Ingredients:
2/3 lb. diced beef (small dice),
1 chopped onion,
1 teaspoon minced garlic,
1 diced carrot,
1 cup diced red pepper,
1 cup small seashell noodles,
1 litre beef stock (chicken stock will do, too),
salt and pepper to taste,
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil,
50 ml. red wine (optional).

Recipe: Sauté the onion and garlic in a heavy saucepan and add the beef and vegetables. Cook stirring until the beef is browned and pour in the stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes. Add the seashell noodles to the soup and keep cooking until they are boiled. Add some fresh thyme before serving, if desired. Alternatively, you can boil the noodles separately, and add them to the soup at the time of serving. Cooking tip: 50 ml. of red wine can be added to the soup, 1 minute before pouring the stock, for an additional kick.

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Despite the fact that it has been unseasonably warm in 2012, February is still the time of year for comfort food, and we're making soup. Rugged, simple and full of flavor.

Because of its white bean base, this recipe is reminiscent of a traditional Tuscan bread-based soup called ribollita, which is Italian for "reboiled." Traditionally, the soup was made by reheating leftover minestrone from the day before, and thickening the mixture by adding vegetables and bread.

Like much of Italian food, ribollita comes from humble beginnings. Over centuries of poverty on the Italian peninsula, small farmers and serfs created soups, making use not just of water but also of bread and vegetable bases to create thick and delicious combinations. During the Middle Ages, meat was reserved for nobility and the wealthy. Peasants cooked with what they had; they combined leftover bread with any available vegetables and made soup. Its contents changed based on what was available.

This soup is hard to mess up. Incorporate whatever's left over. Every family's ribollita is different, and the same family makes it differently every time. Easily double quantities for a dinner party or save some in the freezer for a week.

The ribollita mentality is one the Batali clan heartily embraces, especially in the winter months, when we're burrowing in from the Michigan or New York City cold. The concept of cooking what's available and fresh is not reserved for the summer months.

This recipe for Broccoli and White Bean Soup is unlike ribollita in that there is no cavolo nero (often called Tuscan kale or Lacinato kale). This dish can be served in many ways. It could easily be a lunch in itself, or a nice antipasto. Low in fat and high in protein, beans are the choice ingredient. If you season and cook them properly, they're delicious, too.

Soup is essential to a home cook's repertoire because of its versatility. Soups work in every season. The broccoli used in this recipe could easily be substituted with kale or spinach, as the market permits. And it's easy to incorporate items that otherwise collect dust in your cupboard or mold in your refrigerator.

Basic ingredients like dry or canned beans and Parmigiano-Reggiano are items my kitchen is never without. Last week, we made a version of this soup with leftover roasted root vegetables and beets.

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There's a lot more flavor in this simple soup than the photograph can portray. Simple White Bean Soup is perfect to make ahead for work day lunches, no matter what the temperature is outside.  It's light and filling and totally healthy!

My only mistake in making it was that I didn't make enough.  The original recipe came out of my favorite Italian cookbook and is simply called, White Bean Soup.  I changed it to fit what I had on hand in the pantry and that's what I've listed here, my on-hand version.

Max's best friend, Eli, passed by the soup pot and asked to try it.  He told me that he was a Professional Taster and he could tell me from a scale of 1 to 100 if it would be a good soup.  Eli's 8 years old, and has a wonderful sense of adventure when it comes to food.  His Mom is SO lucky!

Eli's rating, after eating two bowls, was 1000! He crumbled a few tortilla chips on top and went to town.  He did recommend that I "add a pinch more salt, but it was REALLY, REALLY GOOD!" He also asked to make sure his Mom got the recipe so she could make it.  So with all that in mind, here's the recipe.

HERE'S ALL YOU NEED

2 (15-ounce) cans or 2 cups home cooked Northern Beans
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 (15-ounce) can plum tomatoes or stewed tomatoes
1 (15-ounce) hot chicken or vegetable broth or 2 cups hot water
salt & pepper to season
extra-virgin olive oil, to serve
Puree one can of Northern Bean with an immersion blender or food processor.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan.  Stir in the onion, and cook until it softens.  Add the celery, tomatoes, and cook for 5 minutes more.

