Saturday Soup & Lethargy

Tune of the Moment: Anita O'Day sings "Love Me Or Leave Me" from the album "Anita Sings the Most".


Which leads me to add this clip-it's Anita singing at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958, taken from the documentary "Jazz on a Summer's Day". Bizarrely enough, I first saw this in Oslo, Norway when visiting a saxophone-playing friend of mine. I sat in on one of his classes at the conservatory and they played this documentary. It was love at first note and Anita has become a staple of my jazz vocal library. I should add the song she sings is the namesake of this blog.

It was just one of those days. I woke up, had two pieces of toast-one topped with mushed up avocado and home-roasted red peppers, and the other smothered in Holland & Barrett's all-natural apricot and apple spread and Brad's Organic's no-sugar peanut butter. I then proceeded to climb back into bed, cuddle with my Kindle, and fall asleep again.


I don't quite know why I'm so lethargic-too many blocks of Trader Joe's 70% dark chocolate, perhaps-but instead of identifying the cause and fighting my current state, I've decided to go with the flow and allow myself to waltz around, pyjama-clad and slightly dazed. 


However, this dilly-dallying cannot go on for the entire day because I have two girlfriends, A and N, coming over for dinner. Somehow I have managed to get a pot of Moroccan Chickpea Soup on the hob, and tidying up my abode will happen slowly but surely. A is a vegetarian, which is a common occurrence, especially in NYC. I dabbled in veganism for a week and still managed to consume butter (made from olive oil), ice cream (made from coconut milk) and milk (take your pick: soy, almond, hemp, oat, rice...). It's an easy existence when you're in a city/country that dabbles in substitutions (tofurkey, cashew cheese, etc).  So A's veg-state is easy to accommodate, especially since, per chance, I've been a vegetarian for the past week (it just happened, I promise!). My go-to dish for these wintery, relaxed suppers/dinners is my mother's Moroccan Chickpea Soup.

The recipe is easily tweaked to your liking. I add Trader Joe's already-cooked lentils (they're delicious and not at all like the unappetizing, brown mulchy lentils that come in tins/cans. These are al dente, and simply need to be rinsed and broken up in a sieve.) I also added the leftover lima beans in my fridge-any legumes work and this soup is loaded with protein, fiber and flavour so it ticks all the boxes. Mum is not mad about celery but I always seem to have some nestled deep in the fridge so I throw it in with the onions.

The great thing about soup in general is that while it's simmering and the flavours are intensifying, you can multitask and cook something else. In my case, it was lunch-penne pasta with browned, buttery mushrooms and melted cheddar. I'd actually just watched a bit of "Julie & Julia" (for the 12th time or so) and one of Julia Child's lessons is that one should never "crowd" mushrooms. The other wisdom credited to her is that a dish can never have too much butter. So, since I did "crowd" the mushrooms (I have terrible spatial awareness), I added an extra knob of butter to balance everything out-and it was delicious. I'll leave you with the soup recipe while I settle down to lunch and hulu.com.

Mum's Moroccan Chickpea Soup

1 tablesp olive oil

1 medium onion chopped

(2 sticks celery chopped, optional)

2 teasp ground cumin

1 teasp ground coriander

600ml hot vegetable or chicken stock (can make with cube)

400g can chopped plum tomatoes with garlic

400g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

100g frozen broad beans/ or tinned lentils, drained, or I cook a cup of dried lentils ‘til al dente and drain – prefer the consistency to tinned lentils, much nuttier

Zest and juice of ½ lemon (optional)

Large handful fresh coriander or parsley and flatbread to serve

Soften the veg: Heat the oil in large saucepan, then fry onion and celery gently for 10 minutes until softened, stirring frequently. Tip in cumin and coriander and fry for another min.

Add the flavours: Turn up the heat, then add the stock, tomatoes chickpeas and lentils, plus a good grind of black pepper. Simmer for 8 minutes. If using throw in broad beans, and lemon juice and cook for a further 2 minutes. Season to taste and top with a sprinkling of lemon zest and chopped herbs. Serve with flatbread)

(Basically you can throw any tinned pulses and/or beans into this. The most important ingredient which makes the soup is the ground cumin! I often make this soup within 20 minutes – a meal in itself. I use tinned chickpeas, dried lentils, leave out the beans, and serve with grated gruyere cheese on top. Heat of soup melts the cheese.)

P.S. Sister K said my photograph of green tea (see previous post) looked like a mug of miso soup....she may have been right but what could be more delish than a hot mug of miso?! Crit taken. And I promise to aspire to bring you photographs that look like they came straight out of the pages of Donna Hay cooking magazines.