Delishytown

Cooking is fun. Eating is funner. I cook, photograph and write these recipes. Everything I post on this blog I make from scratch using fresh wholesome ingredients. I've been cooking since I was a little kid. My recipes are based on trial and error, along with studying cookbooks, family recipes, blogs and cooking shows. Some of the veggies and herbs I use are grown in my garden. I'm working on a Delishytown cookbook, what!? and I recently started working as a professional food photographer. Yay employment. My other job is garden designer and I love it. I'm helping as many people as I can to plant edibles in their yards. Sustainability is delicious.

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Happy Thanksgiving Tumblrs! I hope this day finds you happy and cooking, eating and drinking with your friends and family! Have fun! 

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Sweet Butternut Squash Lasagna

This is delicious and healthy. Well, somewhat healthy, besides the massive amounts of cheese I used. But cheese has calcium. We all need calcium for strong bones and flavor.

This delicious lasagna was made from the last of our Butternut Squash from the vine that took over the back yard. I’m amazed how colorful the inside of this one was, compared to the last one I cooked. You can see the color difference from a squash from the same vine, same harvest day, which I photographed a month ago, which was a lighter orangey yellow. This squash I used today has been sitting on the sideboard for a month. I didn’t realize it was ripening more and more each day. When I cut this one open it was an amazing, intense deep orange inside. I’m pretty sure all that color translates to sugars developing, which translates to delectable sweetness. I saved the seeds to plant again next spring.  

Here’s how to make sweet butternut squash lasagna.

Cut a butternut squash in half. Scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Save the seeds, roast some of them, plant a few next spring. Season the cut halves with salt & pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. Bake at 350, cut side down, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Chop 1 small sweet onion and 1 shallot. Saute in 1 tsp butter and 2 tsp olive oil. Add a few cloves of fresh chopped garlic and cook for about 2 minutes more on low heat. Season with salt and pepper. 

Boil salted water for lasagna noodles. Cook noodles, rinse with cold water, drain and set aside.

Make a bechamel sauce by melting 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon flour. Cook these two together until the flour is just cooked, about a minute. Deglaze and whisk with stock or milk, about 1 cup. 

Scoop the cooked squash out of the shells. Discard shells. Chop the cooked squash. Mix in the onion, garlic and shallot, salt and pepper and a grating of fresh nutmeg. You could also season with a little smoked paprika here, if you want a bit of a smoky flavor.

Spread half of the squash mixture on the bottom of your buttered lasagna pan. Top that layer with some grated parmesan cheese and a little bit of the bechamel. Add a layer of noodles, a layer with fresh ricotta cheese mixed with a little fresh chopped parsley or basil, and some parmesan cheese. Add a little more of the bechamel, another layer of noodles, the other half of the cooked squash mixture, then for the very top layer as much cheese as you want and the last bit of the bechamel. I used a couple slices of provolone, about ½ cup of grated white cheddar and a big grating of parmesan. 

Bake the lasagna at 350 for an hour until it’s all bubbly and melted and  amazing. Yum!

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This is my new favorite side dish for Thanksgiving, last year every bit of it was eaten, no leftovers. This is the sign of a good dish! Happy Thanksgiving everybody! 

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Thanksgiving Sides: My Dad’s Stuffing

 Every year we have a big party on Thanksgiving and it’s a fun, massive, & delicious feast. 

Why can’t it be Thanksgiving right now? Answer: it can.  I got up early this morning and made this stuffing and baked this small dish for breakfast. It was so delicious! I put the rest in the freezer, in a large butter coated foil pan, dotted with butter, covered with foil. Weds night I’ll take it out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge, then pop it in the oven about an hour before serving. 

This is the dressing my Dad taught me how to make when I was a little kid.  This recipe is for both the carnivore version and the vegetarian version. My Dad’s recipe starts with browning Italian Sausage. If you eat meat, I would definitely use the sausage. If you’re vegetarian, you will love this side dish. 

In a cast iron skillet, brown about 1 lb of Italian sausage, (ignore this step for the vegetarian version) Add 1 chopped onion, 2 chopped carrots and 3 or 4 chopped celery stalks, 1 peeled and chopped apple, and about 3 tblsp butter and 1 tblsp olive oil. Season with kosher salt and pepper, a sprinkle of onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and a pinch of dried tarragon. Add a small handful of fresh chopped parsley. Add  1 tsp poultry seasoning or dried sage, 3 or 4 minced garlic cloves and continue cooking 5-8 minutes.  Add 3-4 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock, or broth and bring to a simmer. Add ½ cup chopped dried Apricots. Turn off the heat.

