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We are linking our soup recipes, thanks to a request from a dear friend! Let us know if you try one!

I’ve become kind of ‘known’ for my soup. If you’ve been invited to my home, attended a workshop, a dinner meeting, chances are as you walk through the door, you’ve had soup thrust upon you. In fact my soup has become so legendary that at one speaking engagement the wonderful woman who introduced me waxed poetically about my soup – which was perhaps the most flattering personal endorsement I have ever received.

This section of The Principal Collective website shares some musings on why I love making soup, as well as a look at some past productions (this is the Nuts part!). When I look back on some of the outlandish projects I have undertaken and participated in, it seems a bit, well, nutty! Alas, ask me today to be a part of something extraordinary and audacious, my response is likely to be – ‘What could possibly go wrong?’!

Let’s get back to the soup pot….

What is it about soup? Quite a bit of thought-full-ness goes into each bowl. I search through the cupboards and fridge to suss out ingredients, assemble a collection on the counter then mull over the soup possibilities. Next I wash, chop, dice and mix. Toss everything into a pot and begin to stir. Simmer, stir some more, taste, add herbs and spices, stir again, then serve.  The recipes are equal parts chance, luck and experience plus one secret ingredient – they are each made with LOVE. Trust me, it makes all the difference.

This is Julia Childs, not me, making soup - just in case there was any confusion...
This is Julia Childs, not me, making soup – just in case there was any confusion.

Preparing soup is as much an exercise in zen living for me as it is a gesture of welcome friendship for those I am making it. The best soup cannot be rushed. The flavours need time to mingle, the vegetables have to soften, the broth must come to a gentle boil. When I am making soup, time slows down. And when we sit to eat it the slurping and sipping, smacking of lips makes it a shared experience. You can’t gracefully eat soup on the run. In life, it’s true that nurturing takes time, with ourselves, our relationships as we mingle, soften and boil into the flavour-full people we are meant to be.

February 2006 my work  was featured in O, the Oprah Magazine. Once you have been introduced to the Oprah family you carry a kinship with their ongoing conversation on what it means to live a deep meaning-full life. Since then, I’ve been peeking over the fence of the OWN empire as they happily picnic the ‘it’s always summer at Oprah‘s’ days away, lounging elegantly in Oprah‘s backyard luxuriously tossing ideas around like balloons, wondering what can I bring to this conversation? I have realized that my unique weapon, full of my secret ingredient, is my soup.

As a big thank you to those who have enjoyed my soups and to those who continue to ask for my recipes,  this blog called ‘Soup for SuperSoulSunday‘ ran each Sunday in conjunction with OWN Network’s SuperSoulSunday programming and now I re-visit on occasion to add and refresh! A new soup recipe will appear, with heaps of love and hope that you will enjoy the meditation that comes with chopping, sauteing, and simmering. If you have soup recipes and soup stories, please share them with me on the Contact Form below, or message me through this website. It would be wonderful to share your soup inspiration over the coming months. The Soup recipes to date are found on my website by hovering over this page title in the tab and choosing from the drop down list. (Does that make sense?)

Check out Oprah’s website here, for more SuperSoulSunday information – it’s very inspiring.  http://www.oprah.com/app/super-soul-sunday.html

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On my early morning walk today I listened to the SuperSoul Conversation Podcast in which Oprah and Agape International Spiritual Center Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith explore manisfesting the life of your dreams. This is such a popular topic now as new age and spiritual awakening guides determine that if we can just get out of our own way, we can then be open to the possibilities and potentials of our souls.

Is it really that simple? According to Dr. Beckwith, it is about having intentions that align with our personal purpose.  In requesting a tangible explanation  about his assumptions, Oprah, fittingly, brings it back to soup. Tomato soup actually. She was working in her garden and thinking about how she would love a bowl of fresh tomato soup. She let that thought go, and shortly after, her neighbor appeared with a pot of tomato soup! How many times have we thought about someone and they called or we ran into them unexpectedly? While these are fun examples of intuition and serendipity, Dr. Beckwith explains that stating intentions isn’t about asking for things, but about being open to the discovery and acceptance of our personal purpose.

So, with that to mull over on this gorgeous Sunday morning, I am re-visiting one of my favorite ‘fresh from the garden’ soup recipes. Tomato, of course!

Here’s to another slurpy spoonful of SuperSoul Sunday Conversations! Link to the podcast is below the tomato soup recipe.

GO TEAM!

