My Mom’s Russian Vegetable Soup

The moment an Aeroflot flight attendant handed me over their “Asian vegetarian” lunchbox I knew my culinary deprivation started. I regretted not packing any snack in my carry-on and none of the essential Turkish pantry in my suitcase. This New Years I was traveling ultra-light. I still had a fever. To endure a flight, the Moscow metro and an overnight train journey I packed nothing but the presents and my mountain skiing clothes: not that I am such a skier, it was the warmest gear I had.

My mom as usual reassured me I did not need to bring anything. She made a shopping trip to source some red lentils (they are not so readily available in Russia) and chickpeas, my favorite proteins. Still, a week without pekmez, tahin, yogurt, home-made tomato paste, kekik and all looked gloomy.

Until I recalled that I had been missing Russian food, and for the ten days I would have a rare opportunity to eat cottage cheese, sour cream, fermented cabbage, buckwheat, rye bread and home-made strawberry jams to my heart’s content. But there were no sight of those in the airplane lunch.

In Russia you are in luck only if you are a carnivore type. Turks might have a reputation of huge carnivores, but Turkish per capita meat consumption (32.6 kg in 2012) pales in comparison with the Russian one (73.5 kg in 2012). If you don’t fancy meat, don’t come to Russia. A friend of my husband has got warm memories of her trip to Moscow 30 years ago when she enjoyed a VIP-treatment of the folks well placed in the Communist Party. She recalls, “Food was awful, so we ate caviar and drank a lot of vodka”. I picture her as stunning Tilda Swinton and her husband as Brad Pitt feasting at the empty table graced by the two said Russian specialties in the scene from “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”.

You should not blame Russians. We have lost (and were made to give up) much of our culinary tradition over the past century. Revolution, civil war, Second World War, Soviet rule and then Perestroika, all these events ensured that what we eat now bears little resemblance to what our grand-grandparents had on their dining tables just a century ago. I can tell you for a fact: they were less keen on sushi and pasta.

Thankfully, things are different in my family: my grandparents had taught me to eat healthy, cook wholesome and respect the seasons, and now my parents are following the lead. They want to know what goes into their food, and if something can be made at home, they would not buy it.

Interestingly, all my family members - each on their own terms - have slowly developed into the no-meat eaters: my dad who initially went raw, but then settled on mostly vegetarian, my sister who made her conclusions after a guided tour to a major pig processing facility she audited and my mom - probably, out of lack of options: even if she cooks meat, who will eat it?

Take meat out from Russian cooking, and what’s left? Bland boredom? Russian food has a reputation of being bland if you compare it with the Turkish fare; when I cook Russian I need to spice it up to please my Turks. It is true, Russian cooks don’t use many seasonings beyond salt, black pepper and an occasional bay leave. We also don’t have the variety of the cooking condiments Turkish pantry boasts. Plus, in winter you cannot even think of the luxuries such as green beans from the Mediterranean and artichokes from the Aegean: you are limited to the root vegetables, grains, dry legumes and whatever you preserved in fall.

So my mom’s cooking would not knock you down with a big flavor, but she makes delicious wholesome food that you’d want to eat every day. When I see her cooking I always wonder how the foods that are not fried and cooked with so little oil can taste so good.

This winter I watched her preparing a vegetable soup, a vegetarian cross of the two Slavic classics - shchi (cabbage soup) and borsch (beetroot soup). I could not believe my eyes: she just chopped and grated whatever vegetables she had at hand, poured water over them and then let them cook. No sweating vegetables, no using stock.

I have to say, mom does not lack confidence and can handle being questioned, otherwise she would not be able to stand me hanging out at her kitchen. I mean, you probably don’t want me in your kitchen when you are cooking unless you are ok being questioned and suggested a better way all the time. Because I often think that I know a better way (now you are not surprised, I was a consultant in my previous career and I am teaching in my current one). My mom was cool and told me to relax and just wait until her delicious soup was ready.

