Escarole, Poached Egg and Siracha Soup

There was a blister on my finger from an hour of brunoise-ing vegetables with a dull knife for my mom’s dressing on Wednesday.  But Thursday’s Thanksgiving feast was a tasty reward for the hard work, complete with jalapeno cranberry sauce, sugary yams, juicy turkey, bitter greens and Prosecco.  By the end of the gorge-fest, I only had room for one “Dead Bone” (or “Bone of the Dead”), an Italian clove-spiced cookie that is virtually as hard as bone.  If you heard thunder that night, it was probably just the sound of a bunch of Sicilians in Long Island crunching on Dead Bones in unison.  By some miracle, I still have all my teeth.

Friday’s lunch was no lighter;  a spicy Baja burger, steak fries and an Old Fashioned to wash it all down into my already overextended stomach.  Saturday started with my Dad’s homemade bread with butter and raspberry jam and ended with butter-spiked shrimp teriyaki at a Japanese restaurant with an overpopulated koi pond.  Sunday was filled with eggs benedict and what my boyfriend and I call “crack” pizza.  Stepping on the scale to find that I lost a half a pound?  Priceless….and baffling too.  So I guess as long as I eat one huge, fat-filled meal a day, I can get a head start on losing the winter weight.  

But enough about food because I’m sure you’re sick of it right now.  I too am glad to be getting back to a regular routine after an extra long weekend of gluttony.  Now it’s time to cleanse, reset the digestive system and enjoy a flavor other than butter.  My remedy is usually a soothing escarole soup.  This one provides some heat with Siracha hot sauce and protein from a silky poached egg. 

RECIPE

Makes 1 serving

1 teaspoon olive oil
1/8 cup thinly sliced yellow onion
2 cups salty chicken stock
6 large leaves of escarole, chopped crosswise
1 egg
Siracha hot sauce to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

1.  Heat oil in a small sauce-pot over low heat.  Add onions, sauteing until they’re soft.  Add in the broth and raise heat to medium until broth comes to a boil. 

2.  Add in escarole, lowering the heat so that the broth calms down to a simmer, then gently crack the egg into the pot, making sure the yolk stays intact. Simmer for 4 minutes.  Gently mix in your desired amount of Siracha then transfer the soup to a serving bowl.  Garnish with another drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper if needed.