soups Archives - A Way To Garden

cooking with what you have: ‘start simple,’ with lukas volger

margaret — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 20:33:06 +0000

JUST BEFORE THINGS SHIFTED in our world, I bought a new vegetarian cookbook called “Start Simple,” by Lukas Volger. Little did I know that just weeks later, its promise of “an uncomplicated approach to cooking that allows you to use what you already have on hand to make great meals you didn’t think were possible” would sound not just appealing, but really the order of the day. I called Lukas to talk about dependable, versatile ingredients and how to use them, about how to cook better no matter what ingredients we have on hand, and also how to make vegetables last. Lukas Volger is the author of three previous cookbooks, and the co-founder and editorial director of “Jarry” magazine, an award-winning biannual publication that explores where food and queer culture intersect. Plus: Lukas has shared a recipe for his Cheesy Cabbage and White Bean Soup right here, farther down the page, and we’ll also have a book giveaway (enter by commenting in the box at the very bottom of the page). Read along as you listen to the April 20, 2020 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on […]

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winter squash-coconut milk soup with garam masala

margaret — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 20:44:09 +0000

THE RABBITS got the beans that year. The cold weather all that same “summer” got some of the tomatoes. But I got the winter squash, in spades–a bumper crop. Meaning: Let there be soup. Winter Squash-Coconut Milk Soup with Garam Masala, to be specific. The house was full of squash, in fact, that year–from my desk, where they sat, expectant, beside my laptop (below) to the entire mudroom (bottom of page), where horse-collar-shaped oddities like ‘Tromboncino’ joined the smaller ‘Butternut’ types. I made up this recipe at freezer-emptying time in early summer the next year, when I found two containers of roasted, mashed winter squash still remaining in my deep-freeze, and needed the room for incoming garden-fresh goodies. It is based on a soup with a coconut undertone and Indian spices that I had eaten in a restaurant and wanted to try to emulate. My first pass went like this: winter squash-coconut milk soup with garam masala ingredients: 4 cups fine-grained winter squash, such as ‘Butternut’ or ‘Blue Hubbard,’ roasted and mashed 3 Tablespoons olive oil 1½ cups diced onion 3 cloves garlic, chopped garam masala powder (start with 1 Tablespoon; I used 3 Tablespoons; see note below about this […]

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david lebovitz’s french onion soup (from ‘my paris kitchen’)

margaret — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 05:49:48 +0000

SOME ONIONS WON’T LAST—you know, the ones whose tops didn’t brown down thoroughly before harvest, and may still look more like a scallion’s stalk, or store-bought ones sitting in that bowl on the counter a little too long. Solution: onion soup, specifically David Lebovitz’s onion soup from “My Paris Kitchen,” one of his popular books. It’s a soup you can make and enjoy now, or freeze, depending on how many willing yellow onions you can get your hands on, and on whether you can resist eating it all right away. With my first bowlful, I didn’t even manage to wait long enough to melt the cheese on top of the recommended toast. It just smelled too inviting as-is (or was), and then, suddenly, gone. If you haven’t met David Lebovitz, the story, in brief: In 1999, he left Chez Panisse and a career in the restaurant business. He moved from San Francisco to Paris—where he jokingly says Belgian endive is so inexpensive as to be the French version of “trash” lettuce, and reports there are more than 1,260 bakeries. Packing up little more than his best skillet, cookbooks and trusty laptop, David turned to writing, and his 2011 memoir, “The […]

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