On a cold, snowy evening The Joyful Hermit experienced a soup epiphany.  So I rooted around the refrigerator and pantry to see what sale items would make a hearty, healthy, winter soup.  The results proved enlightening…plus absolutely scrumptious.

The word “epiphany” comes from Greek meaning: reveal.  The Middle English use ascribed it to the January 6 feast commemorating Christ being revealed to the Gentiles, as manifested by the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12).  Epiphany has also come to mean a moment of sudden revelation or insight.  Yet a third meaning is the manifestation of a divine presence.

Hence, The Joyful Hermit discovers kale, sweet onion, parsley still from autumn garden (kept fresh in wax cereal liner bag, refrigerated), garlic, clearance sun-dried tomatoes in oil (chopped 4), and turmeric.  A $2 tomato-olive bruschetta jar from Big Lots intrigued when purchased. Use it as a base to manifest the rest.

I toss in three green onion remains from autumn garden and open a container of vegetable broth, purchased on clearance at ALDI for $1.29.  (Amazing what healthy foods end up in clearance due to many people choosing high fat, high caloric, high cholesterol items!) Out comes St. Anneliese chardonnay, sea salt, pepper, and coriander. Don’t forget Sister Pio’s Herbals™, an aromatic mixture of seven herbs, dried fresh from The Joyful Hermit’s garden.  Oops! Found: half a head of cabbage; befriend it to the mix!

Sauté the chopped onion and garlic with the chopped dried red tomatoes in oil, adding a dribble of olive oil to assist process.  Spoon in the bruschetta;  then pour in the vegetable broth, add the spices and herbs, and load the soup pot with the chopped cabbage and dark, green kale.

The soup begs for more color.  A can of diced tomatoes answers the plea.  Rinse the can by filling it with water, swish, and pour that and 3 cups more–plus a cup of wine–into the pot.  Two vegetable bouillon cubes finish off a box I’ve enjoyed in multiple uses.  Alas, wish there were three cubes (for the Magi), as the symbolism of Epiphany Soup takes form.

While the soup simmers [don’t boil kale], open and rinse a can of black beans; seems the right protein and color, and lends an element to Epiphany. Ladle the kingly-colorful soup into a deep bowl, and drop an ample spoonful of black beans (metaphor: the Bethlehem stable-cave).  But where is the Light of the World?

I top Epiphany Soup with crumbled, white-bleu cheese, sought and found in the ‘fridge.  Sour cream might do, but the flavor of bleu cheese with the black beans enriches the turmeric gold broth. This soup proclaims glorious health.  It also warms and fills eight hungry wayfarers.  Try serving with bread, muffins, or crackers.  The Joyful Hermit eats as is. Gloria in excelsis Deo!