"What's In The Fridge" Veggie Soup

One of the challenges I have set for myself in this ‘journey into health by food” is to try and eat more vegetables and fruit. When the organic food delivery arrives each week it means we need to use up what was delivered the previous week before we start the new produce. Fitting this into the way we prepare our meals is a little different for us in that Monday and Tuesday we can easily have all our meals at home but the rest of the week I am in the restaurant kitchen from early afternoon till late evening and my husband therefore has to create his own dinner, and fit that around his various evening committee meetings. We therefore do not have regular evening meals to prepare together other than Monday and Tuesday, my days off work. It is so easy to get lazy and say we will simply ‘pick something up’ and then back track on the goals of healthy eating, and using what we have. Long time habits around what we eat and how we prepare or eat are going to take a while to change and sometimes it just seems like too much effort to do so.
Hence easy to prepare, colourful, ‘what’s in the fridge’ veggie soup has become a new favourite of mine. The basics of this come from my time spent in Italy when in the winter my host family often made vegetable broth and added chopped zucchini, tiny pepe bucato pasta and lots of grated parmesan cheese as a lunch dish. There is a high quality of ‘comfort food’ to this bowl of goodness!

Basic Ingredients
Veggies
Cheese
Stock cube, water or broth
Tiny pasta (Garofalo’s Pepe Bucato pasta works best)

Extras
lemon juice or zest, fresh parsley, fresh thyme, and baked garlic cloves, oregano.

Looking into the fridge there was some zucchini, broccoli, and carrots that could cook quickly. Some feta cheese would add protein so it would be crumbled in when the soup is ready.

- grate 2 carrots
- slice one zucchini lengthwise into 4 and then slice those into small pieces
- chop broccoli florets into tiny pieces and also thinly slice the stems
- bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add 1 cube of either vegetable or chicken stock (McCormicks is the one I like best). Add more broth if you want a stronger flavour.
- throw in 3 stems of fresh thyme if you have it, also 3 stems of chopped parsley and 1 tablespoon of oregano.
- dash of salt
- if you like lemon, squeeze juice of one lemon into the water or put ½ teaspoon of finely grated lemon zest
- through the veggies in the water and bring it to a boil and cook for about 4 minutes
- add ½ cup of the pasta and continue to cook for about 7 minutes until the pasta is tender.
- check seasoning to see if you need any more salt
- remove the stems of thyme
- throw in a handful of either crumbled feta cheese or a little grated cheese of any kind.

Sitting out on the deck with my big bowl of ‘what’s in the fridge’ veggie soup, in the afternoon sun felt so good. It was tasty, healthy, using what was in the fridge and it took only 15 minutes to prepare. And having finished this bowl of goodness it is time to head to work and put my energy into dishes that will be a little more complex for the evening dinner service guests!

Savouring That Hot Drink

Can you remember the places you have sat in the early morning, or mid afternoon, or evening, with your hands folded in a prayer like manner around a mug? Did you too find the combination of warming your hands, sipping something soothing and hot, along with the quiet and stillness in that space of time was a place of utter bliss and comfort? This ritual seems to have no age, social, or cultural restrictions. It is just a universal pose that seems to say “I am resting and I am waiting” with a posturing that is looking out beyond where one is today.

I was sitting here with my hands wrapped around my cup of hot water with lemon slices and a chunk of ginger. I seem to be finding myself quite cold these days, even though the weather is getting sunny and very spring like and so wrapping my hands around a mug of hot soothing and healthy lemon ginger water moves heat into my fingers, my hands and up my arms. In essence it is just a plain cup, perhaps china or maybe ceramic, filled with a very ordinary beverage such as tea, coffee, hot milk, or hot water, and yet, it also holds an ingredient that allows us to savour the extraordinary ingredient of stillness. Somehow stillness also holds hope and there is not one of us who doesn’t need moments of hope I am sure.

When we were children my Mom used to make us hot chocolate or a cup of weak tea when it was cold outside. Each of us had a special mug and we would wrap our hands around it to hold it tightly so as not to spill. But I discovered that this had another advantage - it would warm up my hands and that heat would spread up my arms and such a cozy comforting feeling became associated with a warm beverage. I don’t think this feeling has changed many years later! Life was very busy in our growing up years but I treasure the memories of our early Saturday morning trips to Puslinch Lake. It was a time when church trauma had isolated us from a close knit community and all we had was each other. Dad would start the Coleman stove and first thing was the coffee to be made for Mom. I remember her sitting in the lounge chair with her hands wrapped around that beautiful cup of coffee as she sat for a moment, holding her grief at losses and holding her love for her family as she watched us play. Perhaps this is where my memory of the posture of “prayer and the coffee mug” was first drawn.

No matter where you travel to, in your own community, or far from home, you will find a coffee shop or tea room where someone will be sitting in this prayerful pose, hands wrapped around their warm beverage. They are sinking into this moment of stillness, waiting and watching, inviting us to embrace our own moment of stillness.