The antidote for travel

Aaron and I did an overnight trip to Phoenix this week. The hotel concierge recommended a chain, Z Tejas, nearby, for dinner. Actually, I asked where to get a good margarita and some food, it being one of those days when a good margarita was going to be the high point. The concierge made the recommendation with confidence, so it’s likely he’d done some research into margaritas. You have to appreciate expertise. Indeed, the margaritas were just fine, and Z Tejas has surprisingly good wild mushroom enchiladas that I’m going to have to try to recreate at some point.

Our travel schedule was such that we grabbed lunch on the run at Phoenix airport two days in a row. Vegetarian options are limited, so it was a bean burrito for me each day. We were feeling all the heavy carbs and salt by the time we got home.

Aaron’s antidote for travel was a broccoli rabe soup, inspired by a recipe in Sunset magazine. Simple, nourishing, and not a refried bean in sight. He used a vegetable stock flavored with julienned ginger and red jalapeno rings. The stock didn’t pick up much of the vegetable taste, just a hint, but he left the spices in to eat later. He added scallions, a lot of chopped broccoli rabe (stems, leaves and flowers all went in), fresh tofu. The recipe calls for ham which would give it salt, but instead he finished it with just a dash of soy sauce, and added a squeeze of lime for brightness. Every bite had a different flavor or density depending on what part of the broccoli or what spice was in it. Delicious.