Soup's On in The Big Easy!

Not because it's September, and not because it rained two times today, but because I needed to, there's gonna be soup in the house. In fact, I've been thinking about it for days. True, you can make a soup out of just about anything, but a really exquisite soup requires: a good stock (canned okay with me if no MSG or preservatives. I prefer a carton of organic stock, if I can find it), wine (don't skimp on it), and a roux.

Who knew what kind of soup I was going to make until I was in the store and saw what veggies were to be had. I settled on collard greens, parsley, a yellow onion, garlic, and carrots, knowing I would use canned tomatoes. On hand in the fridge was an aging zucchini, which I had to peel to use, but I'm too poor to throw it out. I also purchased some ground turkey and used about a third of the package for this soup, freezing the rest.

So--here's what I came up with--Collard Green and Meatball Soup. Trust me. Gonna love it.

Other ingredients herein I had in the pantry.

In a sauce pot, with water bring to boil a coupla hands each of dried garbanzos and some wonderful dried shitaki mushrooms, along with three cloves of garlic and a bay leaf. Cook them until the beans were tender, adding water as necessary. Make sure you have some fluid left in the pot once the beans are done--about a cup or so will work.

Into that add two cans of chicken broth and a can of diced tomatoes.

Now here's the important part for a good soup. In a saute pan, began a roux. Even though I love pie and I make my crusts with butter, I never cook with butter. Olive oil is my "lipid of choice" as Mario Batali would say. So, once the pan is hot, add olive oil to cover the bottom nicely and sprankle in about a quarter cup of flour (we Texans never "sprinkle"--we "sprankle"). Today I stirred and scraped my roux with a wooden spoon and cooked it until the smoke alarm went off. We can be quite challenged in a tiny kitchen, but our work can be accomplished. I would have preferred to let it cook ten minutes, but God gave me eight, and I ran with it. The roux should look nice and brown; and if you could taste it without frying off your tongue, it would taste nutty.

Into the broth goes the roux. Ya need a roux to give your soup body and dimension. I cannot begin to describe how much more complex and wonderful your soups will become if you take on the challenge of a roux. Less than ten minutes, folks, to make legendary soup.

Now for the wine. Use what you have on hand. About four cups worth. I'm a little poor lately, so I added a coupla a cups of chardonnay, a cup of cabernet sauvignon, and maybe another cup of a zinfandel. The dredges...hahaha. But it works because it is a tomato-mushroom based soup, so it won't turn purple or distress your artistic sensibilities (all cooks are artists).

About now is the time to taste your broth and season appropriately. Canned broths have salt in them unless they expressly say otherwise, so tasting first is important. Grind in some black pepper. Then throw into the pot:

1 carrot, sliced,

1/2 jalapeno minced finely (leaving out half the seeds--or not!!)

4 more cloves minced garlic

1 sliced zucchini

Let it cook just barely at a boil.

Put your cleaned saute pan back to the heat, added olive oil and throw in half a chopped yellow onion and let that sweat till they're opaque.

Now for the meatballs: Chop a small handful of parsley and add it to the ground turkey in a bowl along with salt and pepper. Roll them into tiny meatballs and drop them into the skillet to be browned. Once done, into the soup pot it goes, along with about half the bunch of collard greens, chopped thinly (make sure to give several cross cuts, as the strands can become long and difficult to manage on spoon at the dinner table). For flavor, I gave it some wonderful dried thyme my friend, Diane, provided, but if you have fresh, go for it.

Lastly, it seemed right to me to add a handful and a half of cracked wheat. I wanted the soup to be hearty, because it was all I could afford to serve tonight.

Taste, season as necessary. Then, call the peasants to dinner! The flavors of the wine, roux, mushrooms, and garlic roll delightfully over the tongue. You will each require a second bowl. We sure did!