The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups: Recipes and Reveries by David Ansel

  • Bouktouf

    from The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups: Recipes and Reveries The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups by David Ansel

    • Categories: Soups; Algerian; Jewish; Vegan; Vegetarian
    • Ingredients: onions; olive oil; potatoes; zucchini; tomato paste; lemons; cilantro
    show

  • Show all Recipes...

Notes about this book

  • lydia on June 11, 2010

    Unusual recipes, and extraordinary storytelling. You will fall in love with both.

Notes about Recipes in this book

  • South Austin chili

    • Vanessa on December 20, 2011

      Thumbs up to this chili! I used the pasilla chiles as directed, eventually. I burned three sets of them before I finally managed to get them out of the oven at "toasted" not "scorched". That's a new technique and ingredient for me, and I found it hard to tell when the blackish-red dried chiles had gotten just toasted enough. I've still got a half-bag of pasillas, and I'd certainly try it again - it did make a difference in the chile taste. The addition of chocolate was also a new touch for me. I used unsweetened as directed, but I found the chocolate taste a bit bitter. I think next time I might do one oz of unsweetened and one of bittersweet, or perhaps just add a teensy bit of sugar to taste. I replaced the TVP with bulgur, as well. It was a great success as a chili and continued to served as a lunch-time burrito stuffing for the rest of the week.

  • Green split pea soup

    • PennyG on September 20, 2023

      Excellent … I really like the addition of dry mustard.

  • Smoked tomato bisque

    • monica107 on January 25, 2014

      This recipe was worth the price of the book alone. It was AMAZING. We were surprised at how much of the smoky flavor carried through to the soup. It was perfect for fall.

You must Create an Account or Sign In to add a note to this book.

Reviews about this book

This book does not currently have any reviews.

  • ISBN 10 1580086519
  • ISBN 13 9781580086516
  • Published Oct 31 2005
  • Format Paperback
  • Page Count 192
  • Language English
  • Countries United States
  • Publisher Ten Speed Press
  • Imprint Ten Speed Press

Publishers Text

With just a custom-made yellow bike, a used bike trailer, and a few two-quart containters of homemade gumbo, David Ansel began peddling soup to his friends and neighbors in the close-knit community of Bouldin Creek in Austin, Texas. Many flat tires and gallons of soup later, his delivery route has grown from 17 soup subscribers, or soupies, to more than 700 and counting.


In Slow and Difficult Soups, Ansel (aka the Soup Peddler) ladles out generous bowlfuls of some of the most delicious and lovingly seasoned soups you'll ever taste. This heart- and belly-warming illustrated memoir is an offbeat homage to the art, science, and joy of soup, offering a utopian vision of a community brought together through their love of spoon-lickin' comfort food. The Soup Peddler shares humorous stories about the eccentric folks who populate Bouldin Creek, along with 35 classic and exotic creations like South Austin Chili, Smoked Tomato Bisque, Chompy-Chomp Black Bean Soup, and Bouillabaisse Marseillaise. A taste of simpler times in our modern fast-food nation, Slow and Difficult Soups is a rousing reminder of our basic need to connect our food--and those who cook, deliver, and slurp it.

Occasional colorful language dots the anecdotes as we meet a cross-dressing mayoral candidate, a radical coterie of plant liberators, a scheming ice cream man, and Alex the Wonder dog, among others.