It's good.

Lentil Soup
(adapted from Mojdeh's mother, who took it from Martha, as in Stewart, that originally had elusive french lentils and escarole, neither of which we could find)

finely chop about four cloves of garlic and saute in olive oil
add a medium sized white onion, also chopped, and cook until almost translucent
add 3-4 medium sized carrots in bite sized pieces and cook covered for about five minutes
add 1.5 cups of lentils (green or french) and 3/4 cup of yellow split peas (or stub lentils for all... we were just going for color and then they all looked the same, but tasted delicious)
Add one large can of diced tomatoes and fill the pot with vegetable or chicken broth, adding 2-3 bay leaves and several sprigs of fresh thyme

bring to a simmer and cook covered for 40 min (to test, make sure the lentils aren't crunch in the middle)
turn the heat off the pot and stir in one bag of arugula, letting it wilt in
Serve!!!

Baba Ganooooush!

cut an eggplant in half lengthwise, stab it with a fork a few times, and bake is at 400 for about 45 minutes (when you cut it open and it's all mushy and brown instead of white, it's done)

let cool, then scrape insides of eggplant into a food processor, discarding skin.
add the juice from half a lemon, about a spoonful of tahini (make sure you stir it well before adding so it's not all clumpy), 2 cloves of garlic and some salt and blend until smooth
Serve!!!

Shrimp and Corn Chowder

2009-09-22T07:48:00.001-07:00

As I got little veiny shrimp legs caught in my fingernails Alayna and I discussed how there are so many closet soupie fans out there. Like Gavin, who announced in a tizzy a few nights ago that he loves soup and it is unfair that he never gets any of our leftovers.

"Do you know how many people say, Oh Gavin, you must eat a lot of soup? And I say, Actually I never get soup. Do you know how that makes me feel?"

Sad?

I did bring Gavin a very small jar of leftovers Monday night. But it was hard to part with THIS REALLY REALLY GOOD SOUP (Good thing Alayna and I cook like we have to feed eight to ten people at all times.) Alayna accidentally dumped half a jar of cayenne pepper in it, she tried to pick it out- but there for sure an added kick. Which, I liked. It's a good soup with a TON of shrimp. Don't cheap out, buy an entire pound of it. Alright. Start peeling the skins off those little suckers and get to work.

P.S. We bought the corn at the Queen's County Fair over the weekend-- which was awesome. I saw a pig race!

to start, cut the kernels of 4-5 stalks of corn and put the cobs into hot water with some bay leafs to boil... this will be your broth later
saute one pound of rinsed un-shelled shrimp in a little olive oil on low, stirring often, until nice and pink
remove from the pot with a slotted spoon, letting juices and oil stay in, and set aside to cool
put four cloves of roughly chopped garlic and half a chopped red onion in the pot and saute with two red peppers and a generous amount of chili powder (we actually spilled a LOT into our pot, took some out and it was delicious and spicy) until translucent
add the following with a little bit of your corn water (add the rest once the broth tastes corny), all chopped into smallish pieces so that they can cook faster: a small, peeled butternut squash, a large zucchini, about 4 red potatoes

once the above veggies are getting softer, add the rest of the broth and bring the pot to a simmer. add in the corn kernels and one chopped red pepper, and 1-2 cubes of vegetable bullion
now that the shrimp are cold, peel them thoroughly and add into the soup pot with about a cup of half an half and let cook another 3-5 minutes
Eat!!!

Spinach Garlic Eggdrop Soup

2009-09-14T18:40:00.001-07:00

Poor Alayna was home with a fever and couldn't make it to soup night. Which is a shame because I'm pretty sure the soup we made can cure any disease as it has about 10 cloves of garlic. Daniel and Zach came over and stood in for Alayna. They helped me cook and drank my left over wine and roasted eggplant dip. (Seriously, if anyone wants roasted egg plant dip, let me know...)

Anyway, the inspiration behind this soup was that I didn't feel like buying anything for it. This is a great poor man's soup. Especially if you have an herb garden then it's pretty much just water. I don't have an herb garden. Maybe next week.

Alright, there is a new New Yorker with my name with it. Go peal some garlic my little vampires.

In a soup pot add 2 or 3 cups of vegetable broth (optional... well, isn't everything optional)
Add 4-6 cloves of garlic into the broth with a bay leaf, sage, parsley and a few sprigs of thyme.
Reduce heat to a simmer and let sit covered for 20 + minutes

Meanwhile...

