Minestrone with parsley root

more is more

My favourite way to eat this is with toasted pumpernickel or rye bread as a warming meal-in-a-bowl. My “smart way” to cook it is with a pressure cooker which retains more nutrients and saves on energy too.

Parsley and parsley root proliferate in this winter vegetable melange and imbibe the soup with startlingly high levels of Vitamin C and magnesium as well perhaps it’s mystical ability to transport the eater between earth and the spirit world (as the ancient Greeks believed)!

It is of course Italy that claims “minestrone” as its own and now Sardinia has claimed it as a “Blue Zone” healthy ageing staple but there are variations all around the Mediterranean, all with their own versatile and thrifty takes on a “cucina povera” vegetable stew.

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Turkish “tarhana” soup

The home-made tarhana adds a specific satisfying ever-so-slightly tangy taste and a pleasing gloopiness. Some say it is reminiscent of Heinz tomato and oxtail tinned soup! Wherever you hale from, it certainly delivers a bowl of hearty goodness and comfort.

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“Pekmez” Gingerbread

Naturally sweetened warmly spiced vegan gingerbread

Sticky. Squidgy. Shiny. A perfect gingerbread made with some Balkan pantry staples that give it a local-ingredient twist. It draws on the historic use of “vinegar and bicarb fizz” in traditional British vinegar cakes (“Vinegarism?”) which were popular in the second World War and with thrifty cooks, when eggs were scarce. The fizz-making will channel your inner schoolgirl chemistry lab shennanigan maker; so satisfying!

“Pekmez” is a delicious Turkish fruit molasses most usually made from grapes but also mulberry (“dut”) and carob (“harnup”) too. Being rich in minerals and iron it is given to children and nursing mothers. Mixed in equal part with tahini it becomes the breakfast spread “tahin pekmez” akin to caramel sauce and just as moreish.

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