I dunno about where you are, but where I am it is super-hot out. Peak of 105F (41C) today. Appalingly hot weather and peak tomato season mean one thing to me: gazpacho. It's a delicious summer dish that requires no heating anything, and is best eaten slightly chilled.

I've shared my regular gazpacho, but this time, with the sungold tomato plants making a bid to take over the entire backyard, I wanted to make something slightly different: golden gazpacho. Almost like the regular, but with a very different color and a more subtle taste.

Like the other recipe, though, this is all about the peak summer produce. Don't make this with off-season imported produce, you won't enjoy it.

Golden Gazpacho

About 2oz leftover stale white bread
1 clove garlic
1/2 large sweet yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced crossways, about 3/4 cup
1 yellow bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 large or 2 small lemon cucumbers, roughly chopped with peel left on
1 pint of sungold tomatoes
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1-2 Tbs quality Spanish olive oil
1 1/2 tsp sherry vinegar

Taste the sliced onion. If it's sharp, then put it in a bowl of cold water to soak for 15 minutes, and then drain.

Cut the bread into dice and put it and the garlic cloves in a food processor. Pulse until the garlic is minced and the bread broken down into crumbs.

Add the bell pepper, onion, and cucumber. Run the food processor until it breaks down to a "chunky salsa" consistency. Add the sungold tomatoes, salt, white pepper, olive oil, and vinegar. Run until the vegetables are almost, but not quite, pureed; you still want them to have a little texture.

Let sit for the flavors to blend. Taste, and add more salt, oil, or vinegar if it needs it, or even a little sugar if your tomatoes weren't that sweet. Serve, accompanied by bread and Spanish cheese.

Substitutions: the sungolds could be replaced by around 12oz-wt of ripe yellow heirloom tomatoes, diced. If you don't have sherry vinegar, use champaigne or white wine vinegar.

Passover (Pesach) starts this Wednesday, and for once I thought I'd get you a recipe ahead of time. And there is, of course, no recipe more central to Pesach than matzoh ball soup. I've been making matzoh ball soup since I moved away from home. I started with my mother's recipe, only changing it to make it vegetarian. After years of making it myself, though, I've made a few improvements on the recipe, inspired by Serious Eats and Katchka.

First, the matzoh balls. We love the recipe from my mother, who flavors the matzoh balls with parsley, cumin, and garlic, making them more like spiced meatballs or falafel than the bland Eastern European bread dumplings that matzoh balls descended from. But mom's balls tend to be sinkers, rather dense and chewy. I wanted something lighter and softer. Then Serious Eats published an article showing how to vary matzoh ball texture based on the amount of fat, baking powder, and seltzer in the recipe.

I wanted balls that were a "7" on a scale of rock-to-cloud. After trying a couple of variations, I found that the one thing I needed to change was the amount, and type, of fat in the recipe. To the existing 3 Tbs of vegetable oil, I added another 3 Tbs of butter. Not only does the additional fat make the balls more tender, the solid fat of the butter stays in them and moistens them better than just adding more oil would. I did try going all-butter, but it was too much. If you're non-vegetarian and/or making these to go with a meat meal, use schmaltz instead of butter.

The second improvement comes from Bonnie Morales' cookbook Katchka. In it, she gives her grandmother's recipe for a super-simple vegetarian stock: garlic broth. After using this for a couple other soups, I made it the base of my new stock for matzoh ball soup. So, read on for Improved Matzoh Ball Soup.

Because these things go full circle, though, Mom is now using my improved recipe for the matzoh balls. And, so that you don't need to look at my older article, I'm going to do the full step-by-step below, with an eye towards doing this for a multi-course Passover meal. This recipe enough for 4-6 people, but the photos were taken when making 1 and a half recipes.

If you already know the basics of making it, you can skip to the recipe at the very bottom.

Making the Stock

As a very simple soup, matzoh ball soup depends heavily on having a good, homemade stock base. Stock-in-a-box simply won't cut it here. The standard recipe uses homemade chicken stock, so for a vegetarian version we need to put some extra effort into it. We're going to make Morales' garlic broth, and then boost it with some of the same vegetables (and trimmings from those vegetables) that will go into the final soup, later.

Soup-making tip: you can save a lot of time making stock and soup if you preheat any water you add in a kettle.

Take the two heads of garlic and cut them in half sideways, trying to go about midway through each clove, so that both halves of each head hold together (if possible). Put a large stockpot on the stove, with enough vegetable oil to slick the bottom (around 2 Tbs) and heat over medium heat until hot. Place all four garlic head halves cut-side down in the oil. Fry until the exposed clove halves are dark brown (but not black), 5-8 minutes.

Pour in 2 quarts of hot water and bring to a simmer. Turn down, and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes. If you simply simmer this for 45 minutes it actually makes a good broth for varniki or pelmeni, but we're making vegetable stock instead.

Next we're going to add the stock vegetables. Importantly, this includes the skins of the brown onions, which you need to give the stock some color. Other veggies, most notably the celery and parsley, can be the trimmings and stems you're not using in the final soup, if you have enough of them. You're also going to add some salt and spices here. As usual, start with the smallest amount of salt recommended and taste after the stock has cooked for a while. The cinnamon stick may seem strange, but try it -- it gives the stock a bit of an "exotic" flavor.

Add another quart of hot water and simmer for another 30-40 minutes. Strain into another pot, or back into the same pot, for making the soup. While the stock simmers, make the matzoh balls.

