The Careless Cook: Paper Towel Vegetable Soup

 For a dinner with guests I had roasted winter vegetables—turnips, carrots, rutabaga, Brussel sprouts and winter squash—and placed them over quinoa and as per the recipe covered it all with some homemade pesto as a dressing. Though enjoyed by all I had prepared more than we could eat and so there were leftovers which I then placed in a suitably sized container and stored in the refrigerator. Maybe I would eat the leftovers for breakfast, but probably I wouldn’t; except for cold pizza breakfast doesn’t appeal much to me during these days of my aging. 

            For the second evening and for the same company of guests I decided to make a vegetable soup. When I prepare a meal for some social event I want to be observant of all food sensitivities and preferences and a vegetable soup is usually a safe meal. I added chopped onion to this repast, and for those of us not gluten averse I purchased a baguette. And so I began the somewhat arduous process of chopping and peeling and dicing the vegetables and placing each in appropriate bowls to add to the pot at the correct moment. At approximately the right moment: I am a careless cook. I lined up the appropriate spices on the counter and placed the measuring spoons for easy access. 
            I began to cook: adding three tablespoons of olive oil to the pot (a lovely bright red La Creuset Dutch oven model), I sauteed the onion, peeled and diced two cups of carrots, one and a half cups of celery and after ten minutes added garlic, thyme, oregano and crushed red pepper to the pot. Of course, I teaspooned in kosher salt and some pepper. I added two cups of diced potatoes, a tablespoon (or so) of tomato paste and one can of diced tomatoes with their juices!
            The directions then called for two quarts—eight cups!—of broth (seemed a lot to me), to bring this mix to a boil, and partly covered, lower the heat and simmer until the vegetables were tender: about 25 minutes. Done! Then, when all should have been sufficiently tender, I added a cup each of frozen green beans, corn and string beans and cooked them briefly until they, too, were tender! Thus far this was a good looking and excellent tasting soup, though I have regularly noted that very many of my soups (vegetable, all color lentil, split pea, etc.) tasted remarkably similar. Then I remembered my leftover winter vegetables and quinoa from the night before waiting in the refrigerator; acknowledging that I waspreparing a vegetable soup and I didn’t really like leftovers (except pizza), and acknowledging that adding them to my soup might help unclutter my refrigerator, I dropped the contents into the simmering soup. I was very content and rather pleased with my effort. And I left the soup to mature!
            After about ten or so minutes of ripening, I added as suggested two cups of spinach, a tablespoon of red wine vinegar, and some fresh parsley. I grabbed my wooden spoon and began to stir the spinach until it wilted. But then, as I mixed the vegetable loaded soup, and even tasted spoonfuls as I did so, adjusting the spices to taste, I detected floating amidst the de rigeur  vegetables, an unrecognized ingredient. Indeed, I observed that there were several clumps of this rather pulpy mass of a pale, white color floating about in the soup. At first, I considered that what I was viewing must be cabbage, but then I recalled that I had not added cabbage to the mix. I grabbed by metal tongs (that I employed traditionally to serve individual portions of thin spaghetti) and used the tongs to pull the several mushy masses out of the soup. To my surprise and dismay, those masses seemed to be sodden masses of paper towel!! How they had entered the soup I hadn’t the foggiest idea. Nevertheless, I tasted the soup again and found it flavorful and certainly servable, and when after tasing I did not collapse into some septic state, I chose to serve it for the meal as planned.
            In fact, everyone loved the soup though I did not tell them until the meal concluded about the presence of the paper towels in the preparation of it. I assured my guests (who were also my family) that the paper towels were not marred by ink-embossing: the towels were solid white. And I froze the leftovers, sans paper towels for, yes, another meal. I have a partner who will help me finish this remaining portion. And I hope she is very hungry and not too discerning.