A Souper Breakfast
I enjoy baking and cooking in general, but two of my favorite things to make are pies (Pie are Round, July 30, 2020) and pots of soup. I have my favorite soup recipes that are in my regular rotation, but I also love just throwing whatever I feel like into a big pot and letting it evolve over a few days - adding last nights leftovers and odds and ends that need to be used up from the refrigerator. Those are often the best ones, getting better with each successive day, yet tantalizingly unrepeatable.
In 2005 I rendezvoused with an old college friend in Vietnam for a rather spontaneous couple weeks of serendipitous adventures that may end up in a future blog. But we stayed the first few days in a fairly nice hotel in Hanoi exploring the city and surrounding areas. Included in our stay was a very impressive breakfast buffet with everything you could possibly want. But what drew me in every morning was the soup stand.
A man wearing a white coat and tall chef’s hat stood behind a table that was about six feet long. A dozen or so bowls were filled with various ingredients that you could point to and have dropped into another bowl. At the end of the table was a huge stockpot filled with chicken broth. After choosing the vegetables and other items that you wanted, the chef picked up a big ladle and filled your bowl to the top with the broth.
There was something incredibly nurturing about eating that bowl of soup and picking it up and draining it of the last drops of the broth. I remember thinking that if you had a bowl of soup like that every morning you would never get sick.
In the course of the next few years I taught twice in Portland, Oregon and stayed both times with a lovely woman named Rebecca. Every morning she fixed each of us a bowl of miso soup with some sliced greens, and it reminded me how nice it was to have soup for breakfast.
My sister Patty, who lives in Denver, has made a number of trips to Italy, and when I visit her she often makes Stracciatella in the morning, an Italian spin on egg drop soup. Her friend Sarah, an escapee from the holocaust who passed on last year at the age of 99, regularly gave her containers of homemade chicken stock that became the base for Patty’s morning soup. Needless to say, that soup was extra special and extra healthy with stock made from scratch.
Over time these various experiences have merged together for me and evolved into my own version of breakfast soup that incorporates some aspects from each. Now that it is winter again, I find myself having smoothies less frequently and making this soup several mornings a week. I’m sure that it’s never exactly the same twice because I don’t measure anything and it also depends on what’s in the house. But here is my basic approximate recipe that is enough for two bowls, and to which anything can be added -
Start by heating up a couple cups of chicken broth.
Slice up a few mushrooms and a green onion or two. Throw them into the chicken stock and continue heating to a gentle simmer.
Stir in a heaping spoonful of coconut oil and a few splashes of tamari or soy sauce.
Sprinkle on a few good shakes of ground nutmeg.
Stir up a couple eggs with a fork and then stir that into the soup.
Bring the temperature down to just barely a simmer.
Throw in a handful or two of fresh or frozen peas, and also a handful or two of spinach or other greens.
Stir in a heaping handful of grated parmesan or other Italian cheese and stir until it is melted.
Ladle into bowls or mugs and enjoy!
Tofu makes a good addition, as does just about any vegetable. This could easily be made into a vegetarian or even a vegan version. It only takes about ten minutes to make, and feels fun and creative in the process.
Of course, this is just as good at any other time of day. But something about having it first thing in the morning, especially when it’s cold outside feels incredibly nurturing. And it makes you feel that no matter what else happens that day you’ve gotten it off to a good healthy start.