Hey-o!
Since we’re all in relative quarantine, physical distancing, whatever you may want to call it, it’s more important than ever to ensure we’re not wasting food. It sounds silly, but there are people like my aunt who are exposing themselves every day to keep grocery stores and places like Costco running so that we can continue purchasing food and other essential goods. I see wasting the food that truckers continue trucking to bring us, grocery workers continue working to stock for us, as disrespectful in these times. So now, more than ever, we’re making sure we’re using up all of our food scraps.
This soup is a simple one- take that partial onion out from your fridge, grab the leafy bits of your wilting celery, the cut carrot sticks that are on their last legs and toss them in a pot. Seriously. This is “Everything and the Kitchen Sink” soup. If you want to make it exactly like we did, though, the recipe is below. My mum puts frozen spinach in everything- it was a trick to get extra nutrition in my Papa, she told him it was parsley, which is hilarious in retrospect. He was old, he didn’t know any different, and it was good for him.
Tortellini Soup
1/2 an onion, rough chop
1/2 a shallot, rough chop
1 clove garlic, minced
1 extra large carrot, 2-3 if they’re normal size
2 large celery ribs, and the celery core with all of the leafy bits, chopped
1/2 a fennel bulb, rough chop
Four boxes of no salt added chicken stock (or a batch of home made chicken stock)
1 package of cheese tortellini
Herbs and spices: thyme, poultry seasoning, ground fennel seeds, celery seeds, chili flakes and pepper
Ok, it’s pretty simple. Chop up all of your veggies and put them in a pot with all of your herbs and spices. Cover it with the chicken stock and bring it to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. There’s no need to sauté or sweat out your veggies unless you’re in a rush. The time it will take to cook your veggies will depend on how big you cut them, so just check your veggies by tasting them every now and again to see if they’re done.
When your veggies are done, dump in your tortellini carefully- CAREFULLY. I have made the mistake of dumping hard and getting tiny splatter burns because I’m hungry. Don’t be dumb like me. Stir them around in the simmering broth and veg for as long as the package instructions. I buy whatever tortellini is on clearout at the store and throw it in the freezer so I always have some.
Once the tortellini are cooked, you add in your two spinach pellets. We always keep these frozen on hand- it’s equivalent to about 2 cups of chopped spinach if you have some fresh you need to use up.
And there you are! Once the spinach pellets melt, you are good to turn off the heat and dish up. Enjoy!
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