Making the Balls

This matzoh ball dough is meant to be spicy and flavorful. I know there's folks out there who like theirs delicate and tasting only of the soup, but when going vegetarian, it's far better to have something robust since you don't have any chicken to compliment it. The flavor profile here is something that's a crossover between Middle Eastern flavors and Eastern European ones.

Dump the matzoh meal in a medium-large bowl. Add the baking powder, salt, spices, and minced parsley and mix. Grate the onions and grate or press the garlic into the bowl, follow with the beaten eggs and melted butter, and mix. Finally, add the seltzer water, starting with just 1/4 cup, and gently mix. The dough should have the texture of a thick cake or brownie batter at this point. If it's still stiff, then add the other 1/4 cup of seltzer to loosen it up. If it's soupy, add 2-3 Tbs additional matzoh meal. Make sure the dough is 100% mixed down to the bottom of the bowl.

Cover in plastic and let rest for at least 1/2 hour, ideally in the fridge. Do not skip this resting step, which you need for the dough to work. While it rests, it will transform from a loose, sticky batter to a workable but still sticky dough. You can leave it for several hours, or overnight in the fridge.

Once they are rested, it's time to shape the balls. The ideal way to do this is with a cookie scoop; I use one that's 1.5" in diameter. Since the dough is quite sticky, have a bowl of warm water for dipping the scoop and wetting your hands. Scoop all the dough into 13-18 balls onto a wax-paper or parchment-lined sheet pan or tray, and then roll each ball with damp hands in order to make it nice and smooth. These balls will look quite small, but don't worry, they expand a lot.

At this point, you could cover the balls in plastic and keep them in the fridge up to a day. Don't freeze them, simply because they're hard to defrost. Once you start cooking them, though, you're committed to finishing the soup within hours.

The balls cannot be cooked in the soup itself, because they need to be cooked at a boil, or like other dumplings they will fall apart. However, to avoid flavor loss to the water, it's a good idea to cook them in stock. Since you don't want to waste the nice garlic broth on this, your options are to use some stock-in-a-box, water with bouillon cubes, or to use lightly salted water with bay leaf and a couple whole garlic cloves. Put this liquid in the largest, widest deep pot you have that has a well-fitting lid, ideally a 12" to 14" diameter soup pot or Dutch oven. Bring it to a boil.

Then, drop in the balls. With a 12" or greater pot, you should be able to fit all 13-18 of them, but with a narrower pot you'll need to do batches. You do not want to crowd them since they will all be doubling in size. The balls will sink to the bottom at first, but should start bobbing to the surface as the pot comes back to a boil. Cover, turn the heat down, and keep it at a gentle simmer for 35-45 minutes, until they are doubled in size and tender.

Contrary to some folk wisdom, you can periodically peek at the cooking matzoh balls. However, you don't want to lift the lid too often (more than, say, 2-4 times during cooking) lest they lose heat and fail to expand properly.

When the balls are done, keep them in the hot stock until ready to use. If that's going to be a while, put some very low heat on under the stock so that it doesn't cool off.

Putting It All Together

For final assembly, you're going to make a basic soup of well-cooked vegetables and then add the matzoh balls to it at serving time. Add the vegetables except for the parsley and green onions to the strained stock. Bring to a simmer, and cook for 25-30 minutes, until both the potatoes and carrots are quite tender, but not falling apart. At this point, the soup can be held, off-heat, for up to a couple of hours. If holding, re-heat it just before serving.

Grab several wide, deep bowls of at least 20oz capacity. Add two matzoh balls to each bowl. Fill the rest of the way with hot vegetable soup. Put some parsley sprigs and the sliced green onions or chives in each bowl. Serve.

Recipe

short version

Equipment

Large stock pot, at least 6qt, preferably with lid
Deep, wide soup pot, preferably 12" or more in diameter, but at least 4" deep, with tight-fitting lid
1.5" cookie scoop (optional, but really helpful)
Large tray or cookie sheet
Large mixing bowl
Fine-holed grater
Garlic press (optional)
The usual knives, peeler, and cutting board

Garlic Broth With Vegetables

2 Tbs Vegetable oil
2 large heads garlic
3qt water
Salt
2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
3/4 cup parsley stems, or just parsley
1 brown onion, with skin, cut into 4-8 large pieces
2-3 brown onion skins from the onions for the soup
2 waxy potatoes
3 stalks celery
2 bay leaves
Large sprig/branch thyme (optional)
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
6-10 peppercorns

Cut the garlic heads across their equators. Heat a large pot coated with oil at the bottom. Add the garlic, cut side down, and fry for 3 minutes, stirring occasionaly, until the garlic has browned and is very aromatic. Pour in the water and a little salt. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Add all of the vegetables above and simmer them for 40 min. Strain and reserve.

Improved Matzoh Balls

1 cup matzoh meal (plus 0-3 Tbs)
4 eggs
1/4 cup seltzer water
2 tbs melted butter (or schmaltz)
2 tbs vegetable oil
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh-ground pepper
2 large garlic cloves, pressed or grated
1/2 large onion, grated fine, about 1/2 cup
2 Tbs finely minced parsley
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp paprika (or other mild-medium chili powder)
2-4 quarts cheap stock for cooking (see above).

Mix all ingredients. Let sit for at least 1/2 hour (to overnight in fridge). Make 13-18 matzoh balls. Put them in the pot with the boiling cheap stock, and simmer, covered, for 35-45 minutes. Keep warm in the stock until ready to combine with the soup.

