This pot of
soup included some of almost everything I had in the vegetable category — leftovers, the kitchen's flotsam and jetsam — simmering on the stove, imbued with the health of winter plants like onion, garlic, carrots, celery, fennel, mushrooms, potatoes, squash, sweet potatoes,
cabbage, kale, and a
few destitute peas from the hinterlands of the freezer.