Chimichurri

I am posting this recipe here--an older one--by special request. It is one of my all-time favorites.

In my dream, I arrive at the library just as everyone at the kids' school is sitting down to do an art project with their parents: there is glue and wood, paint brushes and scraps of colorful paper. "Oh, great, an art project!" I say, too loud. "I love art projects!" Only when I sit down in one of the eensy chairs, and see everybody looking quietly at me, do I realize I am naked. "Oh, gosh!" I say, too loud. "Lucky I have some undies in my bag!" Everybody looks at me quietly while I hop around and stick my two legs into one leg hole and fall over forwards with my bottom in the air and fall over backwards with my legs in the air. "Oops!" I say from the floor. "Yikes!" I laugh. "This isn't the least embarrassing moment of my life!" Everybody looks at me quietly.

 

It's like the kind of question Ben is always posing: Would you rather go to work completely nude or wearing a transparent wetsuit? (Nude.) Would you rather go to town completely nude or wearing an outfit with large holes cut out over all your private places? (Nude.) What about large holes cut out but patched in transparent fabric? (Nude.) At Dream Crafts Project, I would have been way better off naked than with the whole underpants situation.

 

I love questions like that, and I ask them too, but mine are almost always about food, and I always imagine that we're packing up for a life on a deserted island. What if you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, but you'd get all your nutrients from it? (Michael picks ice cream, Birdy picks yogurt, Ben picks plum cake, and I pick brown rice.) If you could only use one seasoning for the rest of your life, what would it be? (Salt.) What about besides salt? (Lemon.) What if you could only use one herb? Ben picks mint; Michael picks basil; Birdy can't decide between mint and basil. But me? I pick parsley. I love parsley. It's so green-tasting, so boldy herbal without impersonating any kind of bubble bath; it's the closest you can get to seasoning a dish with the smell of newly mown grass. If it's on my plate as a garnish, I always eat it, and even hours later, I can feel its verdant echo in my mouth, as if my very teeth are photosynthesizing.

 

And this sauce is all about the parsley; it's a tribute to parsley, really, even though it's more commonly understood as an Argentinean accompaniment to grilled meats. In fact, it's typical to add other herbs to chimichurri--oregano or thyme or cilantro--but I love this parsley-only version, which is based in its simplicity on a recipe I clipped from Gourmet years and years ago. It is basic and fantastic, sharply herbal and mouth-wateringly green, with just enough vinegar to balance out the richness of, say, a perfectly grilled steak. But it is excellent with grilled anything: steak, chicken, fish, tofu. It is also a great condiment for sandwiches, and a little stirred into a pasta or grain salad is fantastic. In sum, it has for years been one of my most indispensable summer recipes. Encourage your kids to try it--by promising that they don't have to actually eat it or by calling it Shrek Sauce or whatever--because they may actually like it, but they won't know unless they etc.

Chimichurri 

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Total time: 10 minutes

I salt steak very heavily before grilling, and so I actually undersalt this sauce a bit!!! I know! Add more to your liking. Also, the sauce can thicken while it sits--almost like it's gelling, strangely--so you may want to stir more oil or vinegar into it as you like. If you can't get out your grill yet, I say a bit about pan-frying steaks here.

1 large bunch Italian flat-leaf parsley

3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

1/2 cup really good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 cup regular old white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or half as much table salt)

A large pinch of dried red-pepper flakes (optional)

Cut the largest stems off the bunch of parsley, then submerge the leaves (along with all of its smaller stems--I am not picky about this!) in a sinkful of cold water, then spin it dry in a salad spinner.  Combine the parsley with the remaining ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and whir until pureed. If it resists pureeing (maybe you had an extra-large bunch of parsley!), add more oil and vinegar, proportionately--enough to make a sauce-like consistency, and taste for salt. 

