A different kind of green juice
Happy New Year, everyone. I’m not much for resolutions, but a few weeks ago I vowed that 2026 would be hopelessly, bottomlessly full of soup. This applied to my life at home, where I hope to always have broth simmering on the stove. But also to my professional one at restaurants, where soups tend to be among the most overlooked dishes. By coincidence or fate, all of my favorite soups of the moment are green. It’s easy to turn mercimek corbasi orange with lentils, or stain borscht red with beet. But something profound happens when a soup goes green. Sour, numbing and herby flavors are awakened that activate my brain like a SAD lamp. I crave them year-round, but I’m sure you’ll appreciate them during these gray, slush-puddle days.
Green borscht would like a wordEvery time I visit the original Tashkent Supermarket in Brighton Beach, I notice something new — easy to do when the steam tables have more than 200 self-serve trays. There’s the microwave at one end of the steam table for reheating pastries. The futuristic fruit machines that dissect pineapples into neat spears. And, of course, the sunken vats of Uzbek plov, soaking up the flavors of raisins, beef and lamb. This fall I finally noticed the green borscht hiding among the steaming pots of lamb shurpa and lagman noodles. The color comes from a generous helping of parsley, dill and spinach. Red borscht fortifies you for another cold plunge at the banya. Green borscht is a glimpse of spring, electrified by lemon and tart Ukrainian sorrel. The soup is ladled, expertly, by the women working the counter, who stock each bowl to the brim with herbs, potato and beef before filling in the gaps with broth. 713 Brighton Beach Avenue (Coney Island Avenue), Brighton Beach 378 Sixth Avenue (Waverly Place), West Village
Boiled fish, your wayOnce you spot the Sichuan fish stew suan cai yu, there’s no unseeing it. Restaurants that obsessively specialize in this sour, spicy soup, and little else, have spread all over the city in a matter of years, hawking oversized bowls of endlessly customizable fish stew. My favorite place to sweat over the dish is at a bright white restaurant right off the main drag of downtown Flushing called Fish With You. It’s one of more than 2,500 locations worldwide that have perfected fast-casual suan cai yu. They can be ordered with different broths, seasonings and boiled fish: I like the one with sour cabbage, pickled mustard green and numbing knots of green peppercorn that make you pucker and pant at every turn. 135-25A 40th Road (Main Street), Flushing 774 60th Street (Eighth Avenue), Sunset Park
Nothing beats soup from momThere’s no wrong way to have a meal at Sofreh in Prospect Heights. Most people start with its barbari breads, oblong and flecked with sesame seeds, before meatmaxxing on lamb shank and half chicken. Then again, I’m perfectly content sitting at one end of the bar with a pomegranate-colored cocktail and a personal pot of ash reshteh, a woodsy noodle stew traditionally served during Nowruz, the Persian New Year. That was my approach the other night when I popped into Sofreh alone. The ash reshteh is one of the few surviving items from Sofreh’s opening menu, a nourishing soup fortified with lentils, chickpeas and herbs that the chef Nasim Alikhani would make for her children to cure whatever ailed them. My bowl gleamed like a loch at sundown, wheat noodles cresting over the surface like Nessie. 75 St. Marks Avenue (Flatbush Avenue), Prospect Heights Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have New York City restaurant questions? Send us a note here. Follow NYT Food on TikTok and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
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