PHILADELPHIA _ As summer turns to fall, and as gardeners pull their harvests, we're coming upon another season for soup. People typically turn to soup for comfort. During these days of the pandemic, soup means even more.
Before the pandemic, the Moktan family, which owns The Persian Grill, was used to seeing health care workers at their two locations.
Throughout the pandemic, owners Bimal Moktan and Binod Moktan have brought food to frontline workers directly, giving away meals at Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, Doylestown Hospital, and Chestnut Hill Hospital, among other places. Bimal Moktan says they've donated 5,000 meals since March.
"They work so hard," Bimal Moktan, who served khoresh bademjoon, an eggplant stew, to law enforcement officers in Plymouth Meeting recently. "They can buy the food, and they have money to do it, but we just want to support," he said of frontline workers.
Moktan acknowledges that their giveaways are helpful for him, too.
"The doctor prescribes medicine when you get sick," said Bimal Moktan. "When they can get good food that I can serve, then I feel good."
The Inquirer reached out to the Moktans, Cooking Alchemy founder Elizabette Andrade, and Alice Randall, coauthor of "Soul Food Love," for recipes just right for this time in the season. Here are the soups they shared.