Thai-style Squash Salad with Masses of Herbs

You are lovely, you are. How many times have you shored me up? Countless. Truly. Thank you, now and always, for your kindness, your sympathy and empathy, your thoughtful and carefully chosen words. You have said so many things to me that I have turned over in my mind, and that have offered a great depth of comfort. I will tell you a little more about my friend at some point. I will. I'd love to. I wrote the tiniest bit here, about losing her. I hope to write more.

But also, I am eating. Cooking and eating. My friend died, I slept for a thousand hours, and then I returned, hollow and blinking in the light, to the world of the living, where people expect to be fed, and where I like to feed them and to eat.

I've made this particular salad a number of times lately. I like it because it uses the end of the winter storage squash, but then it gestures towards spring with its bright flavors and heaps of herbs (and much as I want to be all asparagus and radishes, all that's growing here right now is mud and puddles). It's based on a Thai salad I love called nam sod, which is usually made with ground pork or chicken, and has this same flavor thing happening: ginger and chiles and raw onions, lime and salt and herbs, peanuts and fish sauce. 

It is so, so good, and I wanted to make a vegetarian version of it for a potluck we were going to, so I made it with squash (I left some out for the vegetarians before adding the fish sauce). 

Some people won't like it. Some people will like it just fine or even a great deal. And some people will become deranged about it, obsessed, and the email they send asking for the recipe will be time-stamped 3:25 AM, because they were up in the night thinking about it in all it's spicy-crunchy-tender-sour-salty-caramelized glory. I will say that Michael, who is generally baffled by winter squash and people's affection for it, likes it quite a lot prepared this way. "I love the mint and cilantro," he just said when I asked him. And then (this isn't saying much, but still), "I would say it's my favorite squash preparation." Recipe follows a brief photo essay. Enjoy!

Thai-style Squash Salad with Masses of Herbs

It doesn’t matter if you have a little more or less squash: just adjust the dressing accordingly. You can also add other vegetables to the squash, such as roasted Brussels sprouts, which are lovely in here. I haven’t tried sautéed mushrooms, but I feel like they would add a nice, chewy textural element; cooked barley might add that too. Another note: don’t be shy about the salt and lime and chili paste. You want the dressing to taste too salty and sour and spicy before it interacts with the robustly mild, oppressively sweet squash.

2 medium butternut squash (or 1 massive one), enough to make about 10 cubs diced squash

¼ cup melted coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

Kosher salt

1/3 cup lime juice (around 2 limes)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1-3 tablespoons sambal oolek (Malaysian chili paste) or sriracha (or something else Asian and spicy)

1 tablespoon fish sauce (optional)

3 tablespoons very finely slivered ginger

1/2 cup salted peanuts, roughly chopped

1/2 red onion, halved and sliced thin

1 bunch cilantro, with stems, roughly chopped

Leaves from one bunch mint, the largest leaves torn in half and the rest left whole

Heat the oven to 450 and line two large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

Peel the squash (a brutal job), then cut it into ¾-inch cubes (another brutal job). Toss the squash with the coconut oil in a large bowl, then spread it out on the baking sheets and sprinkle with salt. Roast for 20 minutes then flip the cubes around, switch the pans top to bottom, and roast for another 10 minutes or until the squash is deeply browned in spots and just tender.

Meanwhile, whisk together the lime juice, 2 teaspoons of kosher salt, chili paste, and fish sauce.

Gently toss the squash with about half the dressing and taste: it should be tart, salty, and spicy. Add the ginger, toss again, then leave to cool. Top with the peanuts, onion, and herbs. Toss gently just before serving, then taste again and re-dress as needed.

Loss

1973

Thank you for your kind condolences. Your words have been so comforting to me. I will be back very soon with food and books and lots to share. In the meantime, I am sending love right back out, right back at you.

