A long time ago, so long ago I can’t hardly remember, I read a recipe for a soup called Veronica’s Lake. The chef was…wait for it… Veronica Lake. Look, I don’t even know who she is. But she’s famous. And she made a vegetable soup that looked like a lake.

Since I can’t remember what was in Veronica’s Lake, I get to make different soup, pick the ingredients, and name the soup… wait for it… “Vanessa’s Lake.” I wanted this soup to be a nice, misty green… like fog kissing a forest pond at sunrise.

I was simultaneously intrigued by the Amateur Gourmet’s call-to-arms for photos of blue foods. If I was making a lake, why not make it a blue lake? But blueberries didn’t belong in a root-and-shoot soup. Blue potatoes seemed too purple. Blue corn chips… too easy.

Then I recalled a bit of food lore I read a few months ago in the New York Times - that garlic turns blue under certain conditions. I dug the article up again (here from a different site,) followed the instructions, and holy blue cow! Garlic does turn blue:

I figured I could top Vanessa’s Lake with some blue garlic oil and, like an Indian tarka, it would add the last wallop of flavor.

However, the Amateur Gourmet is onto someting… the moldy blue color looked downright gross on my lovely spring-moss soup. I mean, doesn’t it look frighteningly like Smurf-Berry Crunch? It’s practically the color of chewed cardboard. Not that I’ve ever chewed cardboard, though I had a gerbil once that was quite fond of it.

My advice is to make Vanessa’s Lake, savor the rich winter-to-spring soup and forget about eating blue.

Time: 1 hour
Serves: 4 - 6

Vanessa’s Lake

3 medium leeks, sliced
olive oil
4 1/2 cups water or broth
1 bunch asparagus, cut into half inch chunks
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 1/2 tsp Herbes de Provence or a combo of rosemary, thyme and basil
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 can artichokes in water, drained and rinsed
salt and white pepper to taste
basil chiffonade or blue garlic to top

Add a long pour of olive oil to a big soup pot. Toss in the sliced leeks and cook until wilted, about 12 minutes.

Then add the broth, asparagus, herbs and vinegar. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Take off the heat. Add the beans and artichokes and blend in batches in a blender, food processor, or using an immersion blender, taking care not to splatter the hot soup on your pants because it will scald you right through your jeans. Ahem.

Return the puree to low heat, adjusting the seasonings with salt and white pepper.

Ladle into bowls. Top with a chiffonade of basil or blue garlic paste. You can make blue garlic paste by blending (in a blender or similar) a few old cloves of garlic with an equal amount of minced onion. Stir in a small saucepan over low heat. Keep stirring, be patient, and your garlic will start turning greenish-grey then greenish-bluish grey. Viola! A perfectly edible, perfectly revolting topping.

Tortilla Soup is one of those soups that everyone loves. It’s got a lot going for it - not only does the broth have a deep, toasted corn flavor but it’s often served at restaurants crowned with a nest of tortillas strips, oodles of grated cheese and more than a little daub of sour cream.

Here is a lighter, healthier and vegetarian version in which you use your favorite bean instead of the usual chicken. The corn tortillas and spices flavor the soup, but if you wanted to give it more body you could blend up some of the beans to make the soup creamier.

The toppings are also a smorgasbord of fun - use anything you like: vegan cheese, yogurt, fresh tomatoes, tomatillos, avocados, and minced jalapeno.

Time: 35 minutes
Serves: 5

Tortilla Soup

7 small corn tortillas – 2 for the soup, 5 for toppings
vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large can tomato puree
1 box of veggie broth
1 can of pinto beans (or your favorite - black beans, black eyed peas, hominy or a combo), drained and rinsed
juice of 1/2 lime
3/4 tsp cumin (more for tortillas)
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt (more for tortillas)

To prepare the tortillas, rip 2 of them into jagged pieces about 1.5 inches around. Take the remaining 5 tortillas and cut into 1/4 inch strips with a kitchen scissors.

Lightly oil a baking sheet and arrange the tortilla pieces and strips into a single layer. Sprinkle the top with salt and chili powder. Bake in a 350 degree oven, about 10 minutes on each side. Remove when crispy.

In a large pot, sauté the green pepper and onion in oil for a few minutes. Add the garlic. When the veggies are wilted add the vegetable broth, tomato puree, beans, lime and spices.

Simmer for 20 minutes. Add the torn tortilla pieces and cook for another few minutes, until the broth starts to absorb the flavor of the tortillas.

To Serve

cilantro, minced
avocado, diced
cheese, grated - optional (goat, white cheddar, jack)
(more suggestions in the introduction)

Ladle the soup into bowls and top with above toppings or others at your discretion.

Happy almost 2007, gentle readers!

I’ll end the old year bluntly: I used to not like chili.
I found it to be a sour, greasy mess with meaty and beany surprises not unlike the Bear Stew described in “Sign of the Beaver,” which, if I remember correctly, put the protagonist in some sort of Bear Fat Trance after a long day of wrestling bear-greased natives.

I digress. Chili, you see, is my familys Traditional Christmas Eve dish. Except for a few years during The Great Oyster Stew Schism we always served chili on Christmas Eve and I was used to be quite unhappy about this.

