Matzo Ball Soup is Not Just for Passover!

Matzo ball soup was one major benefit of converting to Judaism before I married my husband. It’s traditionally eaten during Passover (in the spring), but I find that it makes the perfect food for a cold winter day.

Matzo ball soup isn’t much work to make, but it does require a good amount of time, especially if you are making the soup broth from scratch, so it’s best to start earlier in the day or the night before if you want to eat it for dinner. Most of that time is just waiting, so you can get plenty of other things done!

I didn’t include instructions for the soup itself. Any basic chicken or veggie broth will work. I make mine by simmering a whole chicken for a few hours in salted water until the meat is cooked, removing the meat, and then cooking the bones for another few hours. Then I refrigerate the broth, skim off the fat, and the next day I add carrots, onions, celery, and parsnips, and sometimes soy sauce or fresh herbs, and cook for about an hour until everything is cooked and it’s ready to serve.

Dairy-Free Cooking: Creamy Peanut Soup

Since the winter cold hit, I’ve been craving a nice creamy, cheesy soup. Unfortunately, I can’t have any milk, butter, or cheese thanks to my daughter’s dairy allergy. So when my sister posted a recipe for peanut stew on her blog, I knew I had to make it.

I improvised a little (I don’t believe it counts as real cooking if you just follow the recipe!) and made a few changes so it was more like the fabulous African Peanut Soup that my favorite college dining hall used to make. That stuff was so good that whenever they made it, some of my friends would buy as much of it as they could carry back to their dorm rooms. And then come back and get more for dinner.