With a nod to Billy Joel, I tell you I’m in a soup-making state of mind.
Sunday, a pot of lentil soup without the Italian sausage I usually like to add. But a single package of More than Gourmet demi-glace gave it a touch of nice beef flavor. Then the addition of my newest hot sauce discovery just about made up for the missing spice of the sausage. Happily, there’s now a serving sitting in the freezer to be savored again soon.
Today the last dib of lentil soup made a nice breakfast treat. But later, as the morning wore on and hunger crept in again, I was devastated to think I didn’t have any homemade soup to turn to.
That is, I do, but I can’t eat any more of the soup I made on Saturday. The full-sodium chicken broth I used for it made the flavor of this chili-scented Mexican soup (from World’s Healthiest Foods) even more fabulous, but the salt content made me blow up next day like one of those giant over-filled tires they use in the monster truck crash derbies. I will definitely make this soup again, but not until I unfreeze my own chicken stock or buy some with less sodium.
So while I pondered which of my neighbors might be able to enjoy the remaining Zesty Mexican Soup without being in danger of exploding from sodium, it occurred to me there was still a leek and half a cabbage sitting in the fridge. These, along with carrots, onions, etc., were just what I needed to make one of my favorite vegetable soups from the book, “French Women Don’t Get Fat.” Author Mireille Giuliano, the CEO of famed champagne maker Veuve-Clicquot, offers sage advice and many slimming soup and other recipes. More about this and more recipes to come in the cookbook I’m working on—working title, 17 Ways to Eat Your Way to Happiness.
I don’t know how long I’m going to be in this soup state of mind, but it’s fun while it lasts.
P.S. Recently I had some of the most flavorful lentil soup I’ve ever tasted at Nookie’s Tree, 3334 N. Halsted. Alas, they wouldn’t divulge the secret.