Broccoli-Cheddar Chowder and Whole-Grain Cheese Muffins

I've got your back. Especially if what's on your back is 100 falling-off buttons, and you need them sewn on in the single minute before your wedding starts. Just saying. #iamagoodfriend

My darlings. I have been a negligent recipe offerer. So I'm compensating with two, which are favorites, and which I've been making again lately, what with the bitter cold and the snow and the snow falling, snow on snow on snow, and also the cold. My oldest, dearest friend is dying in a hospice in Coney Island. I have wanted not to mention that because, well, you know, she is a loyal reader, and who really wants to read that, especially about one's own self? But I think she will not be reading this. And Ben and Birdy have been sweetly teasing me that I have a kind of grieving-Tourette's right now: Hi. I'm Catherine. Nice to meet you. My best friend of 43 years is dying. 

Enough said. Because soup and muffins. Comfort. Love. Lots of cheese. xo

I garnished with "reserved broccoli florets" that I forgot to mention. Texturally, butter-fried breadcrumbs is an even better choice.

Broccoli Cheddar Chowder

Serves 6

Active time: 10 minutes; total time: 45 minutes

Thickened simply with potatoes, this wholesome green soup is easy, delicious, and velvety-rich. Also: broccoli!

           

1 tablespoon each butter and olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 pound of  potatoes (any kind), peeled and diced

1 quart chicken or vegetable broth

2 cups whole milk

pinch of dried thyme or marjoram or mint (if you've got fresh herbs--cilantro, mint, or basil--use more, and add them just before pureeing)

1 large head broccoli (1 ½ pounds), stems peeled, stems and florets chopped

Juice and grated zest of ½ a lemon

8 ounces sharp cheddar, grated

Salt and pepper

Heat the butter and oil in a soup pot over medium-low heat, and sauté the onion and garlic for five or so minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add the potatoes, broth, milk, and herbs, bring to a boil over high heat, then turn the heat down and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, until the potatoes are very tender. Add the broccoli, and simmer another 10 minutes or so, until the broccoli is tender but still green. Puree, using a stick blender (or carefully, in batches, in a blender), then stir in the lemon juice, zest, and cheese, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Whole-Grain Cheese Muffins

Makes 12

This is a recipe I adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, but I use whole-grain flour instead of white flour and buttermilk instead of milk. Also sharp cheddar instead of Colby jack. The muffins are quick and easy to put together, crunchy-edged, and outrageously savory. Heavily season any soup you eat alongside or it will taste flat by comparison.

1 1/2 cups flour
 (I use 1 cup spelt, and ½ cup whole-wheat)

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar


1 tablespoon baking powder


1 teaspoon kosher salt


½ teaspoon garlic powder

3 cups shredded cheddar cheese


1/2 cup milk


1/2 cup buttermilk

1 egg


1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter (I use salted)

Heat the oven to 375 and grease and flour a 12-well muffin tin.

Whisk together the dry ingredients, then stir in the cheese.

In a separate bowl (or large measuring cup), whisk the egg, milk, and butter together.

Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon just to combine.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until they are deeply golden and firm to the touch.

Peg Doll Book Winner!!!

KellyB. Please email me with your address! And thank you all so much for playing.

Real post coming soon.

xo

Making Peg Dolls & More, and a Give-Away!!!

What? Just because she looks like a person more likely to forge a pole axe and come after you with it than make a little peg doll? #watchyourback

I am participating in a Blog Tour! I know! And it's because I am just in love with this book, and when Margaret Bloom asked me to write about it here, I couldn't resist.

This is the first book.

Making Peg Dolls & More is her follow-up to the lovely Making Peg Dolls, and it's so deliciously gorgeous and inspiring that it is currently in rotation here as a coffee table book. [cough *Waldorf coffee table* cough *drink your Sereni-Tea*] Birdy and I pretty much compulsively leaf through it, all the time, and every page shows something we want to make: dreamy-perfect little dolls and toys and ornaments, everything so appealingly wool and wood, so pretty and gentle. Plus, the instructions are super-clear.

