The use of your five senses has confirmed it: Winter is, in fact, coming. The trees are bare and stripped of color. The air smells crisp and carries a lingering chill. Sneezes and nose sniffles can be heard resounding throughout the land. But fear not! There is a positive component amidst all this grey frigidity: soup. Yes, you can eat soup during the summer, but soup in the winter seems to taste richer and more vibrant. Your bones ache for warmth, and nothing screams comfort like a hot crock pot of soup or stew awaiting you after a long day’s work.
Young or old, wealthy or poor, people of all geographic locations and walks of life have been enjoying soups the world for thousands of years. In Mexico they eat a soup called pozole, there’s borscht in Russia, and the Japanese often feast on bowls of ramen. According to www.bonappetit.com, the origins of the word “soup” are as follows:
“The word started out in the Germanic family, from a root that’s since grown into modern words like “supper,” “sup,” and “sop,” and that originally meant ‘consume something liquid.’ This hopped over to Latin at some point before the 6th century to mean, specifically, a piece of bread eaten in a broth, a suppa.”
Soup has been on record since pre-Middle Ages. Its ease of preparation, ability to be stored or frozen for a good amount of time, nutritious contents, wide variety of recipes, and ability to be extremely inexpensive have made it popular for both noblemen and peasants.
In modern day times, soup is becoming a trend for health aficionados. Hardcore broth fans are turning towards making their own bone broth from chicken, cows, pigs, and deer to help promote gut health and natural fat burning. Soup cleanses are now one of the hip new routines for those seeking a nutritious alternative to juice cleansing. And pho…how can we possibly leave out the delicious Vietnamese noodle soup known as “pho”? Any restaurant featuring pho on their menu will undoubtedly be busy throughout those harsh winter months. However, instead of going out to eat you can find many recipes to make pho while wearing flannel onesie pajamas in the privacy of your own kitchen.
Mesa County Libraries’ catalog has no shortage of soup recipe books to inspire edible warmth. Use these recipes to whip up a delicious treat for a solo night in, or a gigantic pot of steamy goodness to share with loved ones. A few titles are listed below, but you can find even more options here.
Soup for Syria: Recipes to Celebrate our Shared Humanity by Barbara Abdeni Massaad
Soup of the Day: 150 Delicious and Comforting Recipes From Our Favorite Restaurants by Ellen Brown
Soup Night: Recipes for Creating Community Around a Pot of Soup by Maggie Stuckey
Happy soup slurping!
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