LENTIL, BROWN RICE, AND CARAMELIZED ONION STEW
BABY OKRA, LAMB, AND TOMATO STEW
GREEN PEA, LAMB, AND TOMATO STEW
LEMONY LENTIL AND SWISS CHARD SOUP WITH BULGUR WHEAT BITES
YOGURT-MINT SOUP WITH LAMB DUMPLINGS
LEBANESE-STYLE CHICKEN SOUP WITH LONG-GRAIN RICE
THIS SECTION IS ALL ABOUT SOOTHING THE SOUL FROM THE INSIDE out. And what’s more soothing than a big pot of steaming soup? The winters are very cold and very long both in Upstate New York and in Lebanon. Since childhood, one of my favorite ways of shaking off the finger-tingling chill has been a bowl of bubbling soup or stew. Walking home from school in the knee-high mounds of snow, I knew my Mama would have a big pot of soup steaming on the stovetop, whether Bemyeh b Lahem, a baby okra, lamb, and tomato stew, Mjadrah, a hearty lentil soup, or Djej wa Rez, our aromatic Lebanese-style chicken soup. In Lebanese cuisine, though, we don’t limit our enjoyment of soup just to the wintertime: I love to make lemony Kibbet Raheb swimming with hearty bulgur bites in the spring, and to showcase summer squash, my Makbouseh squash stew in summer. One of my family’s favorite celebratory soups is Shish Barak, a luscious, silky yogurt-base soup packed with succulent lamb dumplings. Whether you’re thawing out your friends or family after a freezing day, or embracing fresh vegetables sprouting from the ground, your soup options are endless in this chapter!