We got the book a little before the holidays, and Birdy immediately decided on the project she wanted to make for gifts: these little Herbal Comfort Friends, which are sewn from felt, completed with wooden beads, and filled with sweet-smelling herbs. She designed her own medallions: a sprig of lavender for her grandmother's lavender-filled friend, a little campfire for her friend Harry's that's filled with mint, and a little wind storm for her test doll, that she kept for herself. She loved making them. They are just the sweetest things and, I'm imagining, double nicely as drawer-scenting sachets.

I wish I had a scan of Harry's thank-you note. I think it says, "Thank you for that mint thingy." True, he might not have been the ideal recipient of this particular gift, but it's the thought that etc. 

Birdy was making a diorama for her Underground Railroad report, and she painted this little figure for it. Not a Making Peg Dolls project exactly, but certainly inspired by it. I love the way Margaret paints all the dolls with watercolors so the wood shows through. 

If there were 40 doll bodies in your house, then you could make a few yourself, and your kids wouldn't even miss them!

Making Peg Dolls & More, plus this set of 40 wooden doll bodies (pictured above), would make the world's most perfect gift for a crafty kid. It only gives me a little pang because I feel like my days of giving that kind of gift are truly numbered. Sigh. And then what? Mani-Pedi gift certificates? A Meth-Lab Kit?

I lifted this photo from the Wee Folk Studio post, because this is my very favorite project in the book. 

Anyways, thanks to Margaret's generosity, as well as that of Hawthorn Press, I am lucky enough to be hosting a give-away here. Just leave your name in the comments here if you'd like to be entered (!), and I will announce a winner a week hence. February 18th, 11:00 am EST. Or thereabouts. And for more chances to read about it and win, feel free to visit the other blogs that are hosting reviews and give-aways of this tender, optimistic world-view-as-book:

February 2nd :: The Crafty Crow 

February 3rd :: Clean 

February 4th :: Castle in the Air

February 5th :: Salley Mavor (Wee Folk Studio)

February 7th :: A Child's Dream

February 9th :: Forest Fairy Crafts

February 10th :: Bella Luna Toys

February 12th :: Twig & Toadstool

February 13th :: Wee Wonderfuls

Good luck! And lots of love. xo

We Are Obnoxious But We Love You

Ben made this up, when I was going crazy thinking of poems and puns for a holiday work project. I have it hanging over my desk, and it makes me smile every day. "Do you think anyone's going to be offended?" I just asked him, and he said, "If so, they probably shouldn't be reading you." He's a realist.

Oh, Valentine's Day. All of my best ideas are still here. Though there are some bad links, so I'm going to rehash a few ideas here in brief. Mostly you will need: doilies. For instance, to make a pretty cake.

Figure A.

Figure B.

This is the cake you want. You just lay the doily over the (bottom of the) cooled cake and sift powdered sugar over it. Voila! I snipped a heart out of a round doily here, but a heart-shaped doily is also perfect for this. Speaking of heart-shaped doilies!

You can see that I was more about the face than the shirt while snapping this picture. Sigh.

This is a shirt idea I developed for FamilyFun a number of years back. You just stick a doily to a washed and dried cotton t-shirt (I used a loop of tape on the solid part of the doily to stick it down) and use a sponge brush to dab white acrylic or fabric paint down over and around the doily. Then lift the doily off carefully while the paint is still wet (I find that if you wait until it dries, you end up lifting off some of the paint). A folded piece of newspaper inside the shirt prevents leak-through. Done. I use a pearly-white acrylic paint, so I don't even need to heat-set it, but if you use fabric paint, just follow the directions on the bottle.

And if you wanted to make an anatomical heart t-shirt, those instructions are here.

Unrelated: someone pointed out that the Whole-Wheat Chocolate-Chip Cookies weren't here. WTF? That is seriously crazy, given that we make them at least all the time. Remedied, and please keep your requests coming. I love them.

And come back soon! Wednesday-soon. Because we are going to do a special give-away then!

xoxo

3 Recipes and 2 Movies for a Blizzard

"Men Wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success." Ernest Shackleton's newspaper ad for the Endurance expedition.

