My 10th Book Review With A Bowl of Soup!

A favorite book of mine for many years, as it is all about gardening AND cooking, is “The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden, Creative Gardening for the Adventurous Cook” by David Hirsch. David’s book is well rounded as it gets you involved in the entire process of cooking from planting to putting the food on the table. David’s first encounter with the restaurant was as a gardener who supplied them with fresh basil. David eventually began cooking at the restaurant but still supplied the restaurant with herbs, flowers, and rare specialty produce as organic gardening is one of his passions.
In his chapter on vegetables, he has a section for each veggie. In that section he tells a bit about that veggie, how to start it from seed or planting, cultural requirements, harvest, and culinary tips. He has a wonderful chapter on herbs sharing with us how to grow, culinary tips, and some interesting ways to use herbs besides in food, such as potpourri recipes. His next chapter focuses on edible flowers. It is packed full of information on how to grow these flowers and culinary tips on how to use them. David’s next chapter delves into the design of your garden. Lot’s of great info in this chapter on patterns, plant selection, and maintenance. Chapter 5 gets into the technique portion, such as soils, mulch, seed starting, buying the plants, transplanting, bug and disease control and much more.
One of my favorite chapters, of course, is the one that has the recipes. I want to share with you one of the soups that I adapted from David’s selection.

Portuguese Kale Soup

1 can of great northern beans, drained and rinsed
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
1 medium onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 fresh cayenne peppers, finely chopped
1 medium potato chopped
1 large carrot chopped
1 parsnip chopped
1 can of chopped tomatoes, drained
6 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 large bay leaves
2-3 tablespoons fresh oregano chopped or 1 tablespoon dried
10-12 sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil drained and chopped
1 bunch of fresh kale (about 4 cups) chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat your oil in a pot, add the fennel seeds and stir for a minute, then add the onion and cayenne pepper. Sauté for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic stirring for another minute. Now add the potato, carrot and parsnip. Sauté these for a couple of minutes then add your tomatoes, stock, bay leaves and oregano. Simmer all of these for about 10 minutes.
Now it is time to add your sun-dried tomatoes, kale and beans.
Simmer all of these for 10-15 minutes. Taste and add your salt and pepper to your liking.

This is a very simple wholesome soup that would be great for a quick lunch or perfect for dinner adding a crunchy side salad and a loaf of crusty country bread with dipping oil on the side. And hey, don’t forget a glass of your favorite wine to make this dinner complete!

For all of you spring gardeners and adventurous cooks, I highly recommend picking up a copy of David’s book to kick off your spring and summer growing season!

Cheers!