Tomato Soup – for you or your neighbor to make! – Non-Dairy, Vegan

 

Ingredients

Fresh Tomatoes – vine ripened, any variety will do! – cut in half. I usually use at least 6.

Garlic – 2 cloves chopped (or more if you love garlic)

Salt, Pepper

Sugar – white sugar, just a touch, but not absolutely necessary

White Onion – 1, sliced

Celery – 4 stalks or more, cut in chunks

Vegetable Broth – 1 carton, more or less

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) – as much as you need

There are two secrets to the success of this recipe – using fresh ingredients and then roasting the vegetables first!

Making the Soup

Step 1. Roast the tomatoes (sliced in half) the chopped celery, onion, and garlic, drizzled with EVOO, at a 425 degree oven, for 30 minutes.

Step 2. Let the vegetables cool slightly and, if you aren’t keen on the look/texture of tomato skins, remove some of them. They will separate easily from the tomato. I happen to like the char taste and in a later step, the skins are dealt with!

Step 3. Heat some EVOO in the bottom of a pot, over medium heat.

Step 4. Add the roasted vegetables with the juices from the roasting pan to the soup pot, along with just enough vegetable broth to cover. Salt and Pepper to taste, plus a light dusting of sugar if you choose.

Step 5. Heat until it boils. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. (The longer it simmers, the more delish it is!)

Step 6. Remove from heat, let cool slightly, then either put it in the blender or use your hand held blender/emusifier, and puree the soup. This will give it a lovely creamy texture, without adding dairy.

Step 7. Return to the pot, add more vegetable broth if it is too thick. At this point, you can also add dairy or almond milk/cream if you want a creamier, richer tasting version. Heat to delicious tasting temperature.

Step 8. Ladle a good portion of the soup into a container, and walk it over to your neighbor. You never know, you might be the answer to their prayers!

 

 

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January’s ‘Soup for Super Soul Sunday‘ follows OWN Network’s lead, with an encore soup recipe. I am tempted to share one of the soup concoctions we enjoyed at home this week – ‘spicy chorizo, potato & peppers’, ‘cabbage tomato vegetable’ or ‘thai chicken with egg noodle’. My soup cravings are very much weather sensitive. These substantial soups reflect the past few days the frigid winter weather! The recipes will be happily written here in the coming weeks to coincide with new Super Soul Sunday programming.

Watch Diana Nyad’s repeat conversation with Oprah, as she discusses her complex life with a full, resonate voice. Her strength is riveting and I am so inspired by her story. This woman is FIERCE!

If it is cold where you are this week, then this week’s Potato Leek Soup will hit the spot! Tasty, easy and delicious. Enjoy!

 Diana Nyad and Oprah Potato & Leek Soup

Ingredients

6 – 8 medium size Potatoes (your choice of kind)

4 -6 stalks of Leeks, chopped  (soaked to be sure the dirt is out of the leaves; use the white part and lighter green part of the stalk)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Butter (butter with leeks is delicious!)

Salt & Pepper (to taste)

Vegetable Broth or Water (enough to cover the vegetables once in the pot)

Milk or Cream (one third to one half of a cup)

How To Make It:

1. Cover bottom of pot with the olive oil and heat.

2. Add the leeks and saute for 5 – 10 minutes.

3. Add the cut up potatoes and stir.

4. Cover the vegetables with either broth or water and heat to boil.

5. Simmer the vegetables in the pot until they are cooked through (this could take 20 – 30 minutes but I find the longer it cooks, the yummier!)

6. Cool then using a blender or hand emulsifier, puree until smooth.

7. Add the milk or cream then salt & pepper to taste.

8. Warm through until heated and ENJOY!

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The first post of 2015 is a re-visit of Curried Squash Soup with Coconut Milk – the fitting accompaniment for the repeat OWN Super Soul Sunday program featuring the wonderful author Sue Monk Kidd. While OWN Network prepares for its next season of inspirational programming through Super Soul Sunday, we will be busy collecting, testing and then prepping to share, our next batch of Soup! In the meantime, we are enjoying the wonderful wisdom and insight of Oprah in conversation with Sue!

Originally Published in April 2014

The program I’m looking forward to today on OWN’s SuperSoulSunday features Oprah in conversation with Book Club Author Sue Monk Kidd, whose work ‘The Secret Life of Bees‘ is one of the most loved books of this generation. The story takes place in fictional Tiburon South Carolina, an ‘every town’ of South Carolina in the 1960’s, which carries a deeper resonance  as much of my life is in South Carolina.

