Despite the name, you will not find a Play-Doh, Propot Food or Alphabet magnet in this recipe! Kindergarten soup is a hearty, edible beef and vegetable soup of The late show Host Stephen Colbert. But it’s really a soup that he made as a kindergarten teacher!
In the Colbert’s primary school in Charleston, South Carolina, the cook of the lunchroom had the children help with simple tasks, such as peas and snap the ends of green beans. Then the cook had the children draw pictures and write down the names of the ingredients.
The young Colbert brought his paper home, and his mother found the illustrations of Okra, corn, tomatoes and “meat” so charming. She not only frames it, she started to make the soup for Colbert and his siblings, often enough that it became an estimated family court.
Simply recipes / Nancy Mock
The lovable story behind “kindergarten soup”
Stephen Colbert and his wife Evie published their cookbook, It tastes funny, in 2024. In an episode of The late show This autumn, Colbert announced that the Pandemic Lockdown 2020 should thank for the outsourcing of the book idea.
Like the rest of us, Colbert was at home with his family and the restaurants were closed. It was the perfect excuse to look through and cook old family recipes. In A Video on FacebookEvie Colbert surprised her husband with one of the recipes she recorded. Written on brown construction paper in colored pencil and exhibited in an old frame, it was a kindergarten soup!
Four years later, they published it, picture and everything in their cookbook.
Simply recipes / Nancy Mock
What is in kindergarten soup?
It is astonishing how many ingredients are packed in this recipe. The mysterious “meat” from Colbert’s kindergarten teacher is seasoned, a hard cut that is perfectly tender in the boiling soup. It is offered in oil to create tasteful tanned pieces, and then the remaining ingredients are stated: peas, onions, okra, celery, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, beef and butter beans. The only seasoned spice is a pinch of salt and pepper.
As soon as they are cooked, the result is a strong, filling soup with a lot of color from the vegetables. It really looks like the kind of soup that you would find 50 years ago in a school dining room. When I had the first spoon, it brought me back; It was probably a few decades ago since I had vegetable beef soup! The taste is rich and meaty, like that of beef custody soup or a good beef pot.
The recipe makes a large batch, about 11 cups of soup. Fortunately, Colbert shares the cookbook that the soup freezes so that you can have it for future meals.
Simply recipes / Nancy Mock
How I did Colbert’s kindergarten soup
Fresh Okra was not available in my grocery store in Massachusetts, so I used frozen. Since I tired vegetables from freezing, I added the Okra towards the end and at the same time with the peas, so that it does not become too mushy. I also used butter beans in cans.
The soup thickens quickly, all the more when it looks. Have additional beef broth available to add if you need more liquid during or after cooking.
I loved to learn how much this primary school bumped through lunch over the students and gave them the chance to learn how to cook. And how Colbert’s mother kept his recipe so sweetly and converted it into a beloved family court.
Try to make this recipe with the children in your life. Let them peel the carrots, peel the peas and pour the diced tomatoes into the pot. You will be so proud to be part of such a delicious court.
