soups
In international recognition of the importance of legumes as a food group, the United Nations declared 2016 the Year of the Pulse. Its an honorific shout out to the large family of good-for-you dried legumes that include split peas, or lentils, or dal, as they are called in India. These pulses grow prodigiously around the … Continue reading Green Split Pea Soup with Turmeric-Wilted Onions
My very first cookbook, a gift for my 20th birthday, was Michael Field’s Cooking School. Michael Field was an acclaimed concert pianist who later turned his creativity to cooking. He became equally renowned in culinary endeavors as a chef, cooking teacher, and editor of the first, priceless Time/Life Foods of the World series. (There was, later, a second … Continue reading Breakfast Soup of Spinach and Scallion with Sieved Egg
My mother had a repertoire of soups she made from scratch. It wasn’t a huge list, just three strong, but that was perfectly sufficient. They were potato soup, celery soup, and beef soup with tomatoes and carrots. Unvaried, they nourished and succored through many a meal. Nostalgia factor aside, though, curiosity eventually led me to tinker … Continue reading Trending Home with Potato, Leek, and Celery Soup
Piping warm homemade chicken broth afloat with egg curds is a quintessential spring soup–simple, pure, uncomplicated, refreshing, soothing. The nutritious chicken broth is the main point. Together with the egg and gussied up with shredded young spring greens, here dandelion, it’s a paen to new beginnings, a celebration of health, an elegant opening for a … Continue reading Stracciatella: Italian Egg Drop Soup for Easter and Spring Colds
As a matter of routine, I periodically devote stove time and frig and freezer space to making and having on hand homemade chicken broth. It’s one of a cook’s best friends. True, it’s a bit of a magillah. You have to gather and assemble the ingredients and tend to the cooking off and on for about … Continue reading Homemade Chicken Broth the “Easy” Way
In Winter I wish for soup, warm soup. Echoing my recent foray into the land of kale (see December posts), here’s a winter wonder of a hearty soup featuring spinach and kale, amplified with a hunk of toasted Italian bread and a snow of freshly grated Parmesan. It reminds me of a cozy table by … Continue reading Spinach and Kale Soup with Bread Hunks and Parmesan Cheese
Minestrone is an Italian way to say love with a warming soup chock full of good-for-you foods like beans, pasta, and vegetables floating in a succoring broth. The word minestrone comes from the Greek minestra, meaning to serve, and by extension, to minister to. The soup shows up in homey cooking around the world. In … Continue reading Minestrone with Wild Rice, White Beans, Kale Mash, and Anchovy Toasts
Corn season! When boiling, roasting, and grilling corn for right-off-the-cob eating become tiresome, shave the kernels off the cob and make corn chowder. Chowder soup was introduced in Newfoundland by Breton fishermen around 1750. The name comes from chaudiere, the pot in which it was cooked. The original was a stew of cod, the provision … Continue reading Crowded Corn Chowder
Rick, my husband and the photographer cum prep chef cum assistant food stylist for this blog, is the one who usually does the Saturday morning farmers’ market run. He’s an exuberant food shopper, likes to buy plenty of something when it’s fresh and lively. So we wound up with a huge amount of broccolini a … Continue reading Essence of Broccolini Soup with Fried Cheddar Cheese
The first time I made this particular soup was for our dear friend Kay Bradway (1910-2011). She was a Jungian analyst extraordinaire who brought the practice of sand play therapy to American psychiatry after a trip to Europe in 1932, when Hitler was mounting his forces even as bon vivance imbued the streets and cafes of Europe. … Continue reading Butternut Squash in Summer
The Wise Kitchen 