In a small bowl pour in some olive oil, salt, parsley, thyme leaves and pressed garlic and use a brush to paint it on both sides of a thinly sliced baguette
Place on a oven tray and pop in the oven at 350 F for 10 minutes... or something... just flip when browned and let sit a little longer... you know.

And go back to the soup...

Add a bag of spinach, stir it around until it wilts
Mix olive oil and 3 eggs in a bowl
Add a ladle full of soup into this bowl to temper the eggs (thanks for the fancey lingo, Daniel)
Pour this mixture into the soup pot.

Now drop a piece of miracle toast into your bowl and then ladle the soup over the bread.

It's delish!

Ummm, I can't stop making videos. I don't see this going anywhere good.

Laborless Sweet Corn Soup

2009-09-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

I spent the end of summer in Vermont at my parents house in Stowe. And it was lovely. I finished the book I had been reading for the last month, I read the Sunday New York Times in actual paper form and drank coffee from a good mug and remembered how much I like textures and realized how much they have been missing in my computer-life. (My next thing is forming the "Texture Revolution," it's going to be huge...) I took a 30 mile bike ride on dirt roads and mountains and grass and it took me over 5 hours. While wondering where I was and where the trail had gone I looked ahead and saw this hanging frame. And I stopped and considered it and ate my apple. And it was a very good apple. That and it was my only piece of food. I ate it slowly.

But back to soup. I made a whole thing of this week's soup. My parents had friends in town, friends I have known my whole life, and on Sunday morning we met at the Farmer's Market to get supplies. The soup was a group effort. It should be noted that Judy Edling, no stranger to the kitchen, helped a lot, all the while giving me helpful advice on future dinner parties and recipes. Thank you, Judy.

The Farmer's Market, Stowe, VT

This soup is especially good right now when sweet corn is wonderful. I added about half 2% milk and half chicken stock but this can played around with if you want a less creamy soup. I don't see why you couldn't also just make it in a broth if you don't want to include the milk- vegan friends. Do I even have any vegan friends?

Either way, enjoy!

Simmer 4 cups of milk, 6 corn cob halves (not kernels), 2 sprigs of rosemary and thyme in soup pot
Melt 1/4 stick butter in large saucepan over medium heat
Add 1 chopped large onion, sprinkle with salt and saute until translucent
Add 3 chopped zucchini, 2 big carrots chopped, 2 stalks of celery chopped
When that is mostly done, add the corn kernels from the cobs

Remove the cobs and herb sprigs from the soup pot
Add the sauteing veggies
Add 4 cups of chicken broth (or whatever you think is enough)
Allow to simmer for 20 minutes to blend flavors
Puree the soup in a blender (we did this for half the soup and then mixed it in with the other half so it's still got bite. Also, helpful tip from Judy let the soup cool before putting it in the blender.)
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Goo outdoors!

Peach Gazpacho

2009-09-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, Mary and I have been on opposite vacation schedules for most of August. It’s been hard, but mostly we’ve survived by doing this thing called ‘hanging out with our other friends’. Last week, those friends were Jenny and Larisa , two lovely ladies I know from my pottery studio.

Making friends in New York is a strange thing, especially if, like me, you take a little while to warm up to people. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not because New Yorkers are unfriendly. They’re extremely friendly… as long as your not blocking a major thoroughfare on the sidewalk or in any way making a line take longer than it should (no, it is not an appropriate time to grill the barista on their knowledge of indie bands at 9am when there’s a line at the coffee bar, annoying hipster dude who obviously does not understand the importance of that iced coffee to my life right now).

The biggest roadblock to friendships here seems to be one of scheduling. With old friends, it’s okay to call them up at 9pm to make plans for the evening. With new friends, there’s pressure to come up with something cool or interesting. What if you have nothing to talk about or they hate seeing movies (note to potential new friends: I kind of hate seeing movies because the theater is always cold and you can’t talk without getting shushed) or you bring them to a party that’s really lame? Will that doom your relationship? At least with dating you can save yourself with the virtue of a good night kiss!

But that’s part of the reason I love my pottery friends. For the past year and a half, every week we’re at the studio at least once, talking about pots or glazes or how something should be put together so it won’t crack or our jobs or our families or that TV show. It’s friendship, middle school style, where you’re not really doing anything but hanging out. Plus, they think my jokes are funny. And so, in honor of pottery, some (vegan!) peach gazpacho with a side of asparagus!

