~ It's Soup Time ~

Dan, who loves a good bowl of soup as much as I do, has some specific rules about soup-eating: no soup for lunch, no glass of wine with soup, please can we have bread with the soup. From this you can see he is alone on two of the three rules. My soup lunches, albeit solitary, are the best. And I won't say no to a tibble of wine alongside my soup if the situation calls for it. As for the bread: yes, for sure, let's have it. I have a bunch of favorite soups I make on repeat, and nearly all include a bright hit of lemon. Fragrant Chicken Soup has a broth that will knock your socks off. I have two recipes for this soup, one is here on my site, the other is in my cookbook. I make the cookbook version more often, which includes more spices. I was reminded the other night by some friends that Garlicky Lentil Soup with Swiss Chard is perfect right now in every way. They said they use white chard rather than rainbow, with great results. My nieces and nephews always request Greek Avgolemono Soup. It's so easy and bright tasting with all of the lemon juice. My favorite Vegetable Soup is chock-full of butternut squash, chickpeas, and kale (which cooks and is not tough at all). When I had no squash recently, I cubed up a big sweet potato instead for the soup. Mmmm! Have you heard of or tasted Lebanese Kishk Soup? It's made with dried yogurt powder, which is tangy and strangely good. Traditionalists love this soup. I'm considering offering kishk in my shop, too. I brighten the winter soup scene with a gorgeous Basil Zucchini Soup, pureed goodness that is so pretty we have a painting of my photo of the soup, gifted to us for our wedding from the ultra-talented artist Cynthia Rutherford in Harbor Springs. This one tastes as good as it looks. The soups' companions are always a good salad, and Garlic Butter Glazed Talami or Za'atar Swirl Bread.