Sue Monk Kidd will be discussing ‘The Soul of A Writer‘ – ooooh, now this will be good! What compels, propels, impels a writer is a conversation I am always willing to jump into. It is the conversation that all creative types know. Artists recognize there is something deep inside that goes beyond yearning to be heard. It demands it. Could this be our Soul? Perhaps it is no coincidence that as today is Easter Sunday which is of spiritual significance for some, we talk about the Soul as that place that holds our voice.  I’m not exactly sure about this, but I do know that a thought-full conversation between Oprah and Sue Monk Kidd will be the warm and wonderful counterpoint to the creation of today’s soup.

 This first Soup for SuperSoulSunday offering is all about the mingling of voices: a small town in South Carolina, a small city called London Ontario; the 1960s and the 2010s; Oprah’s, Sue Monk Kidd’s and mine (in the solitude of my kitchen, again peeking from the other side of the fence!); plus some squash, curry, ginger, coconut and the ever present secret ingredient, LOVE. It is found in each of these distinct flavourful voices. I’m planning on lapping up a big bowl! Bring your own voice to the conversation.

Watch SuperSoulSunday on the OWN Network or catch up on episodes through Oprah’s website: http://www.oprah.com/app/super-soul-sunday.html

Curried Squash with Coconut Milk Soup 

(this recipe is a guide really, feel the love, sigh….)

Ingredients

1 acorn squash (or your favourite type of squash)

curry powder (to taste)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (as much as you think you will need but likely no more than 1/4 cup)

Butter (optional)

powdered ginger

salt & pepper

vegetable broth

coconut milk ( light or regular flavoured or sweetened – I have never used sweetened but that is just my taste)

sour cream or chives or sprinkle of ginger as a garnish if you are a fancy-pants!

For this recipe I prefer the powdered curry and ginger as the roasting and low heating bring a smoother, more mellow taste as opposed to hot or sharp. You can use fresh if you prefer.

1. Pre-heat oven to 325.

2. Cut the acorn squash into 4 pieces and scrape out the seeds, leaving the smooth orange pulp.

3. Pierce holes in the raw pulp with a fork or knife, splash some olive oil (or you can use butter here) on each piece, then sprinkle generously with the curry powder – typically for my taste about 2 tablespoons.

4. Put into the oven for 45 minutes. Then, pour yourself a mug of coffee, chai tea, lemon water or wine and turn on ‘The Soul of a Writer‘.

5. When the squash is soft, the curry smell has settled over the kitchen (love this!), remove from the oven and let cool.

6. Heat a pot on the stove on medium.

7. Add a splash of olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot, sprinkle a bit more curry and add ginger, to taste. Typically I add a 1 – 2 teaspoons of powdered ginger and just 1 more teaspoon of curry. Let it heat for no more than 5 minutes.

8. Scrape the roasted squash flesh off of the skin and into the pot. Stir it up with the mellowed spices and olive oil.

9. Add vegetable broth to cover the squash and stir. Let it come to a boil, and stir on occasion.

10. Stir again, and taste. If you need salt or pepper, now is the time to add it. If the curry seems strong don’t fret, because the coconut milk will soften the taste.

11. Once it has boiled, turn it to low and while stirring add the coconut milk. Sometimes the coconut milk separates. so I like to give the can a good shake before I open it.

12. Let it heat through and then EAT!

Dependent upon how long you have roasted the squash and the type of squash you have chosen, it will further break apart in the boiling making a smooth texture. I like the occasional lump of squash! If you prefer a silky smooth restaurant worthy soup, then you can pour it in the blender (cool it first!) or use a hand emulsifier right into the pot.

Enjoy your Soup for this SuperSoulSunday!

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When I listen to the SuperSoulSunday conversations on creating meaningful, potential-filled lives, the candor of the high powered guests is continually unexpected. There is an ease in their manner, an openness and willingness to share what turns out to be the not so secret keys to their personal successes. I am a BIG fan of Def Jam Recordings and eagerly looked forward to Oprah‘s conversation with Co-Founder Russell Simmons knowing there would be revealing tidbits of insight into the revolutionary ways that Def Jam changed the recording industry.

So is it surprising to learn that meditation, stillness and actively ‘being present’ are what Russell Simmons considers his business/life touchstones? Simmons in particular adheres to a daily regimen of meditation and yoga, saying that it puts him ‘in the present’ and that ‘being present’ is where his most creative, rewarding work takes place.

