Stone Soup and Irish Soda Bread

Have you heard of Stone Soup? It's an old expression, based on an older fable, and refers to what was made when there was little food about. I'm lucky that when I have little food about, it's because I haven't grocery shopped.
I was feeling soupy at lunchtime but we had few ingredients, so I made a stone soup with ingredients from our herb garden.

First, I made stock from last night's chicken carcass, with half an old nectarine thrown in for flavouring. Most popular soups contain a fair amount of sweetening, so adding fruit to the stock isn't as odd as you may think. If you buy commercially-made soup, look at the sugars: Campbell's contains 12g, their Healthy Request Tomato Soup has 10g, and Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup has 10g—all more than a can of my perennial favourite nutritional whipping boy, Coke.

Adding sugar to your stock adds flavour and can help you choose less salt, if salt use concerns you. I'd rather add a naturally-occurring sweetener like fruit, so in the pot my half-nectarine went. (Why half? Simply because the other half was rotty-looking so I composted it.) I love the challenge of a low-waste kitchen, and for the price of old chicken bones, half a nectarine, some ginger tea, and a pot full of water, I had delicious stock after a couple of hours, maybe three.

I added rosemary, lavender, oregano, green onions and basil from my garden, plus curry leaves, celery and bits of the leftover chicken meat. Not counting the time it took to simmer the stock to golden perfection, making the soup itself took about 20 minutes. I would have let the herbs cook in longer, but I was hungry!

I enjoyed my healthy-tasting soup with a side of Irish Soda Bread (from Bittman's recipe) which fits the stone-soup style of cheap ingredients: flour, buttermilk (or yogurt or soured milk), baking powder and baking soda, salt and water. It makes a funny-looking loaf, but is quick and easy to make and for some reason, the kids love it. I made this loaf with half rye flour and half all-purpose flour so it was denser than usual, making it perfect for dipping in my stone soup. What a heartwarming and health-inducing lunch.

Carrot, celery and spinach soup

Super-quick to make; I just threw a container of frozen stock in the pot, added three carrots, five stalks of celery and some leftover spinach, then let it simmer on low for about ninety minutes. I added only salt – the strong flavours of the ingredients (especially celery) carried the soup.

It was good to make while I was working; ie didn’t need much attention – just a taste every half hour to see if it was done. And it was hearty and delicious.

My soup wasn’t vegetarian because I use chicken stock, but you could easily use vegetable or mushroom stock.

Thanks!

Today is International Appreciation Day. Not sure if such a day exists, but it does in my house. Much of my appreciation this morning is centered around food. Maybe it’s because I just came back from a run, but let’s be honest: I’m obsessed with food.

Thing I’m grateful for Number One – Onions

Especially sautéed onions. Life doesn’t get much better than the smell of onions cooking, and the taste of browned sweet onions. Maybe that’s part of the reason fancy restaurants are wasted on me – I’m so delighted with such simple tastes as sautéed onions that some sauces and reductions are over the top for me. I love simple.

Thing I’m grateful for Number Two – Homemade Soup

Some foods are so incredibly different between store-bought iterations and homemade, that it’s almost not worth buying the store-bought. I’ve discovered this holds true with soup and pasta. I’ve never made my own pasta; I got the good stuff the easy way – by being the manga-cake girlfriend of an Italian guy. I hadn’t had real pasta before then, so eating Mama’s homemade ravioli was a religious experience for me. Up to that point in my life the only pasta I’d had was dried spaghetti and Chef Boyardee.

Kabocha squash soup

Made with the leftover squash from christmas day dinner, and stock made from the chicken carcass. The soup was amazing! Sweet, thick and delicious. I added nothing but a bit of sea salt and a couple ounces of ginger tea. There are several sickies in the house right now - a cold/fluey thing and it seems to help them feel better.

The soup doesn't photograph well without fancy plating and a garnish, but it was one of the best soups I've made or eaten, and I've had soup so good it made me cry. (That was on my 30th birthday at a late lamented soup cafe run by two sisters and their mom in Kitsilano - anyone remember the name of it?)