You can use stale bread for this, or bake a couple of cornbreads, or whatever you like. The easiest way is to use the boxes of bread cubes from the grocery store. I usually use any day old bread and combine it with the box bread cubes. Place two boxes of stuffing cubes in a large bowl. Pour the broth and vegetables over the dry bread cubes, a little bit at a time, tossing gently. Be careful not to overmix or it will turn into mush. Once the cubes are moistened, place in a butter coated baking dish, cover and bake at 350 until piping hot and delicious. Take the foil off the top for the last 10 minutes of baking. Yum! Happy Thanksgiving!

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Reblogging my own post, in case you want to try my stuffing recipe. Happy Thanksgiving Tumblrs!

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Smokey Turkey y’all. Merry Christmas! #food

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This is a delicious Turkey we smoked last Christmas. We first brined the turkey in a solution of ice cold salt water, mixed with garlic, brown sugar and honey, soak for at least 4 hours up to overnight, then rinsed it off and added lemon, garlic and herbs inside, and started smoking it early in the day. We smoked in an electric smoker for about 7 to 8 hours until the temp in the thickest part of the thighs read 160 or higher. Don’t go too much higher or it dries out. 

I will be doing smoked turkey pieces tomorrow, and finishing them on the grill with BBQ sauce. It’s my favorite way to make it, I also always make a traditional turkey in the oven, with butter and garlic and herbs.

I will post all my Thanksgiving food from past Delishytown posts, in case anyone needs ideas for sides and such tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving Tumblrs! I know this country is wonderful because I have so many wonderful friends and family here. Stay strong in this very difficult time where we now have Nazis being appointed positions in the White House. What the absolute hell? This is not normal. These past 2 weeks have been so hard, watching all of this nonsense. Hoping for a Christmas Miracle. 

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California voters, please be aware that Prop 64 seems like a no brainer, to legalize pot, but it’s got a corporate agenda. They will try to corporatize it in just a few short years. And they propose some high tech “seed to sale” tracking system, that’s not too scary! Happy Halloween indeed. You know they want to restrict people from being able to freely grow it because there are billions to be made. I find this very frightening. Be very wary of Govt. in your garden everybody. This is not good, we already know what Big Pharma did with Epi Pen prices. They are greedy assholes. No on 64. You can already buy as much medical marijuana as you need or want under current law. And that law would go completely away if 64 passes. No on 64. Please spread the word CA voters!

Here’s  a quote from this article about it here: “That’s why the big corporations are coming in and trying to get people to vote for this because it creates a for-profit system. If we wanna keep California a place that’s good for people to live, where people can support their families, we need to keep work and farming here.”

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SEED: The Untold Story (Official Theatrical Trailer) from Collective Eye Films on Vimeo.

This is a new documentary that a film school friend of mine, Taggart Siegel, made. This looks like it’s going to be amazing. I can’t wait to see it. It’s coming to theaters across the country.

 I love seeds! They’re fascinating and are the most basic part of all of life. Please check it out if you can. This is a very important film because there are greedy bastage corporations, who, for the past several years have been trying to patent the entirety of seeds. They’re doing it so they can control the food supply. If you control the food supply, you control the people. Fuck that. Check out this very important and amazing looking film at a theatre near you! 

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Potato and Squash Terrine

Yum, this is so good and so easy. This is like a potato lasagna. I’ve made this and posted the recipe before, but was not happy with the pictures. So I remade it this week and took this photo. I might photograph it one more time with a different lighting situation. 

This is an easy vegetarian main dish or a yummy side dish to go with fish or chicken or whatever protein you are into. It would be so good with ham. Potatoes and ham always go great together. I like this casserole because it’s mostly healthy, and uses end of summer veggies and herbs. And cheese! It has cheese! Yum, but it doesn’t have to. This could easily be a vegan dish if you don’t eat cheese, or you could use almond or cashew chz. I love cheese.

Here’s how to make this easy and delicious dish. 

