Picture: THINSKTOCK

Related articles

SOUP for Syria is a cookbook one wishes did not need to exist. Collated by Barbara Abdeni Massaad, the book highlights the plight of Syrian refugees, while raising funds from sales for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Massaad is a Lebanese food writer, photographer and author who often visited the refugee camp near her home. She became concerned about the global community’s attitude towards the Syrian refugees and was determined to use her skills to help alleviate their suffering. She collected more than 70 soup recipes and took the photographs for the book. These alternate between portraits of Syrian refugees in a camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, and pictures of the soups and their ingredients.

Details

Soup for Syria
  • TITLE: Soup for Syria: Recipes to Celebrate our Shared Humanity
  • PUBLISHER: Pavilion Books

Soup is common to all cultures and has cult status in many. It conjures up images of families gathered around a table. It has the power to lift the spirits and is deeply nourishing. Often quick and easy to make, soup has a long tradition of being provided to the hungry and the homeless, so it is a fitting theme for such a book.

On a humanitarian level this is a heart-breaking book. The photographs of the women and children are haunting. Massaad is a fine portrait photographer. The youthful beauty of the kids is juxtaposed with signs of the conditions in which they live. As one prepares a recipe, their faces gaze out at the reader, their vitality aglow.

Personal messages from contributors accompany some of the recipes. "Make soup not war", suggests one. Another writes that "soup whispers to your soul that in the end all will be okay". If only this were true.

The contributors include widely recognised names from the world of cooking, such as Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi, Claudia Roden, Greg Malouf, Paula Wolfert, Alice Waters and Anthony Bourdain. There are also bloggers, food writers, designers and home cooks, many of whom are based in Lebanon. Some contributors are actively involved in helping to feed refugees who are living in their midst.

Although many people will buy Soup for Syria as a way to make a donation, any recipe book that wants to stand out needs to provide something special amid the seemingly endless cookbooks on offer.

A single-themed book is helpful in providing inspiration for the starter course of a meal. In this cookbook the recipes are varied and often intriguing. There is a soup for all occasions.

Several variations of beetroot, carrot, cauliflower, cabbage and potato soups are included. These recipes all look hearty and the accompanying photographs have one wishing for a spoon with which to get stuck in.

More unusual fare includes fennel soup with lemon and cinnamon (Greg Malouf) and Iranian pomegranate soup or ash-e-anar (Sally Butcher). Spicy clam soup with bastuma (Garrett Melkonian) is a dish fit for a special dinner, while white swede and hazelnut soup (Ana Sortun) elevates the humble swede to new heights.

Testing out a few recipes, I found Martyna Monaco’s broccoli and leek soup simple to prepare, the bright green broth boasting its super-food credentials.

Fans of Ottolenghi and Tamimi will be keen to try their soup, which has a sizeable list of ingredients, as devotees expect. Their recipe for Gondi, a chicken-based soup with cannellini beans and dried Iranian limes in the broth, provided as satisfying a bowl as could be eaten on a cold day, almost a stew. It includes chicken dumplings flavoured with cardamom, cumin and rosewater. The beans and dumplings provided both texture and taste, while the dried limes and juice added a slightly sour, citrus flavour which perfectly balanced the richness of the dish.

Serving up bowls of soup from Soup for Syria will hopefully stimulate conversations around dinner tables about the ongoing suffering of the refugees. As such, it can only be a force for good. This book provides the home cook with the opportunity to put your money where your mouth is.

• Those keen to do more than simply buy the book can log onto the website www.soupforsyria.com for ideas about how to get involved with this initiative.