When we are sick our old go-to is called Sick Soup. It's a basic vegetable broth with celery, carrots, and rice. Usually lots of rice, so that it's almost a porridge, congee, or jook. It's easy on the tummy, doesn't irritate mucus membranes, and can sit on the stove all day. You can add potatoes, too, unless rice and potatoes doesn't seem kosher to you.
Well, Malucho has been on fire in the cooking department lately. Black bean chile, Lentil soup with portabella mushrooms. Black bean and sweet potato burritos.
We've both been "coming down with something" for a week now, and today it is full-fledged, with coughing, sniffling, wheezing, fatigue, and dehydration. No fever, though, which seems weird.
So I was thinking a batch of sick soup was in order. Now mind you, it was a beautiful day in Oakland today. And Malucho is a pretty active little guy who hates to be sick. So sie kept escaping to the back yard, where I would find hir raking the soil under the chicken tractor or weeding something.
When sie started thinking about tonight's dinner, sie did a little prep work so that the broth would be nice and rich. onions, carrots, celery, garlic, as usual. Fresh zapotec tomatoes from the garden. vegetable broth. Oregano from the herb spiral.
So I was thinking, it's going to have more color than our usual sick soup, but sie's just gonna throw in two cups of rice and that'll be it.
Well, that is not what happened. What happened was that Malucho reaped some of the bounty of November garden in northern Calfornia. Squash blossoms. Verdolagas. A blender was employed. Tortilla strips were fried. Another ziplock bag was taken from the stash of New Mexican green chile (2009).
Aside: this green chile has been been appearing in quite a few meals, lately. Usually never enough to make the dish picoso, but it adds a lot of character to different dishes.
The final soup was beautifully golden, as if it were mostly butternut or carrot, and richly flavored. I can only imagine the wonderful nutrients it brings to our tired bodies. It was flavorful, delightful, heady stuff. I am truly blessed. I think the tortilla strips, place it in the Sopa Azteca category. I'm calling it Bronze Warrior Soup. It was garnished with sliced avocado.
I can't show you a picture because we ate it all, every last drop. Used a rubber spatula to scrape the pot clean.
