For the first episode of my mini cooking series Organic Treats & Tunes, I decided to do a recipe inspired by my song, “My Favorite Song”!
The recipe for this one is what I’m calling ‘My Favorite Soup’ because it really is my favorite soup of all time! No joke, I make this stuff weekly! It’s a healthy, vegetarian taco soup, but you can easily make it non-vegetarian or even vegan! I recommend adding chicken for a protein option. I make this in my Instant Pot, but you can also make it in a slow cooker or even on the stove. Pro hack: combine all the ingredients in a Ziploc bag and store it in the freezer ahead of time for a super quick and easy weeknight meal that you can dump in the Instant Pot and hit go!
I chose this recipe for “My Favorite Song” because both the song and the soup are full of elements. The soup has spicy, sweet, and savory elements, while the song and the production have nostalgia, love, and heartbreak. The soup is also a comfort food, which I thought was appropriate for a breakup song!
Building a track for a song is a lot like putting together a recipe. You add in the key elements, or ingredients, that you want then you add to it until you’re happy with it! In the case of this song, I started with my Breedlove acoustic guitar, drums, and bass. Then I added mandolin, electric guitar, percussion, synth, and vocals. Each part is its own ingredient in the song. After that, I mix the song. This is where I add the “spice”. Things like reverb, delay, EQ, compression, etc. These things bring out the sound of an instrument in the same way herbs & spices bring out the flavor of foods! Just like spices make a huge difference in the flavor of a dish, mixing makes a huge difference in how a song sounds. Once the song has been mixed, it needs to be mastered. You can think of this as the final step in the process, similar to cooking or baking a recipe. After that, you listen to the song and see if you need any adjustments, just like a taste test with a recipe! If you’re happy with it, it’s time to share it!
Fun fact: a common saying in Nashville is to let a song “marinate”, meaning you listen to it, sleep on it, or listen to it after a few days and see if you still like it after the “new” wears off. Sometimes you decide you need to go back and make some changes. Sometimes it’s already just right!
Check out the video for this episode of Organic Treats & Tunes to see how I make this delicious soup and a mini acoustic performance of “My Favorite Song” on my Breedlove Organic Collection Wildwood Series guitar! And check out the recipe card that you can save for yourself, too!
If you make this recipe, I want to know what you think of it! I can’t get enough of it!