Soup

1 recipe garlic stock (above)
3-4 stalks celery, with leaves if possible, cut into 1" segments
1.5 to 2 lbs waxy potatoes, such as new potatoes, cut into 1-2" pieces
3-4 large carrots, around 3/4 lbs, peeled and cut into 1/2" slices
2 medium-large brown onions, cut into large pieces, like 8-10 per onion
Small bunch parsley, separated into bite-sized sprigs
3-4 green onions or a handful of chives, green parts sliced thin (optional)

Simmer the celery, potatoes, and carrots in the stock for 25-30 minutes, until tender. Add a little parsley and green onion to each bowl when serving.

Given what's going on in Europe right now, it seemed like time to share a Ukrainian recipe. Ukrainian, at least, courtesy of my great-grandmother the Ukrainian Jew, who emigrated to the US as a young child fleeing a Tsar-ordered Russian Cossack pogrom. Hmmm, seems familiar somehow.

Of course, me being me, I've modified the recipe some. Fortunately, my great-grandmother is long gone so she can't berate me for corrupting her recipe.

First, I made it vegetarian (vegan if you omit/swap the sour cream). Second, I simplified the recipe via a "four bowl" system. Since there are a lot of ingredients in this one, I've made it easier to track what goes in when by prepping everything into bowls of ingredients that go in at the same time. I also switched to grating the beets, which eliminates the requirement to par-cook the beets as you would with diced beets.

This is a hot borscht, suitable for eating, well, now, when it's cold and wet and wintry out (offer not valid in Australia). If I could ship some over to the Ukrainian refugees I would, but I'll settle for donating to WCK instead.

Hot Borscht

Prep Bowl #1 for Stock:
3 cups low-salt vegetable stock
3 cups water
Skin from the onion (below)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp smoke salt
1 medium white or red potato, sliced
6 dried mushrooms

Soup:
3-4 tbs sunflower oil

Prep Bowl #2
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 large carrots, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 medium white or red potatoes, diced

Prep Bowl #3
2 to 2 1/2 lbs beets, peeled and grated
3 cloves garlic, smashed or minced
2 plum or small tomatoes, diced
3 tbs tomato paste
Juice of 1-2 lemons (about 1/4 cup)
2 Tbs sugar

Prep Bowl #4
1 tsp smoked salt
1/2 cup minced parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill, or 1.5 tbs dried dill
Additional salt to taste

At the table:
1 cup sour cream

Equipment
1 3qt pot, 1 6qt pot, strainer, box grater, four bowls of assorted sizes

Pour the ingredients of bowl #1 into a 3qt or larger pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 to 25 minutes. While the stock is simmering, chop and grate the rest of the vegetables.

Heat the oil in a large soup pot (5qt or more) over a medium-high flame.   Throw in the contents of prep bowl #2, and stir occassionally until the onions wilt and the carrots sweat, about 10 minutes.  Dump in the contents of Prep Bowl #3 and strain the hot stock in to the large pot.  Stir, then cover.

Turn down the heat as soon as the soup begins to boil.   Simmer for 25 minutes. Pour in the ingredients in Prep Bowl #4, stir in contents and then turn off heat. Taste for salt and add more as required. Let sit uncovered for 10 minutes.

Serve in wide soup bowls, with the sour cream at the table for diners to add as they please.  Serve with rye bread to make a meal for 4 or a first course for 8.

Notes

If you omit the sour cream, or use plant-based sour cream, this recipe is vegan.

Smoked salt replaces the roasted flavor sometimes added to borscht via pork or beef fats. It is available from various specialty markets. I recommend salt smoked with lighter woods over hickory, which tends to be a bit much.

The three cups of packaged veggie broth can either plan broth or mushroom broth, or it can be beef broth if you're not vegetarian. It can also be replaced with instant stock and water, but if your instant stock is high-salt you'll want to cut the smoked salt.

If you can get quality unrefined sunflower oil for this soup, it adds a nice flavor.

This stupidly easy, yet tasty, soup is based on a recipe by Pati Jinich, who has become my new queen of Mexican cooking and should probably be yours as well. Her recipes are, in general, simple and easy yet delicious, and she teaches you Mexican home cooking that's not about tacos and fajitas.

This soup is basically an adobo sauce, into which you mix pureed beans and broth, showing the simple versitality of Mexican cooking as well as their dedication to sauces. I tinkered with the recipe slightly to use mostly canned ingredients. Accompany this with some quesadillas or cornbread and you have a terrific weeknight meal that can be on the table in 40 minutes. And, for quarantine-time, this recipe serves two (double it for a larger family).

If you don't have Mexican crema around, you can substitute regular sour cream or even heavy cream. For a vegan version, swap in coconut cream or vegan sour cream.

Pinto Bean Soup

1 dried ancho chile
1 14oz can diced or whole tomatoes
1 14oz can pinto beans
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 cup water
2 to 2 1/2 cups veggie or chicken stock
Salt
1/2 cup Mexican crema (or substitute)
1/2 avocado
A few fried tortilla strips (optional)

Remove the stem from the dried ancho, split it in half, and remove the seeds. Tear it into a few pieces and set in a small heatproof bowl. Boil 1 cup of water and pour it over the chile, making sure it is completely covered. Let sit for 10 minutes to rehydrate.

Put the chile pieces (reserving their soaking liquid) and the canned tomatoes and their juice into a blender or food processor. Puree.

Heat the oil in a medium soup pot. Pour the tomato/chile mixture into the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly. In 5-6 minutes the mixture should darken somewhat.

While the pot is cooking, drain the beans. Puree them together with 1/4 cup chile soaking liquid and 1/2 cup stock.

