Going through old videos and copying them with captions to save on my phone. He's an oldie but goodie even my carnivore brother loves.
Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts
Friday, September 27, 2024
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Brown Lentil Chili Soup
I haven't made any of Jill McKeever's recipes lately, so decided to make her Brown Lentil Chili Soup.
The ingredients are listed on the YouTube page for the recipe, and I pretty much made it as-written. But not totally. Naturally, I reduced the chili powder way down to only a teaspoon (but it was still a bit too spicy for me), used one box of broth and 4 cups of water, because packaged broth is pretty hard to get right now and I don't want to use up all my stash yet. And of course, no cilantro! I used parsley instead.
Instead of serving it over potatoes I made some short grain brown rice. The texture of the rice I figured would make this a more filling meal.
Um, let me put it this way - I cooked it as Jill specified, including the 30 minutes on low simmer, then added another half hour on low because the lentils were still rock hard. At the end of the hour I let it sit another half hour on keep warm, but all that did was make it hot, not cooked more. I dished out my bowl of a cup of rice topped with about a cup and a half of soup, and for hubby, around 2 cups of rice and 3 of soup. This was so hot I burnt my finger when the soup touched it, so we let the bowls sit to cool for almost a half hour before we sat down to eat. I started eating at 5:20pm and was finally finished with my bowl at 6:15pm. My jaw is cramping up from all the chewing. The rice was chewy, the lentils were, as Jill's husband Charlie described them, crunchy. The brothy part of the soup tasted great, but I was not happy at all with the texture of the rest of it. During his first bowl my husband said it was fine, wonderful, fantastic, but after he served himself a second bowl much smaller than the first, he got about half-way through and said "Now I know what you mean about getting tired of chewing."
Next time I may just cook it under pressure for 8 minutes like all the other lentil soups. I'm not a fan of crunchy lentils and much prefer them mushy. Will there actually be a next time? Eh, maybe not. I much prefer Heather McDougall's lentil soup recipe, but my husband liked this one well enough, so it's possible but not probable. Let's see after he eats all the leftovers on Friday for his dinner while I make something else for myself.
The ingredients are listed on the YouTube page for the recipe, and I pretty much made it as-written. But not totally. Naturally, I reduced the chili powder way down to only a teaspoon (but it was still a bit too spicy for me), used one box of broth and 4 cups of water, because packaged broth is pretty hard to get right now and I don't want to use up all my stash yet. And of course, no cilantro! I used parsley instead.
Instead of serving it over potatoes I made some short grain brown rice. The texture of the rice I figured would make this a more filling meal.
Um, let me put it this way - I cooked it as Jill specified, including the 30 minutes on low simmer, then added another half hour on low because the lentils were still rock hard. At the end of the hour I let it sit another half hour on keep warm, but all that did was make it hot, not cooked more. I dished out my bowl of a cup of rice topped with about a cup and a half of soup, and for hubby, around 2 cups of rice and 3 of soup. This was so hot I burnt my finger when the soup touched it, so we let the bowls sit to cool for almost a half hour before we sat down to eat. I started eating at 5:20pm and was finally finished with my bowl at 6:15pm. My jaw is cramping up from all the chewing. The rice was chewy, the lentils were, as Jill's husband Charlie described them, crunchy. The brothy part of the soup tasted great, but I was not happy at all with the texture of the rest of it. During his first bowl my husband said it was fine, wonderful, fantastic, but after he served himself a second bowl much smaller than the first, he got about half-way through and said "Now I know what you mean about getting tired of chewing."
Next time I may just cook it under pressure for 8 minutes like all the other lentil soups. I'm not a fan of crunchy lentils and much prefer them mushy. Will there actually be a next time? Eh, maybe not. I much prefer Heather McDougall's lentil soup recipe, but my husband liked this one well enough, so it's possible but not probable. Let's see after he eats all the leftovers on Friday for his dinner while I make something else for myself.
