When cookbook author Caroline Wright was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2017, she had to give up cooking for a while. Her illness and the treatments just exhausted her, and she found that she no longer had the strength or the energy to cook, even though it was one of her greatest joys. She reached out to a friend for help, and her friend organized others to help. Every day, one of her friends would bring her a soup to eat, all homemade and all vegetarian. These soups, filled with healthy vegetables, beans, and lots of love, nourished her body and her soul. All these years later, she is still with us, and she’s inviting us all to join her club.
Her latest cookbook, Soup Club, has 80 recipes for vegetarian soups that can be made and shared with those you love (for omnivores, she includes lots of ideas for adding meats, so don’t' let the “plant-based” tag scare you away). These soups have been tried and tested, simmered and shared, and they can offer hope and healing to anyone who is going through a hard time.
There are soups for any palette, from White Bean Chili with Tomatillo to Split Pea Soup with Roasted Kale. There are international recipes like Egyptian Chickpea and Okra Stew, Jamaican Pumpkin and Red Pea Soup, Golden Borscht, West African Vegetable Stew, and Ethiopian Lentil Soup. And there are modern comfort classics like Thanksgiving Soup, Cream of Mushroom Soup, Spring Minestrone, Bean Soup, Peas ’n’ Carrots Soup, Summer Succotash Soup, Chunky Garden Vegetable Stew, and Kinda Tortilla Soup.
To go along with the soups, she also includes recipes for her Skillet Supper Bread, Favorite Yeast Roll, Flaky Buttermilk Biscuit, and The Cookie (which includes chocolate chunks, so it has to be good). There are also recipes for a Chopped Winter Salad and a Spring Arrival Salad to help these soups become a meal.
There is a chapter for Soup Club Pantry homemade staples and spice blends like Homemade Garam Masala, Homemade Harissa, Toasted Chili Powder, Homemade Cajun Seasoning, and Homemade Grain-Free Flour Blend. And there is a glossary on beans and tips for choosing, soaking, and cooking with beans.
The soup recipes have also been written for using Instant Pot. And there are lots of hints and tips from an expert soup maker to get the most flavor out of these ingredients as well as tips for freezing and storing soup, so it’s even easier to keep on hand and share wit others.
Wright believes that soup is a form of magic, and as someone who believes that chicken soup can fix just about anything, I’m going to have to agree with that. But what I love most about this cookbook is the concept behind it. Helping others by sharing soup is such a simple but powerful way to offer hope and comfort to anyone going through challenging times. So that’s why I say that while the first rule of Fight Club is not to talk about Fight Club, I think the first rule of Soup Club is to tell everyone about Soup Club. What a great way to offer hope and community as well as delicious nourishment for your family and friends.
Egalleys for Soup Club were provided by Andrews McMeel Publishing through Edelweiss, with many thanks.
