On a cold and blustery Monday night in early February I was invited to attend a unique event on behalf of my day job. After work I made my way down to the fantastic Great Cooks on Eight cooking studio next to the old Arcadian Court in the flag ship location of the Hudson's Bay on Queen Street for "Soup Sisters".
Soup Sisters was founded in 2009 by Calgarian Sharon Hapton who had a very simple belief in the power of soup "as a nurturing and nourishing gesture that could make a tangible difference". Hapton believed that two of societies most prevalent issues, domestic abuse and youth homelessness would benefit from the care and warmth that comes in a bowl of soup. Delicious homemade soup is now being delivered to 20 residential shelters across the country.
From the Soup Sisters website:
Hundreds of people come together across the country to produce over 8,000 servings of fresh and delicious soups for women and children each month. Since March of 2009, over 60,000 containers of soup have been delivered to shelters from coast to coast, and there is a growing network of 4,500 Soup Sisters participants across the country.
The concept is simple. Soup Sisters (and they even have Broth Brothers groups for men who want to get involved) local chapters run regular programs where participants pay a $50 registration fee to participate in a soup-making event at a local professional kitchen under the guidance of a chef facilitator. Each event produces approximately 150-200 servings of soup that are delivered fresh to local shelters. Events are social evenings filled with lively conversation, recipe and skills sharing, chopping, laughter and warm kitchen camaraderie that culminates in a simple, sit-down supper of soup, salad, bread and wine for all participants.
The people that come to Soup Sisters vary - on my first night there was a group of girlfriends who wanted a ladies night out and a corporate group from Starbucks Finance Department there as a team building activity.
The Great Cooks on Eight Toronto Satellite location provides soup to Red Door Family Shelter, Redwood and most recently the YWCA Toronto and our 1st Stop Woodlawn Shelter.
1st Stop gives women 16 years of age and older who are homeless or in immediate crisis free shelter and support. We provide on-site trauma and mental health support, addictions counselling, parent support and employment counselling, as well as basic necessities upon arrival (ex. toiletries, diapers, clothing). Through our career services and counselling programs, women get out of crisis and move on to independence and safety.
Everyone is divided into groups. This is my groups station. We are making sweet potato, corn and red pepper soup. We're given the recipe and under the direction of the Chefs and volunteer facilitators get down to business breaking down a huge pile of sweet potatoes, onion and peppers.
Getting our instructions and learning about the shelters that will benefit from the groups efforts. I hate public speaking but this crowd was so welcoming I completely forgot. You can also see some of the other stations ready to go.
That's a whole lot of butternut squash to fill those huge pots. Cooking on that scale is to say the least - challenging. I'm used to making my biggest pot of soup and it feeds the Hubs and I for a week. But these pots are massive. Thankfully these professional cooktops are up for the job!
Overseeing the enormous pot of minestrone.
Removing the Bay leaves from the Moroccan Red Lentil soup.
While we are cooking our soup the studio is transformed for our dinner.
For dinner we get to sample Spicy Jamaican Pumpkin Soup. It's one of their signature recipes and for good reason. It is amazing. No wonder it's requested by the kitchen staff and residents at 1st Stop!
By the time we've finished our dinner the soup is finished cooking and it's time to pack it up.
All soup is labeled with ingredients and groups come up with names for their teams - my favourite was the group who named themselves The Spice Moms.
This is about half the soup packed, it will be delivered to the shelters the next morning and be eaten or distributed by lunch!
The amazing and dedicated Soup Sisters volunteers and chefs from Great Cooks on Eight who make the events run so smoothly. Thank you all for a great evening.
I even talked the chefs into sharing their recipe for the pumpkin soup (actually it wasn't hard all participants were given a CD with all the recipes at the end of the night).
You have to make it. It's vegetarian, would convert easily to vegan and with it's spice and lime will make you feel fantastic.
Spicy Jamaican Pumpkin Soup
Correction - I'd originally said the Jamaican Pumpkin Soup recipe came from the folks at Great Cooks on Eight but in fact the recipe is courtesy of Christine Cushing, Cookbook Author and host of Fearless in the Kitchen.
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp butter (25 ml)
1 Tbsp olive oil (15 ml)
2 large shallots, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 bay leaves
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1/8 tsp ground allspice
¼ fresh scotch bonnet chile, chopped (or chipotle chile)
4 cups chicken stock (1 L)
to taste salt & freshly cracked black pepper
1 lb Caribbean pumpkin (about 4 cups chopped) or butternut squash
Juice of half a lime
½ cup coconut milk, optional (125 ml)
1. In a large pot, heat butter and olive oil on medium high. Add shallots, green onions, carrot, celery and garlic and sauté until soft and just golden.
2. Add remaining ingredients, except lime juice and coconut milk.
3. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, for about 45 minutes or until pumpkin is tender. Season the soup with salt and pepper.
4. With a hand blender, purée until smooth. Return to medium heat and bring to boil.
5. Add the lime and coconut milk and simmer for a few minutes to develop flavour.
You can make this soup anytime Jamaican pumpkin is available. It can usually be found at Caribbean specialty stores or markets. You can also use hard winter squashes like butternut squash as a substitute. Take it is easy on the Scotch bonnet chile. It's smoking hot!