Oh wintery darlings! I am writing you, pajama-clad, while snow drifts in gusting curtains past our windows. I feel like I'm in a Victorian children's book. Only then the book gets turned into a picturesque little film, and you can't hear any of the dialogue because the soundtrack is actually two neighbors simultaneously snow-blowing, but still. I'm not complaining. That much.

Craney is lazily watching the finches at our feeder. Michael is working the acrostic from Sunday's newspaper. Birdy is doing her homework (sigh) and Ben is asleep. My snow-day family in a nutshell.

There are so many new things I want to write and share, but instead, in honor of snow, I'm posting these past faves. The intros are very old and chatty. Please feel free to skip right on ahead to the actual recipes.

Gorgeous table mat made by my gorgeous mother.

Amazing From-Scratch Hot Chocolate I would not think you'd necessarily need a recipe for this, except that every time Michael goes to make it, he says, "Can you find your hot chocolate recipe for me?" So, my darling, here. It really is rich and glorious.

The problem with Maple Snow Taffy (aka Sugar on Snow) is that it's not just a gimmick: it makes a truly excellent, supremely buttery and maply mouthful of chewy candy. Which means that you, the parent, will not look on dotingly. You will, rather, eat more of it than you meant to, and then you might need to wash it down with a nice cold IPA. I'm just saying. Also, to be clear: this is not a "snow ice cream" type recipe, and the point is not that you end up eating the snow. The snow is, rather, the chilling mechanism for the taffy. If you are Birdy, though, then the experience will not be complete until you've eaten all the snow. "This is the sweetest-tasting snow of 2015!" she just announced, in case you were wondering.

Soft and Sticky Gingerbread is a perfectly simple stir-and-bake winter cake, and you probably have all the ingredients on hand already. It has been an enduring favorite of mine for four decades.

Speaking of enduring! Watch the documentary The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition. It is crazy, inspiring, and wholly entertaining. Plus, there are lines from people's diaries like, "For dinner tonight we reboiled the seal backbone," that will have you scratching your head in horrified confusion. Spoiler alert for a good cause: They kill all their dogs at some point. There is no visual accompaniment to this information, but if it's going to traumatize anyone in your family, please take note. Birdy was sad about it, but since it was a true story about survival, she did not feel that it was cruel or frivolous.

It better be an *excellent* school.

And, two, watch the entire 8-part BBC series Human Planet. Each segment takes place in a different challenging habitat--desert, Arctic, mountain, jungle, ocean, river, grassland, city--and shows how different people survive in the face of extreme challenges. It is not without its moments of drama-soundtrack reality-show-style excesses, but they are brief and, overall, the show is stunning, fascinating,  humbling, and beautifully made. Plus, your kids will get to see the children who walk for a treacherous 25-below-zero week along a frozen Himalayan river to get to their school. I'm not saying your kids can never complain about the bus again after. I'm just saying. A special bonus: there's a little "making of" segment at the end of each episode, and inevitably you get to see the film crew, with all their sophisticated equipment and technology, needing to be bailed out by the region's people with their centuries of local expertise. It is delightful.

Don't kill me that neither movie seems to be streaming anywhere. Order them or request them from your library, and save them for the next snow day.

Stay warm and have fun. xo

Vegetarian Chili for a Crowd

Sometime in the Fall, I got this email from my friend Maddie: “Hi lovely [sic], Any chance I could make a date with you for you to teach me how to make your delicious chili? I thought I could bring ingredients and some beer and we could cook together.” This is the Maddie who encouraged me to post my recipe for pizza toast. Also, the same Maddie of crack-broccoli fame, who is the best and most effortless-seeming cook and party-thrower that anybody knows. 

Maddie is a person you want to camp with, and not just because she's beautiful. This was the trip where I brought 25 foil-wrapped baked potatoes to reheat on the fire and also--wait for it--a huge pot of veggie chili.

