Parmesan Cabbage Soup

For years, I have had a hankering to attend the Philadelphia Flower Show, which occurs on the cusp of spring and therefore promises to tide a winter-weary gardener through those final weeks of cold. 

Tuesday. Bad. I suffer.

This year, I learned of a group that had chartered a bus to attend the show, but they needed more people to buy seats to cover the costs. My moment had finally arrived.

It was good fun, and exactly the colorful afternoon escape from winter that I'd hoped for.

For dinner, we crossed the street to the Reading Terminal Market, and I was delighted to find a vegan deli. 

Notice my photo-bomber backup dancer on the right

I had a "turkey" sandwich, and while I will grant you that it did not taste too much like turkey, it did taste very good and I was happy. And I was tickled that the "meats" and "cheeses" at the deli actually looked like the real thing, sliced and stacked in a display case on the counter, but without the contribution to global warming associated with raising animals for food.

There is a vegan bakery near my house, Yellow Rose Bakery, that makes a mouth-watering "sausage," "egg", and "cheese" sandwich on a biscuits that I really adore. But most of their offerings are sweet baked goods, and while those are truly delicious, I feel that what I need--what the world needs--is a larger number of savory, crave-worthy vegan sandwich options.

Awesome vegan sandwiches are one step better environmentally than the vegetarian "Parmesan Cabbage Soup" (NYT Cooking; subscription required) that I made last night, but also about ten steps tastier. Don't let the cute vintage polka-dotted scarf in my hair distract you from the unlovely truth: the soup was pretty bland, and you need not bother.