Vegan Fennel Soup after Crackers, Berlin
How to make restaurant food at home.
I love to cook. It’s a great creative outlet and there is something very satisfying–in this world of readymade food, grabbable on nearly any urban corner–of making something yourself. From scratch.
There are lots of cookbooks on our bookshelves. Many I inherited from my mom, who also loved to cook, and I’ve collected a number myself. I find them delightful reading, although I don’t use them all that frequently for cooking guidance. I mostly turn to them for reference or inspiration.
As someone who does not eat red meat or dairy products, many recipes that I read need to be adapted, and then I swerve with my own personal take on a dish, and well, what I make is not what was described or intended by the cookbook author.
We were in Berlin this past fall. Dan went for a conference and we went to promote our new book Spots, Forms & Methods, meet with artists, and check out the art scene: both the sanctioned art in the terrific museums and the less sanctioned but no less revered art on the street.
One of the great advantages of travel is checking out the local food scene and trying local delicacies. I was delighted to find that the city specializes in super fresh food, a la slow food, and that nearly all of the restaurants include at least some vegan options.
We went to the world's first Michelin-starred vegan and no waste restaurant called FREA.
Utterly delicious and if you’re in The Grey City, we’d highly recommend it. And even though it is in German, we bought their book Full Taste Zero Waste, chock full of gorgeous photos. (Google Translate has transformed how easily content can be consumed, regardless of linguistic competence.)
Because we visited in October, there were many soups on offer, and even if the restaurant wasn’t vegan, the soups often were. We went to a restaurant Crackers, described as "a former hip nightclub turned sexy restaurant" where we had an amazing fennel soup.
Of particular note were the fennel seeds garnishing the soup–some sort of caramelized confection. I asked the waitress if she knew how they were made, and she went straight to source on my behalf. Turns out, it was confectioners’ sugar and fennel seeds, caramelized.
As part of my creative mien, I often endeavor to recreate dishes that I’ve had at restaurants. Within a few days of our return from Berlin, I decided to make that fennel soup. Indeed, caramelizing the fennel seeds is pretty simple.
Just dust them with confectioners’ sugar using a strainer (so the seeds aren’t too coated and too sweet) and put them in the oven until they start to brown and caramelize. I cooked ours in a toaster oven so that it was easier to keep an eye on them so that they didn’t over-caramelize or burn.
Then the rest of the soup is pretty typical of most vegan soups: roast the veggies; put them in a pot with vegetable stock after they're roasted to cook them down further.
Then, puree the soup with a hand blender and top with the caramelized fennel seeds and fennel fronds (I also added some slivered toasted almonds) and voila: something delicious, slightly different and singularly delightful.