Peach Gazpacho

Roughly chop 5-6 ripe peaches, 5 ripe tomatoes, 2 red peppers, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 small red onion and a large handful of mint.
Blend and chill until cold (use the tomato water to start off the blender), adding salt and pepper to taste.

Bonus Asparagus:

Chop up 3 cloves of garlic and sauté
Cut one packet/bunch of asparagus into bite-sized pieces and add to pot, along with a handful of chopped baby portabella mushrooms
Cook covered until the asparagus is bright green and serve (butter optional)

A Note From Vancouver & Alaska

2009-08-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

Soup at the Granville Island's Public Market, Vancouver

While I was traveling from Seattle to Vancouver to a cruise through Alaska (Thank you Shulmans!) I was reading Thomas McNamee's "Alice Waters & Chez Panisse," about Alice and her friends starting up her restaurant in Berkley and then beginning the organic, local and slow food revolution. It was good and led me to a slew of cookbooks I want to read next (The French Menu Cookbook, French Provincial Cooking as well as Water's stuff and MLK Fisher-- thank you, Erin.)

I ate a lot of soup in Alaska. There was a mango soup, and a cold pink thing with cherries, a navy three bean soup and lobster bisque. The best meal I had in Alaska however, wasn't the soup. It was a quick meal we had after kayaking in Ketchikan. It had been raining and we just had kayaked out to a nest of bald eagles and there was a teenage eagle sitting in her nest and the father looking on from another branch. When we kayaked back to the small boat that had taken us out to the sound the owner of the boat made an easy smoked salmon spread with capers and cream cheese and onion. And it was lovely and well deserved. Food taste better when it's deserved.

This is part of Water's note on the restaurant's philosophy. "At the table we are nourished and gladdened, put in touch with the source of life ... It is central to both the deepest and most joyous of human activities: generosity, companionship, nourishment, growth."

I feel a big shift from summer to autumn. I love autumn. So does my grandmother. It's our favorite season. In the beginning of fall it feels as if you have great potential to make changes. To try harder and to be better.

So here we begin again.

Friendly Fennel

2009-08-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

(A cold soup made of fennel)

People often ask me how I come up with recipes for the soup blog. Honestly, it’s a hodgepodge. Sometimes Mary will send me something she wants to try (that’s how we discovered kale! And porcini mushrooms!), sometimes it’s something I ate in a restaurant (watermelon mint), and sometimes its opening my fridge and saying, “well, I have x, y, and z and am too lazy to go to the store (hello too many bbqs leading to a veggie detox). Although I follow recipes more closely when I’m working with a new ingredient (hey, fish sauce can be scary), they never make it through the cooking process untouched. This week, as Mary is still out of town, my sister agreed to soup with me and had an extra fennel bulb (who doesn’t?). She reeeeally wanted a cold soup that our mother makes (which I’m pretty sure I’ve never had).

This was her response to me asking for the recipe:

AMTRK:

hi alayna-

i will bring a fennel bulb and an onion tomorrow for cold fennel soup! other ingredients are chicken broth, lemon juice, and cream.

Love
your sister

…. And you wonder where I get it from

Friendly Fennel

Chop 1.5 medium sized yellow onions (or one small) and sauté in olive oil
And the 3 bulbs of fennel (only the white parts) roughly chopped, but small enough to cook quickly, and cover
Add five medium-small red potatoes (you can skip this step if serving as an appetizer, but I like the weight it gives the soup if you’re having it as a full meal)
Once the fennel and potatoes are cooked through, add room temperature vegetable broth, the juice of 1.5 lemons and salt and pepper to taste
Blend and let sit in the fridge (or freezer) until cold

Notes:

This soup is also delicious warm (as long as it’s not too hot out)
I think it would be even more delicious if you added leeks with the onions
For some reason I made a LOT more soup this week than normal… for a normal sized recipe, just use 2 fennel bulbs and 3 potatoes, one lemon

More happy soupers!

Watermelon Wonder

2009-08-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

Ah summer, when you get up and have a slow breakfast, purposefully wait for your coffee to get cold before you take your first sip, lounge around reading, go to the beach, nap when you get tired and eat only what is cold, refreshing, or astonishingly easy to make.