But that was in the past. Now I like chili. In fact, I L-O-V-E chili. I may just try to push chili marriage through to legislation. I think it’s because vegetarian chili is just better - the tomatoes, beans and spices mingle in a delicious way that meat seems to detract from. Chili may very well be the first thing I’d suggest if you’ve got a vegetarian coming over for dinner and you don’t know what to make. Trust me, s/he’ll like it.

Now this particular recipe comes from my new brother-in-law Ken. I’ll try to say this gently, because I know there are lot of fellow New Yorkers who read my blog: Ken is Republican. He’s a beer-and-barbecue man and I’m happy to report that he really liked the Jesus Action Figure I got him for Christmas (he send me a thank-you email.) However, he’s also just plain nice, thoughtful and very very good to his many new sisters-in-law so he’s made this veggie chili a few times to impress us and I’m pleased to report that it worked. It’s not the most authentic chili you’ll find, but hey, Ken is from Delaware. That’s actually a state. Delaware. Look it up.

My family served this chili with salsa, grated cheese, sour cream, and Fritos on Christmas Eve because it’s a casual sorta evening for us, but you could also top it with tomatillos, red onions, peppers, cilantro, avocado and any sort of tortilla/chip/cornbread and serve it to unsuspecting fancypantses. I feel a little hesitant giving my health-conscious readers a recipe with all packaged ingredients, but sometimes in the dead of winter it’s a pain to get fresh produce. And I figure it’s still probably healthier than eating out somewhere. And at the very least you could keep these ingredients in the Emergency Preparedness Kit I know you all have so you can whip up an excellent pot of chili on any occasion.

Thanks for the recipe Ken, and welcome to the family.

Serves: 6
Time: 1.5 hours

Ken’s Easy Chili Taco Soup

1 can of corn
1 can of red kidney beans*
1 can of pinto beans*
1 can of black beans*
1 can hominy*
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of Rotel
1 package of chili taco seasoning
1 package of buttermilk ranch dressing ranch dressing mix

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I cooked up a big batch of this soup to feed a large & hungry group of sisters and artistes. It was very well received, not only for dinner, but scarfed down for breakfast the next day.

What’s the secret? Love. It’s the best spice.

As I mentioned in my Khichri post, I recently went to an Indian Ayurvediic Cooking Class at the Natural Gourmet Institute. I learned many things that night, but foremost amongst them is the concept that one must cook with love and intention. This concept has been knocking around on the edge of my brain for a while now, I just wasn’t sure how to put it. People claim that they can’t cook or are afraid of messing up and dear oh dear what should they do. My retort is: you just have to want to, don’t think too hard about it, and you’ll be fine. Nalini Mehta, my Ayurvedic instructor, used the wonderful phrase, “food knows when you’re nervous” and I agree. It tastes better if you just trust it’s going to taste better.

Give this Kadhi a try: gather your friends and sisters, want and intend to create something delicious, don’t worry if you don’t have some of the spices, (actually, don’t worry at all), get started, keep going, all of a sudden stop and enjoy your wonderful soup.

Serves: 4 as a main, 6 as a side
Time: 30 minutes

Kadhi, adapted from Nalini Mehta instructor at the Natural Gourmet Institute

Olive oil or ghee (clarified butter)
4 cloves
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
½ tsp fenugreek seeds, optional
dash asafetida, optional
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 inch ginger, minced
2 green chilies, minced
4 cups yogurt
1 cup water
2 Tbsp chickpea flour (besan)
fresh cilantro, chopped, for a garnish

Heat a little oil or ghee in a pot and toss in the dried spices: cloves, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, and fenugreek seeds. Stir the seeds until they are a few shades darker and start to pop. Now add the powdered spices: asafetida and cayenne pepper. Stir for a second and immediately pour in the yogurt and water.

In a small bowl, whisk a little of the yogurt soup into the chickpea flour and blend until there are no more lumps. Add the flour mix to the soup pot and combine well.

Taste for salt and serve with a little cilantro sprinkled over. See? That wasn’t so hard.

Perfect with pita bread and a tomato, cucumber, and chick pea salad. Or, try it over Khichri like gravy over mashed potatoes.

Sometimes, when deleting a chain email, dontcha just feel a little bit bad? Like, maybe you just deleted the email that really will get five million Russian rubles wired to your checking account?

It happened to me. Really.

Except it wasn’t a chain email. It was a recipe exchange. And it wasn’t five million Russian rubles. It was a Russian Bride named Katya. Ok, not so much Russian as Thai. And not a bride, but a soup recipe. That’s right. I received a very excellent, very free, very Thai, soup recipe right to my inbox. This internet stuff is great!

Check it out for yourself. Straight from whoknowswhere to my sister’s (no, not The Sistaster nor the Li’l Sis, but the older sis that is probably best described as The Ultracompetitive Sis) best friend Teha to me to you.

Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 5 – 6

Thai Pumpkin Soup

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
1 15 oz can coconut milk
2 cups mango nectar
3 cups water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/4 cup smooth or chunky peanut butter; your preference
2 veggie bullion cubes
1/2 an inch fresh ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 green chilies, minced
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped
3-4 green onions, chopped

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