'Tis the Soup Season
I made a soup so good I was inspired to reflect on the process
Clearly, ‘tis not the soup season. I started writing this in December, then totally abandoned it. I came back today to finish and expand on these thoughts. Here they are!
But first a recipe!
SOUTHWESTERN BLACK BEAN CORN QUINOA CHICKEN SOUP WITH FIRE ROASTED TOMATOES AND HATCH GREEN AND RED CHILIES
TOPPED WITH CORN CHIPS, CILANTRO AND FRESHLY GRATED CHEDDAR CHEESE
ingredients: onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, dried hatch chilies, salt, quinoa, fresh frozen corn, black beans, fire roasted diced tomatoes, water, shredded chicken, nutritional yeast, topped with cilantro, corn chips, and freshly grated cheese
Instructions:
Sauté onion and garlic with spices till fragrant
Add quinoa to lightly toast
Add desired amount (i used abt ½ cup) corn and can of black beans
Add one can of organic fire roasted diced tomatoes
Add salt and water till covered and quinoa has space to cook and absorb water
Add water as needed as it simmers and reduces, keeping it a stew like consistency
Once quinoa is fully cooked, add water to desired consistency and stir in shredded chicken
Let simmer
Add nutritional yeast to taste, serve once boiling has fully come down to eating temp
Serve topped with cilantro, freshly grated cheese, and blue corn chips
<3 <3 <3 yummy
‘Tis the Soup Season (A Poem) 12/2/24
Bubbling, simmering, reducing
to rich gold liquid
Minerals and medicine brewing in
the stock pot
Passing the plate around to save
the bones to ensure every morsel of
bird is savored and utilized
later to be boiled down
dotted with carrots, onions, celery
Destined to be soup or congee
a nourishing pot of self love.Food Musings:
I think about food a lot, here’s some of that
Food is medicine, not in the prescription drug sense, but in the preventative sense, nourishment to keep us healthy and feeling our best.
In this schema of eating, cooking is medicine making. Cooking is taking freshly harvested or preserved ingredients and turning them into digestible, delicious meals that fill your belly and soul with nourishment and warmth. In the winter season, it is especially vital to be consuming warm and nourishing meals as we tend to be more prone to sickness and colds. In my eyes, there is no better food-medicine in this world than soup. For ages humans have been simmering potent pots full of beans and legumes, vegetables, meat, grains, herbs and spices to make slurp-worthy meals that are full of nutrients and are easy to digest (food is only nourishing if it can be easily digested). As someone who has gone through many diets (vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free to lactose-free, and again eating meat), I can see clearly how certain foods negatively affect my digestion and which foods make me feel awesome. A nourishing pot of soup could quite literally sustain me for the rest of my life.
As I have developed a love for cooking, I have found that my truest medium of artistic expression in the kitchen is in the soup pot. I see the steps before me only referring to them in my mind, as there is no recipe to go off of. Just years of practicing, learning what works, tasting and adjusting, gaining wisdom from ancient food cultures, layering flavors and adding depth and love to food. I have never made the same soup twice. Soup is my kingdom. I am the reigning champion of soup. Flavors meld together easily through the medium of water. Fat and salt support the ingredients as they reduce in a bubbling bath awaiting their journey into my belly.
When I get into the mode of cooking effortlessly, people stop to watch and learn, to witness the flow state of mind. Subconsciously the procedure flows through my awareness and each of the ingredients is mentally scanned for how it will be prepared/cut, how long it will be cooked and in what order it will go, and which nutrients it is proving to the dish, i.e. is it a starchy food, green vegetable, protein source, flavor enhancer, source of fat, (all necessary for a complete meal). Also having basic recipes for sauces, salad dressing, flavor combinations, etc. makes for whipping up a quick meal feel intuitive along with a basic understanding of cooking methods i.e. to braise, stir-fry, roast, simmer, pan-fry, throw-it-all-in-a-pot-and-call-it-a-day, etc. Basic blueprints of meals with interchangeable flavors and ingredients depending on availability and season fill the filing cabinets of my mind and each day I sort through them anticipating my evening meal. Watching the food network and endless cooking channels on YouTube for most of my life has definitely contributed to this plethora of knowledge.
