I love you Mark Bittman Peanut Ginger Soup (with chickpeas)
An argument could be made that Mark Bittman taught me how to cook.
First there's his cookbook How to Cook Everything, which doesn't just have recipes in it, it has methods in it. For like, normal stuff -- the first thing I learnt to cook using this book was French toast. "Who would need a recipe for making French toast?" you might say, and the answer would be me. ME. I didn't know how to do it, Mark Bittman taught me how to do it, and everyone was a little bit happier because of it.
Then there was his Youtube series "The Minimalist." In it, he taught me how to make really fancy-tasting meals without fancy ingredients or methods that could go awry in the blink of an eye, and that played a large part in my confidence in my cooking skills increasing and my knowledge of cooking methods and flavor pairings increasing. I was sad when he retired until I found out that he was retiring to work in his garden, grill out, and play with his grandkids full-time. Then I was really happy for him, and I hope he's enjoying his retirement. Genuinely I do.
So this recipe is inspired by his West African Peanut Soup with Chicken, like heavily inspired, but changed up because I don't eat meat anymore (still not entirely sure how that happened), and the reasons I love it, and I think you will love it are:
1. It's DELICIOUS.
2. It's extremely good for you.
3. The ingredients can be purchased well in advance and stored for like ... a month, at least.
4. It's somehow vegan and gluten free, in case you need either or both of those in a meal.
5. It's really fast to make -- 10 minutes' prep, 20 minutes' cooking, BOOM.
6. Did I mention that it's delicious.
I got home tonight from a Monday that felt like a full week in and of itself and didn't have anything ready for dinner. The fact that I had everything on-hand to make this was such a blessing, I can't even put it into words, and that I had it cooked up and ready in half an hour was just so awesome. That said, we ate it, then passed out on the bed from 9pm to 3am, and now it's 3:45 am and I'm up posting this recipe to a blog no one reads, so my life choices are in need of some serious reflection.
Whatever.
A quick note about fresh ginger and fresh garlic:
FREEZE THEM. For the garlic, peel them, toss them into a container with a drizzle of olive oil, lid the container, and shake until the garlic is all coated in oil. Then put them in the freezer. When you're ready for them, they'll separate nicely because of the oil, and they cook up no differently from fresh not frozen garlic.
For the ginger, cut it into 2-3" pieces and freeze it just as-is. When you're ready for it, take out however much you need (I almost always need about 2-3" of it, so that's why I cut it into those pieces), microwave the piece for 10-15 seconds, and boom! Not only will it cut up nicely and mince/shred/grate nicely, it'll peel like a week-old sunburn. You're welcome for that disgusting mental image.
So yeah, you can totally have all this stuff on-hand for nights where you don't want to cook but you want to eat and eating healthy is a thing you want to do but don't want to think about and CERTAINLY don't want your mouth to know you're doing.
I'm going back to sleep now. Goodnight!
Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, coarse-chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 1/2 to 3ish inches ginger, grated
30ish oz chickpeas, drained
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper (I am totally guessing on that amount)
2-4 shakes cayenne pepper, depending on how fiery you like your food
1 really big sweet potato, scrubbed and cut into bite-size pieces
28 oz diced tomatoes, with juice
3 cups frozen spinach
6 cups vegetable broth (6 cups water + 2 Tbsp veggie bouillon)
1/2 cup unsalted natural peanut butter
1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts, unsalted
Instructions
- In a large soup-pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat.
- Coarse-chop your onion and put it into the pot, tossing it a little to coat it in oil.
- Mince the garlic and add it to the pot.
- Grate the ginger and add it to the pot.
- Drain the chickpeas and add them to the mess.
- Add the salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper and toss everything around.
- Let that cook, stirring occasionally, while you scrub and cut up your sweet potato.
- Add that to the mix and stir it around a little.
- Add the tomatoes, with their juices, and stir.
- Add the frozen spinach and -- you guessed it -- stir.
- Add the veggie broth.
- Bring that mess to a boil and boil it for 15 to 20 minutes, however long it takes your sweet potatoes to go soft.
- Remove from heat and add the peanut butter and peanuts.
- Taste it to see if it needs salt. Mine almost always does because I like soup salty, sue me (don't please).
And that's it! I like to let it sit around and soak up its own flavors for a bit after I cook it, so tonight I finished cooking it and then wandered off to take a shower before we ate. Worked out great. Oh, and this makes ballin' leftovers. We eat big servings of food because we're cyclists (that's totally my excuse, anyway) so this meal makes 10 servings, total, or 5 meals-for-two for us. If you eat smaller portions or serve it with side-dishes or as a side-dish, you could probably get a dozen servings out of it.
