When I made Greek salad, I told you that I’ve finally decided to use Twitter. I’ve been skeptical about using Twitter, but then I saw someone tweeted about starting a Cookbook Club and I thought, “what a good idea, I guess Twitter is useful.”
The method behind a cookbook club is that the group picks a book and throughout the month, or two, or whatever the time period is, the group cooks a few things from the book. Then on the meeting day everyone in the club has a potluck and brings a dish using a recipe from the book. I think this is awesome because it would force me to cook a few things from the book and it would also allow me to try other dishes without having to do the work. Sounds like perfection. Also, when I’ve done normal book clubs, we never talk about the book anyway.
The most recent addition to my cookbook collection, and the one I’m itching to cook through is the Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook
This book is awesome. I’ve literally snuggled up in bed and poured through the book as my bed time reading. The writing is funny and they don’t take themselves too seriously. The recipes tell you when you can make substitutions, when to be precise, and when you can be a little messy. All the recipes are healthy and vegetarian – but they never come off snobby for being healthy or too much like hippies for adding chia seeds or tofu. The authors are really encouraging that anyone can eat healthy, they recognize when they’re asking you to use “scary” ingredients, and the recipes are so full of flavor you won’t miss meat.
Seriously. For example, today’s soup packs a real kick. It has a tomato based and chickpeas to cool it down, but there’s a kick of garlic, chili powder, and jalapenos. It’s a nice soup on to warm you up on a cold winter day. It would be even better for when you’re sick because it would clear your sinuses right out. You can definitely turn down the spice if you prefer, but as written – it’s really spicy. All in all, it’s packed with veggies and you won’t need unusual ingredients. Pair it with a corn tortilla on the side, and you’ve got a meal with some zip.
Messy level: This recipe is a hard one to rate. You’ll need one big soup pot, a knife, and a cutting board. If you have an immersion blender this is a lot easier, and cleaner. If you don’t, you’ll have to use a blender which takes more time and there might be spills.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 bell pepper (I used red), chopped
- 1-2 jalapenos, minced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2½ teaspoons ground cumin
- 2½ teaspoons dried oregano
- 2½ teaspoons chili powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 14.5 oz (400g) can diced tomatoes
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 4-8 corn tortillas, cut into 1 inch squares (the more you use, the thicker the soup)
- 1½ cups cooked chickpeas or 1, 14oz/400g can of chickpeas
- chopped cilantro for garnish (optional)
- In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, cook the onion in the olive oil. Cook for about 2 minutes, or until the onion is a little bit translucent.
- Add the carrot and bell pepper to the pot. Cook for another 3 minutes, until everything started to get golden.
- Add the jalapenos, garlic, cumin, oregano, chili powder, and salt to the pot. Stir for about 30 seconds. Everything will get pretty fragrant now!
- Add the diced tomatoes and tomato paste to the pot and stir so that everything is well mixed.
- Pour in the broth and bring everything to a simmer.
- Once it is simmering, add the lime juice and tortilla squares. Let everything simmer for about 10 minutes to soften the tortillas. Stir occasionally.
- Remove the soup from the heat. If you have an immersion blender, blend everything until smooth. If you don't, then use a regular blender and blend the soup in batches.
- Pour some soup in a bowl, spoon some chickpeas in the center of the bowl, and sprinkle cilantro on top if you're using. Serve.