Heat oven to 400

Slice 2 -3 large portabella mushrooms, 1 golden squash, 1 eggplant, 3 or 4 tomatoes, 1 sweet onion, 2 shallots, and 4 or 5 red potatoes. Grill the eggplant and portabella mushrooms in a grill pan or just sear in a hot skillet. These are the only vegetables I pre-cook for this. I do it to sweeten the eggplant, and I sear the mushrooms because it takes a bit of the moisture from them, so the casserole doesn’t come out watery. It also gives them a nice texture. Wash basil. We have a ton of basil growing in our garden right now. It’s so good on so many things. I scrambled some into eggs the other day with a little parmesan and they were the best scrambled eggs ever.

Here’s how to make this potato veggie lasagna thingy:

Crush 4 garlic cloves. Whisk crushed garlic in a dish with a few tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper, and 1/2 cup white wine. 

Grate your favorite cheeses. I used parmesan, cheddar and a little mozzarella. 

Layer the veggies one vegetable at a time, adding cheese, basil leaves and a tablespoon of the white wine dressing between layers. Season with an extra pinch of salt and pepper between potato layers. I use about 2 to 3 layers of potatoes in between the other veggies. It’s good to have an extra tomato layer in the middle too.

I try to make the top layer tomato with little onion on top and then a bit of cheese, that way you get a really flavorful crust. Make sure to save a little of the dressing for the very top layer.

Cover with parchment for the first 25 minutes or so of cooking so the cheese on top doesn’t cook faster than all those veggies. Bake for about 45 minutes total, uncovered at the end. Dress with a drizzle of good quality balsamic dressing. Yum!

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Easy Citrusy Garlic Sesame Grilled Chicken

Happy Labor Day Weekend hard working Tumblrs of the world. 

This is delicious and delectable! I love grilled meats! Yum. This is a quick marinade. You can put the chicken in the marinade in a ziplock, put it in a cooler bag with some ice, and then grill it fresh when you get to whatever BBQ you might be going to for Labor Day. I like to cook this recipe on the up high rack of the grill, over indirect heat, because the apricot jelly might make the chicken stick to a super hot part of the grill. That being said, more juice and olive oil than jelly and you shouldn’t have too much of a problem with sticking.

In a ziplock bag, 6 or 7 crushed garlic cloves, the juice of 2 whole lemons or 1 lemon and 1 sweet orange or tangerine, a big drizzle of olive oil, a tablespoon apricot jelly or jam, salt and fresh ground pepper, a teaspoon of soy sauce, teaspoon of sesame oil. Mix thoroughly and set aside a small cup of this for final basting on your chicken. You could add extra garlic to that final baste cup for extra flavor and health.

Add chicken pieces to the bag, mix it all together and let marinate in the fridge for about 20 minutes to 1 hour. Don’t go longer with small chicken pieces like the legs or the lemon juice will start to “cook” the chicken a bit, so it gets a weird texture.

Once it’s marinated, place chicken pieces over indirect heat on a hot grill, keep turning and cooking for 10 to 15 minutes, at the ned of cooking time, baste with the reserved marinade. Cook all the way through. I like to make rice with this and grill veggies and tomatoes to go with it.

Yum!

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Lemon Garlic & Herb Chicken with Lemony Carrots and Potatoes

Hi Tumblrs! Happy Friday! I hope you are all having a fine summer and enjoying the start of Fall. Summer has been going by so fast! I’m shocked that the kids are back in school already. Is that just a California thing? The days are getting shorter, and nights are getting cooler. Yay, I love it. I’m still cooking, gardening and writing as much as I can. I have about 3 to 5 vegetable gardens I’m working on, in various stages of growth, harvest, demise, replanting, re-seeding, watering, weeding, fertilizing, pest and critter control etc. Anyway, all that work makes me hungry.   

This is an easy dish to make if you have a busy schedule but still want some amazing home cooking. My husband and I always say “home food is best”. It’s true, not just because of price, going out to eat is expensive, but it’s way more cozy and relaxing at home. And you’ll always buy or grow better quality ingredients for yourself than a restaurant will, like free range organic chicken, the most flavorful olive oil, and organic vegetables. 

Here is an easy dish perfect for chilly nights when you worked your ass off all day long and just want to throw everything in the oven and watch some smellovsision. This dish is lemony, garlicky, and deliciously savory. It’s addictive. You will find yourself eating the lemon slices from the top of the dish, they come out like tangy candy.

