Getting together for longer life

A delicious vegetable soup is not far away from you
And now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for – a picture:

There are few things that I oppose more than waste. I find it upsetting in nearly every fiber of my being – my utopia would be one in which everything was recycled completely. In this kitchen, this presents the particular problem – the waste of food. Unfortunately, like everything good in life, food is a subject to the whims of time and most foods only have a limited window during which they are tasty and delicious. Thus, if neglected or stored improperly, what may have been consumed once must instead go directly to a trash can or compost heap. We have all experienced the tragedy of a loaf of bread is left to mold, a tomato that has rotted or that stench, chunky carton of milk that somehow was forgotten in the refrigerator.

Thus, right now one of my primary challenges (when not struggling to write chemistry lab reports or wake up for class on time), is merely trying to prevent anything in the kitchen go to waste. Of course, this is far from a new goal as humans have been coming up with all sorts of ways (想方设法) to prolong the viability of food for thousands of years and I am but one the long line of humans to face this challenge. However, my partner and I are faced with this challenge in particular due to our ownership of a community farmshare that provides us with a bagful of fresh vegetables every Wednesday.

This bag of beautiful, locally grown veggies is our blessing and our burden. They are among the best that local, loving farmers can offer any happy consumer. Yet their shelf life may be relatively short – or at least their prime. And what’s more, at this point they will be inevitably followed within a week’s time by yet another batch.

So the dilemma, then, is what to do to allow all of these beautiful vegetables to have their moments to shine, allowing their individual flavors burst in one’s mouth?

Soup is always an answer. It is good at disguising components that are a little past their prime, yet giving a new life and taste to all. United together, everything gets better. Tonight, then I am going to write about soup. I don’t really have a recipe, as it basically entails whatever is looking a little bit sorry on the back of the fridge shelf. It’s open to innovations, and isn’t too much effort, especially if there are some spices around to throw in at the end.

Ingredients:
Soup stock or bullion are helpful in easing into deliciousness (however, water and spices later on can make up for a lack of these)
Vegetables - good candidates are always tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, onions – all chopped into small pieces (nothing bigger than an inch cubed)
A little bit of oil
Spices or garlic
Anything else

From watching my mother in the kitchen, I’ve adopted the practice that for every soup or sauce I begin with the sautéing of onions in a little bit of oil. Thus, I warm a little bit of oil in the bottom of the pot and sautéed the chopped onions, (and the garlic, if I’m going to add any) until they are soft and cooked. Then, add the soup stock or water and let it heat to a boil. It should be at least about equivalent to the mass of the chopped vegetables you have assembled on your cutting board, probably a little bit more. Start adding the veggies. The trick is, of course, to let everything cook, but not into an unrecognizable mush. To prevent this, start with the tougher characters, such as carrots and potatoes. About 5 to 10 minutes later, it’s probably about time to add vegetables that take medium amounts of time to cook: squash, tomatoes.

The hard work of the soup is done once the vegetables have been chopped and added to the pot. Now it all depends on gauging when they are cooked and then throwing in a little bit of spices at the end. For the soup that’s pictured, I actually tossed in some bok choy near the end of the cooking (obviously it doesn’t take much time to soften in a pot of boiling water) as well as mix in some minced turkey meat that had been previously cooked and frozen (not by me – shhhh). I would say the dominant players in this rendition of a basic veggie soup turned out to be: tomatoes, squash and turkey. For spices, I threw in a lot of parsley and it worked out quite well.