Cooking with color

In the winter, there is no food more perfect than soup, as far as I'm concerned. My favorite is an escarole soup that my mother in law makes--she actually refers to it as schrole (but you have to roll the R) soup. It took me a while to figure out that schrole (roll the R) was actually escarole. Don't ask--there was a delish leafy green vegetable in my soup, and she was calling it schrole (roll the R). Made perfect sense to me.

Anywho. I started making it last year (not from scratch, like my mother in law does. Mine is more along the lines of Sandra Lee's semi-homemade. It's way super easy--stay tuned for the recipe). But when I add the schrole (roll the R), I don't know what happens, but it turns the most perfect shade of green--I wish my iphone captured it better.



It's so bright, and happy-looking. The weird part is, it doesn't look unnaturally bright. It just looks--well, good.

Schrole (roll the R) Soup
(note: I make it in bulk and freeze it in individual containers)

4 boxes of chicken stock
1 bag of baby carrots
1 bunch of celery
1 medium to large onion
A couple of large handfuls of cooked chicken (I usually use a package and a half of Trader Joe's already cooked-chicken)
2 heads of escarole
2 bay leaves
generous amounts of salt and pepper

(note: this is pretty much how the recipe was told to me--except substitute all those measurements, and add the word "some." "Some carrots, some celery, some onion..." Yeah. My measurements aren't looking so bad now, are they?)

Chop the carrots, celery and onion and put in a large stockpot with the chicken stock. Add your generous amounts of salt and pepper. Boil on medium-high for 30 minutes.

Add the chicken, escarole, and bay leaves, and leave on medium-high for another 30 minutes.

Remove the bay leaves, and enjoy!