I subscribe to an interesting app. It is titled Eat Your Books (https://www.eatyourbooks.com/myhome).
Eat Your Books allows me to intelligently (and efficiently) search my burgeoning cookbook collection.
Here is how it works. You enter the titles of the cookbooks you own. Once that is done, you can search your entire collection for a specific recipe or for a type of recipe. It’s magic!
The other day I was looking at my crisper bins in my refrigerator and found two zucchinis, a bunch of cilantro and a Trader Joe’s bag of baby arugula. On my kitchen counter, I had several bosc pears that needed to be used…like immediately.
After a brief search, Eat Your Books reminded me that I had a cookbook titled Soup for Syria. Soup for Syria: Recipes to Celebrate Our Shared Humanity is a compilation of recipes contributed by notable chefs like Anthony Bourdain, Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi, Alice Waters…and Patrick Herbeaux.
Patrick Herbeaux?
Herbeaux, it turns out, is a medical doctor and avid cook. He is the founder of Pailettes et Confitures, a line of gourmet jams and fruit preserves.
Soup for Syria was compiled to raise funds to help the people in Syria deal with their government’s disfunction and the civil war there while Assad was still in power. The profits from the book were donated to The UN Relief agency. (Poor Syria continues to face dire crises, of course.) You can still help these desperate people by contributing to the UN Refugee Agency or, indirectly, by buying this book. It is available through your local bookstore or on Amazon here.
Here is the recipe as I prepared (and enjoyed) it in my kitchen.
Zucchini, Pear and Cilantro Soup
Ingredients
- 2 T. extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion (chopped)
- 1 leek (trimmed and chopped)
- 1 garlic clove (crushed)
- 2 zucchinis (chopped)
- 2 Bosc pears (peeled and chopped)
- 1/2 C short grain rice
- 6 C. vegetable stock
- 1 small bunch cilantro
- 1 large handful arugula
- Salt and Freshly ground black pepper
- A generous pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
- Heavy cream or half and half (optional)
- Thinly-sliced green onion for garnish (optional)
Directions
- Step 1 Sauté chopped onion and leek in hot olive oil for several minutes until they begin to soften. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes (don’t burn!).
- Step 2 Add the zucchinis, pears and rice. Stir.
- Step 3 Add the stock. Stir well and bring to a simmer. Partially cover the soup pot and cook for 15-20 minutes until the rice is tender.
- Step 4 Add the cilantro and arugula. Continue cooking the soup for another 5 minutes or so.
- Step 5 Take the soup off the heat and let it cool a bit. Put the soup into your blender (in batches) and puree until it is smooth. Return the soup to the soup pot and heat until the soup is hot. Season with salt, pepper and the (optional) cayenne pepper. (Cook’s Note: Optionally, you can add a glug of cream or half and half to the soup to make it creamier.)