This is easy, the whole dish cooks in one pan. Here’s how: Wash and dry cut up chicken pieces, add to a large baking or roasting pan. Wash, clean and cut 2 to 4 potatoes into large 2 inch -ish cubes. Same with 3 or 4 carrots. Peel 1 onion and slice into large wedges. Crush and mince 5 to 8 garlic cloves. Chop fresh parsley, basil, cilantro, tarragon, dill, whatever you have, or all of them. Add all of these to a large baking dish, drizzle with about 4 tbsp olive oil, kosher salt and pepper, and 1 tablespoon palm sugar or brown sugar, optional. Cut a large lemon in half, squeeze the lemon juice on, straining out the seeds. Slice another small lemon into rounds, try to remove as many seeds as possible. Toss to coat everything. Arrange the pan with the chicken pieces on top of the vegetables, and lemon slices on top of the chicken. Add another grind of fresh ground pepper and another small pinch of kosher salt. Bake at 375 for about 45 min to 1 hour until cooked through and amazing. Yum! Home cooking is the best. 

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Lobster Dog

I took this photo a couple months ago, working for a company called Bratworks as a food stylist and food photographer. It was a really fun job, but they had to cut back their ad budget, boo. Anyway, I still believe in Bratworks! If you live in southern California, they have several restaurants that you can visit. My ad man  boss who is also my friend, and I got to try a lot of the food while we were taking pics for them, and everything was delicious.

If you want to make your own version of this at home, here’s how: Get the best quality, nitrate free hot dogs you can afford, cook them in simmering water until hot, cook some lobster and chop it up. Make a simple tartar sauce dressing with 1/2 cup organic mayo, chopped sweet pickle, about 2 tbsp, a splash of white or red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, a tiny bit of celery salt, fresh ground pepper, you could also add some horseradish or cayenne if you like a bit of a kick. This would also be great with red cocktail sauce too. To assemble, start with a bun, which we toasted with butter, add some lettuce, then the hot dog, tartar sauce and then lobster, the more the merrier. Top it with chopped chives or scallions. Or just go to the Fashion Square Galleria food court in Sherman Oaks and order one there. Yum! 

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Sun Gold from back garden, volunteer mystery tomato in the front garden, growing wild all over the Rose shrubs. Both of these are completely delicious! #ediblelandscaping #tomatoes #garden #summer #delishytown

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Fig Jam

I have friends who have numerous fig trees, and they brought me a huge colander full of ripe black figs the other day. It’s impossible to eat all of them fresh, so I like to make this easy fig jam. The nice thing about this jam is that it’s not too sweet because you don’t need to add any sugar. Figs are naturally sweet. The only things I add are the juice of one or two fresh lemons, a touch of kosher salt, and water as needed to break down the skins, and get the jam to cook to a smooth consistency.

The hardest part about this is washing and sterilizing the jars and lids, and then processing the jars once they’re filled. It’s fun though, and feels very scientific.

I used very small jars so I could have treats to give to neighbors and friends, and so I didn’t have to break out the huge canning pot. I just used a basic spaghetti pot to process these jars, with a metal trivet at the bottom so the jars wouldn’t touch the pot and possibly break. 

Canning is a bit dangerous with all that boiling water and hot temps, so please be careful when you do this.

For the jam: Wash and chop fresh black figs. Add to a large pan, along with the juice of 1 large lemon, 1/2 cup water, and a pinch of kosher salt. Cook on low, stirring as often as you can so that it doesn’t burn to the bottom of the pan. I used my large, low Le Cruset dutch oven thing (we found ours on sale, this amazon price is way high) This type of enamel lined pan works great for this because all the moisture evaporates quickly and you can get a nice jam consistency, a stainless skillet would work well too. After cooking and stirring for a few minutes you can start to smash the skins down with a potato masher, but you don’t have to.

 Cook for about 30 minutes, adding a splash of water here and there as needed so it doesn’t get too thick and caramelized. 

Wash jars and lids. Start a pot of water to boil. Once it’s boiling, use tongs to gently place the jars in the boiling water for a few minutes to sterilize. Lift them out, and place on a clean kitchen towel on the counter. Fill the jars with the jam, carefully wipe the rims with a clean paper towel or cloth. Sterilize the lids using the lid holder thingy, use the magnet thing to place the lid on the jar without touching the inside of it, (this is to keep everything free of any bacteria on your fingertips), place the rings in the boiling water for a couple minutes, use the tongs to remove them and place on the jars. At this point you just want to loosely secure the rings, don’t screw them down super tight, that way, the air can escape from the jar in the water bath process. The air escaping helps to secure the lid nice and tight when you take them out to cool. I love Science. 