And delicious it was. Next day there was not much left (my mom believes that food has to be freshly cooked for every meal). And yet leftovers were even better with a slice of rye bread we baked after cross-country skiing in the nearby park. Dad even had a shot of his homemade hawthorn infusion before the bowl of soup. We gave much praise to mom, and I could not help admitting that her motherly love and kitchen confidence had won over technique.

I have chatted recently with a mother of three chefs who joined my cooking class. She was telling how much she enjoys cooking festive meals with her sons when they visit for the special celebrations. I asked whether her sons ever intimidate her at the kitchen. And she replied, never, and they always feel so grateful to make food with her and eat the meals she prepares for them. Here you go, the magic of mother’s food that always tastes good to you.

As I have been doing detox over this week I revisited the idea of my mom’s vegetable soup. I loved the quickness of the single step with no sweating of the vegetables involved, but still wanted to bring an additional layer of flavor. Which I did by creating the broth-in-a-flash, a fragrant stock that cooks while you are prepping the ingredients and then generously imparts its flavors to all the vegetables as they happily simmer in the broth. It is such an excellent way to make a fulfilling meal with the seasonal produce without engaging in the multiple preparation steps. I ate it three times throughout the detox prep and each bowl left me feeling immensely grateful for being able to make and eat most satisfying and nourishing meal. Thank you, mom!

My Mom’s Russian Vegetable Soup

I know, you can built tons of flavor by sweating your ingredients first, but what about skipping that step and making the broth-in-a-flash while you are preparing the vegetables and going hands-off from there?

It’s important to stick to the vegetable cutting suggestions below. Since we are placing the ingredients with different cooking times in the pot at once, it is very important that they are sliced in the suggested fashion; then your broccoli will not lose its vibrant green color by the time the potatoes are cooked.

You can use any pre-cooked or sprouted bean in this recipe if you can’t get fresh fava beans: chickpeas/nohut, mung beans/ maş fasulyesi, white beans/fasulye, black eyed peas/börülce are among my favorites. I like adding precooked beans just 5 minutes before the soup is ready or using sprouted beans for garnishing the finished soup.

Leftovers of this soup are beautiful as the flavors come out in full blossom after a night in the fridge, but then there is nothing like a bowl of freshly made vegetable soup with the young bold flavors competing for your attention.

Serves 4

Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min

Ingredients

For the broth-in-a-flash:
4 cups / 1 L water
2 tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp fine sea salt
good serving of freshly ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
2 tsp homemade dry bouillon (optional)

6 scallions, white parts
2 fresh green garlic, white parts
4 broccoli spears
1 medium potato
1 small carrot
1/2 cups shelled fresh fava beans

For garnishing:
green parts of scallions and fresh green garlic, thinly sliced
sprouted mung beans

Directions

Prepare broth-in-a-flash: Put a medium cooking pot on a high heat burner and pour in water. Add olive oil, fine sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, bay leaf and any flavor booster you like: I am using my homemade dry bouillon to quickly build the flavor. Cover with a fitting lead, bring the broth to a boil, reduce to heat to a medium and let simmer covered as you are handling the vegetables.

Chop vegetables: Slice the white parts of the scallions and fresh green garlic into 1 cm/0.4 inch long pieces. Divide the broccoli spears into 3-4 small small florets and chop the stem into 1 cm/0.4 in thick slices. Peel and cut the potato and carrot into batonnet sticks (0.6 cm x 0.6 cm x 6 cm or 1/4 in x 1/4 in x 2 in).

Assemble soup: Taste the simmering broth and adjust the seasoning, if needed. Place all the chopped vegetables along with the shelled fresh fava beans in the pot. Dial up the heat to bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a minimum to ensure everything gently simmers. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, or until potato and carrot are fork tender. Serve immediately with freshly chopped greens and sprouted mung beans if you wish.