Every other Thursday, we bring you Nicholas Day -- on cooking for children, and with children, and despite children. Also, occasionally, on top of.
Today: Nicholas finds a freezer-friendly (and child-friendly) soup, but he wants more.
Before we get to the soup course, and I’m warming it up now, I have a totally straight-faced question:
How did people feed their children before freezers? On nights when there was nothing remotely edible in the house, did the parents send the children outside to fill up on wild garlic and chickweed? How much chickweed did that require, exactly? And isn’t chickweed really hairy?
The freezer, along with those alarm clocks that change color when it is no longer the middle of the night, makes modern parenthood possible. But I have a problem: I never know what to freeze—that is, when I set out to make meals for the freezer, I go cold: I forget what I used to make, or wanted to make, or I refuse to make the same damn thing again. I am a self-contradictory bundle of desires: I want comfort and novelty.
You know how this story ends: we have nothing to eat and I send Isaiah outside to pick chickweed.
If you are not this way, I need your suggestions. If you are, I have my own to offer: a rich winter-weather soup, adapted from Zuppe. It has chickpeas, farro or barley, kale, pixie dust; it is wholesome but not prudish. It sounds, in other words, like something no child would ever eat. But mine did, in quantity.
The reason he did, I think, is my current chickpea cooking method, which is stolen from Melissa Clark: it involves a lot of salt and a lot of oil, some aromatics and a cheese rind, all added at the beginning. The bean broth is seriously salty and oily; the palate follows close behind, panting.
I know there are complicated debates about when salt and fat should be added to beans. (Before! After! Halfway! During the full moon!) But all the exegesis makes me dizzy. You know the duel in Raiders of the Lost Ark between Indiana Jones and the black-robed, sword-twirling villain, where Indiana wearily watches all the fancy swordwork—and then shoots him with a gun? That’s how it feels adding salt and fat at the beginning: unsporting, unfair, but undeniably effective.
This is a one-bowl dinner. (You do not need bread. Don’t get distracted.) Everything goes in the same bowl. Speaking of which, has anyone figured out why things mixed together on a plate can be deeply problematic, but things mixed together in a bowl pass without comment?
Don’t answer that. Right now, I need your help: freezer, meals, children, go.
Winter-Warming, Freezer-Friendly, Pantry-Cleaning Soup
Adapted from Zuppe by Mona Talbott (Little Bookroom, 2012)
Serves 6 to 8
1 pound chickpeas, dried
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
4 garlic cloves
2 onions, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 bunch kale, preferably Tuscan
3/4 cups pearl barley (or use a cup and a half and no farro)
3/4 cups farro (or use a cup and a half and no barley)
See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.
Photos by James Ransom
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36 Comments
Also, keep freezer bags and mark ; Chicken-Beef-Vegy-Fish. Save all the bones, skin, peels,etc. and when full, make that the basis for boullion. My other biggie is Herb-ox sodium free bouillion which I buy in bulk from Amazon.It is very yummy and salt free.[i know...chemicals...alas...it is not a perfect world] but i normally try to make my own boullion...
I also freeze enchiladas, 3 cup portions of cooked, shredded chicken and turkey (perfect portion for soup or to make more enchiladas or a quick pot pie). I freeze stock and also one cup portions of caramelized onions to make quick french onion soups. And I always have bread and butter in the freezer (although butter takes a while to thaw).
I usually have a couple of loafs of quick bread in the freezer too -- banana, blueberry, strawberry and zucchini are my go to's. Plus I always have overripe bananas and frozen berries in the freezer for making more. I often have raisin bran or some other muffin in there as well. And par baked scones and freezer biscuits to quickly bake off when needed. Oh, and leftover waffles to toast, plus pre-sliced bagels.
For soup, I find you can freeze italian meatball and pasta e fagioli, both MINUS the pasta. Cook the pasta separate when you're ready to serve. But I rarely have leftover soup in my house, we just eat it all week (keeping the cooked pasta separate then as well so it doesn't turn to mush). I've also had luck with lentil and pea soups in the freezer but haven't made those in a while because my three year old really prefers soup with lots of texture (it's easier to eat, I think).
And when my gets to smoking or I slow-cook a pork shoulder, I will keep shredded tinga or bbq pork in the freezer. It keeps really well and reheats quickly for tacos or pulled pork sandwiches.
Funny thing is, now that I've typed this out, I realize I have lots of things I keep in the freezer, but I'm tired of all my "stand by" meals too. I'll be scouring the comments for new ideas...
4 Cups of Campbell's tomato Juice, heat in a large saucepan.
1 can of Milnot and half a stick of butter, warm in a small pan.
When juice is really hot, add 1 tsp of baking soda (Be prepared to lift pan off the heat if tomatoes are really acidic this will foam really high) Stir until juice settles down. Add the Milnot to the juice and stir. Serve with soda crackers, goldfish,or oyster crackers.
As for how to use the freezer? I find it easier to freeze small servings (less than a quart) of soup in flat bags, or freezing things like bread dough, pie crust, chopped veggies, cooked beans, and pre-cut meat to help speed along dinner when you really don't want to eat leftovers.
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