Bouktouf
Sometimes the best gifts are the accidental ones.
I don’t mean that as a platitude — the silver lining on this situation is not shining quite so bright this weekend. Literally, one of the best soups I’ve made comes from a gift that, a few Christmases ago, was intended for Dan’s brother but accidentally unwrapped and brought home by Dan himself. At some point it was discovered on a bookshelf, and at some point after that the error was pieced together. Then, at some point after that, Bouktouf was made.
There isn’t much about the making of Bouktouf that I can say to improve on the storytelling by the Soup Peddler himself, so here is his recipe.
It may be useful to know that he is a legend in a food proud town, and he describes this soup as archetypal among his many varieties. I will also tell you that it calls for onions, zucchini, and cilantro, all of which are in fresh abundance at our farmer’s markets right now, as well as potatoes, tomato paste, lemons, and more olive oil than I’ve ever put in anything. Do not be fooled by the simplicity of ingredients: this soup tastes better than whatever your imagination conjures up when mentally blending those things together. And miraculously, both hot and cold, the fully blended version:
tastes just as good as the mostly-blended-with-an-immersion-blender version that the Soup Peddler recommends:
That something tastes so delicious and is meant to be of blender diet consistency is nothing short of a gift.
