“Soup is life,” author Melanie Lutz told the Journal. “When we make a delicious soup that we can serve, we’re sharing what we love and we’re showing that we care.”
Lutz combines her Sicilian and Jewish roots, along with her love of storytelling for “Everything is Soup: Sicilian Wisdom, Nourishment and Recipes for a Delicious Life.” With more than 18 seasonal soup recipes, handwritten notes and ancestral sayings, this mixture of food memories and wisdom is as filling as it is fulfilling.
“The first thing I learned how to cook was soup,” said Lutz of what was a regular family activity. The first child to race to get the big soup out of the cupboard had the honor of putting in the ingredients.
“‘Everything is soup’ was something that my grandfather … would say to me,” she said. “He was really honoring his wife of 50 years at that point, who never saw a dandelion she didn’t love to include in what we were gonna be eating that week.”
She added, “It’s really a testament to how powerful … a big old pot of water and ingredients to become something super nourishing.”
While there is clearly a huge Sicilian component to the book, Lutz also included a nod to her Jewish roots in honor of Stuart Norman Levy, a member on her Jewish side, who passed away while she was writing the book.
“His recipe … Stu’s stew is a hodgepodge of everything that you love,” Lutz said. “[It] supports you and is there for you … he served it up and made it just magic for anyone who sat down and, and shared a bowl with him.”
Stu’s stew recipe is below.
Soup has magical powers; including and beyond making you feel good.
“The vortex of a bowl of soup and the fact that we’re largely made up of water … when you stir the pot, you create this alchemical experience of opening the heart,” she said. “Any soup that you put together becomes … this way that we connect through generations of the earth’s elements.“
For ones who want to become more connected to the soup they are making, Lutz said to listen to the ingredients, remain open to the possibilities and stay in the moment.
For instance, Lutz talked about a “particularly cheeky cabbage” she encountered recently at the farmer’s market. She turned it into cabbage dumplings, which she put into chicken soup stock. Delicious.
“Whether you’re a doctor, somebody who works in food preparation or [someone who] goes to an office every day, [you are] working with your hands and the ingredients to become one with it,” she said. “Chopping is a form of meditation.”
Also, taste, taste, taste.
“Add things that your body craves,” she said. “Celebrate the ingredients that you have around you [and] get out there and connect with your farmer’s market.”
Learn more at MelsLoveLand.com and grab a copy of “Everything is Soup.”
For the full conversation, listen to the podcast:
Stew for Stu
Serves 6
Like a warm hug of safety and laughter, with a mix of encouragement, support and connection. …This stew recipe is dedicated to Stu, his wife, his children and the kindness he put into the world.
Flavor Energetics:
Honoring the self with easy loving get ready for the goodness vibrations
Nourishing with the power of the ancestors remembering everyone who ever
loved you is available to you while you cook and eat and serve
Kindness is the main energetic harbored in this stew.
Key Ingredients:
– Marinated beef with deep spices (grounding + rejuvenation)
– Lemongrass and coconut water (brightness + joy)
– Ginger, garlic, and chili (awakening + soul spirit connection)
– Carrots and star anise (sweetness + depth)
– Cumin (ah, the warmth that makes the heart sing)
– Turmeric (boost metabolic processes + increase circulation)
Ingredients
For the beef:
2 to 2 ½ pounds boneless beef chuck or brisket cut into 1½-inch chunks (the good stuff)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
3 tbsp ginger (minced)
5 tbsp fish sauce
2½ tsp five-spice powder
1½ tsp brown sugar
For the rest of the stew:
3 tbsp oil
2 stalks lemongrass (remove tough woody parts, cut into 3-inch lengths)
8 cloves garlic (minced)
1 onion (sliced thinly)
4 tbsp tomato paste
8 cups water
1 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
2 cups pure coconut water/juice
2 star anise
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground mix of turmeric (optional)
1 tsp paprika
8 large carrots (peeled, cut in 1½ inch chunks for rustic, loving memories)
1 tsp salt
3 tsp soy sauce
3 tbsp chili oil (to taste)
1 package egg noodles
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 cup Thinly sliced raw onion
Lime wedges
Instructions
- First marinate the beef. Combine the beef with garlic, ginger, fish sauce, five-spice powder and brown sugar until each piece is evenly coated. Marinate for 30 minutes.
- Next, heat 3 tbsp of olive oil in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over high heat. Add the stalks of lemongrass, allowing them to infuse the oil for 1 minute. Next, add the minced lemongrass and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add onions and cook until translucent.
- Add cumin seeds, toasting them, to impart a warm, earthy, and slightly bitter flavor. If you are not used to cumin, start with a small amount and adjust to taste, it can be overpowering.
- Add all beef to the pot, and brown evenly on all sides.
- Add tomato paste.
- Stir and cook uncovered for 5 minutes.
- Add the water, coconut water, star anise, ground black pepper, chili powder, ground turmeric and paprika.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low, and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.
- After an hour has passed, add the carrots, salt, soy sauce and chili oil.
- Simmer for another 40 minutes.
- Remove the large lemongrass stalks and any star anise pods you can fish out.
- Cook wide rice noodles or egg noodles per package instructions, transfer to bowls and ladle the stew over the top.
- Garnish with cilantro, basil leaves if it speaks to you, and raw green onion tops.
- Serve with lime wedges on the side.
Debra Eckerling is a writer for the Jewish Journal and the host of “Taste Buds with Deb.” Subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Email Debra: tastebuds@jewishjournal.com.