Pour in hot broth.  Stir in the beans and the bean puree.  Season with salt and pepper.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes.  Sprinkle with a little extra virgin olive oil in individual soup bowls.

LET'S EAT!

1st AMENDMENT TO THIS RECIPE

I cooked up 2 cups of Cannellini beans with 4 garlic cloves and 4 small bay leaves in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes.  Cannellini beans are larger and held up better in the end than the canned Northern beans.  I wouldn't say they had distinct flavors, one was just larger & hardier.

I ended up with a creamier soup, because I used more pureed beans than before.  That was a good move. Here's a photo of the cannellini bean soup. I can tell it's creamier looking than the one above.  Can't you?

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This article intends to knell the time-less debate on whether humans are natural vegetarians or not. I personally had been a non-vegetarian for over 20 years and I can say it was more of a conditioned habit than a conscious choice of healthy eating. Eating meat is also something fabled to make you grow healthy and strong, something a vegetarian diet wasn’t supposed to offer. I must also admit that eating much meat never really felt healthy, more like a guilty trip gone bad. Then there was the weight-training community, which I used to be a patron of, who believe that meat is necessary to make up for all the essential amino acids needed by the human body.

The vegetarian movement shook things up, when people opted to go green in the light of animal cruelty and other ethical issues. It was funny how some people went green with their eating habits, just for the sake of being in tune with the trend.

I had my own growing concerns regarding the consumption of meat. Are animals really abused and ill-fed in those facilities? What about the people’s health condition who consume such meat? Do we really need the meat industry for humans to thrive? I often used to question myself whether we were designed to eat meat or not. While I am in no position to settle all the moral debate around this issue, it wouldn’t hurt to figure out the answer behind the big question: Are we natural herbivores or not?

I searched the Internet for some really interesting articles by experts, which led me to some interesting conclusions. This might get the non-vegetarian faction ticked off and hence I keep all personal opinions aside and only incline myself to the facts.

There were plenty of common characteristics observed between a human and a herbivore. I have mentioned some of the most relevant ones:
1) Intestinal length
The intestinal tract length of carnivores is 3-6 times their body length as opposed to herbivores who have 10-12+ times the body length. The likely reason being that digested meat cannot stay for a long period inside and has to be expelled. Humans have the same intestinal tract ratio as herbivores.
2) Stomach Acidity
The stomach acid of a carnivore is 20 times more acidic than that of a herbivore. Human stomach acidity is similar to that of a herbivore.
3) Saliva
The saliva of carnivores is acidic whereas herbivores have an alkaline saliva and so do humans. The saliva of carnivores does not contain carbohydrate-digesting enzyme, amylase- which both herbivores and humans do.
4) Sleep Cycle
The sleep pattern observed in humans resembles to that of a herbivore. Carnivores sleep the most.
5) Dietary Fiber
Herbivores need fiber in their diet to move food along the long and convoluted digestive tracts and so do Humans. Carnivores don’t require fibre in their diet.
6) Cholesterol
A carnivore digestive system can handle the cholesterol situation well, which humans cannot. Cholesterol is only found in animal foods and never in plant-based food.
7) Thermo-stasis
Carnivores deploy hyper-ventilation to regulate body temperature while both, herbivores and humans observe perspiration.

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There are a few people who know that cabbage is an appropriate vegetable for preparing soups. However, it is a fact that cabbage soup recipes are considered to be one of the most delicious and preferred dishes ever. Yes, it is an extremely surprising fact but it’s true and nobody can deny it.

Perhaps, what most of the people are saying right now is something like “Oh my God, cabbage soup…could that be really consumed?” Well, the answer is: “Yes, it definitely could be used” and not only that it’s actually a great way for diversifying the first dish of the dinner or lunch. Why is it good to be used as a first meal? Unsurprisingly, because cabbage soups are sour and they really turn the appetite on which contributes a lot to the better and faster digesting. Can anybody believe cabbages soups are that useful?