Once the tomato/chile sauce is done, pour the bean puree into it. Add 1 1/2 cups stock, and bring to a bare simmer. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 15 minutes; the soup should thicken slightly.

Taste the soup and see if you need to add salt. Also check the texture; if it's too thick, add the remaining 1/2 cup stock.

Dice the avocado half. Serve the soup in wide bowls, and add a swirl of crema or cream to each. Top with the diced avocado, and the tortilla strips (if using). Serve, with rolls or quesadillas on the side.

Serves two. Can be easily scaled up.

(Continued from part 1)

Since our first course was fairly substantial, we took a break followed by a palate-cleansing "pomegranate soup". This soup was truly amazing for something with so few ingredients and steps involved. I really recommend that you keep the recipe (at the bottom of this post) available during pomegrante season because it is so easy and yet so tasty. Really. Until you try making it, you won't believe that anything this simple can taste this good, but it does.

And then it was time for the manti. Manti are tiny dumpings popular throughout Central and near-Eastern Asia, including Turkey, Armenia, Uzbekistan. While exact fillings and shapes differ a little, they're always tiny and labor-intensive, and served with yogurt and tomato or pepper sauce. In Armenia, lamb manti are a traditional dish for Christmas eve, so I thought they would be perfect for this meal. I'm gonna show you how labor-intensive these are, which is why I'm giving you a recipe for the soup and not for the manti. Face it, you're not making these; I'm not making them again either.

Now, one of the reasons I wanted to try making these is that, while you can sometimes find lamb or beef filled manti frozen or in fancy Turkish or Armenian restaurants, you never ever see vegetarian manti in the US, despite chickpeas being a standard filling in Turkey. So I made a paste from cooked chickpeas, onions, and spices, and set out filling a bunch of tiny pastries. The dough is a white-flour pasta dough, you roll it thing and cut it into 1.5cm squares, and fold it into a little four-cornered hat. Then repeat 200 times, because you need 25-40 of these tiny dumplings for each diner.

Due to the Armenian influence, I didn't just boil the Manti. I first baked them until lightly browned. This both adds to texture and prevents them from splitting open when boiled or steamed, which was definitely a good thing because the seals on the little dumplings were none to great. I'm not sure I'd recommend that for the chickpea manti, though; it also made them pretty dry inside, which was not a good thing. The dish up to this point having taken three hours, I put them away for the night.

Right before the meal, I boiled them in vegetable broth, to make them extra-savory.

I then plated them and dotted them with garlic yogurt sauce, and a tomato sauce I also made the day before. This was the classic manti presentation, and they were good, and I'm happy to have finally had proper chickpea manti. But I don't think I'll make them again.

Dessert (of course we had dessert) was a terrific kataifi "bread pudding". My sweetie dried out the shredded phyllo, then soaked it in a cinnamon-seasoned custard, and baked it. It was delicious and a perfect end to the meal, if surprisingly reminiscent of noodle kugle.

pomegranate soup

based on a recipe by Ghillie Basan

• 1 liter boxed veggie stock or broth (I used Imagine brand)
• 1 cup pomegranate juice
• 1-2 Tbs juice from 1 lemon
• Seeds from 1 pomegranate (about 2/3 cup)
• Salt to taste
• Fresh mint leaves (as garnish)

Heat the veggie stock to a boil. Add the pomegranate and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Bring it back to a bare simmer. Turn off and stir in the pomegranate seeds.

Taste, and adjust with a little lemon juice and/or salt.

Dish out into 4-5 bowls, making sure to get some seeds into each bowl. Garnish each bowl with sprig of mint. Serve.

2021 or not, it's still winter, and we're still in quarantine, so it's time for another simple recipe. Whether you're a new cook, or just tired and want something easy to make, caldo verde is it.

This potato-and-kale stew is the unofficial national dish of Portugal. You can see why: it's simple, homey, adaptable, nutritious, tasty, and filling. I also realized this week that it was easy to modify to make it vegan, without losing any of the flavor that it's known for.

Making it vegan means using some vegan fake sausage, though. The classic sausages for caldo verde are chouriço or linguiça, both very firm-textured garlicky Portuguese dry sausages. Their texture isn't that different from many vegetarian sausages, though. For flavor, you want to find something that's garlicky, spicy, and maybe even smoked. My suggestions in preference order are: Field Roast Chipotle, Tofurky Andouille, Field Roast Garlic & Fennel, Tofurky Kielbasa, Beyond Sausage Hot Italian, or LightLife Italian. If you want this to be vegetarian and don't care about vegan, though, Lightlife has a fake Chorizo which would be perfect (do not use Soyrizo, which is soft and too spicy).

The second part of caldo verde is the kale. In Portugal, they use a particular kind of dark-green kale or cabbage similar to collards, but just a bit lighter. In the US, I'd recommend using either dino-kale (cavalo nero), or collard greens. Curly green kale would work OK, though.

Now that you've found those, you can get on with the recipe.

vegan caldo verde

• 4-6 Tbs olive oil
• 3-4 vegan sausages
• 1 large or 2 small onions, about 3/4 lbs
• 2-4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 to 1.5 tsp smoked paprika
• 3-4 lbs russet, Yukon, or other starchy potatoes
• 1-2 tsp salt
• 1 qt vegetarian broth or stock
• 2 medium bunches kale (around 8 cups when sliced)
• Equipment: a larger stew pot than you think you need, probably your largest. Large sharp knife, long-handled potato masher.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1/2" to 1" chunks. Dice the onion(s) small. Peel and mince the garlic. Wash the kale leaves and set them aside to dry. Peel off any casing from the sausages, and slice them into 1/2" thick rounds.

