A love letter to this one soup, and this one soup only

We ate it for four days straight and fought over it afterwards

Reminder! I’m gifting out 10 Staub Dutch Ovens and 50 “snacks” totes as a pre-order bonus for my book! You can enter to win here.

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Now good morning! Hello! I was on two podcasts this week (one is out, the other is upcoming!), and learned a very important thing: when I get talking about my emotions, my processes or my thoughts, I stumble all over the place. But when I start talk about food, nothing is easier. After a *bit* of analysis, I can only think that it’s because the former is filled with a lot of uncertainties, and the latter is filled with rules, methods, and well…certainties.

I’m not sure if you feel this way about cooking, but I like that it’s a safe space. A place where if you follow a certain set of rules, link up a few chemical reactions, practice a bit of patience, you generally know what result you are going to get. And from that framework you can step into other places - a few sprigs of mint here, a grating of fresh ginger tossed into your brothy beans, roasting your vegetables for just five minutes longer, adding! cheese! …You get it. There’s a set of rules to keep you safe, but you don’t ~always~ have to play by them. Maybe that’s also why I like baking, too. There are definite rules there, so I can just shut my brain off and make it happen.

I’m a little tired this morning, so maybe that’s why I’m getting all romantic about what can happen in a stainless steel pan over medium heat, but in a way, it’s nice to know that sometimes when we can’t exactly pinpoint our emotions or our next steps, there’s always a recipe that is much simpler to figure out.

And if you’re looking for a recipe to shut off your brain but also get it excited, might I suggest the best soup I’ve ever made?? I’m not exaggerating. What she doesn’t make up for with visuals, she makes up for in flavor. Take it from this lovely commenter right here:

This week is a very simple love letter to this Kabocha Squash Soup & Fennel Soup (with chickpeas! And farro!). Because it builds flavors in a few key ways, and a one minute video just didn’t give me nearly enough time to talk about it.

First, it cooks down the vegetables in two key ways: half of the onion, the fennel bulb, and half of the kabocha squash go into the oven to darken and caramelize. I learned this from Ben Lippett, and it has changed how I think about soup. When you add the darkened vegetables to the broth at the end, you simmer their flavor into the broth, so you get both the stewed vegetable flavor from the base of the soup and this darkened, rich, caramelized note.

Second, we hard toast the farro, adding a toasty, roasty note: Not toasting farro is the biggest soup crime I see. Ever. This grain wants to be darkened before it is simmered! It takes the flavor to 2.0. You know it’s ready for liquid when it’s a shade darker in color.

Third, this soup mashes half the kabocha squash into the base of the broth, giving it a nearly potato-soup texture: When you start the soup, you cook down onion, the fennel stalks, aromatics and then toast the farro. After that, half the squash goes in and softens fairly quickly. What I like is that as you stir it with the farro, it breaks down on its own, giving you a creamy soup base without you having to pull out the blender.

Fourth, Better Than Bouillon vegetable stock. Please sponsor me. I beg of you. While I love normal veg broth, this product packs a phenomenal salty punch. Don’t skip it.

The result is a soup that Eric likes to call “Chicken and Dumplings-esque,” but with no meat, and only a touch of dairy. It’s easily made gluten-free by using wild rice, and quick to make vegan with cashew cream and vegan butter.

You can find the full recipe here. And thank you for letting me get all in-the-weeds about it!

And this week on YouTube, Prosecco Kale Risotto!

Another stewy, cozy recipe, but this time with a bit of lightness and brightness. It’s a great gateway risotto if you’re new to cooking it! The full recipe is in the video, which you can watch here.

Lastly, Book Tour is selling OUT! I don’t mean to be pushy, but if you want to come, I suggest snagging your tickets as soon as you can. Linking it all here!

Boston, St. Louis, San Fran, it’s in your hands now.

And it’s a short letter this week, but we love short n’ sweet. Sending a huge amount of love to anyone impacted by the hurricanes. I hope you are as safe as possible.

See you all next weekend <3

Xoxo

Soup_Snacks