Categorysoup

Vegetable minestrone for sick days

By Jessi Spell
In soup
April 29, 2021
A bowl of vegetable minestrone in the center off the frame. A spoon rests in the bowl, as if someone was about to take a bite, but put the spoon down as they were distracted. The soup is garnished with basil and grated parmesan. You can just see the pot of soup in the top left corner of the frame, and there is a small bowl of basil leaves and a cheese grater in the bottom right.

I’m getting my second dose of the vaccine tomorrow. And, while there is very little to suggest I’ll have a reaction that will qualify as much worse than mild inconvenience, I’m finding myself with the need to prepare for the worst anyway. I’ve cleared my calendar. I’ve cleaned. I’ve made sure we’re stocked up on Tylenol, ibuprofen, and hot tea. And friends, I’ve made soup. 

I know. It’s a bit cliche, isn’t it? 

And yet it’s exactly what I know I’ll be craving if I’m feeling bad – a clear-brothed, salty, chunky soup with enough heft that I feel like I’ve eaten something but not enough that it feels like a chore, you know? Oh! and noodles. It has to have noodles. 

All the ingredients for the soup in front of a white subway tile backsplash. Pictured are: olive oil, pasta, basil, black pepper, canned beans, canned tomatoes, a jar of stock, salt, parmesan cheese, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, green beans, celery, an onion, zucchini, half a peeled turnip, and carrots

This minestrone, from Martha Rose Shulman, seemed perfect – so I made it up yesterday morning and stashed it in the fridge. 

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Sausage and bean soup

By Jessi Spell
In soup
February 19, 2021

There hits a point sometime in mid-winter (read: right about now) when the only foods I want to eat can be boiled down to a category best described as carbs, soups, pasta, and more carbs. This is especially true this year – when we are somehow approaching the beginning of March when it seems we never properly finished the last one. 

All that to say, when I got up this morning and saw the snow piling up on my patio (again!), I just couldn’t bring myself to keep writing about knife parts and handle materials – I wanted something a little more tangible. 

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Jessi Spell

A culinary degree and two years of professional experience has not stopped Jessi from making stupid mistakes – she just makes them more efficiently. She habitually reads cookbooks before bed, loses track of time on Wikipedia, and yells at cooking shows like dads watching football. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Jackson, five plants, and more cookbooks than a 600 square foot studio should hold.

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