Israeli Couscous Soup

It looks like we will have winter temps tomorrow. I’m so excited! Temps have been in the 70s lately. I feel like I have been cheated out of a winter. The precipitation levels are quite pathetic. The mountain resorts have really suffered. Some winters we have so much snow that it takes up all the good parking spots in the parking lot.

The 2006-2007 winter shut down the city for a few days. I managed to get on a plane the night before the blizzard. I didn't even realize that Denver was covered in over two feet of snow. The storm came in quick and dumped the snow in just a few hours. And because I am usually away that time of year, I also missed the second blizzard on the December 28th/29th. My friends emailed me tons of pictures of their cute dogs playing in the snow. When I came back a few weeks later, I saw the massive mounds of snow everywhere. I felt a little cheated. I missed the blizzard I've been waiting for.

I took this picture from my bedroom window. This was a few days after the second blizzard. The seats are Coors Field still had snow on them.

In the years since moving to Denver, I've been waiting and waiting for a blizzard. I missed the 2003 blizzard by a few month. I believe that in Denver, blizzards come in cycles of about 3-4 years. I was hoping we would get a blizzard this March. I said March 15th because I think it sounds sort of cool to have a blizzard on ides of March.

The problem with Denver is that the city does not take snow removal very seriously. The blizzard that shut down the city shouldn’t have. If we had proper snow removal like most major cities, we would be able to get places. Denver has this idea that the sun will come out and take care of it all. I’ve lived in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Do those states come to a screeching halt when it snows? No. Plows are out all night.

Since it will be 39 degrees tomorrow (according to my car thermometer, it was 84 degrees today), I decided it was time to make this wonderful Israeli Couscous soup that a fellow SoupGroup member made a while back. I’ve been hounding her for the recipe and she finally sent it a few weeks ago. I'm also trying to make something light since we had dinner at Brasserie Felix last night. I ordered the duck breast and duck confit in an orange gastrique. I didn't eat the duck confit. I never eat the duck confit because I find it too salty for my taste. We also ordered a basket of pommes frites.

Israeli couscous is not the same as the north African couscous that most people are used to eating. It is very different. Israeli couscous is a pasta made with wheat flour but unlike regular pasta, the couscous is shaped into tiny little balls and then toasted. The taste is smooth, nutty, and delicious.

This is the only brand I was able to find. They do not sell Israeli couscous in the bulk bins.

I didn't exactly follow the recipe. I omitted the cilantro and the mint. I don't recall seeing cilantro or mint in the SoupGroup version. I did add a little dried parsley for the green color. I think dried parsley has very little flavor but it does add a bit of color. I dried the parsley myself. I also toasted the cumin in the pot before adding the stock. I didn't season the soup with salt, pepper, and cayenne until the very end.

Tomato Soup with Israeli Couscous (adapted from Jewish Traditions Cookbook)
Serves 4 to 6

30 ml/ 2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1-2 carrots, diced
400 g/14 oz can chopped tomatoes
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ liters/2 ½ pints/6 cups chicken broth (veggie broth can be substituted)
200g-250g/7-9 oz/1-1 ½ cups Israeli couscous (came in 8.8 oz package)
2-3 mint sprigs, chopped, or several pinches of dried mint (omitted)
1 ½ ml/¼ tsp ground cumin
1/4 bunch fresh coriander or about 5 sprigs, chopped (omitted)
cayenne pepper, to taste
salt and ground black pepper
dried parsley, for garnish

1. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion and carrots, and cook gently for about 10 minutes until softened. Add the tomatoes, half the garlic, the stock, couscous, mint, ground cumin and coriander, with the cayenne pepper, salt and pepper to taste.

2. Bring the soup to the boil, add the remaining chopped garlic, then reduce the heat slightly and simmer gently for 7-10 mins, stirring occasionally, or until the couscous is just tender. Serve piping hot, ladled into individual serving bowls.

**If you buy the chicken stock in the 32 ounce cartons like I do, you will need 1 ½ cartons. Use the other ½ to thin out the soup as the couscous starts to absorb more water.

This recipe makes exactly 2 quarts.Pacific Natural Foods chicken broth is the brand that I use in many of my soup recipes. I buy them by the case from Costco. I think they come to just over $1.30 per carton. I go through a lot of chicken broth for SoupGroup. I also use it for my curries when I don't want to use a whole chicken.

My pepper grinder was out of peppercorns. I went to look for the container of peppercorns in my pantry and I couldn't find it. I thought I was out of peppercorns. I swore I bought a huge container at Costco. I finally found it with the other spices that I gathered for my spice re-org project that I am just not motivated to complete right now. Why did they package it in a container with a spice sifter? I couldn't get the peppercorns out of the container and when I tried to pry the sifter off, the peppercorns went flying.