The Sunday Soup Doctrine

Sunday. Cool enough now, in most places, for the year’s first pot of soup — and I’d like to formally present the Sunday Soup Doctrine.

The doctrine holds that a pot of something simmering on a Sunday afternoon is one of the most efficient wellbeing interventions available to an ordinary person. Consider the evidence. It makes the whole house smell like care. It requires just enough attention to count as puttering but not enough to count as work. It produces leftovers, which are a gift to weekday-you. And it turns the Sunday scaries down a notch, because it’s hard to dread Monday while stirring something warm.

It doesn’t have to be soup, of course. Chili, sauce, stew, bread if you’re ambitious — anything slow and warm qualifies. The point is the simmering. The point is spending Sunday afternoon making Sunday evening smell like home.

Gentle preparation, in its most delicious form. The week can come. You’ve got soup.

It’s hard to dread Monday while stirring something warm. The week can come — you’ve got soup.

What’s your go-to pot of something warm for a fall Sunday?