In our electronic, fast paced world it is a challenge to carve out those times and places that allow for stillness.  My need for these quieter moments has become key to my creative work as well as my personal life. When I start my day with an early morning walk, my mind works through ideas that require quiet to cultivate. At the end of the day, swimming laps allows for a similar filtering as my busy mind focuses on each stroke which simultaneously (and wonderfully!) allows my imagination to wander.

We each find the activities that bring these much needed quiet moments to our lives – yoga, jogging, reading, cooking… Ah yes, cooking. Especially when your culinary creation needs to simmer, flavours mingling as you patiently stir, then stir again.  Lots of issues get worked out over the soup pot! And the good news is that, since good soup cannot be rushed, you have plenty of stirring and mulling opportunity.

The easy peasy soup perfect for stirring today is one of my mother’s recipes that in retrospect she likely created for our family of seven when times were a tad lean. Given its luxurious velvety texture and surprising full flavour,  we never realized it was anything other than delicious. Here is to your moments of stillness, presence and soup – and thank you Oprah and Russell Simmons for the meditative inspiration!

Celery Soup

Ingredients

1 onion chopped

Celery – I would use the whole package, chopped at least 4 cups

1 or 2 Potatoes peeled and chopped – for thickening

Vegetable or Chicken broth or Water

1/2 cup milk or cream (optional)

Olive Oil (to cover bottom of pot)

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

salt & pepper to taste

Meditation on Making It:

1. Heat Olive Oil & butter/margarine in soup pot

2. Saute onions and celery for 5 – 10 minutes

3. Add chopped potatoes and cover with enough broth or water to cover.

4. Add bay leaf, celery seed and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring often.

5. Once potatoes are cooked through, take off heat to cool.

6. Once cooled put in blender to make smooth or emulsify in pot.

7. Return blended soup to pot and add milk (optional), salt and pepper to taste, and heat through.

Serve warm in a bowl with chopped celery leaves on top. And as you slurp and slip meditate on the lovely moments that went into making this beautiful soup.

Celery001

 

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Oprah and Co-CEO John MacKay discuss MacKay’s ongoing revolutionary approach to providing a healthy, organic food market alternative. There are a lot of great tidbits here, insights into his personal mantras that opened the possibilities for his astounding success with Whole Food’s Market.

We may not be nor endeavour to be the CEO of a multi-million dollar company but MacKay’s perspective on running his billion dollar company offers wonderful insight whatever our job or career. After listening to this week’s SuperSoulSunday program, I feel the perspective is clearly more than ‘business acumen’, it is a mindful way to look for adventure, creativity and love in every aspect of your life.

For this week`s soup recipe, I`ve decided to add some creativity with a touch of adventure. Potato soup is always delicious and comforting. Just as it is. My recipe this week will add – wait for it – leeks! A little bit oniony, sweet, that ingredient that causes people to say `what am I tasting here – I know this flavour, just can`t place it….` It doesn`t take much to add a touch of creative adventure to our lives. If you aren`t sure where to begin, start with the soup. Time to kick it up a notch – ENJOY!

img_1464-1Potato & Leek Soup

Ingredients

6 – 8 medium size Potatoes (your choice of kind)

4 -6 stalks of Leeks, chopped  (soaked to be sure the dirt is out of the leaves; use the white part and lighter green part of the stalk)

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Vegetable Broth or Water (enough to cover the vegetables once in the pot)

Milk or Cream (one third to one half of a cup)

How To Make It:

1. Cover bottom of pot with the olive oil and heat.

2. Add the leeks and saute for 5 – 10 minutes.

3. Add the cut up potatoes and stir.

4. Cover the vegetables with either broth or water and heat to boil.

5. Simmer the vegetables in the pot until they are cooked through.

6. Cool then using a blender or hand emulsifier, puree until smooth.

7. Add the milk or cream then salt & pepper to taste.

8. Warm through until heated and ENJOY!

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SuperSoulSunday’s conversation today explores  ‘happiness’ with Oprah and Shawn Achor discussing the secrets of happy people. Are you a glass half full or glass have empty personality? Shawn Achor says that is not the question to be asked… Instead, we should embrace a new more optimistic approach: look at life as a pitcher that we have the ability to fill in any way we want, and then choose to fill it with joy!

The show offers some tangible, attainable and practical means of finding your own happiness. I like Shawn Achor’s idea of sending one message a day to a friend, colleague, contact, praising them in some way. After 21 days, according to Achor, your social connections will feel more meaningful, deeper and resonant.  This sounds promising!

My idea is a more introspective approach. Simply ask yourself, what makes you happy? Then make a list. Your ‘happiness’ list should be filled with thoughts that are positive and uplifting – long term happiness isn’t attainable at the expense of someone else. So, what makes me happy? Here is my very short list, in no particular order!