Heat 1-2 Tbs oil at the bottom of a large stew pot. When shimmering, place the rounds of veggie sausage on in the oil, lying flat. Fry for 1-2 minutes, until they are well-browned, then flip them and brown the other side. Remove them from the oil and set aside.

Add 1-3 more tablespoons of olive oil depending on whether the sausages gave off any fat of their own; you want a good 1/8" slick of oil on the bottom of the pan. Add the onions and garlic, and fry, stirring, until the onions become translucent.

How much paprika you add depends on whether your veggie sausages had peppers in them or not. If they did (like the Chipotle ones) then just add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon, depending on how peppery the oil is. If not, use 1.5 tsp. Add it, stir for only around 30s, and dump in the potato chunks. Stir them up to coat them, then add the veggie stock.

Finally, add 3 cups more water, plus the 1-2 tsp of salt (depending on how salty your stock is). Turn the heat down to low, and cover.

Simmer for 25-30 minutes, until the potatoes are easy mashed into paste with a spoon.

While the potatoes are cooking it's time to prepare the kale. A key element of caldo verde is the hair-thin ribbons of kale, so you're gonna get your knife work in. Remove the stems from the kale or collards, then stack bunches of leaves, and cut them crossways as thin as you can ... like 1/16" wouldn't be too thin here if you can manage it (usually I can't).

When the potatoes are done simmering, turn off the heat and mash them in the stock using the potato masher (or a large spoon if you don't have one). Smush them up until all of the chunks of potato are gone and you're left with a pot full of very soupy mashed potatoes.

Turn the stove back on to low, and stir in the thinly sliced kale, a handful at a time, until it's all in there. Let simmer for around 5 minutes more, then turn off the heat. Taste; see if it needs a little more salt. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Serve the soup in large bowls with several slices of the fried veggie sausage on top. This recipe makes about 6 meal-sized servings, and keeps in the fridge for up to a week.

Notes: for a little extra flavor, replace 1/2 to 1 tsp of the salt with smoked salt. You can use water and a couple bay leaves instead of veggie stock, if you don't have any.

Gazpacho is probably the ultimate hot-weather meal; a cold, chopped tomato soup, usually served with room temperature sides, it's great when your AC isn't keeping up, and really can't be eaten on a day that isn't hot. Besides, for your tomato gazpacho to be good, you need garden-fresh produce. Winter gazpachos are better made from almonds and garlic.

I don't make any claims to "authenticity" in this recipe; this is my mother's recipe, and she's from Wisconsin. But it's easy and tastes really good, which is more important, after all.

The quantities of the various vegetables below are rough guides, and should be read more as ratios between the ingredients than exact measurements. You have quite a bit of leeway, as long as you make sure there's more tomatoes and peppers than anything else. For the chopping, you really need to use a food processor, so that you can get the right fine-minced texture. Blenders and food grinders will create a puree, which simply won't be as enjoyable to eat.

The main recipe does use a little heat to temper the garlic and onions, but see the notes for how to make a heat-free version.

gazpacho Berkus

• 1/2 lbs sweet or red onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
• 2 Tbs high-quality olive oil, then 3 Tbs more
• 4-5 oz bread, crusts removed
• 1 lbs to 1.5 lbs ripe red sweet peppers (bells, Italian, etc.)
• 3 lbs ripe summer red tomatoes
• 1 lbs cucumber
• parsley, about 3/4 cup chopped and loosely packed
• 2-3 tsp sherry vinegar
• 1/2 to 1 tsp salt, plus more
• 1 ripe avocado

Peel and roughly chop or slice the onion. Peel and slice the garlic. Heat 2 Tbs of the olive oil in a small pan, and saute the garlic and onion until they soften (this is to take the "bite" out). Add the paprika, cook for around 20 seconds more, then take off heat and let cool.

Next you're going to be dicing a lot of vegetables before they go into the food processor. In order to get a nice even chop in the processor, you'll want everything to be about the same medium-small size, like a 1/2" cube of tomato or a 1/3" thick slice of cucumber.

Cube the bread. Core the peppers and cut them into large dice. Core and cut the tomatoes into large dice, making sure to capture the tomato juice running off the cutting board (pour it over the bread cubes). Peel and slice or dice the cucumber. Chop the parsley.

Put stuff in the food processor in this order: bread cubes, onion & garlic mixture, everything else. You'll probably have to do 2 or 3 batches, so divide things up accordingly. Add the remaining 3 Tbs olive oil, 2 tsp sherry vinegar, and salt. Pulse the food processor until the mixture is reduced to a very very fine mince, but stop short of pureeing it.

Taste to see if you want a little more sherry vinegar or salt. Let sit for 15 minutes for the flavors to blend.

Serve topped with a little diced avocado. Accompany with slices of bread topped with Manchego or other Spanish cheese. Serves 4 as a main course, or up to 8 as a first course.

Notes: To make a heat-free version, slice the onion, and soak it in cold water for at least 2 hours before making the recipe, or lightly salt the onion and the toss it with a little of the vinegar and leave it for 20 minutes. Only use 1/2 clove garlic, mashed, and 1 tsp paprika if you're not going to cook it.

You can use charred and peeled red peppers in this and that gives it a little extra flavor. The bread is just here to stabilize the soup and keep it from being too watery, so gluten-free bread should work fine.

