Wednesday, February 3, 2010

recipe favorites: the comfort of soup with bread

I've been soup most Wednesday nights for a long time now--a year or two maybe. There is something so comforting about a bowl of soup and having leftovers for lunch. Today I was home with Rainer and had the chance to do a long-cooking soup (instead of my usual quick soup) and try a new bread recipe. I truly love the homey feeling of having soup simmering on the stove while I go about other things!
The new bread recipe is Hanna's. (Just look for it on her sidebar--"no knead bread"). It has a mixture of white and whole wheat with whole oats and flax seed meal. I've been admiring her grainy looking breads so decided to try her recipe at last.
This is the Goodness Soup from Clean Food. The book is one I impulsively pre-ordered last spring, and when I got it I saw that most of the recipes are not ones I'd make because they call for so many ingredients that are unfamiliar and I don't have. I'm trying to simplify, not complicate, you know? But I love the look and idea of the book, so I decided to salvage the situation by seeking out recipes that make use of more familiar ingredients and substitute for the rest. And this soup turned out great! It's thick and hearty with lentils, barley, beans (I used canned) and mushrooms. The only complaint from my little mushroom lover (Rainer) was that the mushrooms were chopped too small and he couldn't find them!
The bread is delcious as well. What I like about the recipe is that you can throw in whatever you want, including seeds and nuts. And you don't have to knead it!
We are still enjoying our homemade jams from the summer--we have tons of it, even after giving it as gifts . . .This one is nectarine--a particularly good one.
I surely don't have time to type out this long recipe (and couldn't find a link, unfortunately) but here are some links to some of my favorite tried and true soups:
Black Bean Soup (very fast and easy for a weeknight or a quick lunch--love this recipe)
Rustic Lentil Soup (a newer favorite here)
North Woods Bean soup (an old Cooking Light favorite I've made again and again)
Mushroom and Barley soup (we've only made this once, actually, but I'm looking forward to making it again to please Rainer with all those mushrooms!)
Zucchini Soup (looking forward to summer for this one)

13 comments:

We Blog Artists said...

How can I be hungry at 1am? Because reading your post makes me starving...everything looks so wonderful.
Thanks for sharing all those wonderful recipes.
Char

Anonymous said...

yum, this all looks fantastic.

Andrea said...

Mmmm...soup and bread. I'm going to add some of your quick soups to my worknight menu list!

Amy said...

I need to start making soup again... I am not really sure why I stopped- I really love soup... probably a fav. food! Thanks for sharing these recipes... I will have to check them out!

Jennifer said...

Everything looks fantastic, I love your jam spoon. Nectarine sounds scrumptious.
theprairiegirl.com

Aimee said...

you have such wonderful natural light in your home!

hanna said...

I'm glad you liked the bread, it's such a familiar looking loaf to me, it's funny seeing my loaf of bread in your home, he he.
I'm definately going to try some of those soup recipies, thanks for sharing.
xx

secret cake said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
secret cake said...

Is there anything better than homemade soup and bread? Yum!

We tried the peanut noodles earlier this week and I am happy to report they were a hit! Even the picky three year-old asked for seconds. We used a rotisserie chicken, threw in a bag of frozen stir fry veggies in with thee noodles while they were boiling and added some crushed peanuts on top.

So good, and so quick-- thanks so much; it's a keeper!

Susan said...

Oh, I love that North Woods bean soup from CL too! I like the idea of doing a designated soup night each week. Have you ever made CL's Bree's Tomato Lentil Soup? It is my absolute favorite soup with those lovely red lentils! It freezes quite well too. I puree it with my stick blender (love that thing!).

Michaela said...

Mary Beth,
thank you so much for the inspiration. I baked no- rise bread today and made lentil soup. I fell in love with Craftykin, another great blog. I have a homemade yogurt in brewing right now as well. Thanks again... :)

Mary Beth said...

Susan--yes, I adore that soup! Thanks for the reminder. I haven't made it in a long time. It's a little spicy for the children as I recall, but wonderful for lunches.

Karen said...

soup and bread .... these recipes sound wonderful! will try ... especially the no-knead bread. i've experimented with a number of breads, both knead and knead-not, and still can't find one that bakes up just right.

thanks!