Persian Cucumber Soup with Mint
I have been making this soup for exactly twenty years. Exactly. How do I know this? Because I made my first version for it during the 1998 World Cup (when France also won). I [...]
3-Ingredient Potato and Caramelized Onion Soup
2 weeks away from Cancale and I come home to a bare fridge on a national holiday (May Day). Meaning: any attempt to shop is pretty pointless. There may be a small grocery ope [...]
Harissa-Spiked (Sunshine) Squash Soup
In Ireland and the British Isles, they call this time of year ‘the hungry gap’ –those turning-point weeks when winter vegetables have passed their prime but spring produce ha [...]
Mushroom Broth (with stems and ends)
Why toss out the brown ends and tough stems of those mushrooms you use when turning them into a rich, flavorful broth is as simple as setting them to boil in some water for a [...]
Brothy Shiitake Soup with Ginger and Garlic
There is nothing to this soup. Seriously. Literally. Ridiculously. (Well, no, not ‘ridiculously,’ but since I was going with the flow of overused (and misused) adverbs, I fig [...]
Velvet Scallop and Winter Vegetable ‘Nage’
“Caught on Thursday, shucked on Friday…I ate some Saturday, and you should have yours today (Sunday) or tomorrow (Monday).” So went the message on my voicemail from my fisher [...]
Caldo Verde
Caldo verde, a Portuguese soup made with sausage, potatoes, and collards (or kale, in my version) is peasant food at its finest: simple, fragrant, and filling. I cannot stop [...]
Chestnut Bisque
This soup is born out of a restaurant disappointment. It was a fancy restaurant, too, one of those places in the US where they charge over $10 for a bowl of what is basically [...]
New England Clam Chowder
Ever since I got bitten by the clam-digging bug about five years ago (I can walk two hundred yards out onto the mudflats just in front of my house in Cancale and get a bucket [...]