Shawnee’s Mighty Immune System Soup
Shawn’s recipes usually come with a story attached – her writing is as good as her food – not to be missed!
This soup is derived from one that was a favorite at the restaurant. This vegan version is muscled up with as many antioxidants as I can fit in a stock pot
To make about 1 gallon or more-you know how it goes when making soup; get a BIG pot:
*cut one brick of tempeh (8 oz) in half (depth) and then into 1 inch-ish cubes. (I particularly like White Wave 5 grain tempeh )*saute until golden brown in ample olive oil.
*to the saute pan, add tablespoon each of the following dried herbs: Rosemary, oregano, fennel seed, basil
*add 1 clove chopped garlic (certainly, you could add more)
*2 chopped onions*1 bunch celery, leaves included of course, chopped
*1 bunch chopped parsley.
Put the sautéed veggies et al into a stock pot and add one bottle dry red wine and 2 quarts vegetable stock.
Bring the mixture to a simmer and put in the following:
*2 cups chopped carrots
*2 cups fresh snapped green and wax beans (half and half)
*1 can cannelini beans. (16oz?)
*1 big bunch collard greens which have been washed, stemmed ,and coarsely chopped. (Any type of green will do… Mustard greens, chard, or spinach are good also but wait until the end of the cooking to add a finer textured green to avoid overcooking.)
*1 cup hot giardiniara
*2 cups shredded cabbage
*generous amount sea salt and lots of black pepper.
*2 cups pureed roasted red peppers
*1 cup or so artichokes, fresh, frozen or canned
Simmer slowly until the veggies are cooked and then:
*Taste and adjust salt if necessary. A bit salty and peppery is good-encourages you to drink lots of water/tea with the soup.
*2 or 3 zucchini chopped (and added late to prevent over cooking)
*Now add the flavor blast:*a big glug of malt vinegar-how much depends on how acidic your wine was to begin with. I make this soup a bit tangy and malt vinegar has a subtle yeasty flavor .
*a teaspoon of liquid smoke which adds flavor complexity (I use the Colgin brand because the company is sensitive to vegan issues.)
*2 tablespoons each of the same herbs, this time fresh if you have them, dried if not: rosemary , parsley, and oregano. Fennel seed and an entire bunch of minced basil. (I use 2 ounces fresh basil because the 320 produce market sells that much in one bag for 2 bucks. (wow, cheap)
*a big glug of olive oil
This second addition of herbs comes at the end of the cooking to reinforce and freshen the flavor . You could also squeeze in a fresh lemon or two. I sometimes serve this soup over a sturdy, corrugated pasta…rigatoni, cellantani etc (cooked separately). But I like it best with crumbled Wheatsworth whole wheat crackers. Garlic bread would be yummy also. The soup, with a wave of Mediterranean flavor, is full of all the things you need when everybody is coughing, sneezing before touching doorknobs, keyboards, elevator buttons and cast iron frying pans…. Hunh? Cast iron frying pans? Yes! I was at the Thrift Store a couple of weeks ago looking for slide projector stuff or a waffle iron. (I have a list of things that I look for in the Thrift Store) There was a very nice cast iron pan on the shelf that I thought about buying even though it’s not on my list. I picked it up, pondered, put it down to think more about while I wandered over to look for lace in the linen section. Came back to the housewares shelf and another woman was looking at the same cast iron pan. She started to reach for it, began to cough, politely put her hand over her mouth. Then she picked up the pan with that same hand. I stood a distance behind and watched her heft the pan, turn it over, think about it, put it down and move on. Well, I thought, I do have a cast iron pan just that same size already…don’t really need another one.
And lest you say to yourself…my, that’s a lot of herbs and stuff in this soup…..the restaurant version was just the same. It did surprise me that the guys would request it for the football/Nascar parties on Sundays. In those days, Bill had to move the monster stock pot for me; he would make a big deal about it…oven mitts on his big hands, exaggerating the weight of the pot as he brought it out to the buffet table. Later, I would marvel as I washed the empty pot at the enormous quantity of beautiful vegetables and herbs that was now walking around in my customers.