Monday, April 20, 2020
Working on My Harmony House Stash
If my husband and I can't leave this apartment until autumn, that's fine with me. HE is a little antsy staying indoors and likes to walk back and forth to C-Town, but I keep reminding him that every time he (and our son) goes out, we start the quarantine countdown over again. With our son working 5 nights a week, we're never really out of quarantine. That's very scary to me.
But even though the shelves of my usual grocery store are still bare, and waits to get into the other chain grocery and department stores are an hour or more long, and the only way to get a grocery delivery window - IF the stores have the items you want - is to stay awake all night constantly hitting the refresh button, I am so glad that Harmony House (and Amazon, of course) exists! Spinach, broccoli, celery, onions, carrots, mushrooms, white potatoes both diced and slices, sweet potatoes, peppers, lentils and pinto beans, blueberries, mixed vegetables by way of a vegetable soup mix, peas, cabbage, jalepeno peppers - and probably a few others I missed - are all lined up on the shelves in the hallway outside our apartment door and squeezed into a few places in the apartment. I had to moves piles of books around to find room for them inside, but I really should read those books then donate them, anyway.
Thanks to Amazon and its vendors I have almost 50 pounds of beans around the place, too. And over 100 pounds of rice, mostly brown but a bunch of white bought locally, too, because it doesn't go rancid like the brown.
We're starting to have trouble finding canned tomatoes lately. C-Town has plenty of diced and stewed, but none are no-salt added, so when something calls for 2 cans of tomatoes, I use one unsalted and one salted to stretch the healthier ones out a bit longer. Forget about suggesting making from fresh - tomatoes have been lousy for a while now and not just pale pink to white inside but pretty much tasteless. It's been that way for years. I already mentioned a few times how scarce frozen veggies have been.
My current menu is made up of mostly soup meals, a few rice, bean, and veggies ones, and when we don't feel like either of those, pasta meals(Over 20 pounds of pasta in here, too). All of those can easily be made from the stash of food I already have in the apartment.
Last night I made up the Sweet Potato and Yellow Split Pea Soup made from this recipe. I used 1 cup of dehydrated sweet potatoes soaked in 2 cups of water for about a half hour; for the mirepoix veggies I used a half cup each of dehydrated onions, celery, and carrots and added an extra 3 cups of water to the Instant Pot. I tossed about 1/2 cup of dehydrated spinach, too, because we love it and it makes the soup a wee bit healthier. For the liquid smoke I used hickory. And oops, I just realized I forgot to add the tablespoon of no-salt seasoning (usually Mrs. Dash Table Blend). It wasn't missed. Instead of cooking it on the stovetop I tossed it all into the Instant Pot and cooked it for 8 minutes, the time I've made other lentil and pea soup recipes. Even after I let it sit with the heat off until the pressure sensor dropped down and then at least another half hour, it was still red hot when I opened the lid and served it.
The soup was as thick and delicious as it always was when I made it with fresh veggies. My husband said if he didn't help me carry those gallon containers of veggies from the front hall he would never have known I used them. I forgot to take a photo of it in the pot or bowl, but here's some of the leftovers in their container, waiting for me to eat them for lunch:
Tonight I'm making the Bob's Red Mill Veggie Soup, but unlike when I made it here, I'll be using the dehydrated onions because I only have one bag left in the freezer and one raw and I'm saving them for a special occasion meal. Dehydrated spinach, too. I have none of that left and C-Town hasn't had it in almost a month. It's a good thing I just got a 5 pound box of it (and 20 pounds of carrots) delivered from Harmony House over the weekend! Now I'm debating whether or not to also buy the box of onions.
As I said, I have enough food in the house that we can do without shopping in person for quite a while. I won't be making anything fancy, just good, simple foods. Dr. and Mary McDougall would be proud of me!
