January 2012
10 posts
soup for the sick.
Photo by the also-sick partner-in-crime
The ironic thing about a lot of chicken soup recipes is that they ask you to make chicken broth from scratch before you get sick.
Y’know, because we all have foresight. Because chicken broth is just something you want to make when it’s Amazing degrees and clear outside and throwing up 3 times in a night is something you’d see more often on your street corner in the Mission than in your own bathroom.
If you’re within walking distance to a decent grocery store, just buy chicken broth in a box. And most importantly, as long as the main ingredients are water and chicken broth (unlike a certain variety that was mostly “chicken broth flavor”, followed by a long list of chemicals), you can spare yourself any guilt of lacking foresight.
Because, let’s face it, being sick is the last thing people hope for.
Soup for the sick, with ginger (i.e. your dose of Asian mom wisdom)
Serves 4
- 4 cups of chicken broth
- 8 oz / 1 packet of tempeh, cut into 1” cubes
- 1” piece of ginger
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, peeled and diced
- 1 bunch of rainbow chard, stems removed and diced, leaves cut into a rough strips
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 1/2 cup of orzo, acini de pepe, or any form of small soup pasta
- olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- parmesan cheese
In a large soup pot, heat olive oil on medium heat and sauté the onions and garlic until the onions are transparent. Add the diced carrot, chard stems, and grate in the ginger directly into the pot. Cook for another minute or so, without burning the ginger.
Pour in the chicken stock, cover, and bring to a boil before lowering the heat to a simmer. In the meantime, pan fry the tempeh pieces in a pan with in a little oil until golden on each side.
Add the tempeh and pasta to the soup pot and cook over medium heat for 9 minutes, until the pasta is cooked and the tempeh is heated through. Throw in the zucchini and chard leaves, season with salt and pepper, and cover for a further 5 minutes until the leaves are cooked.
Serve with a generous crack of pepper and a few gratings of parmesan cheese.
things i didn't think i would like in 2011.
- Quinoa.
- Picklebacks.
- Reggaeton.
because nothing bums me out more than limp cucumbers. (that's what she said.) →
washingtonsgreengrocer.com
Great tips on how to store vegetables without plastic bags. From Berkeley Farmer’s Market (of course), via Washington’s Green Grocer.
America is eating less meat. →
opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com
Another great piece by Mark Bittman —
The flaw in the [Daily Livestock Report] is that it treats American consumers as passive actors who are victims of diminishing supplies, rising costs and government bias against the meat industry. Nowhere does it mention that we’re eating less meat because we want to eat less meat.
Well said. And high five, America.
why i love portland, #2: CARTOPIA →
foodcartsportland.com
Image credit: Gourmet Fury (who didn’t seem to like Portland as much as I did.)
I thought San Francisco was the food truck / cart city to rule ‘em all and that the rest o’ yall were just bitin.
I was so, so wrong.
Not only does Portland have no sales tax and allows drinking off-premises, it also (presumably) has extremely food-cart-positive laws. Because those things are everywhere. (Hence an entire website dedicated to it. Look at the map. LOOK AT IT.)
Total win for Portlanders. Utter relief for my San Francisco-based love handles.
The carts seem to be mostly stationary, which helps take the guess work out of where a particular one is (although that doesn’t stop them from having Twitter feeds, of course). We only managed to explore two of the numerous “cartopias” in Portland, but the highlight was poutine from Potato Champion on SE Hawthorne. Gooey gravy with melting cheddar cheese curds over excellently seasoned fries. We thought we would need other condiments on the side. As it turns out, we never needed them.
(And yes, there is a vegan version.)
I can count the number of times I’ve had poutine on one hand. It’s just not that common (if anywhere to be found) in San Francisco, let alone any other city I’ve lived in. And the aforementioned love handles are happy about that.
why i love portland, #1 →
clevercycles.com
Photo from Clever Cycles
“Oregon is one of a few states that permits breweries to sell fresh beer for consumption off-premises in large resealable bottles with little or no labeling called growlers. Letting people take beer home this way is resource efficient, and promotes neighborhood patronage of neighborhood industry in a manner that doesn’t promote public inebriation, whether driving is involved or not.”
From Clever Cycles, a great non-pretentious bike shop on SE Hawthorne.
