The poster dish for the concept of “a little goes a long way” good soup is something to master in any effort to live mind to mouth. While the dish can conjure up Dickensian “please sir may I have more” poor houses, depression era or homeless shelter soup lines, and scenes of poor families boiling the same bones over and over- there is a reason why soup appears in these contexts; it’s highly practical, but certainly doesn’t need to be meager or bland, and most importantly it can stretch ingredients and last for several meals.
This is the tortilla soup from my oft used and recommended Alice Waters Cookbook “The Art of Simple Food.” We’ve been feeling the pull to be a bit more carnivorous the last few days- many vegan meals have come out of our kitchen recently for a number of reasons; meat and other animal products make meals more expensive and we just don’t buy cheap meat, we have been cutting back on dairy just for our general wellbeing, and its honestly felt rather unnecessary in terms of flavor, nourishment, and what we ask of animals/workers/land to go through for sources of protein. So we’ve really cut back more and more. But I’ve always appreciated having flexibility and variety as a part of my eating habits- so I made plans for something with chicken.
I had some pre-soaked black beans in the fridge so I decided to base my recipe search there. I’m trying to get into the habit of throwing a cup of beans in a bowl full of water as soon as I remember to, regardless of what I am thinking about cooking next. After 5 or 6 hours I drain and put the soaked beans in a Nancy’s yogurt container and keep it in the fridge until I come up with a use for them. That way the prospect of using my bulk dried beans doesn’t become such a time commitment right when I need to be getting a meal together and I’ve taken advantage of a dirt cheap protein source.
Far from dirt cheap, the chicken in this soup was the most expensive ingredient. Though the recipe only calls for one chicken breast,and this is precisely why soup is so cost effective. A whole organic free-range chicken breast (with bone and skin on) was a little over 6 bucks. Other uses of this might have required on breast per person, relying on the chicken as the center of the meal which would be way more than I would want to spend on one dinner. The soup lets you spread that 6 dollars over four or five meals. I think we had two dinners (that is dinner for two twice) and three lunches.
To the recipe we added bok choy from the garden and this was also a great way to use our giant and not so awesome (mealy) tomatoes.
best flavors: lime (not in recipe), chipotle chile, anahiem pepper
Last week’s soup (I am detecting a trend) was a testament to the thrifty potential of the combination of soup, a garden, and bulk dried beans. I can’t really come up with a per meal cost for this soup, it was so nominal. Only major cost was the chicken stock- $2.50 for one quart.
Squash and corn from the garden:
(sad garden note however, is that this is the only corn we got from garden- monocrops in the home garden are not easy)
So three cheers for soup, timely for our global economic collapse and just in time for fall! (At least for parts of the country who experiences cold in the fall, apparently this is when the East Bay finally gets summer)
4 Comments
Sage, I appreciate the practical suggestion to proactively soak beans in the fridge to be ever ready to use. The soaking step often gets in my way. You thoughtfully highlight the economy of soup as a doable way to s t r e t c h a dollar at a time when more of us are paying better attention.
Like your Mom, I appreciate the suggestion to pre-soak the beans. Great idea. How long will they keep once soaked?
I must admit that I almost always use canned beans, because 1)I forget to soak dry beans well enough in advance, and 2) my dried beans turn into mush when I cook them. Thanks for solving the soaking issue for me. Any suggestions to avoid bean porridge?
Laurie-
I really came up with the pre-soaking accidentally when I had soaked beans all day but then wasn’t ready to use them. I drained them and put them in the fridge. These were cannellini beans. It worked so well- that is in reducing cooking time for the soup I put them in- that I tried it again with some black beans. Now I try to have pre-soaked beans on hand at least once a week. I probably wouldn’t let them stay in the fridge for longer than a couple of days.
As far as your beans turning to mush, it may be that your beans are too old and some take longer to cook than others so the whole batch gets overcooked. Getting dried beans from the bulk section ensures fresher beans.
You may also not have enough water and thus are getting uneven cooking. Cooking time depends on the type of bean of course, but I would say, having pre-soaked the beans don’t take for granted a long cooking time. After 20 mins check the progress, is there still 2-3 inches of water above the beans (if not just add more) and are they getting cooked? Continue to check them, pick one out and blow across it, does the skin burst and peel back, if so you are getting close. Taste a few and see if they are chalky. When you pull one out, blow on it and if it splits open and the inside in tender and moist then they are done. Also, beans need salt but not when cooking. Just cook them in plain water, or sometimes for soup you cook them straight in the broth. Remember to keep them at a low simmer after the initial boil and to stir. Honestly I’m not quite clear about covering or not, so I usually keep a lid on partially.
Most of what I’ve learned about beans is from the following: Alice Waters the Art of Simple Food, Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, and Rick Bayless’ Mexican Kitchen (and my mom!).
Read what you will but let experience and good monitoring tell you what works. Good luck!
Soup is a fun and satisfying way to feed many mouths. I’ve been making soup at my house pretty frequently, and when my room mates and I have friends around it’s perfect b/c it’s easy to make more portions. If you aren’t strict about your recipe, are adventurous about spice ratios, you can feed a grateful dozen. The a potato leek soup from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone has been a hit (I’ve used turnips or celariac in place of some potatoes for extra flavor, and some shallots for sweetness).
Last night, Madeleine and I created a butternut squash-garbanzo-kale/tatsoi soup that reminds me of your second soup in these pictures. I would have used white beans had they been soaked, but we used a large can of chick peas in the interest of time. The base was vegan, with a fair amount of onions. Paprika, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, cumin, pepper…mellow flavor but certainly not boring.
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