June is not soup weather. Let me rephrase that: June shouldn't be soup weather. But here in Seattle, we roll with the punches. This year, June is soup weather. And, if I've learned anything from living 30 odd (and they have been odd) years in the Pacific Northwest, the best way to deal with the weather is to get into it. Raining again? For the tenth day in a row? In the supposed summer? Turn on the heat, pull out the wool socks, put the kettle on, and cozy up with a good book. In other words: embrace the weather. Which brings me back to soup.

Working from home affords me a small luxury: I get to cook myself lunch every day. That may not sound luxurious, but after years of brown-bagging it, eating a hot meal at lunch is a step up. Yesterday, in honor of the rain and a visit from my friend OCD, I whipped up a simple, easy, affordable soup for two. The end result is thick, hearty, and reasonably low fat.

Lunch Soup
Serves 2-3
prep time: 10 minutes
time on stove: 1 hour and 3 minutes

you will need:
2 tbsp. of olive oil
1 tsp. of dill
basil (5 leaves minced fresh or 1/2 tsp. dry)
onion chives (chopped)
paprika to taste
pepper to taste (I was liberal in my application)
salt to taste
1/2 onion (chopped)
5 cloves of roasted garlic (chopped)
3 small potatoes (chopped)
3 mushrooms (sliced)
1 cup of canned corn
1 pint of chicken broth
2 pints of water
1/4 cup of white wine
1 carrot (minced)

1. Heat oil at medium heat in medium sauce pan.
2. Add onions, potato, and mushrooms.
3. Add dill, paprika, salt, pepper, garlic, and wine.
4. Stir occasionally. Cook until onions are translucent.
5. Add broth and water.
6. Cook for one hour, stirring occasionally.
7. Add carrots and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
8. Serve, sprinkled with chives.

A grilled cheese sandwich, fried in butter to crispy perfection and sliced diagonally, sits on a wooden plate on the bright oil cloth table. Next to the sandwich, a bowl of Campbell's tomato soup is classic, placid, delicious. Outside the rain falls on the Oregon woods. I am six years old.

My mother made me grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell's tomato soup, and the meal still seems like the ultimate comfort food. In theory, I love Campbell's tomato soup. But I can't remember the last time I bought a can of Campbell's or any other type of canned soup. I detest the metallic can flavor, most canned soups have questionable ingredients (hello, high fructose corn syrup), and I consider making soups from scratch a form of leisure entertainment.

Enter the flu and my friend Cornelius, who brought me a can of Amy's Thai Coconut Soup, claiming it made him feel better the last time he was sick. Cornelius has pretty good taste in sustenance (his devotion to Chock Full o' Nuts Coffee aside) and the soup is organic and made of whole, recognizable ingredients, so I approached the can with a relatively open mind. (Plus I was really too sick to have any desire to cook anything from scratch.)

I found the coconut broth tasty--light, aromatic, pleasantly spiced, and remarkably free of any "can" flavor. It tasted even better when I added a lime, a teaspoon of chili oil, and a few leaves of cilantro, but that's true about homemade Tom Kha too. The soup contains shitaki mushrooms, sweet potatoes, green beans, shallots, tofu, and even kaffir lime leaves. The mushrooms were good (and I don't even like shitakes), and the tofu was chewy, but the vegetables were predictably mushy--the carrots, in large slices, being the worst offenders. That said, I ate the contents of the can in one sitting. Cornelius was right--I did feel better.

Overall, a good product, and at 280 calories for a whole can (2 servings) a pretty healthy choice.