Soup, spoons & nothing more

~Leslie Newman

I am sure that there are things better than a bowl of homemade soup, but at this time I am hard pressed to figure out what they are.

I love soup. They speak to me of comfort & caring. You cannot really “throw together” any of them. You have to think about how each of the flavors will marry to the other, what dance will they do in the pot, how will they smell in the bowl.

The combinations, and results are endless. You can make a soup out of anything. Really, I know. Soup is the friend of anyone on a budget, or anyone that hates waste. I learned from my Mother that soup could deify a badly cooked chicken, and not everything needed to be told about how the meal evolved. Sometimes mistakes make the best meals.

So, we begin: #Souperbowl. What began as funny conversation on twitter has evolved into what will surely be a fun everybody wins challenge for as many cooks that want to join. For those that don’t know, there is a National Soup Swap day every year, you can read about the one the darling daughter (AKA Former Chef)  hosted  last year here. We will be doing another this year.

~Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

#SouperBowl 2011-2012 will work something like this : starting with this post, and then every other Wednesday someone will post the cultural pick and the 3 special ingredients to be used, and 1 week later (the following Wednesday) you can post ( if you want) & compare recipes and notes. The rules are simple–and few:

1. The soup has to be based in the ethno-cultural background picked
2. You must use the 3 extra ingredients that were chosen for that week in the soup.

I have made a list of ingredients, but please feel free to email me and I will add anything you like.

almonds, anchovies, apples, apricots, asparagus, balsamic vinegar, basil, beans, beer, beetroot, beef,berries, bloodoranges, brandy, bread, broccolini, brown sugar, butter milk, cabbage, candied orange peel,capers, carrots, cashew nuts, cheese, cherries, chicken, chickpeas, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves,corn, cornmeal, couscous, cranberries, cream, currants,dark chocolate, dried dates, tomatoes, duck, eggplant, eggs, fennel, figs, fish, fresh chillies, garlic, ginger, gooseberries, grapes, bell pepper, green tea, green tomatoes, honey, horseradish, leeks, lemon, lentils, lettuce, lime, mangoes, milk, mint, mushrooms, nectarines, olives, oysters, parmesan cheese, passionfruit, pasta, peaches, pine nuts, pineapple, plums, pork, prawns, pumpkin, quail, queso fresco, raisins, Ricotta, rocket, rosemary, Rutabaga, saffron, salami, salsicce, shrimp, spring onions, squash, strawberries, sweet potato, tofu, tuna, wasabi, yogurt,vanilla

So the first #SouperBowl Challenge : You can see how I chose the ingredients below.  My method was studiously low tech.  Printed out the list, cut it up and throw it into a box. I let the cat choose, ( he kicked them all around for a while as cats do). The results are the ones that flew out of the box. The soup is a bowl of turkey, mashed potato dumpling soup I made for dinner.

Your mission is simple:

Culture: Italian, of course!

Special Ingredients: Beans, eggplant,  orange peel

Post & share your results on December 7, 2011.

Next challenge will be out on December 14, 2011   Links to everyone’s elses recipes will be posted.

Bring a bowl & a spoon!