Photos by Caitlin Abrams
Ramen bowl with green chop sticks
In Minnesota, we eat with the seasons. It’s as hard to imagine a pot roast in July as it is to believe you can get through winter without soup. You don’t even have to be sick. You can just tuck into a special bowl to ward off the frost anytime in the next six months. Though if someone is under the weather, bringing a nourishing, gut-warming bowl of soup may be the highest form of gifting.
Ramen Kit
Chef Doug Flicker is in love with ramen, and he’s happy to share his creations from his Yami Ichi Ramen ghost kitchen. Grab kits like this smoked pork belly shoyu ramen that are easy to assemble and mind-bending to enjoy. $14, @yami_ichi_ramen
Bowls
Hand made soup bowl
A dedicated soup bowl is one thing, but a custom-made ramen bowl from local potter Kevin Caufield is next level. $42, caufieldclayworks.com
Tools
Three sets of chopsticks
Wooden, plastic, even stainless steel chopsticks all abide by one rule: You only get better the more you try. $5/set, United Noodles, Mpls.
Kick
Jar of KiKi chili paste
Some soups need to be calming and nourishing, but others (yes, chicken and wild rice) do benefit from a new kick of heat now and then. Kiki chili paste, $6, also from United Noodles
Boost
bottle of Shoyu
The right condiment can make or break soup, so stop tearing open packets and commit. Shoyu, $20, Coastal Seafoods, Mpls.
Your Soup Connection
+Sign up for a Simpls soup subscription and choose how many quarts, how often, which day they show up (free delivery), and which flavors: creamy chicken corn chowder? Thai lemongrass chicken? Grass-fed beef chili? simpls.com
+Birchwood Cafe has a Soup CSA for $125. One year, eight seasons of soup and house-baked bread. birchwoodcafe.com
+Pam Knutson is behind Birdsong Soups, a seasonal soup service that focuses on vegetarian and vegan soups that taste as rich and filling as their meaty counterparts. Portuguese kale and potato is a favorite. facebook.com/birdsongsoups