1. ‘Simple’  makes me happy. Complex is good, complicated is not.

2. Relationships that hold me up and allow me, in turn, to do the same. Through some trials and tribulations (we have all had them!), I have come to fully realize that the quality of my life is increased greatly when I surround myself with people who want the best for me, and who accept the same positive uplifting friendship in return.

3. Doing my best. Yes this can be a difficult road sometimes, but the personal satisfaction I get from working hard at what is important to me – my relationships, my career – truly does make me happy. The resulting stronger connections enhance the quality of my life immeasurably. I believe I end up getting far more then I had given!

4. Soup (no surprise there!). Not only consuming it, but making it. Especially when I make it for my family and friends.

Sometimes life is far more difficult than a random email or even a bowl of soup made with heaps of love, can make better. That is for sure. But a moment of happiness in a dark day can be just the balm needed. A reminder that being happy is still possible and that our pitcher of joy can endlessly fill our glass. I believe my pitcher is really a big pot from which I can ladle endless bowls of soup.  The soup recipe for today’s Soup for SuperSoulSunday is a  delicious and easy soup to make – comfort food at its best!

Roasted Cauliflower & Parmesan Soup

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower (or 1 bag frozen although fresh is best)

Vegetable or chicken broth

1 onion, chopped

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Grated Parmesan Cheese (1 – 2 cups, depending on how much you LOVE parmesan)

1/4 cup of milk or cream

Salt & Pepper

How to Make It:

1. Break cauliflower into florets.

2. Put cauliflower onto baking sheet and drizzle olive oil on top.

3.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

4.  Roast in oven at 325 until tender. Approximately 15 – 20 minutes.

5. Pour enough olive oil into soup pot to cover bottom and add the onion.

6. Cook on medium until onion is translucent. Approximately 5 minutes.

7. Add roasted cauliflower and stir up.

8. Add enough broth to cover vegetables and simmer on medium until cauliflower is soft and easily breaks apart.

9. Add 1/4 cup of milk or cream and heat through.

10. Add more parmesan (as much as you would like!) and salt and pepper to taste.

11. Heat until the parmesan melts and then serve. If you like a creamier version, then you can blend the soup after it cools a bit.

ENJOY!

Jumping into Joy!
Jumping into Joy!

 

 

 

 

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Oprah’s SuperSoulSunday guest is Dr. Shefali Tsabary who sparks some wonderful tips on what it takes to be a fully present parent.

I have always believed that my two children are the two children I was meant to have. Dr. Tsabary agrees, saying ‘we call our children into our lives’ and they in turn, raise us as parents. Compared to my friends and family, I was quite young when my children were born and so I would often make the statement that we ‘grew up together’. This wasn’t that I was a kid raising children – it meant that I grew fully and gloriously into being a parent as they grew fully and gloriously into being young people.

One idea Dr. Tsabary explores that hits home with me is the concept of being a conscious parent. So much of the advice for parents is about the ‘behaviour modification’ of your children, or how to cajole, manipulate and ‘fix’ your children into being perfect beings. A conscious parent is present in the journey of raising a child and in turn raising themselves. The parent child relationship forces you to look at your ego, especially if we believe that being the best mother has a direct correlation to a certain type of success in our children… having perfect children will allow us to be the idealized versions of ourselves. Instead, being a conscious parent  is actually allowing ourselves to be reflected in the mirror of our relationship with our children; the parent/child relationship illuminates our undeveloped selves.

Parenting is indeed a journey. Looking back on my parenting journey there are wonderful memories of activities, trips, parties, friends, busyness..but my favourite, most conscious parenting days, were those when we would just hang out. Nothing on the schedule but lazy mornings, late breakfasts, books, tv, pyjamas for most of the day  and on the stove – soup. One soup that I never tired of making, and one that could simmer all day (on the stove or in the crockpot!) is our family’s Meatball Tortellini Chowder.  The ideal soup for this SuperSoulSunday program.

Meatball Tortellini Chowder

Ingredients

-All vegetable amounts are just suggestions, as are the vegetables themselves. Use whatever vegetables your family prefers!

This recipe can be easily converted to vegetarian – just use vegetable broth, veggie meatballs, cheese tortellini and omit the bacon.

Onion – 1 med

Celery – 2 stalks

Carrots – 3 large

Broccoli – 1/2 bunch fresh or frozen

Corn – 1 cup fresh/frozen or small can

Green Beans – 1 cup fresh/frozen or small can

Tomatoes – 2 med or 1 can chopped (use the juice too!)

