Sharon Hapton - The soup sisters cookbook: 100 simple recipes to warm hearts... One bowl at a time

Copyright 2012 Sharon Hapton
Illustrations copyright 2012 Pierre A. Lamielle All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisheror in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agencyis an infringement of the copyright law. Appetite by Random House colophon is a registered trademark Library and Archives of Canada Cataloguing in Publication is available upon request eISBN: 978-0-449-01560-5 recipe Copyright 1997 dee Hobsbawn-Smith Cover: Leah Springate
Cover image (and ): Shallon Cunningham, Salt Photography
Food photography and styling: Julie Van Rosendaal Published in Canada by Appetite by Random House, a division of Random House of Canada Limited www.randomhouse.ca v3.1 I am a soup maker. For most of my adult life, I have taken care of family and friends with soup. If someone was down or needed some extra care, I would show up at their door, most often unannounced, with soup.

I knew that this simple gesture had the power to change their day, and in the process of making the soup, I was letting them know how much I cared. The whole exchangethe soup making, the visit, the comfort it provided and appreciation it returnedcreated a fulfilling cycle of giving. Coming to this realization of my identity as soup maker was a process in and of itself. It all started back when I was facing the prospect of an empty nest. The time was fast approaching and was going to coincide with a milestone birthday (my 50th). I had spent a lot of time thinking about what it was going to feel like and how exactly my life would change.

I didnt have any huge obstacles to overcome other than the ones I was beginning to create in my own mind. I thought that I needed to reinvent myself and create some greater meaning in who I was and what I did. My husband and I had a wonderful family business that we had grown together, but after 30 successful years, it didnt require all that much of me anymore. I spent the next two years writing down various ideas, so that when the time came for my kids to leave for university, I wouldnt suddenly be faced with what I referred to as my giant nurture void. One day, as I realized that I wasnt ever really going to be a ballerina (or follow any other childhood fantasy career that I may have secretly longed for), I had a giant epiphany. I was looking everywhere but the obvious place.

I realized that the one thing I had quite literally been doing for as long as I could remember was making soup for the people I cared about. When a close artist friends house burned to the ground, I showed up every week at her temporary home with different beautiful colors of soup. When another girlfriends husband was suffering through chemotherapy, I took them nourishing soup. When another friend was beyond stressed by a personal crisis, I brought soup so she could serve it to her family and know that she was still taking care of them. It was a quiet gesture that delivered a resounding message of love and concern. I had seen the results over and over of the power of soup and the profound comfort contained in every delivery.

So I asked myself, Why couldnt this be bigger? Why couldnt people everywhere be making soup to nurture and nourish others? That day, when the inspiration hit during one of my regular solo walks, I came home and asked my then 18-year-old daughter what she thought of the name Soup Sisters. She let me know in no uncertain terms that it was incredibly corny! I had an action plan simmering for my 50th birthday. The beauty of getting older is that we finally begin to overcome our fear about the success or failure of an idea. Finally, we can shed our worries about how something looks or doesnt look to others and feel emboldened to be our authentic selves. So, on my 50th, I invited 30 girlfriends to a soup-making birthday party held at a professional culinary facility and invited the executive director of our local womens shelter to speak, as we were going to donate soup (lots of it) to the women and children in the shelter. I had seen the results over and over of the power of soup and the profound comfort contained in every delivery. Something completely magical took place in the room that night. I had seen the results over and over of the power of soup and the profound comfort contained in every delivery. Something completely magical took place in the room that night.

From that moment, we were all given a greater purpose to make the best soup that we could for people whom we didnt know, whose lives had been affected by domestic abuse and family violence. Our soup would be delivered to women who may have been the ones providing nurturing meals for their family. We were together making soup as a way of reaching out to them. We would prepare that nourishing meal for their family because they werent able to make it themselves. Ill never forget when the time came to ladle hundreds of bowls of soup that would be delivered to the shelter the next day. I was absolutely awestruck by what we had accomplished, and all while we were having the greatest time together.

The snapshot in my mind of that moment, which I have now looked at hundreds of times, always has the same effect on me. Its our way of making a gesture of care and concern at the grassroots level for the many women and children who suffer abuse. We are letting them know that we are taking a stand against family violence and domestic abuse while offering them the comfort and healing warmth that comes from wholesome soup. There is a heartfelt message with that bowl of soup that says, We care. You arent alone and you have the support of a community on your journey toward a life free from abuse. Here was the recipe for Soup Sisters.

All it took was for me to realize that I didnt need to look beyond my truest self, that what I was looking for had always been inside me just waiting to be recognized. After all, I am, and always have been, a soup maker. Yours in soup, Sharon Hapton
Founder, Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers

W elcome to The Soup Sisters Cookbook, a collective melting pot that combines favorite recipes from many of our Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers volunteers with recipes from more than 50 chefs and food professionals. This book is chock-full of fantastic recipes, stirred together to create a heartwarming collection that was made possible only through the kindness of our contributors. In here, youll find soups for fall, winter, spring and summer, so that, whatever the season, you know theres a soup to suit. To fit all the recipes into this one big book weve streamlined them so that most fit on one page.