Keeps in the fridge for up to a week as leftovers. Do not freeze, as the water will separate out.

Everyone should have a few recipes where you can always have the ingredients on hand, especially for dinners where your original plans didn't work out or you can't think of anything else. This recipe is one such, nutritious, tasty, and from pantry to table in 45 minutes or less.

I first got this very traditional recipe from a little cookbook my relatives brought back from Kapadokya in Turkey. The name of the soup has, in typical Turkish fashion, a tragic story attached to it which has two or three different versions. Tragic or not, the soup is really good and one of the easiest things you'll ever prepare, so I've marked it Good First Recipe.

I'm going to start with the version that's mostly ingredients that are simple to obtain in the US, and give you some notes on more Turkish ingredients.

daughter-in-law soup

4 tbs butter (or olive oil)
1 onion, chopped
3 tbs tomato paste
2 tsp paprika (but see below)
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
4 cups stock
2 tbs fine bulgur wheat (#1)
½ tsp salt, plus up to 1 tsp more to taste Mint, 2 tsp dried or 2 tbs chopped fresh
4qt or larger pot, with lid

Heat the butter (or oil) in the pot. Fry the onion until translucent, stirring, then add the paste and saute for 2-3 minutes, until it separates and turns oily. Add the paprika or other pepper and cook for 30 seconds more.

Add the lentils, ½ tsp salt, bulgur and stock. Bring to boil, cover and simmer over low heat for about ½ hour, or until the soup is creamy and the lentils are soft. It should be a porrigelike consistency, but add some hot water if you feel it's too thick. Taste and see if you need to add more salt. Add mint, simmer for 5 minutes more, then let cool enough to serve. (usually about 10 minutes).

Serve with bread and cheese. Makes 6 cups, enough for a first course for 4-6 people or a main course for 2-3. Keeps up to a week in the fridge, and freezes fairly well.

Notes:

For an even faster version which is almost as good, forget about frying the onions and just simmer everything together.

You must use red lentils for this. Other varieties of lentils take an hour to cook, and don't look nearly as pretty.

For stock, you can use canned or boxed stock, instant stock, bullion, or in a pinch salted water. If you have a choice, vegetable or beef stock is preferable to chicken.

Fine bulgur, also known as instant bulgur, is the same grind you'd use to make tabouleh, tiny grains the size of coarse salt. Either instant couscous or whole wheat bread crumbs would work as a substitute. Bob's Red Mill "bulgur", which is actually cracked wheat, will not work.

If you can get Turkish ingredients, use red pepper paste instead of tomato paste, and 1 tsp Aleppo or Urfa pepper instead of the paprika. Note that Aleppo and Urfa are hotter than paprika, so use some discretion in how much to add.

French onion soup, classically, relies heavily on the flavor of beef stock as a key ingredient. So some 20 years ago I decided that I would figure out a vegetarian version of this winter warmer dish that was as good, or better than, the standard meat version. According to multiple guests, I succeeded -- some even prefer this to the beef stock version because the onion flavor is clearer and sweeter.

Like other dishes where I replace a rich, meat flavor with vegetarian ingredients, the recipe relies on a lot on slow flavor layering. This means that you can't really make further major substitutions, or take shortcuts on the recipe below -- if you don't have the full two hours or some of the ingredients, just make something else. This is not part of my Good First Recipe series.

My version starts at the grocer's. You need brown onions for this (also called yellow onions), and importantly the onions you buy should have thick, brown skins unblemished by mold or dirt.

You're going to need those skins, because you're going to use them to make a brown onion stock. That's one of my tricks for replacing beef stock; the brown onion skins not only give the stock additional flavor, they also give it a rich, dark brown color, so that it looks rich as well as tasting rich. White or red onions will not work.

Before:

After:

The other big part of this soup is low-and-slow caramelization of the onions. You need to take the full 40 to 70 minutes to carefully render the onions deep brown and sweet over a low flame. Don't rush it, and above all don't sear the onions, which will make the soup taste bitter.

You can, however, get as far as making the onion/stock soup, and then set it aside for quite a while; hours, or even overnight in the fridge. So consider making this one a day ahead.

francophilic onion soup

5-6 large brown onions with thick brown skins,
    around 3.5lbs
1 quart vegetable stock or broth
2-3 cups water
4 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, crushed but not peeled
salt to taste
3-4 Tbs butter
3/4 cup red table wine
8-10 oz gruyere, emmenthaler or other swiss-style cheese, with a rind 
1/2 a baguette or other European-style bread
Equipment: 4qt soup pot, strainer, large dutch oven or large (14") deep saucepan, 4-6 oven-safe ceramic soup bowls, cookie sheet, cheese grater, broiler

First, make the brown onion stock: halve the onions, cut the ends off, and skin them. Dump the clean ends and skins in the stock pot with the veggie stock and the water. Cut the rind off the cheese, peel off any paper/wax, and add it. Add the bay leaf, two of the thyme sprigs, garlic cloves, and a little salt if you feel the stock needs it. Bring to a boil, turn down to low, then simmer for at least one hour while you prepare the onions.

Once the stock is simmering, slice the onions about 1/4" thick. Heat the butter in the dutch oven or deep saucepan until the butter foams, then add the onions. Turn the heat to low and cover for 5 minutes to get the onions started. Caramelize the onions over medium-low heat (uncovered) for 40 to 65 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom about once every 10 minutes.

Once onions are soft, sweet, stringy, and caramel-colored, deglaze the pot with the wine. Bring to a boil, then strain the stock into the onions. Add the rest of the thyme, stir, correct the salt, and simmer covered over low heat for about 10 minutes.

