There’s Just Something About Soup!

I am delighted to share 11 pages of delicious soup recipes from your NOVA colleagues! The winner of a new set of quilted hot pads is Trudy Kuehn. They’ll go out in the mail this week.

There is just something about soup: it is a special kind of meal. It warms our hearts, holds memories, captures our cultures and brings us together. Many of the submitted recipes were accompanied by stories of learning, making and gifting soups in times of celebration and sadness. I am grateful to everyone who shared their wonderful recipes!

Over the past month, I’ve been in search of soup poems to accompany the NOVA Fall Soup collection and found one that captures both our current moment of social distancing and the network of connections that keep us together, somehow all swirling around in a simple bowl of soup.

Potato Soup

By Daniel Nyikos

I set up my computer and webcam in the kitchen 
so I can ask my mother’s and aunt’s advice 
as I cook soup for the first time alone. 
My mother is in Utah. My aunt is in Hungary. 
I show the onions to my mother with the webcam. 
“Cut them smaller,” she advises. 
“You only need a taste.” 
I chop potatoes as the onions fry in my pan. 
When I say I have no paprika to add to the broth, 
they argue whether it can be called potato soup. 
My mother says it will be white potato soup, 
my aunt says potato soup must be red. 
When I add sliced peppers, I ask many times 
if I should put the water in now, 
but they both say to wait until I add the potatoes. 
I add Polish sausage because I can’t find Hungarian, 
and I cook it so long the potatoes fall apart. 
“You’ve made stew,” my mother says 
when I hold up the whole pot to the camera. 
They laugh and say I must get married soon. 
I turn off the computer and eat alone.

I hope you are able to enjoy a few of these recipes—with friends and family, even if it’s via Zoom—this fall!

See all the NOVAFallSoups here!