Celebrity chefs give soup to humanitarian cookbook for Syria

It started as a weekend project, driving a carload of raw ingredients to a Syrian refugee camp to make soup.

Now Lebanon-based food writer/photographer Barbara Abdeni Massaad, with Interlink Publishing (a Massachusetts-based independent publishing house) has released a humanitarian soup cookbook.

Food heavyweights such as Yotam Ottolenghi, Anthony Bourdain, Mark Bittman, Claudia Roden and Alice Waters contributed recipes.

Profits from the North American edition will be donated to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR to provide food relief for Syrian refugees.

THE BOOK:Soup for Syria: Recipes to Celebrate Our Shared Humanity ($37.50) is a jacketed hardcover book featuring about 80 recipes. Food shots take second stage to refugee portraits. The book is in bookstores or can be ordered from soupforsyria.com.

THE AUTHOR: Barbara Abdeni Massaad collected the recipes and photographed the soups and people. She’s a Lebanon–based food writer, photographer TV host and cookbook author who lives near a Syrian refugee camp. She wrote Man’oushe: Inside the Street Corner Lebanese Bakery and Mouneh: Preserving Foods for the Lebanese Pantry.

RECIPES I’M DYING TO MAKE: Iranian pomegranate soup, roasted pumpkin soup with cardamom, chicken soup with freekeh, spicy cabbage soup and cauliflower soup.

Aleppo Red Lentil Soup

Red lentil soup goes from pale orange to murky brown once you stir in a seven-spice blend and cumin. You can make things pretty by garnishing with croutons, garlic and coarse chili powder. Adapted from Soup for Syria, this recipe comes from Syrian architect/development consultant Aziz Hallaj.

Aleppo pepper is coarsely ground. You can substitute Turkish pul biber or Korean gochugaru, or even paprika or red chili flakes. Baharat (seven spice) varies by region and may include black pepper, cardamom, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, nutmeg and chili pepper or paprika. You could use garam masala, an Indian spice blend. Verjuice (verjus) is sour, unripe grape juice. Arz Fine Foods sells all of these things.

2 cups (500 mL) dried red lentils, rinsed, picked over

8 cups (2 L) water

2 tbsp (30 mL) fresh lemon juice orverjus/verjuice (sour unripe grape juice), or more to taste

1 tsp (5 mL) each: baharat (seven spice), ground cumin

Kosher salt, to taste

3 tbsp (45 mL) extra-virgin olive oil

12 garlic cloves, peeled, smashed

Garnish:

Toasted croutons

Aleppo pepper or paprika

In large saucepan, combine lentils and water. Bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium; simmer 20 minutes until tender. Add lemon or verjuice, baharat, cumin and salt. Cook until lentils have broken down and thickened into soup, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in small skillet, heat oil over medium. Add garlic. Cook until golden brown. Stir garlic and oil into soup. Cook 2 minutes.

Serve soup garnished with croutons and sprinkled with Aleppo pepper or paprika.

Makes about 6 servings.

Wine pairing: 2013 Dancing Bull Zinfandel (California)

#669499 $13.95

When I whipped up a batch of this soup, I was immediately taken by the soul-satisfying depth of flavour. Thunderous roasted garlic mingles with a wonderfully woody complexity from the cinnamon, cardamom, cumin and black pepper found in either the baharat and garam masala. Woolly warmth infuses each spoonful, which feels nourishing on its own; but a ladleful is a launch pad for food and wine bliss. The 2013 Dancing Bull Zinfandel takes you there. Intense stewed plum and black cherry depth nuanced with peppercorn, toasty oak, clove, vanilla bean and cream complement the dish, while the wine’s mouthcoating texture suits the hearty nature of stewed lentils. Together, this American wine and Syrian soup answers a primal hunger for harmony. OK, that might be a bit of a stretch; but the pairing is certainly a gentle reminder of the struggles at play in a less fortunate part of the world. It’s also thrifty, seasonally appropriate and scrumptious.