However, cabbage soup recipes are by far not the only ones underestimated by the majority of people. What else is underestimated? Undoubtedly, those are the taco soup recipes! Who would believe that something so good and delicious like a taco soup would be considered “disgusting” and automatically placed in the group of meals which one feels ashamed to consume! You didn’t know that there is such a group of meals, did you? Well, there is and there is no doubt that most of the people do not know it and cannot even realize it. Just think all about soups such cabbage soup, hodge-podge, scrambled eggs with tomatoes and peppers and many others- all of them are incredibly delicious but not popular at all! Why is that? Obviously, they have been put in the group of “shame meals”.

But let’s continue with the cabbage soup recipes- they really deserve acknowledgement and there is one thing for sure- the only ones who do not like them are the ones who have not given it a try! There is really no person who can remain indifferent to a portion of cabbage soup- it always makes a person’s body feel in a different way. For example, if a person comes back home after an exhaustive day and does not have a good appetite, then starting the dinner with a cabbage soup is the best thing to do. As it has already been mentioned, the specific sour taste of the soup makes a person’s appetite increase! It’s also a great way to forget about the tiring day. And all of that is owed to a portion of delicious cabbage soup. It sounds amazing, doesn’t it?

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IT'S renowned for its slippery, glutinous texture and its touted ability to ward off ageing and boost the libido. While shark fin soup will be a staple at Chinese New Year banquets in Australia this week, it is under attack from conservation groups.

And there are growing international efforts to ban the delicacy from the table for good. Hong Kong-based Peninsula and Shangri-La hotel groups have taken shark fin soup off their menus and Singapore's largest supermarket chain, NTUC FairPrice, will cease sales of shark fin products in March. The Taiwanese government, European Union and state of California have all announced bans on shark finning.

Shark finning is banned in Australia but there is nothing to stop fisherman slicing fins off carcasses once boats land onshore - so Chinese restaurants still serve the dish. In Sydney, the managing director of Fat Buddha restaurant, Kim Yee Joy, said tradition dictates that many customers have shark fin soup for Chinese New Year. ''It's one of our main traditions and has been eaten for many years,'' she said.

She recognised the ecological impact of shark finning, but said her restaurant ''must have shark fin soup, otherwise no one will come to the restaurant for functions, weddings or Chinese New Year. There is nothing we can do about shark finning''. But Mike Rutzen, the founder of The Australian Anti Shark Finning Alliance, believes it is ''not an excuse to say it's tradition''.

''Foot binding was also a tradition and it is no longer in practice because it is cruel and barbaric'', he said. ''Just like foot binding, shark fin soup should be relegated to the history books.''In an effort to ''encourage'' restaurants around the country to stop featuring shark fin soup on their menus, Mr Rutzen last year established an online registry dubbed the 'Wall of Shame', listing 184 restaurants serving the soup.

Mr Rutzen said the registry had been welcomed by some restaurants, which had explained they were ''looking for an incentive to take shark fin soup off their menus and now they had an excuse''. Among the high-profile names on the list are Fat Buddha in George Street and Golden Century Seafood in Sussex Street.The alliance, along with federal Greens MP and environment spokeswoman Cate Faehrmann, has called for legislation making it a criminal offence to possess, sell and trade shark fins.

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The campaign to reduce the demand for shark fins achieved its greatest victory to date on Wednesday when the Shangri-la hotel group announced that it would no longer serve the dish, which is decimating populations of the ocean predator.

The resort company, which operates 72 hotels, took the step just days before the Chinese spring festival, the main season for shark fin soup consumption at banquets in Hong Kong and the mainland.

It is estimated that between 26 million and 73 million sharks are killed each year to supply this billion-dollar industry. Almost a third are consumed during Chinese new year.

But conservationists' efforts to reduce demand have gained pace and prominence in the past year, particularly since WildAid international ambassador and basketball star Yao Ming spoke out against shark fin soup.

