Souper Bowl Sunday

First things first. Before you get all indignant. I did not make soup for the Super Bowl. I'm an American.

I am, however, multi-tasking my pre-Super Bowl time with soup-making. For Super Bowl realsies, I'm attending a dip competition and bringing this desserty banoffee dip to really shake things up. Also, cheesy bread, because while it is not technically dip, who gon' stop me? Also, I made some weird overnight chai steel cut oats, which I wouldn't dare bring to a party because I assume they're going to be terrible, but the "overnight" part means we won't find out that unsecret surprise until tomorrow morning when it's too freaking late and it's already my all-week breakfast.

Speaking of unsecret surprises, it's still super cold in Chicago. I'm not like a crazy fan of soup (though this blog might have you presuming otherwise), but when it's this cold out for this long, soup seems like really the only thing. Also, red wine. But I've found that makes for an inappropriate workplace lunch. So, soup it is.

I got some new knives and one of those amazing knife-hangy magnet strip thingies this week because I've been hating on my terrible cheap knife block since I bought it in 2006 and if the knives weren't that sharp when I got them (they were not), you can only imagine how lame they are seven years later. So, fun colorful knifes joined the kitchen party. Had to keep some of the random old stuff from the block just like... because I'm a hoarder, but it was very satisfying to toss 75% of that dumb block in the trash.

They're so fun and friendly-looking! Still sharp, though. Learned that the hard way.

So, I had my new knives and I was itching to chop. I don't have as much time as usual (aka, all day) since I do need to bring my subversive cheese bread and game-changing dessert dip into the city later this afternoon, so slow cooker was out. I know, terrifying, right? I was terrified. But, turns out, you can just make soup in a pot. Who knew? Oh, everyone? Cool. Congrats.

This soup is starring potatoes, onions, and garlic. All really great cuttin' food. It also features pasta, spinach, and parmesan cheese, and those are all things I enjoy, so I felt really great about where things were going. It also features an incredibly fast recipe-read, so if you are short on time and just trying to get shit done, a. I am not sure why you'd read this in the first place and b. I already linked it already, so just go follow that, party pooper.

Picked out some good cuttin' food.

So we'll start with potatoes. Recipe called for two, I panicked at the grocery store and got three. I think you probably can't have too many potatoes. Unless you are on some sort of pre-bridesmaiding Cancun diet, in which case, maybe three potatoes was pretty dumb. You can probably imagine how well that (totally made up, never going to happen) diet is going. Okay, peel and chop those up. Bite-size is key, maybe you try for like 1"x1", but also maybe don't sweat it, because, chill.

So many potatoes!

Heat up some olive oil, three swirls or so in a very large pot, or you could use a Dutch Boy if you're fancy and know that's a type of pot and not a type of person. Toss your potatoes, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and - in my case - garlic powder and cook on medium-high heat for about 5-6 minutes. Or as long as it takes for you to chop up your onions and garlic, let's not get too precious about this timing thing.

Heating up the potatoes. Super photogenic.

Chop up your one white (or yellow... I don't think it matters?) onion. If you want to feel better about your chopping, see this photo below of how good mine is. You're welcome.

A new knife isn't going to just miraculously make me better at chopping onions.

Smash and chop three or four cloves of garlic. And then spend the rest of the day trying to get the smell off your hands, hair, and body. That is the price we pay for garlic in recipes. It just is. By the time you've dealt with all that, your potatoes should be happily crisped up a little and partially cooked. Dump in your onions and garlic and partially cover the pot for five minutes or so, while the onions turn sort of clearer. 

Potato + onion marriage.

Meanwhile, let's discuss garbanzo beans. Oh, did I mention this recipe has garbanzo beans? I didn't, huh? Well, it does. Now, garbanzos aren't like my favorite thing and as such, I do not lose my shit over hummus like I know I'm supposed to as a red-blooded female human under the age of 35, but they're hearty and hold flavor and what not, so we can be friendly for this recipe. Dump two 14-ounce cans, or one 28-ounce can (math!), with the juice drained into a bowl. The recipe didn't specify draining the juice, but have you seen garbanzo can juice? It's gross. Get rid of that ick. I added salt, pepper, and garlic powder again, basically because I'd like to eradicate these garbanzo's garbanzo-ness as much as possible. 

Garbanzo party!

Once the onion, garlic, potato party has been going on for about six minutes or so, you're going to dump a quart (one of those little Trader Joe's containers worth) of chicken stock and three cups of water into your pot. Aren't you glad you chose a big one? Things are getting awfully full in there! You're going to bring this water/broth/veggie/legume/rootveg rave to a low boil (takes about seven minutes on medium heat, because you can be patient and not crank it up to high and risk ruining the whole thing, RIGHT?) 

Now that you've got some bubbles happening, you're going to dump a cup or two of short holey noodled (mini penne or macaroni or whatever one you choose, you do you!) pasta into the pot. Have you guys used this veggie pasta? It's my fave. 

One serving of veggies is like, not even that much, but don't pretend this doesn't make you feel better about your pasta choice.

Once you've got your pasta in the mix, you're going to cook it to al dente level based on the cooking recommendations of your particular pasta. It could be as short as six minutes depending on your pasta of choice. Definitely err on the less is more school on this one, since if you overcook this pasta, I think the whole soup is going to be gross. No pressure. 

Pasta party!

Once you've got your pasta cooked, turn off the heat and add in some frozen spinach. "One box" or really let loose and do whatever you feel like. My frozen spinach was in a bag, and I am into spinach, so I did "one bag". You don't even need to have spinach if you don't want, so let's not obsess over the amount, okay?

Oh shit, who invited spinach?

I obviously scooped most of this soup into my dorky individual lunch tupperwares, but I was also hungry and needing to pre-game for Dipsville, U.S.A. later today, so I dished up a little bowl and gave it a parmesan sprinkle and phew, we're done. I never can be sure, but it actually turned out pretty yum. We did it! We won the Souper Bowl!

As if parmesan cheese doesn't make absolutely everything completely amazing.