Italian meatballs – 1 package of frozen or homemade

Tortellini – meat or cheese, frozen or from the pasta section of the grocer

Bacon – 6 slices – actually use as much as you would like – you can never have too much bacon! Also, Bacon is optional in this recipe!

Beef Broth – 1 or 2 cartons

1 can tomato paste or 1 can tomato soup

Water

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Parmesan – I like alot!

Italian Seasoning

Salt & Pepper

How to Make it – EASY PEASY!

1. Cook bacon in the soup pot. When cooked to desired crispness, remove bacon but keep juices in the pan.

2. Add Extra Virgin Olive Oil to cover pan bottom, with the bacon juices.

3. Add chopped onion and cook until translucent. Approx 4 minutes.

4. Add all chopped vegetables, broth, paste/soup and if needed, water to cover the vegetables. Also add any Italian seasonings – oregano, thyme, parsley – plus salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add meatballs and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add more broth or water if needed, plus seasonings if you think it needs more.

6. Add the tortellini and give a really good stir. Simmer until the tortellini is cooked.

7. Once all ingredients have reached their desired tenderness, add grated or fresh Parmesan to cover the top of the chowder. Stir it in and it will melt.

8. Ladle the chowder into bowls, sprinkle with more Parmesan and then top with the bacon.

This chowder just gets thicker and thicker as the tortellini soaks up the liquid so you may need to add more water/broth the next day.

ENJOY!

159_7513505982_1204_n
On the parenting journey with my daughter – a few years back!

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On this Mother’s Day, Oprah interviews media mogul Arianna Huffington on her extraordinary successes, revealing a personal realization on what it really is to be successful. Funny how these SuperSoulSunday moments  often come down to relationships. For Arianna, her renewed version of success surrounds her children, what it is to be a good mother to her daughters and ultimately the gifts her mother gave her that she will now pass along.

Regardless of the positive or negative relationships we  had with our mothers,  they left us with lessons. For some who feel abandoned and carry a life of heartbreak, the lesson is ‘I know what I will never do to my children’; for those of us fortunate enough to look back on our childhoods with fondness for the efforts made, we will try to carry some of that wisdom with us. Mother relationships are complicated and complex in an equally complex world.

What I know about mothering is that it has gotten easier as my children (and I!) have grown. Those early baby and toddler busy years led to young school aged lives outside the home – lots of driving and weekends filled with their extra-curricular activities! Teenage years were equally active as our home was the centre of sleep-overs, video game marathons and a fridge that could never hold enough food all with an extra emotional punch! But now as my son and daughter are into their early twenties working and going to school, our relationship has blossomed again. There is an ease to our conversations as I have transitioned from the ever watchful Mother keeping vigil for ‘teachable moments’ to a Mother that shares and relates on a more equitable, reciprocal level.

Because it is Mother’s Day, and because Arianna and Oprah inspired this personal reflection, I am going to share my Mother’s favourite soup recipe. This was one of her last minute, easy to make soups when making dinner for a family of seven (!!!) overwhelmed. And today I am christening it the Mother of All Soups!

The Mother of All Soups

Ingredients

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (to cover bottom of soup pot)

1 Onion chopped

2 Celery stalks sliced

2 Potatoes cubed

2 Tomatoes diced

3 large Carrots sliced

Handful of pasta (macaroni, penne or rotini)

1 can tomato soup

Water

Bay leaf

celery salt, thyme, any other kind of seasoning you would like!

salt & pepper

The Details:

1. Add olive oil to soup pot and turn on medium

2. Add chopped onion and cook until translucent ( 5 minutes)

3. Add celery, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and stir

4. Add the tomato soup, bay leaf, any other seasonings you have chosen and enough water to cover the vegetables. Stir.

5. Cook on medium-high heat until vegetables are tender – could take 15 minutes.

6. Let simmer and add the pasta.

7. Continue to simmer until the pasta is cooked. This will also thicken the soup.

8. Salt & pepper to taste.

Enjoy! This Mother of All Soups is hearty enough to be a meal. Don’t take my word for it, just ask my Father – he loves when my Mother makes this recipe!

Grandma and the Grown kids!
Grandma and the Grown kids!

 Check out all the SuperSoulSunday inspired Soup Recipes https://louisefagan.wordpress.com/soup-for-supersoulsunday/

See Oprah & Arianna here: http://www.oprah.com/app/super-soul-sunday.html