Feels like soup outsideThe “feels like” feature on my weather app is getting a lot of play this week. Feels like 10. Feels like 5. Feels like -1. Feels like I’m staying inside. Well, I’ve been holed up on two accounts. On Sunday, when nearly a foot of snow blanketed New York City, I got sick. I’ve been haunting my house like some forlorn ghost ever since, drifting into the kitchen between long stretches of couch-bound convalescing. There, I’ve done some largely hands-off cooking. I made a big pot of beans. I made soy-marinated eggs. I made a batch of scallion rice. I made hot chocolate. I made stock. Now, it is time for soup. Can you imagine craving anything else? A warm bowl of something or other is my last curative play, having exhausted my appetite for green tea and supplements and Emergen-C. The best recipe is the one that calls for things you already have. Maybe Yasmin Fahr’s new broccoli and potato soup is that recipe, requiring only six ingredients, not including oil and salt and pepper. With another winter storm brewing on the East Coast, now is the time to grab a head of broccoli, some baby potatoes, an onion, Parmesan and vegetable stock, if you’re out. You’ve got dried oregano, yes? Freestyle on the aromatics to your palate’s content: Garlic, scallions, cumin, lemon or chile will serve you just as well. Broccoli and Potato SoupEqually snowed-in-friendly is Carolina Gelen’s creamy tomato hummus soup, which leans entirely on pantry staples and store-bought hummus, save for a few sprigs of basil for freshness. But if you are making a pre-storm trip to the store, you may want to shop to make Christian Reynoso’s hearty vegetable tofu soup. The whole gang’s here: Carrots, cabbage, mushrooms, daikon and onion team up for a dish that’s chunky and filling, while brown rice and silken tofu act as added insurance. The gingery broth, finished with lemon and cilantro, is just what the doctor (my mother) ordered. Sue Li’s latest, a caramelized cabbage and onion soup with cheesy croutons, is all I can imagine eating on Sunday, with snow in the forecast. This week, a friend sent the following sequence of texts:
This recipe, which features two cans of cannellini beans, is the answer. The liquid is starchy, yes, and here it is added to the soup to give it body. A Parmesan rind (I like to keep a bag of them in the freezer) goes in as well to add richness. (This is your periodic reminder to look for Parm labeled “vegetarian,” or to check the ingredients list to ensure the rennet, a set of enzymes used in the cheese-making process, is derived from a nonanimal source, if needed.) Kristina Felix’s warming tomato and pinto bean soup is also speaking to me, and loudly at that, since I have that pot of beans and that stock from my hazed cooking this week. I think my saucy kidney beans will work in place of the two cans of pinto beans, and I’ve got canned chipotle chiles in adobo somewhere in the recesses of my pantry. I even have an avocado, though I’ll need to hobble down to the corner store for two tomatoes. I think it will be worth the hassle of getting my wellies on and off. But wait. Here’s a reader, B. Jenkins, for Yasmin’s coconut-ginger soup with greens at the buzzer. “This tastes like vitality. Health and goodness. Perfect for a cold winter night during flu season to keep one healthy.” Who can argue with that?
Creamy Tomato Hummus Soup
Caramelized Cabbage and Onion Soup With Cheesy Croutons
Coconut-Ginger Soup With GreensOne More Thing!At the ever-popular Radio Bakery in Brooklyn, the best thing behind the pastry case, if you ask me, is the brown butter cornmeal financier. I was first introduced to it a couple of years ago by my colleague Nikita Richardson as we waited in the line outside on a chilly Sunday morning in March, strategizing our order. The cornmeal cake, she told me, was Yewande’s favorite, and we’d need to get two. If you haven’t yet read Yewande Komolafe’s latest column, on her journey back to cooking after losing her limbs, I implore you to do so. It is as moving as Yewande is brilliant. Nearly two years into her recovery, she set out to adapt the cornmeal cake that Nikita would often bring to her in the hospital. Yewande’s version is studded with cherries, and I cannot wait to make it. Thanks for reading, and see you next week. Email us at theveggie@nytimes.com. Newsletters are archived here. Reach out to my colleagues at cookingcare@nytimes.com if you have questions about your account.
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