Reduce the heat on the stove for a minute so you don’t get too hot doing this part, use the jar lifter to gently lower the jars into the pot and onto whatever metal trivet or rack is in the bottom of the pot. Add as many jars as you can without them touching each other, or the sides of the pot. Increase heat back to boil, let the jars boil in the water bath for ten minutes to seal them. Once ten minutes (or longer for larger jars) is up, reduce heat, carefully lift out the jars with the jar lifter and place them on the kitchen towel to cool. You should hear each lid make a ‘pop’ as it goes all convex. This is one of the best parts about making jam, the pop is pretty cool. 

Sorry, This is so long. But I wanted to be detailed in case you have never made and jarred jam before. Enjoy! 

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Tomato bread bagels for breakfast featuring 3 kinds of cherry tomatoes and basil from our garden, yum! #tomatoes #garden #summer #food #organicgardening

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Homemade Mexican Food 

 I love to make serious Mexican food from scratch. I live and work in Southern California, so there are Mexican restaurants all around. Most of them are awesome. The ones I don’t love as much are maybe not my favorite because their ingredients aren’t the best, like cheap corn products, or questionable meats. So sometimes I like to spend a couple hours making homemade Mexican everything from scratch. Home made Mexican food, using the best quality ingredients, is delicious and easy to do. It’s a little time consuming, but worth the flavor explosion. The Mexican grocery stores around here are cheaper than any other grocery stores, so that’s good too.

The top picture was the other dish I made to possibly submit to the cheesy Chopped competition, taquitos, stuffed with chicken and poblanos, with ancho chili cheese dipping sauce, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and fresh guacamole. It was delicious. My Hubby and I loved every bite. I didn’t use this photo because after I made it, I saw on their inspiration page they suggest taquitos, so I changed my dish to Fried Chicken & Waffles. Thanks to anybody who voted for me. They don’t announce the winner of round 2 until June 27th. Fingers are crossed and all good luck charms in my small jeans pocket. 

The second picture is a chicken and bean tostada I made the next day because I still had a lot of ingredients. This dish has home made restaurant style salsa, avocado crema, and beans and rice. This was also amazingly delicious. Here are some of the basic components I like to make for a Mexican feast. 

For easy Guacamole: mash avocado, mince shallot, squeeze of fresh lime or lemon, chopped cilantro, chopped tomato, s & p. 

For Avocado Crema: Mix plain yogurt or Mexican crema with a few spoonfuls of the Guacamole.

For easy Salsa: Fresh tomatoes (or a can of tomatoes) in a blender, salt & pepper, 1 garlic clove, chopped cilantro, 1 seeded jalapeño or red chili flakes, lemon or lime juice. Blend until blended but still chunky. Add minced onion that you have rinsed in cold water, at the end. The rinsing is so the onion doesn’t take over.

Tomatillo Salsa: Roast hulled tomatillos in the oven, at 400, with a small onion, a jalapeño pepper, and 2 garlic cloves, for about 20 minutes. Blend the cooked ingredients with lemon or lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper. 

For Easy Taquitos: Roll your favorite cooked ingredients (chicken, potatoes, charred peppers, cheese) in a softened corn tortilla, secure with toothpicks, fry in hot oil for 3 or 4 minutes.

Easy Cheesy Ancho Sauce: 1 tbsp Butter, minced shallot, salt, pepper, 1 tbsp flour, cook until flour cooks, 1-2 min. Add 1 1/2 cups chicken stock or Milk, whisk until it thickens. Turn off heat, add 1 cup shredded cheese and 1 tsp Ancho chili powder. yum.

Easy Tostadas: Fry organic Non GMO corn tortillas in hot oil until crisp. Top with refried beans, cooked chicken seasoned with chili powder, cumin and coriander, lettuce,  tomatoes, guac or avocado cream, & salsa.

For easy Mexican Rice: Oil or butter in a pan, add chopped onions, chopped garlic, chopped jalapeño, and rice. Sauté all ingredients together until fragrant. Add chopped tomatoes, s & p, and enough liquid to cook your rice, I think it’s usually 2 c water to 1 c rice.

