Sunshine and Olly

by Jonathan Blaustein

Hi Everybody, how’s it going?

I made it home safe and sound from Poland, but only just. 

I pulled the car in at midnight last Thursday, (just turning Friday,) and by 11am was sick as can be.

I’ll spare you the details, but it was one nasty bug. So bad, at first I thought it might be food poisoning. 

(Note to self, next time, DO NOT eat the airplane tandoori chicken.)

But Jessie got sick three and a half days after I did, (it woke her up at midnight on the dot,) so it’s pretty clear that mixing germs with people from all over the world, as I did in Frankfurt Airport, left an unshakeable residue of some kind. 

And it fucking sucked. 

The nasty bugger ripped through my gut bacteria with a nuclear blowtorch. 

Days of crackers and ginger-ale, and even Wheat-thins were hard to digest, at first. 

Fortunately, I’m good at listening to my body, and after a few days, it told my brain that minestrone soup would be appreciated. 

It’s a specific ask, but a soup I’ve made many times before. 

(Having grown up on the Progresso canned version that my Mom always bought in the supermarket.)

The problem, though, is this illness has made it incredibly hard to digest food, and wants no part of any of my typical cooking buddies: chile, citric acid and black pepper.

Nor any flavorings or spices at all, really. 

Just the blandest shit imaginable. 

So how do you make that taste good?

I’m glad you asked.

The soup turned out so well I made it again yesterday. Only this time, I knew I’d be sharing the simple (but brilliant) recipe with you.

So I took photos throughout the process.

The big idea for this minestrone is that I used only two added ingredients. 

Two.
Total.

A hint of oregano, and kosher salt. 

Nothing else went in, beyond the primary ingredients. 

Fortunately, the vegetal combination was so on point, the kids didn’t even want to add parmesan cheese, or black pepper, when offered.

Everyone agreed it’s perfect.  

This is medicine food, and challenged me to leave all my tricks behind, and start over. 

(Just like rebuilding my gut bacteria from nothing.)

I even used a pasta I’d never worked with, and now it will be my go-to for this soup going forward. 

Let’s get to it.







You’re going to need two boxes of chicken stock, one can of tomatoes, a box of orzo, and then the vegetables. 

1 large white onion
5 cloves of garlic
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
1 big bunch of cauliflower 
1 green bell pepper
1 large zucchini 

The technique of the soup is made more efficient if you chop your veggies while you’re cooking. (But that’s up to you.)


Start by dicing up the onion.

Heat your soup pan, add some extra virgin olive oil, and then sautée the onions. Add a small amount of dried oregano. Take them further than a sweat, but stop short of a full caramelize, where the onions lose all texture.

Then mince the garlic, and when the onions are done, make a well in the pan, add some oil, and sautée the garlic, adding salt.

Next, dice and add the celery and carrots, again salting the veggies as you add them. 

Next, make a well in the middle, and add the zucchini. (Which I pre-salted. The only ingredient I treated that way.)

Once the zucchini has at least a little color from the pan, chop and add the bell peppers and cauliflower, adding salt as you go.

After all the veggies have been at least a little pan cooked, add the two boxes of chicken stock. 

Then the canned tomatoes. 

Then three cans of water from the tomatoes.

Add some salt, cover, and cook on medium heat for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally. 

(Adding salt to taste.)

Once the vegetables are nicely chewable, but still have firm texture, add 3/4 lb of orzo.

It cooks in about 10-15 minutes, and then the soup is done. 

All told, under 2 hours of cooking time. 

Yesterday, I kept eating off the pot all day.

Theo had it for breakfast this morning. 

It’s that freaking good.

My favorite part is you really taste each individual vegetable. They sing. 

And of course substitute veggie stock for chicken stock and you have a vegan dish.

Happy Cooking!