As ‘grown-ups’, we never quite re-capture that summer feeling, but I got to come pretty close this past week while on vacation. I tagged along with my mom and her lovely friend Marlene to Cape Cod before heading down to Texas to see my good friend Mo. I saw seals at the beach, ate a lobster the size of my head, and enjoyed the best snow cone of my life standing in a steaming hot parking lot in a swimsuit in the middle of Austin.

And of course, there was soup. My mom happened to bring four of the five ingredients necessary for a soup I’ve been wanting to make, and the last, mint, was growing in the yard of our beach house. It couldn’t have been more perfect or better after a long day at the beach. And so I present, the Watermelon Wonder… don’t be weirded out by the garlic, it keeps the soup from tasting like juice (although you can still drink it out of a cup if you’re lazy and/or hot):

Chop the red parts of half a very ripe, large, seedless watermelon into chunks and to half a very ripe cantaloupe, de-seeding it first
Also chop one large cucumber
Dice two cloves of garlic and large handful of mint

Blend all of these things in a blender (HINT: start with watermelon at the bottom of the blender with a LITTLE bit of water and things will get liquid fast, then just reserve some for the next batch)

Salt and pepper to taste and let sit in the refrigerator for an hour before eating.

VOILA!... happy soupers!

And happy snow-coners!

Penne al la Summer Minestrone

2009-08-11T06:53:00.000-07:00

Maybe it’s because Monday’s Soups is rounding to it’s 6 month anniversary, that is a lot of soup, folks, but I find myself bursting with soup thoughts on a daily basis… So with that in mind, here I go.

Jamie came over to my apartment last night because Alayna is vacationing in Texas. This means that Yes, this was the first soup that was ever made outside of Alayna’s apartment for the blog. And it went well. It was a little less smooth than when Alayna cooks. She has mastered the art of chopping, sauteing and knowing what goes in the pot next while talking. I can’t do that so well. Thus, I would realize I forgot to add the cannellini beans five steps later. Or I added the green beans too early. But because soup forgives, none of this mattered. This soup also brought me back to my never ending question, Why do we blanch vegetables? I was afraid of kale for so long because blanching seemed like such a pain. But I soon realized that kale really doesn’t need to be blanched at all. I don’t taste a difference. Can a foodie help a soupie out?

The New York Times reported yesterday that obesity rates are going up based on a nationwide survey from 2005 to 2009. Nothing is new here. Seven of the 10 states with the highest poverty levels are also among the 10 states with the highest obesity rate. In Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia more than 30% of adults are obese. And—this is crazy—in 30 states, 30% or more of children are overweight or obese. That’s insane. It’s insane and it’s stupid. And it probably gets on my nerves more than it should but I can’t help it.

Jamie asked me what I was learning through this blog. I’m learning that cooking brings together people and conversations in a very authentic way. And that heady, karma part of me—that was born in college—believes that these are the real things you put into your food when you cook.

I know I’m getting annoying, and I’m trying not to fall over the line of being too preachy. This means a lot to me, and I feel like I learn more each week.

This is what I know.

A friend who I was very close to when I was a child, who I slipped away from as we grew older and we fell into life and trying to figure out who we were and who we certainly were not and all that, and then, only recently we began to inch back together. And the dialogue that brought us back was food. Was, stuff like, Yes, oh my gosh kale is wonderful and how do you bake a spaghetti squash and all of that. And while we were in the process of coming back to one another a tragedy happened in her family and it was awful and it broke my heart. I did the dance of all those awkward words that don’t feel like your own. I’m So Sorry and Is There Anything I Can Do and All My Sympathy. We put together those words and it felt strange and not right. And then it began to come back. It came back with, ML, I’m going to the market to make your soup.

Really?? Which soup?

Thai! I already have most of the ingredients.

And that is how we started to feed each other back to ourselves.

Now, lets eat... Summer Minestrone with Penne (or whatever pasta is in your cabinet

My first kitchen picture!

This is one of those soups where veggies can be swapped in and out. It doesn’t matter. Throw in whatever you have around or is in season.

-Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 medium yellow onion chopped into a soup pot over medium heat

-Add 4 chopped carrots and 4 chopped stalks of celery, add a pinch of salt, mix around for 10 minutes or until veggies soften.

-Throw in 6 cloves of garlic chopped and a few shakes of thyme (or fresh, obvi!)

