Terrific Tumeric Soup

On paper, being sick sounds like a lot of fun- you get to stay home, lay in bed, watch TV, sleep...pretty much living the life. In reality, however, it's usually something you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. I just got over a pretty horrendous bout of the norovirus, and it was highlighted by a delirious online conversation with a friend about seafood curry. At least, I think the conversation took place- it could very well have been completely imagined by my sick-addled brain. A quick search of my chat history indeed confirmed the conversation took place, even though I only have fleeting memories of it. Regardless, that conversation planted the seeds for this dish.

How can something so cool looking be so evil?

I had been sick for almost two full days, eating virtually nothing, when all of a sudden, like a bolt from the heavens, I felt 100% better. I had energy, I was hungry, and I wanted to make something for dinner. Thinking that soup would be a great way to kick the rest of the sickness from me, I took those seeds that were planted during the curry conversation and got impulsive. Lisa doesn't like curry at all, but she DOES like tumeric. For those of you that don't know, tumeric, on its own, has a very mild curry flavor. It is used in curry powder, usually with other ingredients.

I <3 you, tumeric!

I called my wife and asked if she would pick up a couple of things that I would need on her way home from work. I already had beef bullion and tumeric, so I asked her to pick up beef smoked sausage, diced tomatoes, brown rice, and an onion. I prepped the broth by making a stronger than usual beef base, and ground the tumeric with my mortar and pestle to a very, very fine dust, and mixed it in. I sliced the onion and rinsed the diced tomatoes, then cut the smoked sausage into bite-sized pieces. After adding all of these to the broth, I brought it to a boil and added the brown rice.

Sausage, tomato, and rice bubbling to the top

I had meant to cook the smoked sausage on the stovetop first to give it a little bit of a "burn" taste, but completely forgot to do that. In hindsight, i'm actually glad that I didn't- boiling the soup and "cooking" the sausage really allowed the flavors to mingle- the soup got some sausage flavor and the sausage soaked up some tumeric flavor! It was a happy accident.

So in the end, the soup really turned out well- bold flavor, great textures, and lots of leftovers!

Total cost:

Beef bullion (with most of it left over and unused): $1.49
Beef smoked sausage: $1.99

Onion (5 onions, only 1 used): $1

Brown rice: $1

Diced tomato: $0.69

Tumeric: $1.29 (1/4 lb, used about 2 tbsp)

Total: $5.47 (11 servings @ $0.68 per serving)