But even though the shelves of my usual grocery store are still bare, and waits to get into the other chain grocery and department stores are an hour or more long, and the only way to get a grocery delivery window - IF the stores have the items you want - is to stay awake all night constantly hitting the refresh button, I am so glad that Harmony House (and Amazon, of course) exists! Spinach, broccoli, celery, onions, carrots, mushrooms, white potatoes both diced and slices, sweet potatoes, peppers, lentils and pinto beans, blueberries, mixed vegetables by way of a vegetable soup mix, peas, cabbage, jalepeno peppers - and probably a few others I missed - are all lined up on the shelves in the hallway outside our apartment door and squeezed into a few places in the apartment. I had to moves piles of books around to find room for them inside, but I really should read those books then donate them, anyway.
Thanks to Amazon and its vendors I have almost 50 pounds of beans around the place, too. And over 100 pounds of rice, mostly brown but a bunch of white bought locally, too, because it doesn't go rancid like the brown.
We're starting to have trouble finding canned tomatoes lately. C-Town has plenty of diced and stewed, but none are no-salt added, so when something calls for 2 cans of tomatoes, I use one unsalted and one salted to stretch the healthier ones out a bit longer. Forget about suggesting making from fresh - tomatoes have been lousy for a while now and not just pale pink to white inside but pretty much tasteless. It's been that way for years. I already mentioned a few times how scarce frozen veggies have been.
My current menu is made up of mostly soup meals, a few rice, bean, and veggies ones, and when we don't feel like either of those, pasta meals(Over 20 pounds of pasta in here, too). All of those can easily be made from the stash of food I already have in the apartment.
Last night I made up the Sweet Potato and Yellow Split Pea Soup made from this recipe. I used 1 cup of dehydrated sweet potatoes soaked in 2 cups of water for about a half hour; for the mirepoix veggies I used a half cup each of dehydrated onions, celery, and carrots and added an extra 3 cups of water to the Instant Pot. I tossed about 1/2 cup of dehydrated spinach, too, because we love it and it makes the soup a wee bit healthier. For the liquid smoke I used hickory. And oops, I just realized I forgot to add the tablespoon of no-salt seasoning (usually Mrs. Dash Table Blend). It wasn't missed. Instead of cooking it on the stovetop I tossed it all into the Instant Pot and cooked it for 8 minutes, the time I've made other lentil and pea soup recipes. Even after I let it sit with the heat off until the pressure sensor dropped down and then at least another half hour, it was still red hot when I opened the lid and served it.
The soup was as thick and delicious as it always was when I made it with fresh veggies. My husband said if he didn't help me carry those gallon containers of veggies from the front hall he would never have known I used them. I forgot to take a photo of it in the pot or bowl, but here's some of the leftovers in their container, waiting for me to eat them for lunch:
Tonight I'm making the Bob's Red Mill Veggie Soup, but unlike when I made it here, I'll be using the dehydrated onions because I only have one bag left in the freezer and one raw and I'm saving them for a special occasion meal. Dehydrated spinach, too. I have none of that left and C-Town hasn't had it in almost a month. It's a good thing I just got a 5 pound box of it (and 20 pounds of carrots) delivered from Harmony House over the weekend! Now I'm debating whether or not to also buy the box of onions.
As I said, I have enough food in the house that we can do without shopping in person for quite a while. I won't be making anything fancy, just good, simple foods. Dr. and Mary McDougall would be proud of me!
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Black Bean Chipotle Slow Cooked Soup
Now that the CrockPot is in a place of honor on an appliance table and not buried in storage, I've been using it more and more.
Yesterday I made up Mary McDougall's Black Bean-Chipotle Slow-Cooker Soup from The Starch Solution book. I figured with Dr. McDougall about to release the Starch Solution certification program into the wild for free and Gustavo Tolosa is going to do an 8-week webinar covering a chapter a week, I may as well focus a little bit more on that book.
This recipe is also known as Slow Chipotle Black Bean Soup on the McDougall website.
Here's a photo of it after just 4 hours on high in my Crockpot. The water level dropped over an inch already.
