Returning after an extended break, I'm happy to welcome you to the new home of my newsletter, the SoupAddict Digest, on Substack.
Long-time friends: There’s nothing you need to do to continue receiving email updates from me. New peeps who have found your way here from Substack or my blog, SoupAddict.com: Hi!
Eventually, I plan to offer exclusive content and recipes found only on Substack, but that's down the road and it won't affect this newsletter or your free subscription in any way.
So, why the change? The big-picture reasons are complicated and involve some existential angst about what it means to be a blogger in 2022. But I'll skip all of that (whew, right? lol) and summarize it this way:
In the food blogging world, there are a lot of moving parts to posting recipes on the internet with the intent that fellow food lovers will find (hello, Google) and want to cook those recipes.
And one of those moving parts is sending out an email newsletter each time there's a new post. Now, I like writing newsletters. A lot. (As you can tell by the length of this one.) But I don't like the process of creating the actual thing, the digital document that lands in your inbox.
Email newsletter software is clunky and cranky. And expensive. Get this: As an annual expense, it costs more for me to send newsletters than it does to both host and tech-support my entire blog with its 14 years of recipes.
I've never included ads in my newsletters — and I'm not likely to start — but if you subscribe to and enjoy newsletters that do, have mercy on them. Email services are ex-spens-sive.
Anyway. Whenever the time came to wind myself up to do a newsletter ... well, the cons sometimes overwhelmed the pros. And being honest here in 2022, it doesn't take much for me AT ALL to change my mind about doing [whatever] and instead rewatching Ted Lasso for the nth time or catching up on any of the Avenger movies that I haven't seen (which is all of them).
Basically, it's "Oh, look, it's windy outside." *Grabs popcorn and remote*
Substack is easy to use and it doesn't cost a fortune. But as with anything new, there might be kinks to work out, so I hope you'll bear with me while I get everything on track.
Bonus: if you're already a Substack user, this newsletter will be as easy to manage as your other favorites.
Nervously holding my breath as I reach up to hit Publish, hoping that it doesn't send you six copies or grind to a sputtering halt with some unravelable error.
Here we go!
Mediterranean Vegetable Sheet Pan Dinner
We’re coming out of the Substack gate strong with the promise of the fresh vegetables that are on their way to our plates from summer gardens and farmers’ markets.
Roasting vegetables in the oven — or on the grill! — is an easy way to take their natural flavors to savory heights that even your kids will (hopefully!) love.
When served with rice, quinoa, or even small pasta, it’s a meal. I know: it will be a tough sell to your carnivores as a “meal.” But drizzle this cornucopia of vegetables with the accompanying lively tahini miso dressing, and see what happens. Also, go ahead and have guilt-free seconds. It’s veggies!
Since we last connected, I posted a couple of soup recipes on the blog that you might want to check out.
I had originally intended for this edition to be all-vegetable — and, well, I forgot that both of these recipes are meat-loaded. But life is often contradictory, so we’ll just roll with it anyway!
Chicken Chili Soup
Friends, this is the soup that really started it all. It’s the soup from my youth, the one that my mom made up to finish off stray ingredients leftover from other meals. Cooked chicken. A half of a jar of home-canned tomato sauce. Extra mushrooms. The mostly-empty box of pasta shells that’s not enough to make another batch of mac and cheese. You know how it goes.
It was one of the first soups I published on the blog waaay back when, and I recently refreshed the recipe and photos to reflect how I currently make it today. It’s filling, it’s scrumptious, and it smells AMAZING while it’s cooking.
Philly Cheesesteak Soup
It’s kind of a hobby of mine to turn a favorite take-out meal into soup. Not just adding water to a bunch of ingredients, but making it taste like the actual thing. Only in a big, comforting bowl.
In fact, I have an entire collection of these take-out-inspired soup recipes. This Philly Cheesesteak Soup was all I could ask for and more. A slightly fussy-but-worth-it broth (ingredient-wise, not effort-wise), topped with tasty cheese (fontina is my go-to) and seasoned croutons, it really is the sub sandwich in a bowl.
And now that I’m thinking about it this very minute, that hobby was probably inspired by my mom’s Chicken Chili Soup above, where she basically took her favorite chicken chili recipe and economically stretched it out into a soup that would feed seven hungry mouths, but still tasted as crave-worthy as the original chili.
Hm. I just learned something about myself, and you’re a witness to it. Lol.
With true summer just moments away, I wanted to give a shout-out to salad season. Yes, I have a soup blog, but I’m also a major salad fanatic. So here’s one of my favorite salad (and salad dressing) recipes, as well as pro tips for making awesome salads.
Summer Chopped Salad with Burrata
My favorite summer vegetables and juicy peaches combine with crisp greens, creamy, mellow burrata, and a dreamy dill dressing to create one impressive salad. Oh, burrata. You’re the boss-ass bitch of soft cheeses if there ever was one, and you chef’s-kiss everything you touch.
10 Tips for Making Sensational Salads
For many people, salads are a can-spare at mealtime. Ruined by lackluster iceberg-lettuce sadness at restaurants, and not-so-fresh options in plastic clamshells at the grocery, it’s no wonder that some folks give salads the Roy Kent side-eye. It’s unfortunate because done right, salads are not only nutritional powerhouses, but they’re also quite delicious and satisfying. Have a read; see what you think.
Until next time, friends, stay cool 🥵, stay kind 🥰, eat some veggies 🥕, and remember that soup is never a bad decision 😃.