-Dump in a big can of chopped tomatoes with juices, fill up half the tomato can with water, dump that in too.

-Chop up some fresh parsley and add it. Turn the heat to simmer. Throw in a basil leaf or two if you have them.

-Rinse 1 can of cannellini beans and add them to the soup.

-Meanwhile in a separate small pot boil a few cups of water, once boiling add about one pound of fresh green beans (with the ends snapped off, cut into bite size pieces.) Leave them boiling for 5 minutes, then rinse with cold water. Put to the side.

-Rinse out the pot and boil more water. Once boiling add a cup of penne pasta. Cook for ten minutes.

-Add the green beans while the pasta is cooking, taste the soup add salt or pepper or whatever you think.

-When pasta is done throw that in and you’re done!

-Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and more parsley just because that looks pretty.

Note: If you are going to make a bunch of this soup and not eat right away might want to add the pasta separate because it will get mushy in the soup after a day or so.

Look at those lovely bowls. Thanks Alayna.

Gazpacho

2009-08-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

I know. I’m bringing up Michael Pollan again. Sorry. But he did just write a long piece in the New York Times Magazine about why America likes cooking shows but doesn’t actually cook. This is all brought on by the Julie & Julia marketing onslaught that at first reminded me that I’m intrigued by Julia Child, (I acted on this- frustratingly asking the bookstore clerk if they had any copies of “My Life In France,” without the movie cover. No. Forget that then.) And now as the Julie & Julia attack drums on in every media outlet known to man I find myself, sadly, sick of Julia Child before I could even decide for myself whether she uses too much butter.

What am I talking about? Right. Pollan. Pollan poses the question, After having gross corporations cook for us, and by cooking, I mean pumping processed stuff up with butter and salt and sugar can we go back?

“Can we ever put the genie back into the bottle? Once it has been destroyed, can a culture of everyday cooking be rebuilt? One in which men share equally in the work? One in which the cooking shows on television once again teach people how to cook from scratch and, as Julia Child once did, actually empower them to do it?”

Sure can, Michael…

I had to run a few errands in different directions around the Lower East Side for this soup. I forgot a red onion at the grocery store and stopped at a corner bodega. I asked the Arab man if I could open a bag of six red onions because the single onion looked bad- he raised an eyebrow then went, Sure, sure. I had to get white wine off Ludlow and then realized I forgot to get bread on Clinton street where they make sandwiches but Amal discovered the bread itself is good. “Just three loaves.” The Italian guy looks at me, “Just bread?” Yes, please.

I cleaned dirt off basil in the sink and Alayna chopped onions and we drank white wine and talked about going to Colombia for a bit.

These are the things we eat here at Monday’s Soups. Interactions and conversations and good salt and chili pepper tea. And it’s all very tasty.

We can put the genie back in the bottle by... and I don't mean to tap into our tag-line... not being afraid of cooking. Alayna has been cooking long before me. She'd make me big dinners in France and I would happily eat it all and that's where our friendship started. But for me, making soup was the real start of my tender and caring relationship with Cooking. Soup is a good starting point. You put real foods together and play around and 99% of the time it'll taste good. Even when you don't have some ingreidents. Even when you throw in something random from the fridge.

So I would answer Micheal Pollan with a Yes, we can go back. And a good start is by not being afriad of soup.

Now go make your Gazpacho my empowered Soupies!

P.S. We had a friend guest soupie, Keith, yogi and potter. We talked about art and books instead of watching terrible television. For that Keith we thank you, come back soon. And can I get a free yoga class?

fill a medium sized sauce pot halfway with water and bring to a boil
turn the pot off and add two dried chiles anchos, chopped and seeds/stems removed and two chiles arboles (same)... let this steep until the water has cooled (you're making chile tea!)
before it cools, add vegetarian broth powder (or just use veg broth instead of water) until salty
chop about 8-10 very fresh vine ripened tomatoes, one large cucumber (deseeded), a large cucumber, a small red onion, 8 cloves of garlic and a large handful of fresh basil into smallish pieces and set aside

pour about 1-2 cups of your cooled down 'chile tea' into the blender and add as many chopped veggies as you can fit, disposing into your large soup bowl
Repeat until done, watching to make sure it doesn't get too liquidy or too solid
salt and pepper to taste
let sit for AT LEAST an hour (it's better the longer it sits)
serve with sliced avocado and fresh goat cheese on top!