Heat the broiler. Slice the baguette 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, and trim slices to mostly fill the top of each bowl. Put the slices on the cookie sheet, and toast them on both sides under the broiler, briefly.

Grate the cheese. Line up the bowls on the cookie sheet, fill each one 3/4 full of soup and onions (do not overfill), and float a toast or two on top, so that most of the surface of the soup is covered. Cover the toasts with a generous helping of the grated cheese.

Place under broiler until the cheese bubbles and starts to brown, 3-5 minutes. Serve immediately, while still bubbling. Serves 4 as a main dish, or up to 8 in smaller ramekins as an appetizer.

Ingredient Notes: Onions need to be brown/yellow onions with thick, dark brown, non-moldy skins. Vegetable stock-in-a-box works fine for this. Quality instant stock or boullion would also work, if it's not too salty. If you don't have fresh thmye, use 1 tsp dried thyme, divided. The wine should be a dry, medium-bodied red that's not too tannic, such as a ligher pinot noir, a merlot, or a mild burgundy. Kaltbach, comte', appanzeller, and several other cheeses will also work for this; the one to stay away from is Jarlsberg, which tends to separate when heated. The bowls you use should be something heavy, ceramic, and oven-safe. Emile Henry bowls, pictured, are the classic.

Failure Modes: if this soup turns out bitter, it is likely because either you burned the onions, the skins were moldy, or you used a wine that was too tannic. Unfortunately, there isn't a good way to rescue a bitter soup. If the soup is too sweet, try adding a little more salt.

Vegan version: I don't know that this can be made vegan. While vegan cheeses have improved a lot in recent years, they still tend to separate when heated, and lack a rind which is required for the stock. If you want to do this vegan, you'll need to do several batches of experimentation.

Yes, it's vegan -- yet it's fairly traditional, absolutely delicious, packed with vitamins, and even quick enough to make on a weeknight. Gumbo z'herbes is the gumbo that Creole folks have traditionally eaten on Good Friday, and sometimes on other days during Lent, so it isn't supposed to contain meat or seafood.

The Gumbo Shop in the French Quarter serves this, and were kind enough to share their recipe. It's really the best gumbo they serve, and that's saying something. A while back their chef realized that it would only take a couple of tweaks to make a traditional gumbo z'herbes recipe actually vegetarian, or even vegan, so that's what he did.

Yes, I realize this is a bit late for you to use the recipe for Mardi Gras, but print it out anyway and you can celebrate with it on the weekend. It's good enough that you don't have to be vegetarian to love it.

Now, this gumbo does depend on a few specialty ingredients, plus a bunch of steps to build up flavor. Don't skip or substitute these beyond the suggestions I make below; if you start cutting things from the recipe you'll ruin it. Yes, it does really need that much oil, and that many spices.

Like any gumbo, the first step is making a roux, made by the simple practice of stirring a bunch of flour into a startling about of oil. If doing a non-vegan version of this, you can swap out half the oil for butter (but not more, it'll be too rich). You're cooking this roux to "peanut butter" stage, which is what I picture above; the color looks more like milk coffee to me. It'll take around 10-15 minutes of cooking to get to this color. Now, a lot of cookbooks tell you to stir it continuously the whole time, but I've found that over medium heat that's not necessary; stirring it once every 60 seconds works fine. At least, until you're almost done; then you want to stir it every 20 seconds until it reaches the right color or you may burn it.

One of the great time-saver in this recipe is that, instead of cooking the roux in a separate pan, you fry the aromatics and vegetables in the roux. This includes "smoked mushrooms", an ingredient that The Gumbo Shop makes themselves and I've occasionally found at a farmer's market. You really need these for both smoke and umami. If you can't find them (likely), make your own. Without a smoker, do it by sprinkling 1 lbs of sliced mushrooms with 2 tsp of smoked salt and broiling them until they shrink. If you're not vegetarian, I've found that smoked canned mussels or oysters also work great.

The Creole are also serious about "z'herbes". Traditionally, this gumbo would contain 7 to 9 different greens. I find 4-5 are enough, two of which are parsely and green onions. For the rest, you want savory leafy greens, at least two types from this list (ideally three): collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, green cabbage, green curly kale, broccoli leaves, tuscan/lacinato kale. I recommend against red kale, dandelion greens, beet greens, or chard as too strong or too delicate.

Now, there's one last step that's the greatest flavor developer for this recipe: time. If you can, make it a day ahead of time, chill, and reheat. It'll be even better.

vegan gumbo z'herbes

red beans

2 cups dried small red beans
6 cups water
Salt

soup

1 cup olive oil (or vegetable oil, or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup oil)
1 1/2 cup flour
1 lbs chopped smoked mushrooms (see note)
1-2 onions, chopped, about 2 cups
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 celery sticks, sliced, about 3/4 cup
3 large shallots, sliced thin, about 1/2 cup
6-8 cloves chopped garlic, about 3 tbs
4 bay leaves
2 teaspoons thyme
Several minutes of grinding black pepper, around 1 tsp
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 to 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
Paprika
2 tablespoons salt
8-10 cups chopped winter greens, at least 2 varieties (see note)
1 small bunch green onions, chopped, about 2/3 cup
1 large bunch parsley, chopped, about 1 cup

Make the red beans. Soak overnight, drain, and then cook in lightly salted water until just barely done but still quite firm, 35-50 minutes. Drain, reserving the cooking water.

