Matthias Multi-Textural Soup

I’m not much of a recipe man. I favor improvisation, and a good eight and half times out of ten it work out swimmingly. I love eating and drinking new things or talking with people about what they are eating or cooking. I love terms like “mouth feel,” “minerality,” and  “tannins.”

As a child, my brothers and I loved comic books, and collecting cards of any kind. Comic book cards were a perfect intersection of those two worlds. I remember on the back of the card for Daredevil—a super hero who’d lost his vision—there was piece of trivia about how his heightened senses gave him the ability to detect ingredients in any dish.  I always thought that was a cool ability, and have tried to pay close attention and make my best guess at identifying spices, accents, and characteristics. I’m not ready to fight crime with my ability to profile by taste, but it’s enough to give me some culinary competence.

In addition to the fictional superhero, I’ve had a few kitchen heroes in my life, who’s sense of play and artistry is what I try to capture when I try to shake something up in the kitchen.

Currently, in our house, we’re on a food elimination project to get some stomach issues solved. It’s less restrictive than other cleanses and fasts we’ve done in the past, but there are a number of staple food that are out, and a lot of gritty powdery shakes that are in. Without imagination, it can make eating a pretty boring task.

But restriction can also be parameters within which there can be plenty of creativity! Think haiku. What’s more restrictive that 5-7-5? But there’s plenty to do in 17 syllables! Today’s creative solution was textures.

Here’s my best attempt at my improvisational recipe for Matthias Multi-Textural Soup. It’s a multi-tasker’s fantasy!

Ingredients (Nothing measured. Everything is Approximate.)

• 1 gallon veggie stock (We made this a few weeks ago and froze it.)
• broccoli & cauliflower (fresh or frozen)
•  1 can northern beans (or fresh if you’ve got them)
• 2 baby bokchoy
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1/2 large red onion
• 5 smaller carrots
• 2 cups shredded cabbage
• 3 green onions
• coconut oil
• dark toasted sesame oil
• crushed garlic (fresh or trader joes)
• cayenne pepper
• salt
• 2 bay leaves
• fresh ground pepper
• coconut aminos (tastes like soy sauce)
• Ghee (Clarified butter)
• olive/avocado oil

The idea of this dish is to have many different flavors and textures that all join together at the end. It’s heavily influenced by the many bowls of soup I’ve enjoyed in various asian restaurants and homes.

All of the parts are happening simultaneously, so stay vigilant dear cook!

Pan 1. Blasted Broccoli and Cauliflower

1. Preheat the oven to 400º
2. Combine broccoli, cauliflower, olive oil, garlic, salt, and  a few gentle shakes of cayenne.
3. Place on baking sheet, and into the oven it goes.

Pan 2. The Base

1. In a large stock pot, start with your stock.
2. Add bay leaves, and the northern beans.
3. keep on medium heat.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pan 3. The Carrots

1. Dice carrots into small wheels.
2. In a small sauce pan, cover carrots with some stock borrowed from The Base.
3. Add a generous pour of the dark sesame oil and a few table spoons of coconut aminos.

The idea is to soften the carrots and imbue  with their own strong flavor, independent of The Base.

Pan 4. The Sweet Potatoes

1. In a large frying pan (I like cast iron) melt enough coconut oil to deep fry.
2. Use a mandolin, the planing side of a grating tower, or a knife to cut the sweet potatoes into the thinest chips possible.
3. In small batches, fry the chip.
4. Drain chips on paper towel, and set aside.

This is a long process and you’ll want to get this started very early in the project.

Pan 5. The Caramelized Onions

1. Dice red onion into large rough chunks.
2. On medium heat, melt a few tablespoons of ghee into a frying pan.
3. Add onions, taking care to get them translucent, but not burned.

Bringing It All Together

1. In the stock pot, add cabbage and bokchoy.
2. A few moments later, add the carrots and any stock left in that pan.
3. A few moments later, add the caramelized onions.
4. Add the blasted broccoli and cauliflower.
5. Stir until fully combined.
6. Ladle into soup bowls.
7. Place a few sweet potato chips on top of soup.
8. Sprinkle a few few fresh chopped green onions on top.
9. Enjoy like you’re Matt Murdock, the man without fear.

{ Cooking,  Daredevil,  food elimination,  Haiku,  Improvisation,  multitasking,  recipe,  Soup,  Sweet potato,  texture,  vegetarian }