Aka: Stone Soup (All foods sound better in French)

During COVID, and now in its aftermath, we all have had to adjust to many things. One thing in particular is the availability and the quantities of products we use to prepare our meals. This month’s recipe is for a soup that provides both sustenance and an important lesson about sharing and community.

The base for the soup is a simple ingredient from a locally abundant product in Hampton: a stone. The original recipe comes from Europe. But first, before the actual recipe, we need to know the back story of stone soup. To be brief, I’ll provide the “Cliff Notes” version. It’s about a poor wandering traveler who is hungry and comes upon a village. He stops at the first house he sees and asks the owner if he can get something to eat. The homeowner says that this is a very poor village and he has nothing to spare; he also tells the traveler he will hear the same response from all the other villagers as well.

The resourceful traveler leaves but then has an idea. He returns to the house with a stone and says to the owner that he can make a wonderful soup from his stone, all he needs is a large pot, some water and a fire. After some convincing, the owner lets the traveler in and the traveler places his stone in the pot, covers it with water and lights a fire. As the stone simmers, the owner’s sons return from their work in the fields, and they had some onions and carrots. The traveler said the soup would be much improved if he could add some of the onions and carrots; they consent, and he adds them to the pot. Soon several neighbors were passing by, one with some fresh beans and the other with some cabbages. The traveler asked if they could spare some of their vegetables for some of the soup; they both agreed. Now the simmering soup was creating a wonderful aroma that others in the village could smell. The interested villagers stopped by and saw that a soup was being prepared, and they too went back to their homes and returned with scraps and bits of food which were added to the soup. At the end, all the villagers had a very hearty and pleasing soup created by the entire community that had its beginnings from two humble products, a stone and some water.

The actual recipe for stone soup is very simple, it only needs two ingredients:

• One stone, preferably a Hampton stone (Always go local!).
• A group of friends and neighbors with odds-and-ends from their kitchens — the larger the group the better the soup!

Peter Witkowski