swooping soup
The folds in the lilies curved and swooped as I spun the vase on the table,
just as I spun the bowl of white beans last night that I simmered with the rest of the diced tomatoes from the sugo I made on Monday, some chopped lacinato kale, garlic, diced sausage, and Parmesan.
One glorious winter a few years ago, my then-roommate Ben elevated our humble crockpot to a position of honor by creating soup after soup that we would eat throughout a given week.
I miss him, his careful attention to that parade of soups, and that crockpot; this simple soup (still full of flavor without the sausage and Parmesan, in a vegan iteration) reminds me of the many different kinds and colors of good things swirling around me in New York…
Related posts:
- kthread cooks: tortilla soup
- kthread cooks: tomato soup + american cheese
- concord grapes, calla lilies, and porcini season
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Posted Friday, February 5th, 2010, 7:24 am * Filed in Food, brooklyn, flowers. * Tags: calla, kale, kthread, lily. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 5th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Ah, yes, the winter of many soups. I’ve been back at my old tricks this winter–we’ve had some chilly rains–including a chicken soup on Tuesday that began with a whole chicken, carrots, onion, and a ton of garlic and random spices (a hint of cumin even). The soup you mention, which I borrowed from a Gourmet magazine you had lying around the house, combined most of the ingredients you list above (I think I used a salty ham rather than sausage) but used arugula rather than kale. Recently, however, I’ve turned to kale, finding it retains a more appealing texture when wet. That Gourmet recipe also called, interestingly, for chopped stewed tomatoes, which made a nice addition despite my skeptical memories of my Grandmother’s southern lunches that invariably included a bowl of stewed tomatoes on the side. Etiquette demanded they be quietly consumed, but I still remember the inward disgust.
February 5th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
I think Virginia country ham would be better than sausage (remember when I brought a whole ham back and we had to figure out what to do with it?)
I like diced tomatoes in this (unsure on stewed tomatoes except for your use in that recipe), but good to know a soup can redeem them.
Likely too we are simply so spoiled now by the beautiful heirloom tomatoes at market in the summer that need only salt to reach perfection that canned tomatoes are only useful for soups and sauces and in wintry months (and you now live where the tomatoes are lovely all year, Ben).
February 6th, 2010 at 9:23 am
I made kale and white bean soup this week, though without all the tasty additions (like, uh, cheese and sausage). Then I spent a good ten minutes trying to explain kale to my French office mate. As it turns out, the translation is “choux frisé” (‘curly cabbage’). In any event, I enjoy the white bean, kale, and tomato combination!
February 6th, 2010 at 11:51 am
I love the way “choux frisé” sounds, Mica, and it is nice that the soup doesn’t need the additions (although they are lovely). Happy Souping! :)