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Lunch Break(down): White Bean and Spinach Soup
Working from home has its merits (working without pants) and its uglier aspects (when invited to leave said home for a pants-mandatory function, you might be horrified to discover that said pants are not quite as roomy as they were before your downward spiral into 4 o’clock beers and hourly trips to see what’s new in the pantry. BTW, it’s Doritos). But cooking a healthy, satisfying lunch is high on my list of what makes being a home typist so pleasant.
Who doesn’t love hot lunch? In conjures cozy images of your grandmother dishing out a bowl of nutritious goodness for your 8-year-old mother, when the streets were safe from predators and schoolchildren could walk home for the midday meal. Nobody wants a slimy ham sandwich from the cold case at Cumby’s or microwaved leftovers tainted by communal fridge odor and the wafting slickening insides of the ancient office microwave. What you want is a thermos full of homemade soup, warming both body and soul on a chilly November day. Whether you work from home, at an office, are on the road, at school, are retired or taking some time for yourself and goddamit deserve something hearty and filling during General Hospital, you are going to want to make Josephine’s Genuine Bean and Spinach Soup.
Here’s how I do it:
It starts with pancetta, 3 slices diced, tap dancing into fruity olive oil in the big ass stock pot. I added half a white onion and 4 cloves of garlic then hit it with a splash of Chilean white wine, diced carrot, celery, pepper, a little salt, the white beans and the water they were soaking in, homemade chicken stock, and, I will admit, one cube of (possibly chicken) bouillon. Let simmer for 2 hours, add two handfuls of torn spinach leaves and VIOLA, a soup so tasty your husband will eat it instead of his current go-to, chickenburger, and say “yum”. The only NOB amendment: Parmesan rind. Serve with a buttered slice of no kneed Dutch oven bread and you will take off your pants in satisfaction. If you are in a public work environment you may wish to share with your office mates, then you can all be centaur naked together.
Centaur naked. That’s hilarious.
This made me laugh many times. You are a gifted writer!
And the soup sounds divine.