There’s a meme that circulates each year that very accurately depicts the bizarre weather we tend to have in New York. I can’t say if it applies to other places, but it taxonomizes a series of fraudulent springs before actual spring sets in — “Fool’s Spring,” “Spring of Deception,” etc. Needless to say, these are brief spurts of spring-like weather before the cold returns.
These scattershot weather patterns make it a bit hard to cook. Are we done with the oven, or do we have six more weeks of braising before ramps arrive? It’s anybody’s guess, really, on a week-to-week basis. That’s why I stick to this very simple vegetable soup. It’s good in both blustery and fair temperatures, and even better, it’s ruthlessly cheap and easy to make; the last thing you want to do is buy $60 of brisket before an unexpected 70-degree day.
The soup makes efficient use of plenty of onions and celery, very roughly chopped. These aromatics, plus the water from a can of chickpeas or white beans, are all you’ll need for a surprisingly flavorful broth; simply add water once they’ve softened in a generous pool of high-quality olive oil. I then add the chickpeas and, most often, a handful of baby kale — or any leafy green that you can quickly buy in the supermarket.
You can do this with chicken stock, and you can add a big grating of parm on top. You could add small pasta to it as well. But I really enjoy it as an austere, intensely vegetal appreciation of cheap produce. The broth has an almost medicinal quality, a perfect elixir to glide you from fake to actual spring.
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
1 can chickpeas (or white beans) and their water
1 Spanish onion, roughly diced into chunks
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped (leaves included)
1-2 lemon peels
1 bay leaf
2 cups baby kale, spinach, chard, etc.
Instructions
Add a generous amount of good olive oil to the pot. Bring the onions, celery, bay leaf, and lemon peel to a simmer.
Add the chickpea water. Cook until onions and celery have softened.
Add the chickpeas and baby kale to the pot and submerge with water. Salt generously and bring to a boil. Let cook until baby kale has softened to a dark olive green.