Notice how most of the water is already mostly boiled out. I left it on high for another 2 hours and at the 6 hour mark turned it down to low. More water had evaporated by then so I added a bit of boiling water and stirred. At 7 hours I turned it down to keep warm and tasted it - a bit flavorless to me, but I chose not to add anything at this point.
Dinner time and I served it over Mary's Corn Bread. I've been making this for so long I don't even look at the recipe any more and sometimes forget to add the cup of frozen corn. It's just as good without it.
I chopped up a little cilantro to add to the Crockpot.
Uh, oh. I think I ruined it by doing that.
I'm one of those "cilantro is soap" people and used maybe a tablespoon of cilantro leaves, cut up real fine. The smell alone turned me off. I tried remove them as soon as I put them in the pot, but many had already sunk into what little liquid there was left. I served our bowls then spent 15 minutes pushing beans around and removing every trace of green I could find in my bowl. It still tasted like soap. My husband just shook his head, told me he'll take the leaves I took out of mine and pop them in his bowl, and then merrily munched away, helping himself to another piece of cornbread and bowl of this beany stuff.
I can't call it a soup - it was way too thick and lacking in liquid for that. He said he'll call it "Soapy Chili" in the future. I growled at him and told him cilantro will never pass through my doorway ever again. He reminded me I said that multiple times in the past. I guess I never learn.
Without cilantro, this would be a great use for some of those black beans I loaded up on at the beginning of the covid panic, when stores like Amazon still had food in them. Now, just about any bean I click on says it's currently unavailable, whether from Amazon, Vitacost, or Rancho Gordo. I do plan on making this again, but maybe with spinach instead of cilantro next time.
Yesterday I made up Mary McDougall's Black Bean-Chipotle Slow-Cooker Soup from The Starch Solution book. I figured with Dr. McDougall about to release the Starch Solution certification program into the wild for free and Gustavo Tolosa is going to do an 8-week webinar covering a chapter a week, I may as well focus a little bit more on that book.
Black Bean-Chipotle Slow-Cooked Soup
prep: 10 minutes
cooking time: 8 hours
serves: 8 to 10
2 cups dried black beans
2, 16-ounce cans fire-roasted chopped tomatoes
4 ounce can chopped green chilies
2 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/8 teaspoon chipotle powder
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Put the beans, tomatoes, chilies, chili powder, cumin, red pepper, and chipotle powder in a slow cooker. Stir in 6 cups of water.
Cover and cook on High for 8 hours.
Serve the soup hot, stirring in the cilantro as you serve it.
Mary McDougall
The Starch Solution
This recipe is also known as Slow Chipotle Black Bean Soup on the McDougall website.
Here's a photo of it after just 4 hours on high in my Crockpot. The water level dropped over an inch already.
Notice how most of the water is already mostly boiled out. I left it on high for another 2 hours and at the 6 hour mark turned it down to low. More water had evaporated by then so I added a bit of boiling water and stirred. At 7 hours I turned it down to keep warm and tasted it - a bit flavorless to me, but I chose not to add anything at this point.
Dinner time and I served it over Mary's Corn Bread. I've been making this for so long I don't even look at the recipe any more and sometimes forget to add the cup of frozen corn. It's just as good without it.
I chopped up a little cilantro to add to the Crockpot.
Uh, oh. I think I ruined it by doing that.
I'm one of those "cilantro is soap" people and used maybe a tablespoon of cilantro leaves, cut up real fine. The smell alone turned me off. I tried remove them as soon as I put them in the pot, but many had already sunk into what little liquid there was left. I served our bowls then spent 15 minutes pushing beans around and removing every trace of green I could find in my bowl. It still tasted like soap. My husband just shook his head, told me he'll take the leaves I took out of mine and pop them in his bowl, and then merrily munched away, helping himself to another piece of cornbread and bowl of this beany stuff.
I can't call it a soup - it was way too thick and lacking in liquid for that. He said he'll call it "Soapy Chili" in the future. I growled at him and told him cilantro will never pass through my doorway ever again. He reminded me I said that multiple times in the past. I guess I never learn.
