The Highest Nutrient Soup You Can Make

If you know me you know I love nutrition. The 700-page "Alternate Nutrition," is my bathroom book. I go to the Health Section first on the Times online. And I have some weird thing for Martha Shulman. Not to be confused with Martha Stewart- whom I also have some weird thing for, and have since I was the weirdest eight year old of all time. Alison Smith, please feel free to testify to this.

So as you can imagine this soup excited me plenty. Ever reach for the processed filled not-real-food snack in your cubicle on a Thursday afternoon. Stand up for the first time in 6 hours and hear your legs creak like an 85-year old then get on the over-crowded subway to have people cough on you- you get out at that dive bar in the East Village and drink watery beer? I know and I have. And it doesn't make me feel healthy. (As I write this out I can almost hear my I-live-in-a-town-that-has-a-much-higher-quality-of-life friends shake their head with that satisfaction. I geeeeet it.)

Okay, sorry, distracted, the reality TV boy of the moment is about to realize he's gay. And there those friends go. The friends who don't own TV. The friends who write, "TV, what's that?" on their Facebook TV show interests (And don't get me started on the friends who don't even have Facebook to begin with.) Whatever, Alayna is flipping between "NYC Prep" and "16-and-Pregnant" right now. I know what you're thinking, "16-and-Pregnant!" That's too far! That's unethical! Whatever. Okay. I'm getting off point.

Soupie contest! It's going on for another week. Alayna and I just didn't have the time to go through all our soupie submissions. Now that we're famous in Dubai those are starting to roll in in addition to our United States fan base. And Alayna and I are like, Shoot, now we have to translate Arabic. So anyways, if you, say, didn't have time to submit your entry about your favorite soup today is lucky your day because you have another week! And trust me the prize is going to be awesome!

...Oh my gosh, the 16-year old is actually having the baby. Right now. Alayna looks like she is about to cry but she keeps turning back with this sad-like-amusement. "Sad-like-amusement," really, actually, sums up the way I see most things. Ohhh, you and your TV-less satisfication head shakes are endless.

Regardless of where and how you live friends, hope you're in the mood for a bowl of fiber filled natural health. Salud.

Your Bowl of Feel-Better-Ness

• First, put 2 ounces of dried porcini mushrooms into hot water and let soak for about half an hour while you start up the rest of the soup
• Peel and chop two sweet potatoes and a handful of red potatoes into bite-sized pieces and boil in a separate pot
• Roughly dice 6-8 cloves of garlic and saute in olive oil until translucent with some hot pepper
  
• Add a handful of carrots, chopped, and cover
  
• Add the leaves of a full bunch of kale to the pot
• Slice 2 yellow squashes and halve the pieces and add to the pot
• Add a handful of shitake mushrooms, sliced, and a box of baby bella mushrooms
• Once everything is getting soft, add the strained porcini mushroom juice (you might want to squeeze out excess juice... they are delicious) and cover the rest of the veggies with chicken (or vegetable) broth
• Simmer until things are getting soft, adding the potatoes when they are easy to put a fork through
• Blend and serve!
  

We were so excited about health we broke our blender. Over our heads. Holla.

That's how Amal looks when she is really excited about Health.

There you go. A bowl of 10 more years to your life. Enjoy.

French Country Soup

In the south of France sleeps a quaint and serene town called Aix-en-Provence. This is the town where Cezanne was inspired by the mountains and light and where Alayna and I were inspired by the soup and bread.

The inspiration of our French Country soup came from a little French restaurant right below the old town on Rue Vanloo with red canopies and outdoor patio tables. It was owned by a sweet Brazilian woman who gave us small shot glasses of carrot ginger soup before our meal. And there was very good bread. AKA soup lover's heaven.

As promised last week, this soup's goal was to dispel one reader's belief, who admitted that although he liked the blog, why would he ever make a soup for forty minutes when he could make a Trader Joe's Frozen Pizza in fifteen?

At first I wanted to lie and say this soup only took 15 minutes also, but Alayna said that would confuse our soup-making followers when they were making the recipe. I realized my competitive side was getting the best of me. The soup takes thirty minutes, unless you cut stuff super fast.

However, in the 'ol Great Recession of '09 making a soup that produces roughly five or so meals for $11 isn't too bad.

And there is, of course, that overall nutrition factor which I feel like I've been intensely harping on recently so I'll just let you decide what the healthier dinner option for yourself and our planet might be...

Okay, my inner-hippie is going away now.

The Soup!

But first, Alayna's inner-hippie and her new pottery creation. The soup pot. Brilliant.

Chop between 6 and 8 cloves of garlic

saute in olive oil with a few shakes of red pepper

1/2 a yellow onion

Add in the following:

a handful of baby carrots (chopped),

half a head of broccoli

Either half of a large eggplant or a small one cut in... and I quote "pinkie sized sticks, unless you have small fingers then pointers,"

Cut in the same manner, 1 zucchini and 1 yellow squash (regular sized or again, half of those weirdly giant ones),

5 vine ripe tomatoes cut in bite sized pieces.

Keep it on medium/low heat as you add everything.

Wait for the squash and egg plant to get cooked most of the way through (fork test).

Add a big handful of fresh basil (chopped) and a couple sprigs of rosemary and thyme (which you should first de-stem).

(If you want to cut down on the price you can use dried "Herb de Provence" from the jar. Though a small bunch of fresh herbs are a dollar. Your call.)

When the squash and eggplant are cooked through add enough water to cover the veggies

Add 2 packets of chicken cubes.

Presto!

Alayna's observation: "This soup is essentially ratatouille with broth. Since ratatouille apparently means random assortment of vegetables put together... As far as I can tell."