Corn 101

2009-07-28T08:58:00.001-07:00

Me oh my, hasn’t corn been getting a bad rap recently? Freaking Micheal Pollan and his “we’re all just corn people,” preaching.

To fill in my non-Pollan readers. From a review of his New York Times bestselling book:

“Readers of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" will learn that the bulk of the American diet comes from one plant: corn. Grown on massive farms, oceans' worth of the golden kernels and green stalks are then processed, deconstructed, and reassembled in factories into everything from a Chicken McNugget to salad dressing. We eat so much corn that, biologically speaking, most Americans are corn on two legs.”

The Mayans agreed with this idea. Sorta. They believed that they were created by gods who added their own blood to flour made from corn, thus considering themselves the children of corn and worshipping accordingly.

Me and Alayna? We just enjoy ourselves an ear of corn when the time is right. Like it is right now in the summer. I’ll admit buying six ears of corn in Key Foods on Avenue A while being mildly assaulted by an ambitious beggar isn’t the most ideal place to buy corn—I prefer a veggie stand you swing into on your way to the seashore...

Wherever you get your corn get ready for a treat. This seemingly basic soup is loaded in flavor. Granted Alayna and I are not used to waiting an hour while the soup simmers, which is why I should add a bottle of wine to the ingredient list.

We’ve also had a tub of plain yogurt from the cucumber wonder soup a few blog posts back and have since realized a dollop or two of yogurt on top of most soups is pretty tasty. So throw it on unless you are trying to impress your vegan buddies.

Enjoy corn friends.

Alayna, corning around.

Sweet Corn Soup

Take half of one large white onion, cut it into quarters and put into the pot
Roughly chop about a half pound of carrots and add to the pot as well
Crush 3-4 peeled cloves of garlic with the flat part of your knife, and throw those in the pot as well
With a serrated knife, cut the corn away from the cobs of 6 ears of sweet corn, and set aside the kernels
Throw the cobs into the pot with some (light!) salt and pepper and fill about halfway with water
Bring the entire concoction to a boil, and then let it simmer for an hour... at the end of the hour, add more salt and pepper to taste and turn off the pot

In a separate pan, saute two cloves of garlic (chopped) and the other half of the white onion (also chopped) in olive oil with a sprinkling of turmeric
Once the garlic and onion are transparent, add in the reserved corn
Cook covered, stirring occasionally, until the kernels are cooked through (I don't know how to describe it, but if you taste, you'll know
Once the corn is done, take the cobs out of the soup pot, and add in the kernels... let it sit for a few minutes, and then blend as smoothly as possible
Optional: Serve with a dollop of plain yogurt or sour cream if you still have some left from the past two weeks, because that really is going to go bad soon :)

Corn kids!

Sopa Peliroja / The Art of Travel

2009-07-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

*Alayna wrote this post. Thanks Alayna:

Alayna and Mary Lorraine in Corsica, trying to open a bottle of red wine without a bottle opener.

One of the reasons that this blog exists is that Mary and I both had that un-ingnorable urge when we were in our early twenties to throw caution to the wind, give up our homes and friends, jump on the next flight and go somewhere, anywhere, that sounded good in a story. When we met, we’d both had a few backpacking trips under our belts, and were ready for something a little less controlled than the rolling hills of Southern France, so we would take our breaks in Morocco and Croatia instead of Paris and London. By the end of college, neither of us knew what we wanted to do or be now that we were ‘grown-ups’ and, in a series of jokes gone too far ended up moving ourselves to Thailand, for Mary, and Costa Rica (followed by Panama, and after a sojourn in New York, Mexico), for me.

Both of us were working in ‘community development’, a vague term that, for people working in the field, implies many mornings, afternoons and evenings sitting at someone elses’ kitchen table eating their food, sitting on their porches drinking the local cold (or hot) beverage of choice and thinking of what you could possibly say next. The rare occasion when you can cook for yourself, you want something that reminds you of your past, of who you are when you’re not The American, but just the friend of so-and-so, that girl from class or someone’s room-mate’s coworker. Something that makes your current residence seem a little more like home.

