Known as Souper Jenny, also the name of her chain of soup and salad restaurants, Jenny Levison identifies herself as an “entrepreneur, actress and philanthropist.”
A proud native Atlantan, Levison opened her first restaurant 21 years ago, with “only two employees and $10,000 from a short-lived hand-modeling career.”
Currently, she owns and operates five Souper Jenny locations around metro Atlanta, and she’s set to open a prepared food shop in Seagrove, Florida, later this year.
“We’ve struggled a bit over the last two years,” Levison said. “But, fortunately, we had a takeout model to begin with, so that helped.”
The self-proclaimed “soup diva” also has released her fourth cookbook, “Souper Jenny 20 Years of Soups” ($30), which is available at all her restaurants, and at souperjennyatl.com/shop.
“The book really came out of my collecting recipes for the last 20-plus years,” Levison said. “I opened my first place after an 18-month trip around the world, collecting and learning how to cook.”
The cookbook features 50 Souper Jenny favorites, with easy recipes aimed at home cooks, including her all-time top-seller, My Dad’s Turkey Chili.
“My dad was always the big cook in my family,” Levison recalled. “When I said I was going into the soup business, I remember him giving me that chili recipe, so that was the first soup I cooked on a large scale. Now, our menu changes every day, except we always have turkey chili.”
For winter, Levison favors her Italian-style sausage, kale and cheese-stuffed tortellini soup, which, she claimed, “has magical powers when eaten on a cold, blustery day.”
“I really love one-pot meals, and that one, with a salad, is all you need,” she said. “But, you can switch it up. If you’re not eating pasta, you can leave the tortellini out and add a couple more handfuls of veggies. And, if you’re not eating sausage, you can add ground turkey or tofu crumbles.”
Credit: Alli Royce Soble
Credit: Alli Royce Soble
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