Maddie can make a pie from goat cheese and freshly dug leeks that will have you weeping with delight into your Prosecco. But she’s also the person who taught me how to throw a baked-potato potluck: invite tons of friends and their kids and ask them to bring stuff, then bake 30 potatoes, open 10 bottles of wine, and put out the game Boggle. Done.

It's so picturesque to eat with all the games and art supplies in the background.

“You don’t really need me to teach you to make chili,” I wrote back. “I probably learned from you in the first place.” But she insisted, and so we had to invite a lot of people over to give us an excuse for our chili-making lesson.

 

This is my 11-quart IKEA stockpot, nearly full. The chili grows out of its barf-looking stage by the end of the cooking.

I know it’s kind of a thing now, the idea that you would make a giant vat of something easy and inexpensive in the interest of maximizing your party-throwing capacity. There’s the Friday-Night Meatballs folks, for example, or my Pasta for a Crowd. But honestly? It’s the best idea. Because you want your house expansively, generously full of the people you love, you do. But you don’t want to spend a week layering a short-rib terrine or marinating plucked sparrows.

It's a lot of ingredients but, considering how many people you end up feeding, not really that much work.

You just want everybody to feel welcome and well-fed and happy. Also, to never leave. (That’s where the wine and Boggle come in.)

Once the cans are open, the chili is halfway made.

So, this chili. Many of our friends and all of my daughters are vegetarian, hence the no  meat. But sometimes I’ll make a pot of the meat kind also. The thing is? Chili with meat is easier in every way: the meat is good, if you like meat, and it adds all the satisfying texture and richness you’re looking for in a bowl of chili. In its absence, you need to pull some compensatory fast ones. That’s why I’m not using the typical flour to thicken this chili; flour doesn’t bring enough to the table. Instead, ground chickpeas add a nice nubbly thickness, while refried beans add a nice velvety thickness, and the whole thing turns out savory and delicious with little sweet bursts from the corn. 

A bowl of chili with crushed chips and a glass of dry, sparkling cider.

It makes for a tangy, medium-spicy, highly seasoned bowl of deliciousness. Practically perfect in every way—and plenty of it.

Vegetarian Chili for a Crowd

(Feeds 20—more, even, if there are no hollow-legged teenagers in the mix)

A few notes: you can, of course, dramatically increase or drastically reduce this recipe as you see fit. You can even do it in an impromptu way, adding another couple cans of beans if more or hungrier people show up than you’d expected (the chili freezes beautifully, so don’t be afraid of leftovers). I am calling for real actual pure chile powder—the kind that’s made only from chiles, and that you can find where the Mexican food is. If you can only get your hands on the blended chili powder, then use much more of it, and reduce or eliminate the oregano, cumin, garlic, and salt, since those seasonings are likely included in the spice blend. Re. beans: I start with dried pintos, quick-soaked and cooked in the pressure cooker for 7 minutes, but canned are fine.

Carnal Variation: Add 3 pounds of ground chuck to the onions and celery and cook over high heat, crumbling it with a spatula until it is cooked-looking and browning in spots. Skip the ground chickpeas and the black beans but not the refritos; reduce the pintos to 3 cups or 4 cans.

¼ cup olive oil

2 onions, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 tablespoons mild chile powder (I use New Mexico)

2 tablespoons granulated garlic powder (I like this better than fresh for the chili, go figure)

1 teaspoon chipotle puree or powder and/or 1 teaspoon smoked paprika (for a little smokiness, if you’ve got it)

1 tablespoon ground cumin (ideally but not crucially ground fresh in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder)

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more

1 tablespoon sugar

4 cups dried pinto beans, cooked (plus their cooking liquid), or 6 (15-ounce) cans, not drained

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained (you can skip this, or increase it—depending on the crowd)

2 (15-ounce) cans refried beans (I use Trader Joe’s black with jalapeno)

2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, ground with their liquid in a blender or food processor into a very coarse puree with lots of small and large bits

1 (28-ounce) can crushed or pureed tomatoes

2 (15-ounce) cans corn, drained (or 1 bag frozen)

0-3 tablespoons white vinegar

Grated cheese, sour cream, chopped onions, hot sauce, and crushed tortilla chips for serving. Also, cilantro and avocado would be good.