Without cilantro, this would be a great use for some of those black beans I loaded up on at the beginning of the covid panic, when stores like Amazon still had food in them. Now, just about any bean I click on says it's currently unavailable, whether from Amazon, Vitacost, or Rancho Gordo. I do plan on making this again, but maybe with spinach instead of cilantro next time.
Monday, December 9, 2019
Heather's Lentil Soup
Finally, after a few weeks of vacation, birthdays, anniversary, Thanksgiving, and a few doctors' appointments, it's back to trying new (to me) soup recipes. This one is Heather's Lentil Soup:
Lentil Soup
Prep: 20 minutes Cook: 2 hours
Serves: 6
By Heather McDougall
This soup is a favorite of my boys and so easy to make. I think one of the reasons
they like it, is because I chop all of the vegetables really small. And, like most of the
soups I make, if you don't have an ingredient, such as carrot or kale, leave it out or
substitute another favorite ingredient.
Ingredients
2 small onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
6 small white potatoes, finely chopped
16 ounce bag brown lentils
16 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes, diced
8 cups vegetable broth or water
1-2 cups finely chopped spinach
salt to taste
Directions
Combine all ingredients, except the spinach, and cook on low for 2 hours. Add the spinach about 10 minutes before the soup is done
I was so tired that day - I was up most of the night with severe foot and leg cramps, and then my knee was acting up - so I did this one the easy way, using frozen diced onions, cubed frozen hash brown potatoes, and frozen spinach. I did take a minute to dice up the carrots. I didn't adding any salt because the only fire roasted tomatoes I could find are the salted kind.
Even after adding another 2 cups of water as it cooked on the stove, and forgetting to add the spinach, it was so thick it shouldn't really be called a soup. But it was really delicious!
Next time - and there WILL be one - I'll add a lot more water so we have some liquid to dunk bread into.
Now that I'm making bread in our bread machine again (Thanks to Dave's Killer Bread now having oil and our grocery store's irregular deliveries of Ezekial breads), hubby wants an excuse to eat it more often aside from his lunchtime sandwiches. Next thing you know he'll be asking for pizza again.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Christmas Is Coming - Christmas Limas, That Is!
Who'd a thunk it? A year ago I was hating lima beans with a passion. Now, I'm ordering them by the 10 pound bag from Amazon!
And you know what? I think I'll be ordering more of these even before the end of the year.
That big plastic bag is sealed at both ends so these beans will have to be transferred into something else when I open it up. For now, I just popped the entire bag into a 2 1/2 gallon zip bag and it only takes up about half a bag, a mere 20 cups. I can see me going through that many.
What has happened to me?? Bean soups, that's what happened! LOL
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Hot Yam Soup
And here's another Mary McDougall recipe I never made before!
This one comes from 1992's Doctor McDougall's Health-Enhancing Recipe Book, another out-of-print book that, unfortunately, is not available in e-book form on the McDougall web site. At least it can be purchased new (at a ridiculous price) or used (as low as $4 plus shipping) from places like Amazon or Ebay.com,.
Last weekend we hit Whole Foods once again for various sweet potatoes and yams, so we'll be eating a lot of them over the next 2 weeks, even if only for lunches or snacks. This time I'm using one of the nice sized red-skinned Garnet yams for this soup.
Once again, I'll be using a can of petite diced tomatoes instead of fresh, frozen onions, and dehydrated celery. I'm also using a quarter cup of dehydrated green beans that I bought from Harmony House and used only once since last year's purchase. I'll toss in an extra half cup or so of water, too. I bought them for a soup recipe by Jeff Novick that I made only once before. I know I gave that soup high praises in that post, but that was before its, um, laxative effect hit us! My husband was in no rush to have that soup again, but after all these soups we've been having lately, maybe I will try it one more time. I'll make sure we plan on being home the next day with no plans to leave the house, just in case.
