i opened up the camera on my phone so that i could video tape myself hitting send on the email with my manuscript, went to hit send and then realized i hadn’t written anything in the body of the email, put my phone down, typed “attached!” and hit send without remembering to pick my phone back up. i think holding onto that video would have been kind of hoarder-ish anyway. then i tweeted, took my first shower in a week, and went to the town’s new fancy restaurant with eggboy and ate a schnitzel with rosemary fries and two ramekins of ketchup. it was my first time wearing shoes and interacting with non-egg humans in a very long time and it all felt like how your eyes feel when you step out into the sun after being in the dark for too long, but my good heavens, that relief. like descending into a hot tub on a cold winter day. and the joy of being able to spend the next day sitting on the couch in my underpants eating potato chips, watching the today show and kelly and michael, and then to even entertain the possibility of going on a weekend ski trip or cooking my way through zahav…

ok, i’m not off the hook yet, i still have the other half of my photos to take, which are due in april. but for at least these next few days i’ll be zoning out and decorating for valentine’s day and, oh, putting away our chrismukkah bush.

how have you been?? what all is new? did you watch grease live?? i’ve watched it twice so far and cannot stop listening to “magic changes.” which i’m grateful for because i don’t know if i’ll ever be able to listen to sia again without reliving the stress of my deadline.

anyway, i am in severe need of vegetables because for the two entire weeks leading up to my deadline, i ate almost exclusively pita with salted butter. it was sort of like how steve jobs wore the same exact outfit every day so that it was one less thing to think about. so here is a really warming, vegetabley soup that’s got a bunch of torn pita in it since homemade pita is queen of my bread box rn, and it’s flavored with hawaij for soup, the savory sister to hawaij for coffee, that’s got cumin, turmeric, and cardamom at the front and center. this soup is kind of like what would happen if chili took a trip to the middle east and had to leave all of its meat behind at customs, ya dig? and i’m pairing it here with lemon ginger kevita because it’s a perfectly refreshing partner to hot soup, and say it with me now, “pita ribollita with kevita!” you know how i feel about a good rhyme… oh and this soup happens to be even better heated up the next day, so if you want to make a big pot for your super bowl part this weekend, you can totally make it a day in advance and then just reheat. easy peasy.

pita ribollita

makes 8 servings

ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for serving
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 large carrots, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons hawaij for soup
1/2 teaspoon aleppo pepper
Black pepper
2 bay leaves
1 28-oz can chopped tomatoes
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 14-oz cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups chopped or torn pita, fresh or day-old
plain greek yogurt or labneh, for serving
chopped fresh parsley, for serving

clues

in a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. add the onions, carrots, celery, and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are soft, about 10-15 minutes. add the garlic, hawaij, aleppo pepper, and a few turns of black pepper and cook for 2 more minutes. add the bay leaves, tomatoes, broth, and beans and bring to a boil. cover and simmer for 20 minutes. stir in the pita and cook for 5 more minutes. taste and adjust seasonings as desired. ladle into bowls, top with a drizzle of olive oil, a plop of yogurt, and a sprinkle of parsley.

and serve with lemon ginger kevita! kevita is a sparkling probiotic drink that i pretty much lived on while i was writing my book, and the ginger in this flavor goes so well with hawaij for soup. also the company was started by a friend of lily’s! yayyy! i feel very country bumpkin that i didn’t find out about it until very recently but i’m hooked now because it’s way tastier than drinking plain jane fizzy water, not too sweet, and it’s healthy because of all of the probiotics.

-yeh!

thank you so much for sponsoring this post, kevita! all opinions are mine. kevita makes 11 flavors of their sparkling probiotic drinks which each contain (4 billion cfu’s) and 6 different kombuchas made with fermented green and black tea leaves. their kombucha also contains probiotics, as well as b vitamins and organic acids to boost energy. all of their drinks are dairy free, gluten free, kosher, non-gmo, organic, and vegan and you can click here to see where you can find some! (i get mine at target!) click here for more information on kevita!