Heat the oil in a very large pot over medium-low heat, and sauté the onion and celery until it’s tender, about 10 minutes. Add the spices, salt, and sugar, and sauté for 15-30 seconds, until the spices are very fragrant. Add the pinto and their liquid, the black and refried beans, the ground chickpeas, the tomatoes, and the corn. Taste it, even now, for salt. If it’s very undersalted, add more salt at this point, bearing in mind that it will grow saltier as the liquid cooks off. I add just about another tablespoon. (The need for salt will depend on the saltiness of your canned or home-cooked ingredients.)

Simmer the chili, uncovered, over very low heat until it is completely delicious, about 1 hour. Taste for salt and tanginess: if it needs a boost, consider adding a tablespoon or 2 or 3 of vinegar. Serve with the garnishes. Cornbread is a good accompaniment, but it’s also great to bake a lot of potatoes and let people top their potatoes with chili. Yum.

Clean and Delicious Soup for One

Happy new year, my darlings. I am popping in on this arctic day to offer up this absolutely savory bowl of soup that you can make for your very own lunch! Or dinner, if you happen to be doing a weird cleanse, which I happen to be doing. It's the second year in a row, and I won't go on and on about it. Like, I won't tell you that I mostly do it to clear up a weird rash (TMI!) or because by the end of the year I am on the verge of drinking too much (TMI!). (Extra credit if you know the rhetorical device praeteritio. Thank you Latin IV!) Also, annoyingly, I find that eating like this gives me more energy than I tend to have on my usual diet of kale and pastries and lattes and quinoa and Cheezits and grapefruits and IPA. Sad but true. That said, I am only doing it for 2 1/2 weeks, instead of the prescribed 3, because we are going to New York. And I am not completely crazy.

I only bought cashew butter because Trader Joe's was out of almond butter, but I like it.

This soup, though, is unconditionally wonderful, cleanse or no: an umami bowlful of tender mushrooms and bursting celery and robust greens and rich broth and wallops of flavor. The nut butter lends a nice hit of protein, and the cider vinegar and cayenne keep it all just this side of unctuous. If these things in the picture are all things you already have in your house, the soup will come together in about 10 minutes. Otherwise, you should probably skip it, because it's probably not worth all that. Although it might almost be.

Edited to ask: Is Dr. Bragg secretly the same person as Dr. Bronner?

Clean and Delicious Soup for One

Serves--wait for it--1

Needless to say, you could easily multiply this recipe to cook like a normal person for a normal amount of people. 

3 dried shiitake mushrooms

1 1/2 cups boiling water (or very hot tap water, if you're lazy)

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 stalk celery, sliced

1 large clove of garlic, minced or put through a press

1 cup water

2 large handfuls baby kale or chopped kale (or spinach or another green of your choosing)

1 (slightly heaping) tablespoon white miso

1 tablespoon cashew or almond butter (peanut would take it in a different, but maybe great, direction)

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

A splash of Bragg's or tamari to taste

Put the mushrooms in a heatproof boil and pour the boiling water over them. Put a small plate on top if they want to bob to the surface. Leave them to soak while you prepare the rest of the soup.

Heat the coconut oil in a medium-sized pot over medium-low heat. Saute the celery and garlic until outrageously fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the water, then simmer another 5 minutes, until the celery is just on the verge of being tender. By now the shiitakes should just about be soft enough to sliver, which you should do (discard the stems). Add the mushrooms to the soup, along with a cup of their soaking liquid and the kale. Simmer another 3 minutes, then turn the heat off.

Stir in the miso (this is easiest if you first dissolve it in a little broth, but I always forget), the nut butter, the vinegar, the cayenne, and the salty thing, then taste and add more if it needs it.

Serve to your own self!