Mmmmmmmgood!!!!

Eating kosher is a study in living vicariously. You stand on the side lines while your fellow humans travel wherever they want, never having to think about how difficult it may be to source kosher food in say…Barcelona. At other times, especially outside of Israel, it means hitting three different shops for a simple dinner.

Years ago, I attended the BBC Good Food Show in London’s Earl’s Court. As I walked up and down the aisles, packed with the most delectable fancy food I could ever imagine, it never even occurred to me to ask for samples, I knew my limitations – if only such self sacrifice extended to my dieting. The pink champagne truffles were meant for someone else, and the mini fish pies had other destinations. None of them would be coming home with me.

I was so busy feeling sorry for myself, that I walked straight through the Kosher wine stand, without noticing the outstretched arms beckoning me to taste their wares in tiny plastic cups. In retrospect that was a good thing. Sampling wine, on an empty stomach, and then attempting to make it back home on the Tube, would have proven an adventure worth writing about.

But throughout my childhood, it was the Campbell’s soup ads more than anything else that had me wishing I might wake up one morning to find that I was adopted and my birth parents didn’t keep a kosher kitchen.

I wanted the soup that “eats like a meal”. I wanted to say my soup was “mmmmmmgood!” Mind you, for as long as I can remember, even when we were living in the Tropics, every dinner of my childhood was accompanied by soup. It didn’t matter that it would never be that super-American, smooth beautiful tomato soup that you could dip your crackers into (no crackers ever appeared on my childhood table, it was always pumpernickel or rye bread).

(For a great homemade cracker recipe, go here.)

Knowing my limitations, I still enjoy life. No, I’ll never know the pleasures of walking and tasting through a food show (unless the whole “adopted” thing comes up trumps), so I satisfy myself with The Kosher Food Show. All kidding aside, Kosherfest is food heaven, kosher or not.

When Campbell’s vegetarian vegetable soup went kosher, I was there. It didn’t really matter that kosher canned soup has been around for years, I wanted the Campbell’s. As I opened the can, I realized how pathetic a canned soup could be. This was dinner for ONE; that ONE eats alone on a TV tray while mindlessly dribbling alphabet noodles down ONE’S solitary, slightly quivering chin.



Give me my Mom’s pot of soup any day of the week. It always came with brothers, parents, a table and proper chairs. Yet regardless of my revelation, I still wanted Campbell’s tomato soup. It just looked so clean, so “shall-we-say” American, and then I got what I was after. On the Cooks Illustrated website a month ago, there was a video for tomato soup – and my only thought was “Could this be it? Could this be the soup I spent my childhood dreaming about?” Well, as far I could judge from looks alone, having never tasted it, I’m guessing that my ‘Campbell’s Kosher, not-out-of-a-can Tomato Soup probably surpassed the real thing.

Score one for kosher!


Campbell’s Kosher "Not-Out-Of-A-Can" Tomato Soup
(Adapted from Cooks Illustrated recipe)

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped (about one cup)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
2 x 28-ounce cans (800g) whole peeled tomatoes in juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
4 slices good bread, crust removed, torn into small pieces
2 cups parev chicken broth, hot
2 tablespoons brandy
Salt to taste
Loads of freshly ground pepper

In a large soup pot, heat oil, add the onions and sauté over medium heat until the onions are very soft and starting to colour.
Cooks Note: Do not, under any circumstances, skip this step. A lot of sweetness comes from the sautéed onions, and if you jump the gun and add the tomatoes too soon, the acid in the tomatoes will stop the onions from cooking, and then you get pieces of crunchy semi-raw (or is it semi-cooked) onions in your soup.
On that note, once the onions are fully soft, add the garlic, and stir for about thirty seconds until you can smell the garlicky goodness.
Add the bay leaf, and the tomatoes plus their juices. Using a potato masher, break up the tomatoes.
Now stir in the brown sugar and bread.
Allow soup to simmer until the bread starts to break down, about five minutes.
To get smooth soup, remove the bay leaf and blend the soup in batches.
Return blended soup to pot and start adding the chicken broth and stirring until you get the consistency you are after. The two full cups of broth will give you a thinner version.
Once you reach desired consistency, add the brandy, adjust the seasoning to taste (did I mention that loads of pepper is so good right here) and bring soup to a boil.
Simmer for two minutes.

Now you are ready to star in your very own Campbell’s ad.