A week ago, my friends Alice, who I worked with in Mexico, and Chelsey, who I know from New York through my dear friend Mojdeh sent me a message from Nicaragua. They’d been, through a series of accidents, placed together to head a project for Amigos de las Americas and realized that they both knew me and were both Monday’s Soup followers. Their request was simple: make a soup that they can make in Nicaragua that will remind them of home. This is a bastardized version of Sopa Azteca, a delicious Mexican soup that’s perfect for the chill of a rainy day, but light enough to have when it’s hot out too. And no, it doesn’t require blending, so you can make it on a hotplate too. Last but not least, this soup is all about the toppings, so it’s great to have with a group of people where everyone might want a personalized bowl.

So ladies, this is it. I can’t remember who’s veg, but you can also make the soup with more tomatoes instead of chicken.

To start, buy one small, plain rotisserie chicken and debone, pulling pieces into bite-sized pieces and leaving the skin on… place in a bowl and set aside

Dice about 8 cloves of garlic and sautee in vegetable oil

Add about 4 dried Chilies Anchos (or Chiles Pasillas, which are traditionally used… Chipotles would probably also be good), chopped with the seeds removed, and 2 red hot chilies (chiles de arboles)

Add one small yellow or white onion, chopped

Once everything is getting well cooked, throw in the chicken meat and about 4 roughly chopped tomatoes

Cook covered until warmed through

Cover with chicken broth and bring to a simmer, adding the juice of two big limes and a handful of cilantro, and cook about 5-10 min

In a separate pan, heat vegetable oil and then lightly fry sliced tortilla strips until golden brown, draining on a paper towel and putting aside
In separate bowls, have sour cream (or plain yogurt, or crema, depending on what’s available), sliced avocado, shredded cheddar (or oaxaca, or whatever kind is available) cheese and some more hot peppers and let everyone mix them in their own bowl

Enjoy!

Cucumber Melon Heaven / Soul of a Soupie

2009-07-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, ladles down! The Soupie Contest is now closed for 2009. I would just like to thank everyone for their enthusiastic responses. I am now proud to announce the winner of our first ever Soupie Contest. And that is (drum roll) ... Mrs. Anna Jane Sabbagh!

(Insert audience applause here.)

I was excited to interview A.J. about her soup philosophies. Below is a bit of the soul of a Soupie.

Anna Jane, known to many as A.J., was named after her paternal Grandmother. She began cooking when she moved into her own apartment when she was 25 because, as she put it, "I was hungry."

A.J. especially likes to cook holiday meals or any sort of dish that's traditional and with a history. A.J. believes soup is particularly special because "you can be creative without being too smart or knowledgeable." Amen, sister.

However, A.J. admits that these days she doesn't enjoy cooking as much. "After these many years, I have run out of ideas." (Have you ever made Cucumber Melon Heaven, A.J.? I think I just gave you a new idea!) She also explains that her husband, Jim, is less enthusiastic about eating these days. So she says, "Cooking is less rewarding."

"Cooking is most enjoyable when you have an appreciative audience," A.J. believes. I agree. I just made a casserole and there is nobody here to eat it. I don't think food fills you in the same way when you aren't able to share it. This is actually something I'd like to think about further. And I would be interested to hear your comments on why community is so tightly woven in the art of Cooking.

A.J. finishes up her interview by gushing over her Soupie award. (Do you blame her?) "I must say this is one of the highlights of my life, or at least my summer. Just in case there will be a red carpet event, I am going to practice The Walk."

Thank you, A.J.! A.J. is turning 74 on Thursday, so we'll consider this her birthday blog post. Happy Birthday! I hope you like melons and cucumbers!

cucumber melon soup

For this soup, you only need a big bowl, a chopping block and a blender!

Obviously, all of these ingredients won't fit into the blender at once, so as you chop and add (and it gets full), empty half of the blender into the bowl, leaving enough liquid to keep it easy to liquefy everything else.

Defrost a small bag of frozen sweet corn, drain and set aside

Blend about half of a container of plain yogurt with 3/4 cups of creme fraiche (we used lemon flavored and it was lovely... try not to eat it all before you blend)

And 3 chopped garlic cloves in a blender until the garlic is nice and smooth

Add in two large cucumbers, roughly chopped, one very ripe medium to large sized honeydew melon (roughly chopped) and your defrosted sweet corn

Hint: Honeydew is ripe when it sounds hollow.

Once everything is blended and in the bowl, season with salt and pepper

In a separate bowl, mix about 8 red radishes,roughly chopped, a small handful of torn fresh mint,

some snipped chives and the juice of one lime

Serve the soup with a dollop of yogurt and the radish on top!