Tip: Also called cranberry beans. May substitute navy beans or pinto beans.
Wine pairing: red

Ribollita (re-boiled in Italian) generally refers to leftover hearty vegetable soup with stale bread slices added during reheating. In our version, we combine fresh fennel, carrots, green beans and kale with hearty cannelini beans, boneless chicken thighs and cubed sourdough bread for a robust and satisfying meal.

Garlic is one of my favorite foods. It’s an herb with remarkable medicinal properties, and it tastes great too. Garlic is a cardiovascular tonic, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels and inhibiting blood clotting. It’s also a powerful germicide and may protect against some carcinogens. The smell of garlic cooking has extremely positive associations for me — it’s comforting and homey. Nor do I have any problem smelling it on other people. If you eat garlic regularly (and with a good attitude), you won’t smell of it. It’s better for you in its natural state, raw or lightly cooked rather than dried as powder or in capsules. Enjoy the smell, taste and healthful
effects of the whole, fresh herb.

Perserving: Cal 278; fat 2 g; carb 54 g

Using soda as the liquid makes matzoh balls fluffier and lighter. Chicken fat will enhance their flavor and give a more golden color.

My grandmother taught me to make chicken soup using “spare parts” like backs, necks and feet because they give more flavor than a whole bird. Using them is also more economical since all the flavor from the chicken goes into the soup, leaving meat that is bland and soft. The vegetables enrich the soup’s flavor but leave it flexible enough to use as broth in other recipes.
Fast Fact: Boiling chicken soup makes it cloudy, so for nice clear broth, take care not to let it boil
Quick Tip: Freeze some soup in ice cube trays, then store the cubes in a plastic bag to use when making sauces or cooking vegetables to enhance their flavor

Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford have trekked through most of Asia, photographing and cooking with tribesmen, local women, and street vendors, then sharing recipes from their adventures in award-winning cookbooks like Flatbreads and Flavors (William Morrow, 1995) and Mangoes and Curry Leaves (Artisan, 2005). I think they will forgive me for adding green beans and straw mushrooms to their recipe for the nourishing but minimal vegetable soup they ate at a truck-stop on the Plain of Jars in Laos.
Adapted from Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Tour Through Southeast Asia, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid (Artisan, 2000).

Fast Fact: In Asia, fish sauce is considered so indispensable in dishes that many vegetarian cooks use it
Quick Tip: For variety, make this soup using prepared mushroom broth or instant miso.

This creamy purée shows how using fruit in savory soups adds a nice, mellow flavor. Pears, because they are high in fiber, add body, too. If you buy the squash pre-cut, this soup is a good choice when you are entertaining because it is rich enough to be special while it lets you devote more time to other preparations. Chefs use leeks frizzled in a little oil to garnish dishes and add pungent flavor.
Fast Fact: While higher in fat than milk, cream is far lower in sugar and carbs.
Quick Tip: Large leeks tend to be woody, so buy them an inch or less in diameter.

Aficionados of Portuguese cooking will recognize this chunky soup as a classic with a twist. For the sausage, instead linguiça, found only in Portuguese-American neighborhoods, I use kielbasa because it is widely available and adds a delicious smoky flavor. Spanish chorizo or Italian sausage work well, too. I also make a vegetarian version, using smoked tofu or seared cubed tempeh in place of the meat.
Fast Fact: Yellow-fleshed potatoes contain small amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin, forms of carotene that are good for the eyes.
Quick Tip: For maximum flavor with less fat and no nitrites, look for the cooked turkey kielbasa from Wellshire Farms.