Fall Food: Kitchen Sink Soup

Brian Lehrer (0:10)

Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and to close out the show each day, joining this pledge drive, we're going to talk about full food with the video host and cookbook author Carla Lalli. Her latest book is Food is a Feeling, and it's part cookbook, part memoir, where she writes about how cooking helped her get through her divorce. So for the first installment, we're getting the rundown for how to make a kitchen sink soup. By that, I mean the kind of dinner that we probably all made, that you can throw together with whatever leftover produce and pantry items you have lying around your house, apartment.

She's going to be our guide for turning a task you might be avoiding into a low effort, high reward project that you're actually excited to eat, especially as the temperatures drop and you're craving a big bowl of something warm. Of course, with an emphasis on using some of the best fall produce, because that's our theme. Hi Carla, welcome back to WNYC.

Carla Lalli (1:06)

Thanks for having me.

Brian Lehrer (1:07)

So are there certain kinds of leftover produce that you generally most find yourself stuck with at this time of year?

Carla Lalli (1:15)

Yeah, I think that this time of year is actually so spectacular because it's shoulder season. So in addition to all of the fall veg and the squashes and the roots coming in, there's also an abundance of really beautiful greens.

So I usually find myself with lots of kale, definitely cabbage, and some kind of roots hanging out on the counter.

Brian Lehrer (1:42)

The idea of kitchen sink soup, pretty malleable thing. It can be lentil based and loaded with veggies. Maybe it's more of a chili-esque or maybe some of our listeners are imagining even more in the vein of a chicken noodle soup. So if you're doing a fridge clean out meal, what's your personal default formula for a kitchen sink soup?

Carla Lalli (2:02)

For me, every soup has to start with a soffritto. And every cuisine culture around the world has a version of this. So it could be the Holy Trinity down south, or just simple onion and garlic and maybe some fennel if you have Italian roots. So you just want to chop up your alliums, some garlic. Really get that going with olive oil. And I really think this is the secret to making any soup super flavorful.

So once you have your soffritto kind of cooked down and really melting, that's when you can add some spices. So it could be salt and pepper, or you could throw some fennel seed, maybe some turmeric, maybe a little bit of cumin, some paprika. Like build that base because you don't even need to use stock. This is going to give so much flavor. So from there, whether you're using leafy green, or maybe you have some cut up squash, or maybe you want to throw your lentils in at this point, anything will work and you could combine them even.

And season those with salt, let them sweat out a little bit, and then just cover with water. I hardly ever use stock in my soups at home because I feel like the sofrito gives so much flavor. And then just simmer. So if you wanted to add something to make it thicker, some people don't, it'll be sort of brothy at that point, you could add rice and then puree a portion of that once the rice is cooked and pour it back in. And that'll give it some creaminess. That same trick works with beans. You can even do that with some torn up pieces of stale bread.

Brian Lehrer (3:43)

Are there favorites of yours for full produce items to buy? Because you know they will keep for a long time and maybe contribute at some point to a kitchen sink soup?

Carla Lalli (3:54)

Yeah, I think one of the secrets to that is how you prep your veg when you get it home. So I'm a sucker for all of the beautiful greens, the Red Russian kale, the Swiss chard, like all of the different types of escarole. So I always end up with too much. And what I like to do is when I get them home, I trim them. I take any rubber bands that might be holding the stems together. I take those off because those can trap moisture. And then kind of just fluff them up into a regular plastic veggie bag and put them away.

And so one of my favorite soups I was just looking at before we got on the air combines kale, sausage, ground sausage. You could use ground pork or just take the sausage out of the casing and lentils. And you just simmer it all, simmer it all together until your greens are silky, lentils are cooked, and the sausage is tender. And it's like that with a piece of buttered bread is just, I need to make it tonight, I think.