Friday, May 21, 2010

Make this Soup

This is exactly the kind of recipe I love, the kind that I could eat everyday for the rest of my life. It's healthy and simple and delicious. No surprise, it's a soup.

Although I talk about food a lot, I don't really post many recipes on this blog because I don't come up with my own. I take recipes mostly from friends, foodblogs and cookbooks. This one came from Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking". I use this book often, even though I've run into a couple of duds, because it works wonderfully well as a general instructional manual. She's convinced me to put celery into almost everything, even though I don't like celery, she's explained why you brown the onions first, then add the garlic. "The alchemy of cooking" as Nigella Lawson once said. One of her big ideas about food, and this makes her different from Julia Child, is that you should really let the flavours of the food speak for themselves. There isn't a lot of seasoning or altering of the food.

First, defrost a small package of frozen peas (I used 300g) chop potatoes into small dice (3cups) and thinly slice 3 cups of onions. A note on quantities: I thought there were just a few too many onions. My lunch date, K thought there were a few too many peas. These can be altered to suit your preferences. Thinly slice 2 cloves of garlic.

Brown the onions in olive oil with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar. Add the garlic and cook a until just starting to brown. Add the potatoes and stir for 2-3 minutes. Add enough water to cover by a couple inches (in my pot this was 5 cups) and a beef bouillon cube. Reduce heat to minimum, cover, and let simmer for half an hour. Add peas and simmer another 5-10 minutes. Done!

It doesn't sound like a lot, but the garlic and onion make for a lovely savoury broth and the peas add just a bit of sweetness. It's yummy and healthy and it feels good to eat it, especially the way K and I did, sitting by a sunny window with big mugs of tea and oatmeal cookies for dessert.

I have no idea how much this cost to make, but I had everything in my kitchen already except for the peas, which cost $2.09. I got 7 servings so I'm considering it to be a very budget lunch.

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