In order for these simple meals to taste awesome, the ingredients must be fresh and ideally organically grown to ensure their full nutrient potential (it all starts in the soil). Sourcing and timing ingredients is an art form and a way of life. Its directly tuning into the world around you in a hyper local sense and individual needs. Knowing what is growing nearby is an awareness most people do not have. Even knowing there is a “season” for tomatoes is not something all people realize. Knowing the climate you live in, which types of foods are even able to grow where you live, what must be shipped in and grown abroad in order for us to have it, and what is a luxury, are all awarenesses that a keen eater might be paying attention to. Once you learn that fresh organic produce can heal you from the inside, it’s hard to go back to industrially farmed foods. Let us ask: How much money should we as individuals be spending on ingredients? Should food costs actually be higher? What is a living wage for a farmer and how industrialized do we actually want our food system to be just to reduce consumer costs? Isn't our health a high priority? I am blessed to work with a local farm selling veggies at the weekly farmers market, to be on the inside of local produce and selling amongst other local vendors. I get to take home weekly produce local to Gainesville that tastes absolutely delicious as well as trading veggies for bread, eggs, cheese, kimchi, coffee, honey, soap, tempeh, and more. I sometimes have abundance to give away. These ingredients inspire me to create wholesome meals for myself and to share with friends. If this weren’t a perk for working in the farmers market, would I actually spend money on all these foods? I would like to think so, since I feel absolutely stunning when I eat entire meals consisting of fresh local whole foods with bright colors and tons of nutrients. Though perhaps I wouldn’t, and that would be a shame as the value of these foods definitely fits the cost, but spending such a high percent of my income on food feels foolish. It is a shame that vitality is not a resource available to all, as we are what we eat, and so much of the food consumed in the U.S. is void of nutrients and grossly overprocessed.
Getting veggies from the farm brings infinite joy into my life, I am definitely infinitely grateful. I actually always wanted to work at a farmers market, so truly I'm living the dream. Also pro tip. Be. More. Generous. Learning to give away to friends freely has changed my perspective on abundance vs. scarcity, and how giving actually just leads to more receiving. Sharing food has to be the easiest way to nourish my relationships, literally, and give to others the abundance I receive from The Source.As I live in this abundance mindset it is so easy to share with those I care for. If I have fed you I have loved you, and that's just the way it is. Cooking for large groups has become a love language over the past few years especially while living at Fox Run, an intentional community in New Hampshire with 12 residents who all share food. Living there showed me how when a group of people all share the same meal with such a frequency, the familial bond simply grows stronger. We all eat from the same pot, we are all connected. Cooking with friends is easy, cheap and a genius way to spend time in groups. More people should prioritize this, even if social outings feel exhausting, I think we all need less isolation and a reason to be in community with other people. Start planning weeknight dinner gatherings where everyone brings an ingredient to throw into a giant curry pot and make a pot of rice to go along. Dancing in the kitchen is proven to enhance the flavor of whatever you make.
Many of these reflections are based on ideas from two books that realigned my perspective in the last 2 years; the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Pollan discusses in depth the way the source of our food impacts the relationship we have to our food and in turn our state of being. He takes us on a discovery starting at where most food actually comes from in the U.S and the brutal reality of processed food, to the rawest form of consumption, foraging and growing your own food. As the title reflects, he shows us how the choices we make regarding food are not always up to us, yet when we have agency we are able to exercise it for the better. Professor, botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall-Kimmerer teaches of the abundance mind-set and the idea of reciprocity. She tells stories to demonstrate how connecting to nature’s tune has broad impacts on our selves and the world around us. She speaks more of this idea in her newest book/long essay titled The Serviceberry, where she drives home this way of life as a way to save humanity. I connect deeply to this life through food as nourishment. It is one of the pillars of my existence that makes me feel like a human being on this green planet, it connects me to the natural world and to the social aspect of being an animal in community. Molecularly we are what we digest, and I find that to be pretty awesome. Photosynthesis would also be cool, maybe in my next life…