Like pretty much everyone in food media*, I am obsessed with Alison Roman’s newish cookbook, Dining In. Part of the hype, I suspect, comes from her pedigree: Prior to writing her book, she was an editor at Bon Appétit and then Buzzfeed, dreaming up exciting, not-too-fussy recipes like slow-roasted salmon with crispy greens, and rhubarb almond cake. She’s also written for super-under-the-radar publications like The New York Times and Cherry Bombe, penned an excellent, zine-like, mini-cookbook about lemons for Short Stack Editions, and worked in the kitchens at Momofuku Milk Bar. (I’m missing a couple biographical details here, but you get the gist.) Dining In may be her first cookbook, but she has ample experience to back it up.
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soup
Deep Immune Soup With Turmeric-Ginger Broth
Every once in a while, the stars align and a recipe comes to me just when I need it most. In this case, I was flipping through Laura Wright’s The First Mess Cookbook, tabbing recipes to try, on the same day that Andrew came down with a nasty head cold. Boosted with a generous dose of ginger, turmeric, black pepper, and chili flakes, this golden broth would have caught my eye, sick patient or no, but under these circumstances it quickly jumped to the top of my to-try list. Steamy, spicy, and sinus-clearing, it does it’s advertised job well, and since the solid ingredients are classic noodle soup additions (orzo and the tried and true trio of onion, carrot, and celery) it’s also quite comforting.
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North African Sundried Tomato Soup With Couscous and Olives
When the frosty wind nips at your nose and you wake up to dark skies, it can be easy to get down on autumn. (But wait, can’t we have one more month of long, mild nights and bushels of heirloom tomatoes?) Mostly though, I look at this time of year with a lot of love. I’m more than ready to be done with hot, humid, sticky days, where a walk outside practically mandates clutching (and gulping down) an Olsen-twins-sized iced tea for its internal cooling properties. Equally exciting are the endless mountains of squash, apples, pears, beets, and other goodies flooding the markets right now. But if I had to pick one thing I like most about fall, it’d have to be the return to soup season. My love for this coziest-of-cozy foods knows no bounds, and recently I had a particularly-good excuse to try out a handful of recipes: at 29, I had my wisdom teeth taken out.
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Slow-Cooker Sicilian Chickpea and Escarole Soup
When you think of Sicilian food, I’d wager pasta alla Norma, bottles of Mount Etna rosso, gelato-stuffed brioche buns, juicy blood oranges, and deep-fried treasures like arancini and panelle are some of the first things to come to mind. All delightful, no doubt, but it’s the humble bean- and lentil-based soups, stews, and pasta dishes from the region that I anticipate making the most now that I’m home.
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Miso-Kimchi Soba Noodle Soup Mason Jars
While I’m not an all-out meal planner or prepper, I get down with the occasional mason jar lunch. Slow-cooked beans, quinoa, cheddar, and cilantro got me through many long days at the office; more recently I’ve been on a butternut squash, corn, beans, and kale mason jar salad kick (that creamy cashew-based vegan dressing is killer). But until recently, I hadn’t explored the world of mason jar soups. A goop article on the subject piqued my interest a while back, but I never got around to testing one of the recipes out, and I forgot about the concept. That is, until I was flipping through Nicole Pisani and Kate Adams’ The Ultimate Soup Cleanse: 60 Recipes to Reduce, Restore, Renew & Resolve which has a small section devoted to mason jar soup.
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Miso Carrot Soup
With the possible exception of this rosemary-garlic chickpea recipe, there’s no soup that I’ve made more frequently than this miso carrot number. Velvety-smooth, savory, and slightly-sweet (from the carrots and onion), it’s just the sort of good-for-you comfort food that this week calls for.
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Roasted Tomato Eggplant Soup
Take a peek into my freezer and alongside the popsicles, frozen fruit, parmesan rinds, shrimp, and sliced bread, you’ll typically find single servings of at least two varieties of homemade soup, ready to be thawed and simmered when hunger strikes. Admittedly, I’m a bit of a soup obsessive — my cookbook collection includes nearly a dozen single-subject titles devoted to it — but I don’t think you have to feel the way I do about bisques and potages to find this a winning dinnertime strategy. Soup freezes wonderfully, is easily defrosted and reheated, and, generally-speaking is a veggie-packed nutritional powerhouse.
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Indian Red Lentil Soup With Spinach
I’d quite happily eat both soup and Indian food every day; combine the two, like with this recipe, and I’m over the moon. Complexly-spiced, this Indian red lentil soup is just the sort of thing I like to fill my fridge (and freezer) with, ready to be reheated for a quick meal when hunger strikes.
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Kale and Sweet Potato Soup With Cumin
In our pantry, you’ll pretty much always find a package or two of instant ramen stashed away. While it serves well as dinner in a pinch, especially when dressed up with a poached egg, sliced scallions, and sriracha, it’s really there for when either Andrew or I are sick with a cold. (Some might crave chicken noodle soup, but I prefer the sinus-clearing heat of instant ramen and other spicy soups.) Andrew recently had the flu, so our stockpile of instant ramen was raided. I only wish I had discovered this kale and sweet potato soup recipe before then, as ramen — while tasty — isn’t exactly the most nutritious option, and this would’ve been the perfect supplement to that.
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Broccoli White Bean Soup
As someone who spends a lot of time reading, I find it endlessly interesting to see what titles are on the bookshelves of others. Right now, we’re living in my boyfriend Andrew’s dad’s apartment in Manhattan — thanks, Mark! — so I’ve had some time to peruse his collection. Tucked in-between two photography books was a memoir that had long been on my to-read list: Heat by Bill Buford. A former New Yorker editor, Buford tells a fascinating story about leaving behind his position at the magazine to learn the ins and outs of Italian cooking, starting with months spent staging at Mario Batali’s Babbo.
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