winter soup session: tunisian soup with swiss chard, chickpeas and harissa

Swiss Chard is a beautiful, and nutritional plant.  It grows at the garden from May until November.  I like to describe it as somewhere between spinach and kale.  It wilts quickly in a soup like spinach, but you need to take the stems off as they take longer to cook.  Some mistakenly throw away the stems, but I just dice them and then throw them in when you saute the aromatics (carrots, onions and celery).  Swiss Chard is in the chenopod family along with beets, spinach and quinoa.  It is high in vitamins C, E and K.  Swiss Chard has anti inflammatory and anti oxident properties and contains lots of manganese, beta carotene and calcium. 

I adapted this recipe from Gourmet and cook it regularly.  The harissa gives it a richness, the chickpeas add protein, and the swiss chard adds color and vitamins.  Make the harissa first.  I took this harissa recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks "Sunday Suppers at Lucques".  It is possible to buy harissa in upscale grocery stores, but this is so easy and it makes enough so you can keep what you don't use in a canning jar or tupperware in the fridge.  It lasts for a while.  I swirl it into soups or toss on roasted vegetables.

Harissa by The Family Table

If you have some leftover beef brisket, shredded chicken, pork carnitas on hand, throw it in the soup pot.  I like using egg noodles, or farro, or barley, or israeli couscous...whatever is in your cupboard.

Tunisian Soup With Chard by The Family Table

winter soup session: sunchoke soup with apples and lentils

Jerusalem artichokes (aka Sunchokes) are the tubers of a sunflower.  They are interesting looking, they store well, they can be eaten raw, steamed, sauteed, pureed, they are a good source of calcium, iron, potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B, fiber, folate and magnesium.  BUT....and it is a big but, they are hard to digest and thus have gained the name "fartichokes".  In 1621, an english botanist, John Goodyer wrote this about them: "they...cause a fithy loathsome stinking wind within the body...and are a meat more fit for swine than men".  Some cookbooks attach most of the gas to eating them raw (you can ask my cooking partner Amy about this).  So, if you dare, this recipe produces a deliciously creamy soup, especially with the garnish of black lentils, apple and chives (or tarragon).

This picture is of the soup pre-puree form, both are good.

Sunchoke Soup With Apples and Lentils by The Family Table

winter soup session: coconut curry carrot soup

There are so many recipes for carrot soup, ask around, everyone has a go-to version.  This one is simple, rich and coconut-ty with the warming flavor of curry.

Who would think a bunch of carrots...

Could turn into this:

Coconut Curry Carrot Soup by The Family Table

winter soup session: italian wedding soup with herbed chicken meatballs

I like to look up the history of my soups.  For the Italian Wedding Soup, I imagined there was going to be a romantic story of true love wrapped around an elaborate feast.  I was very surprised when I learned that the cited wedding is the really the marriage of green vegetables and meat, to each other.

Similarly to beef borscht, this soup is made with many different combinations, basically whatever you have on hand, as long as the sacred marriage is respected.  For the meat, I have seen it as chicken, brisket and meatballs.   The chicken meatballs in the recipe below are delicious baked in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 and eaten straight off the cookie sheet.  The taste of parmesan comes through and the chicken flavor is a nice change from heavier beef meatballs.

As yummy as the baked meatballs are, for this soup, they are best when poached in the actual soup broth as they are light and easy to eat while slurping down the soup (I would like to thank Kim for this brilliant suggestion).  For the vegetable, I have seen it including cabbage, spinach, kale and escarole.  Having made this with both spinach and escarole, I prefer the escarole as it holds up better and imparts a nice flavor.  That being said, if you have spinach, throw that in.  Most people don't have bags of escarole hanging about.

Italian Wedding Soup by The Family Table