Give it a go. This is just a really wonderful recipe!
First there's his cookbook How to Cook Everything, which doesn't just have recipes in it, it has methods in it. For like, normal stuff -- the first thing I learnt to cook using this book was French toast. "Who would need a recipe for making French toast?" you might say, and the answer would be me. ME. I didn't know how to do it, Mark Bittman taught me how to do it, and everyone was a little bit happier because of it.
Then there was his Youtube series "The Minimalist." In it, he taught me how to make really fancy-tasting meals without fancy ingredients or methods that could go awry in the blink of an eye, and that played a large part in my confidence in my cooking skills increasing and my knowledge of cooking methods and flavor pairings increasing. I was sad when he retired until I found out that he was retiring to work in his garden, grill out, and play with his grandkids full-time. Then I was really happy for him, and I hope he's enjoying his retirement. Genuinely I do.
So this recipe is inspired by his West African Peanut Soup with Chicken, like heavily inspired, but changed up because I don't eat meat anymore (still not entirely sure how that happened), and the reasons I love it, and I think you will love it are:
1. It's DELICIOUS.
2. It's extremely good for you.
3. The ingredients can be purchased well in advance and stored for like ... a month, at least.
4. It's somehow vegan and gluten free, in case you need either or both of those in a meal.
5. It's really fast to make -- 10 minutes' prep, 20 minutes' cooking, BOOM.
6. Did I mention that it's delicious.
I got home tonight from a Monday that felt like a full week in and of itself and didn't have anything ready for dinner. The fact that I had everything on-hand to make this was such a blessing, I can't even put it into words, and that I had it cooked up and ready in half an hour was just so awesome. That said, we ate it, then passed out on the bed from 9pm to 3am, and now it's 3:45 am and I'm up posting this recipe to a blog no one reads, so my life choices are in need of some serious reflection.
Whatever.
A quick note about fresh ginger and fresh garlic:
FREEZE THEM. For the garlic, peel them, toss them into a container with a drizzle of olive oil, lid the container, and shake until the garlic is all coated in oil. Then put them in the freezer. When you're ready for them, they'll separate nicely because of the oil, and they cook up no differently from fresh not frozen garlic.
For the ginger, cut it into 2-3" pieces and freeze it just as-is. When you're ready for it, take out however much you need (I almost always need about 2-3" of it, so that's why I cut it into those pieces), microwave the piece for 10-15 seconds, and boom! Not only will it cut up nicely and mince/shred/grate nicely, it'll peel like a week-old sunburn. You're welcome for that disgusting mental image.
So yeah, you can totally have all this stuff on-hand for nights where you don't want to cook but you want to eat and eating healthy is a thing you want to do but don't want to think about and CERTAINLY don't want your mouth to know you're doing.
I'm going back to sleep now. Goodnight!
I Love You Mark Bittman Peanut Ginger Soup (with chickpeas)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, coarse-chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 1/2 to 3ish inches ginger, grated
30ish oz chickpeas, drained
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper (I am totally guessing on that amount)
2-4 shakes cayenne pepper, depending on how fiery you like your food
1 really big sweet potato, scrubbed and cut into bite-size pieces
28 oz diced tomatoes, with juice
3 cups frozen spinach
6 cups vegetable broth (6 cups water + 2 Tbsp veggie bouillon)
1/2 cup unsalted natural peanut butter
1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts, unsalted
Instructions
- In a large soup-pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat.
- Coarse-chop your onion and put it into the pot, tossing it a little to coat it in oil.
- Mince the garlic and add it to the pot.
- Grate the ginger and add it to the pot.
- Drain the chickpeas and add them to the mess.
- Add the salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper and toss everything around.
- Let that cook, stirring occasionally, while you scrub and cut up your sweet potato.
- Add that to the mix and stir it around a little.
- Add the tomatoes, with their juices, and stir.
- Add the frozen spinach and -- you guessed it -- stir.
- Add the veggie broth.
- Bring that mess to a boil and boil it for 15 to 20 minutes, however long it takes your sweet potatoes to go soft.
- Remove from heat and add the peanut butter and peanuts.
- Taste it to see if it needs salt. Mine almost always does because I like soup salty, sue me (don't please).
And that's it! I like to let it sit around and soak up its own flavors for a bit after I cook it, so tonight I finished cooking it and then wandered off to take a shower before we ate. Worked out great. Oh, and this makes ballin' leftovers. We eat big servings of food because we're cyclists (that's totally my excuse, anyway) so this meal makes 10 servings, total, or 5 meals-for-two for us. If you eat smaller portions or serve it with side-dishes or as a side-dish, you could probably get a dozen servings out of it.
Give it a go. This is just a really wonderful recipe!
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