I wish I had a sturdy device - and the arm muscles - to chop up that sweet potato! Now I remember why I started pre-cooking those potatoes, even if just for a few minutes, when I needed to cut them up for a recipe. I do have a jar of dehydrated sweet potatoes (also from Harmony House) but I'm saving those for emergency meals when stuck indoors and unable to go shopping, thanks to winter's blizzards.
Back to the soup.
It looked good, but tasted weird. I'm not sure if it was the paprika combined with basil and cinnamon spice mixture, or that flavor profile with the sweet potatoes, but I just wasn't a fan of this. My husband declared it "Okaaaaay, but something is 'off ' with it." He thought it was the sweet potatoes themselves, but I told him to put just a potato on his spoon and eat it. He did and said it's not the potatoes, they taste fine by themselves. Neither of us could put a finger on it. He did eat his usual 2 big bowls full, so I guess it wasn't that "off" but we both agreed I won't be making this one again.
It's one of the rare Mary McDougall flops for this family. In fact, probably only the second. The first one was over 20 years ago, some kind of potato stew, I think - I can't even remember which recipe it was. I can't even remember what was wrong with it - too bland or too spicy. Oh well, since I can't even remember what it actually was, I'll most likely unknowingly wind up making it again at some point in the future.
But not this soup.
Give it a try and report back with your opinions. It's possible it's just us and our taste. In the book, Mary wrote about this: "Be adventuresome - I promise you'll enjoy this richly colored, richly flavored soup." It's obvious the McDougall family likes this soup, and yours may, too, just not mine.
Last weekend we hit Whole Foods once again for various sweet potatoes and yams, so we'll be eating a lot of them over the next 2 weeks, even if only for lunches or snacks. This time I'm using one of the nice sized red-skinned Garnet yams for this soup.
Hot Yam Soup
servings: 8
prep time: 30 minutes
cooking time: 30 Minutes
2 onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup chopped green beans
2 cups chopped peeled yams, sweet potatoes, or winter squash
5 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
1 large tomato, chopped, 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1 bay leaf
3 teaspoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons basil
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (optional)
Place onions, garlic, celery, green beans, and yams in a large soup pot with 1/2 cup of water. Cook over medium heat, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook over simmering heat for 20 minutes.
Hint: If you don't have any green beans, use a cup of peas or chopped green pepper instead.
Once again, I'll be using a can of petite diced tomatoes instead of fresh, frozen onions, and dehydrated celery. I'm also using a quarter cup of dehydrated green beans that I bought from Harmony House and used only once since last year's purchase. I'll toss in an extra half cup or so of water, too. I bought them for a soup recipe by Jeff Novick that I made only once before. I know I gave that soup high praises in that post, but that was before its, um, laxative effect hit us! My husband was in no rush to have that soup again, but after all these soups we've been having lately, maybe I will try it one more time. I'll make sure we plan on being home the next day with no plans to leave the house, just in case.
I wish I had a sturdy device - and the arm muscles - to chop up that sweet potato! Now I remember why I started pre-cooking those potatoes, even if just for a few minutes, when I needed to cut them up for a recipe. I do have a jar of dehydrated sweet potatoes (also from Harmony House) but I'm saving those for emergency meals when stuck indoors and unable to go shopping, thanks to winter's blizzards.
Back to the soup.
It looked good, but tasted weird. I'm not sure if it was the paprika combined with basil and cinnamon spice mixture, or that flavor profile with the sweet potatoes, but I just wasn't a fan of this. My husband declared it "Okaaaaay, but something is 'off ' with it." He thought it was the sweet potatoes themselves, but I told him to put just a potato on his spoon and eat it. He did and said it's not the potatoes, they taste fine by themselves. Neither of us could put a finger on it. He did eat his usual 2 big bowls full, so I guess it wasn't that "off" but we both agreed I won't be making this one again.
