Lemon Rice Soup with Celery and Parsley Gremolata
Lemon Rice Soup with Celery and Parsley Gremolata
bright soup for dreary days
things you’ll need: stock/broth, rice, celery (with leaves), lemons, parsley, shallot/garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper (optional: boneless skinless chicken)
pulled this straight from Ali Slagle at NYTimes Cooking. I didn’t have chicken, so I didn’t use any. It is easy and wonderful and basically 6 ingredients. What could be better to chase away a dreary day?
incidentally gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan
Chapter 252
It is not not winter and still too far from spring. It’s mud and blizzards that might just be rain and sometimes two pairs of socks. You’ve been combatting the chill with soups, chilis, stews, and perfect pots of beans. You are now almost entirely comprised of pantry foods, whatever you kept squirreled away in the freezer, and also take-out. In your effort to internalize sunshine, you comfort-buy any citrus you can sink your teeth into. No matter how many bags of grapefruit and oranges you consume, it’s still February.
Imagine a soup that is also sunshine. It sounds like magic because food is magic and you need all the magic you can get right now.
Chop a few stalks of celery and pluck their tender leaves.
Add the chopped stalks to a pot with two quarts of broth and ¾ cup of rice (unrinsed). If you have or want any boneless skinless chicken, add it to the pot.
Bring the brew ALMOST to boiling and then lower to a simmer until the rice is tender (or the chicken is cooked).
In the meantime, make a gremolata by mincing the celery leaves with parsley, lemon zest, garlic/shallot, and a bit of salt. Then, separately, juice enough lemons for about ¾ cup of bright sunshine and set aside.
If you added chicken, remove it from the pot and shred with two forks, and then return to the soup. Otherwise, keep simmering until the rice begins to fall apart a little, until it is somewhere between a rice soup and a porridge, however you like it.
When you are hungry and the sky seems to have moved from grey to darker grey, stir in lemon juice until the soup tastes the way you remember spring days, then salt to taste. Top with enough gremolata that you can almost smell a garden growing.
Counting won't make the days go faster (32 days), but this soup certainly makes the wait a little brighter.
More Things with Lemon
More Soups
Ras el Hanout Carrot Soup with Homemade Crème Fraîche
a snowstorm, a new spice blend, new soup tricks, AND crème fraîche from scratch
Sausage Kale and White Bean Soup (the sequel)
soup day is always a good day
break out the fuzzy socks and soup pots, it’s totally fall now
Broccoli Cheddar Soup to Stop All the Feelings
a cheesy soup that tastes like actual broccoli and not glue
Chicken Pot Pie That Is Actually Soup Served with Biscuits
feelings are so much harder than soup
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