Midnight Snack Soup

AKA Sub-Dollar Soup

AKA No-Chicken No-Noodle Soup

 

Or, according to Logan, "The Carroty Kid"

Both timing and celebratory family dining interrupted regularly scheduled cooking for this evening, but I’m no quitter. Around 10pm I started looking for an alternate plan that would be light and utilize non-essential items in my fridge. Et voila: what I believe to be the simplest soup with the fewest ingredients ever to grace this fair blog.  

But before you accuse me of phoning it in, a few observations:

A: It takes a full hour to make, when there are plenty of 5 minute soups out there.

B: I happened upon this recipe while hunting for a cream of celery situation, and knew immediately it was all I wanted.

C: It’s an Alice Waters recipe, and I personally would not so debonairly lob accusations at the formidable Ms. Waters.

Plus, for me “phoning it in” would mean “ordering take-out because the soup was THAT bad.”

Digression alert:

Last January Logan and I got sick with the Flu Who Must Not Be Named. It was the grossest thing. Neither of us could eat for days, in what is as far as I can remember the only time in my entire life I’ve not been hungry. When we could finally, cautiously, start eating things again, all we ate was vegetable broth with a bit of carrots and celery, and maybe a smattering of pasta. Nothing has ever tasted better, and that’s not an exaggeration.

Translation: This soup reminded me of being the sickest I’ve ever been. In a good way. In a good way! Sans chicken or noodles, this has that classic chicken noodle soup restorative property, where you feel your body being healed with every bite.

The butter here is key. There’s not that much of it, but it makes yr mouth feel reeeeal good. (I wanted to say something about “mouth feel” and this is the sophisticated sentence that came out.)

Oh, and the onions get so magically sweet and melty, which you are able to really notice and appreciate because – let’s face it – there’s not much going on here.

And don’t forget the carrots. SO many carrots. You’re basically Scrooge McDucking your way through a glistening pile of carrot coins, and that is one happy-making activity.

Back to Sub-Dollar soup: I used one pound minus one carrot for this, and that pound was $0.39. Add in the onion, which was from a $2 bag of onions, so that’s about $0.20. Half a sprig of thyme? Let’s go with a nickel. You get the picture: By the time you add in metabolism your body pays you to eat this. It’s called science economics common sense, people.

I defensively pointed out above that this takes an hour to make, and that’s true but a bit misleading. It’s a super lazy hour. There’s maybe five minutes of prep here, then just set a timer for 10 minutes, dump some stuff in, another 10 minutes, another dump, and then 30 minutes. Catch up on a few episodes of Parks and Recreation and boom: soup is done. Heck, make it while wearing pajamjams! I certainly did.

You seem skeptical that this could be that satisfying. Are you really telling me you’ve never eaten half a pound of carrots right before bed? Okay, I haven’t either. But with a big ol’ bowl of soup (half the batch) clocking in at about 200 calories, this is one midnight snack that will soothe your emo-eating needs on a down-to-your-soul level, and you won’t have to curse yourself while attempting to zip up your jeans in the a.m.

In summation: I’m but a simple woman with simple needs, and this simple soup simply made me smile. 

Midnight Snack Carrot Soup

Serves two, generously

Barely adapted from Alice Waters' Carrot Soup, via Serious Eats

GET THIS STUFF

a generous tablespoon of unsalted butter

leaves from half a sprig of thyme

1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced 1/4" thick

a scant pound of carrots, peeled and thinly sliced

2 cups vegetable broth

a bit of Italian parsley

DO THIS WITH IT

Melt butter in a small pot over medium-low heat. Add onion and thyme, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Onion should be soft but not browning.

Add sliced carrot and a big pinch of salt, then stir, cover, and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add vegetable broth and increase heat to bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. While simmering, I added another 1/3 cup or so of water to make sure the vegetables remained just covered by the liquid.

Divide among bowls and serve topped with a pinch of chopped parsley.