The comfort in garlic soup… with ramps

One of the most vivid memories of my childhood is that of my grandmother, Miren, making berakatz zopa (garlic soup) for my grandfather, Angel. He had an exquisite palate – fowl, baby eels, barnacles, lobster… A true pastry chef who had been cooking since the age of 14. He was also a man who appreciated simplicity and the art of doing things orderly and well. There was such discipline to his work yet he appreciated certain chaos outside of it, which I find very inspiring in my life right now.

But I digress.

My grandfather also had a very sensitive digestive system and suffered from ulcers on and off all his adult life. I remember him bent over and looking frail with obvious pain on his face. All he ever asked for during those episodes was garlic soup. It must have some miracle properties because he always seemed to feel better after ingesting it. My grandmother’s recipe was as simple as can be. Olive oil, garlic, pimiento choricero, bread, salt and water. As simple as it gets. Eggs were seldom added. I think of her soup’s healing properties often because that is such a reminder of how food is comfort, but also health and vitality.

So if you ever need a little soup that takes less than 30 minutes to make, give this one a try. You might be surprised.

And then came the ramps, also known as wild garlic or wild leek. I got them at the farmer’s market from Foraged and Found. If you have never tried them, they grow wild as their name indicates and have a strong garlic-onion flavor. They don’t seem to be as abundant on the West coast as in the East but they have been more available as of late.

I have been adding them to so many things.

A tart similar to this,

Tortilla with lots of ramps,

Roasted with sea salt,

Scrambled into eggs,

In this soup in lieu of peas.

Now it would be even more amazing if I had foraged them myself. And I circle back to my grandfather as the master forager that he was. Ramps in soup. He would have loved.