For easy Refried Beans: The easiest way is buy a can of low fat organic refried beans. You could doctor it up with Ancho chili powder, maybe a little garlic powder, maybe a little cumin, or just heat it up and let the rest of the stuff you made flavor the beans. The slightly harder, but still easy way, is to buy dry beans, wash them, cook in a big pot with several cups of water or chicken stock, cook for a couple or more hours, add salt and seasonings, mash. Add to a baking dish with some cooked rice, top with cheese, bake until the cheese melts. 

Garnishes for me always include shredded lettuce, chopped cilantro, chopped tomatoes, and a fresh squeeze of lemon or lime. Seriously Yum.

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Quatro Queso Chicken & Waffles, with Poblano Maple Salsa

I made this dish for a contest sponsored by Chopped and the Sargento cheese co. I had to make a Mexican dish using: chicken thighs, 4 cheese Mexican blend, corn tortillas, and poblano peppers. I made this: 

Quatro Queso Chicken and Waffles with Maple Poblano Salsa, featuring 4 main components, Poblano & Cheese Corn Waffles, Corn and Panko crusted fried chicken, delicious Poblano Tomatillo, Maple salsa, and a Quatro Queso Sauce, which has a little Ancho chili powder kick. 

Please click over to Vote for me, and for instructions on how to make this dish. It’s quick to vote, takes about 2 seconds. Thank you thank you if you do!  http://www.foodnetwork.com/sponsored/sweepstakes/chopped-at-home-challenge/gallery.html?ngxItemID=149161579&r=a20849efa1263661920c221aadd8ebbb

If I win, I get to go to NYC and they’ll give me money! I can use it to pay for groceries and kitchen equipment and such. I kind of really want to win.

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Please vote for me if you have a spare minute, you can vote up to 5 X a day. I wish we could do that in the presidential primary next week. If I win a trip to NYC, I will say hi to Ted Allen for you.

[delishytown]

Quatro Queso Chicken & Waffles, with Poblano Maple Salsa

I made this dish for a contest sponsored by Chopped and the Sargento cheese co. I had to make a Mexican dish using: chicken thighs, 4 cheese Mexican blend, corn tortillas, and poblano peppers. I made this: 

Quatro Queso Chicken and Waffles with Maple Poblano Salsa, featuring 4 main components, Poblano & Cheese Corn Waffles, Corn and Panko crusted fried chicken, delicious Poblano Tomatillo, Maple salsa, and a Quatro Queso Sauce, which has a little Ancho chili powder kick. 

Please click over to Vote for me, and for instructions on how to make this dish. It’s quick to vote, takes about 2 seconds. Thank you thank you if you do!  http://www.foodnetwork.com/sponsored/sweepstakes/chopped-at-home-challenge/gallery.html?ngxItemID=149161579&r=a20849efa1263661920c221aadd8ebbb

If I win, I get to go to NYC and they’ll give me money! I can use it to pay for groceries and kitchen equipment and such. I kind of really want to win.

[delishytown]

Organic Red Lentil & Vegetable Soup 

I love this soup, it’s hearty, savory, sweet and delicious. It’s seasoned with tangy, lemony sumac, one of my favorite spices. This is vegan, gluten free, and non GMO, if you use organic ingredients to make it. I bought the organic carrots, sweet onions, and celery at our farmer’s market. The split red lentils are from my favorite company, Edison Grainery. They have a delicious taste and a wonderful texture

This is easy to make and only takes about 45 minutes of chopping and simmering until all the flavors come together. 

Chop 1 large sweet onion, 1 large organic carrot, 2 stalks organic celery, saute in 2 tbsp organic olive oil or your favorite cooking oil. Add 2 big garlic cloves, crushed, a pinch of kosher salt, a grind of fresh black pepper, and 2 tbsp tomato paste. Continue to simmer until the garlic and tomato paste become fragrant. Add 1 bay leaf, 2 cups water, 1/2 to 1 whole tsp soup base depending on how salty you like it, 1 small can diced tomatoes, 1 tablespoon dried parsley, 1 to 3 teaspoons sumac depending on how tangy you like your soup, and 1/2 tsp coriander powder. 

Simmer and stir on low until all the ingredients tenderize and become sweeter. For more sweetness, you could add a drizzle of honey, about 1/2 tsp. For more brightness, add a squeeze of fresh lemon.

I love to garnish this with lots of sumac, so that it’s nice and tangy. My husband doesn’t love sour flavors as much as I do, so I add the extra sumac just in my own bowl and leave his more savory / sweet. Serve with toasted croutons and a big salad. Yum!