In November, the Peninsula hotel became the first traditional hotel in Hong Kong – the centre of the trade – to remove the dish from its restaurants. It was followed by 112 companies who signed up to a "Say No" initiative to remove shark fin from corporate banquets.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts has now gone a step further by unveiling a "sustainable seafood policy" that also includes a commitment to phase out the use of other endangered marine species, including Bluefin tuna and Chilean sea bass.

The company had previously taken shark fin off its restaurant menus, but offered the dish on demand. The move was welcomed by conservationists as a sign that some major corporations are starting to take sustainability more seriously.

"This is very significant. Two leading hotel groups have now sent a very strong message to the food and beverage industry and the wedding industry. I don't see why others don't follow suit," said Bertha Lo of the Hong Kong Shark Foundation.

However, there is still a long way to go. The foundation's recent survey of 64 leading Hong Kong hotels found that 98% served at least one endangered marine species. Almost all included shark fin, which is particularly popular at wedding banquets. Very few had policies for sustainable seafood sourcing.

Conservationists said corporate social responsibility programmes had improved in recent years to include energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions, but still usually neglected impacts on wildlife.

"We are seeing announcements one by one, but it is not enough just to stop serving shark fin," said Stanley Shea of Bloom Association, a Hong Kong-based NGO. "Hotels also need to put in place public policies on sustainable seafood sourcing."

The government in Hong Kong has yet to act, although surveys by the Bloom foundation suggest that 88% of consumers want the authorities to prevent sales of products that involve killing threatened species.

It is believed the mainland could move faster than the territory – as it has done with air pollution. But most hotels in Chinese cities will continue to serve shark fin as a traditional part of the festivities to usher in the year of the dragon on 23 January.

Among them is the Grand Hyatt in Beijing, which was offering a new year special spring festival banquet of 888 yuan (£91.50) per person, including shark fin soup. Outside of the holiday season, it offers the soup alone from 468 yuan (£48) to over a thousand yuan. "It depends on the type of shark. We have all types," a restaurant employee said.

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January is National Soup Month, which makes sense, considering the first month of the year is typically marked with below-freezing temperatures, snow and slush. What's better than a delicious, hot bowl of soup on a chilly day? A delicious, hot bowl of soup that you don't have to make -- that's what. This January Gut Check will revisit some of our favorite hot soups to help guide your belly through this month-long soup celebration.

Any restaurateur who chooses Middle America to bring to life a French/cajun-themed menu has an uphill battle ahead. We've all seen (or, more accurately, smelled) the rivers that straddle this city, days away from either ocean, rendering even the most highly reputable STL joint's "fish guy" highly suspect. Enter a craving gone rogue and find yourself at Lola (500 North 14th Street; 314-621-7277) for the seafood stew: chunky fish, shrimp, mussels and fennel in a tomato broth.

It initially looks less than promising. A handful of mussels and some other mysterious hunks of sea creatures float around in what at first appears to be a thin anemic broth, with an afterthought of dry bread perched on the side. Groan.

It turns out the mussels are tiny but plentiful; the shrimp have the opposite problem. They're fat and tasty, but came just two to a bowl. The chunks of fish fill the role that noodles so often do: nice, might be missed if absent, but ubiquitous. The fish acts as filler rather than lending any complexity. But the real surprise is the broth. The soup itself packs more flavor than the bisque-like bases that other seafood stews have in comparison. And, most notably, it's seafood in the Midwest that doesn't taste like seafood in the Midwest. Score.

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IP Double any of these soup recipes and then freeze the cooled leftovers in individual-sized plastic containers for easy defrosting.

 HEARTY MINESTRONE

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 ribs celery, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled and cut into...

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Did you know that January is National Soup Month? With the winter's cold temperatures finally settling in, what better time of year than now to enjoy a soup of your choice to keep you warm, cozy and nourished all winter long. A classic favorite is chicken soup -- and there are more ways to make it other than chicken noodle. Soupbox with 2 Chicago locations was in the ABC kitchen to share a few of their recipes.

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