Next, make a "peanut butter" roux. In a kettle of at least 2 gallons capacity, heat the oil. Add the flour. Fry over medium heat, stirring frequently until the roux turns what's called "peanut butter" color, but is more like milk coffee. This will take 10 to 18 minutes, during which you need to stir it at least once every 60 seconds, more frequently as it gets closer to its target color.

Add the bell pepper, onions and celery. Fry them in the roux until they soften, about 6 minutes. They will create big clumps in the roux; resist the temptation to add more oil. Add the smoked mushrooms, bay leaves, shallots, and garlic and stir for a minute. Put the greens on top of the fried ingredients. Sprinkle with the seasonings and salt, and turn down the heat to medium-low. Cover until the greens start to wilt, about 5 minutes. Stir up to combine.

Pour in the beans and their cooking water, adding enough additional water to cover. Stir, and simmer for around 30 minutes. Add the green onions and parsley. Simmer for 5 minutes more. Taste, and adjust salt and cayenne.

This even better made a day ahead and re-heated to serve. Serves 12, accompanied by steamed rice and/or cornbread.

Notes on Ingredients:

Non-Vegan Version: if you are not vegan, you can make this recipe with half the oil replaced with butter (but resist the impulse to use all butter, it's too rich), and replacing the smoked mushrooms with smoked mussels, oysters, or clams. This is the version I usually make.

Small Red Beans are the type you'd use in Red Beans and Rice, little oval beans 1/4" to 1/2" long when dry, also known as "red peas". Kidney beans will not work. If you can't get these, try using blackeyed peas instead.

Smoked mushrooms are a bit exotic. If you can't smoke your own, or buy them, you'll want to substitute. Make some by sprinkling 1lbs of sliced mushrooms with smoked salt and broil them until they shrink. Also swap 1 Tbs of salt in the recipe for smoked salt, or add 1 tsp smoked paprika.

Greens: any from this list: collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, green cabbage, green curly kale, broccoli leaves, tuscan/lacinato kale

Cayenne Pepper is where most of the "heat" in the gumbo comes from, so decide how much works for you. 1/4 tsp will be barely noticeable; 2 tsp will be spicy. If eating on the mild end of the scale, add a teaspoon of sweet or smoked paprika to give a little flavor.

A friend was having a discussion about vegetarian chili on Facebook, and asked for a recipe "with no kale or sweet potatoes". I had to agree; those are two ingredients that never belong in anything called "chili".

Still, as a non-meat-eater, I can't prepare proper San Antonio "chile con carne", since without the carne it's not much of a dish. However, New Mexico chile stews have a more varied set of ingredients, making them more adaptable to vegetarians. And, unlike the Texas version, New Mexico chile stew has beans.

So here's my version of a Santa Fe "bowl of green", without the pork.

crockpot green chile stew

This is for the folks at Tazz's chili cookoff ... and for Frank. A New Mexico "bowl of green" has always appealed to me, except for the pork. This is my vegetarian version, with a holy trinity of Southwestern vegetables, only mildly spicy to appeal to as broad an audience as possible.

2 cups navy beans or black-eyed peas
1 cup dried giant corn (see note)
3 green bell peppers
3 green poblano or pasilla peppers
4 hatch chiles, green anaheim, or banana peppers
2 bunches green onions
3-4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 lbs green squash, pattypan, chayote or zucchini
2 tsp hickory smoke salt
4 tsp dried epazote
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp cumin
water, salt, oil
slow cooker, cookie sheet, foil, broiler, large clean paper bag

Toppings:

1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 lbs Monterrey Jack cheese, grated
green hot sauce (such as Tabasco jalapeño or El Yucateco)

The night before: soak the beans and corn (together) in at least 7 cups of cold water.

Chop 1/2 of the green onion, white and green parts. Dice small one squash (no more than 1/2 lbs), then seed and dice one bell pepper and one of each of the other peppers. Put these in the slow cooker. Drain the beans and the corn, and add these to the slow cooker. Add 2 tsp of the epazote and the hickory smoke salt.

Add enough warm water to almost, but not quite, cover the vegetables and beans; it should take between 2 1/2 cups and 3 1/2 cups. Stir, then cover the slow cooker and set on High for 5 hours.

Some time while the beans are cooking, heat the broiler and cover the cookie sheet with foil and lightly grease it. Halve each of the remaining peppers and seed them. In batches, place the peppers cut-side-down on the cookie sheet and broil them until their skins turn black. Put the blackened peppers (while still hot) into the paper back and fold the top shut. Leave these to cool.

Slice the squash 3/4" thick, oil it lightly, and broil it until it's charred in spots. Set it aside to cool.

When the peppers and squash are cool (about 1/2 hour) peel the blackened skin off the peppers and discard. Chop the peppers. Dice the broiled squash. Mince the remaining green onions.

After the beans have cooked for 5 hours, add the peppers, squash, onions, cumin, oregano, and the rest of the epazote. Stir together. Cook on High for one more hour.

Turn off. Taste for salt, and add more if necessary. Let sit for at least 1 hour before serving. Serve with the toppings available on the side, as well as a pan of unsweetened cornbread. Serves 4 to 6.

Notes:

Giant corn, the same kind used for Posole, is from Central and South America and is available in many Latin markets. If you can't find it, substitute one can white hominy kernels, drained, and added at the same time as the 2nd batch of peppers.

To kick the heat up a notch, replace all of the milder peppers with hatch chiles, or if you can't find those, add 3 jalapeño and 3 serrano peppers, broiled, skinned and chopped with the others.