It's one of the rare Mary McDougall flops for this family. In fact, probably only the second. The first one was over 20 years ago, some kind of potato stew, I think - I can't even remember which recipe it was. I can't even remember what was wrong with it - too bland or too spicy. Oh well, since I can't even remember what it actually was, I'll most likely unknowingly wind up making it again at some point in the future.
But not this soup.
Give it a try and report back with your opinions. It's possible it's just us and our taste. In the book, Mary wrote about this: "Be adventuresome - I promise you'll enjoy this richly colored, richly flavored soup." It's obvious the McDougall family likes this soup, and yours may, too, just not mine.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Heather's Vegetable Soup
This one comes from an old McDougall newsletter, and is currently posted to the McDougall website recipe section. Here's how Mary McDougall posted it:
First, a moment of silence for my THIRD Vidalia Chop Wizard device. In the past, it was the blade part that broke. Today, the lid split in 2 down by the hinge.
I was able to finish chopping the carrots that were already in there by leaning one arm down on the hinge end and putting the rest of my weight on the other side to push down onto the carrot quarters. As you all know, you have to slice your carrots first into small and thin enough chunks to fit in the small section where the blades are, then slice the pieces thin enough the long way because this chopper has trouble chopping anything firmer than a hard boiled egg. As soon as I finished those pieces of carrots that were embedded in the blades I pushed this chopper aside, grabbed my knife, and cut the rest of the carrots the old fashioned way. No more of these choppers for me - I wasted enough money on them!
Now, on to what I did with the recipe.
Let's see, I used frozen diced onions, dehydrated celery, 2 small peeled red potatoes, half a large Hannah yam, petite diced no-salt added canned tomatoes, no-salt added small white beans, and frozen diced collards instead of fresh chard. You already know about the carrots. For the pasta I used Tinkyada shells. I looked around in 2 different Whole Foods stores and couldn't find any smaller gluten-free pasta shapes, like ditalini or orzo, in any brand. Turned out they were small enough.
Look at this nice, chunk soup! Loads of veggies, good tasting broth, very filling. We finished it off, again with me having one bowl and hubby having 2 full bowls (Plus some bread for dunking. I don't know where he puts it all!).
The pasta is a bit plump because I forgot to turn the heat off 10 minutes after adding the pasta and collards. I set the timer, and remember turning off the timer, and I swear I got up and turned the gas off, but when we finally went into the kitchen to eat I saw the flame was still on. Thank goodness I use those aluminum flame tamers when I know food has to heat on low simmer! This stove runs so hot I have to use 2 at a time to keep things from boiling away on the lowest setting.
Right now my husband has a cold, and has been coughing and sneezing, not just during the day but during the night, too. When he coughs, I wake up, and I'm awake for at least an hour after that. I just about doze off again and he coughs or sneezes again. This has been going on for a while now. But remember, I'm the one who's been coughing since mid-August and waking him up, but luckily, he can usually fall right back to sleep within seconds of waking. Anyway, during those sleepless hours many things toss and tumble around in this crazed head of mine, and one of those things last night was this soup. There was a nagging feeling that I had forgotten something. I had no idea what - I had all my ingredients measured out or out of the cabinets ahead of time. Looking over the recipe when I put it in this post, I saw what I did wrong - I forgot to add the additional 2 cups of water. To be honest, it didn't need it. Maybe when my appetite returns to normal and I'm eating larger amounts of food again I'll appreciate the extra 2 cups of this soup, but it was fine for us yesterday.
And this soup will be made again. I've said many times that the Mary (and Heather) McDougall recipes are family favorites, and this is yet another one to add to the list.
Vegetable SoupThis is a soup that my daughter, Heather, makes often for her family. Our grandsons, Jaysen & Ben, love it and will often eat several bowls of this for dinner.
Prep: 15 minutes Cook: 60 minutes
Serves: 6
By Heather McDougall
Ingredients
4 cups vegetable broth
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups water
1 yam, peeled and cubed
1 white potato, peeled and cut in large chunks
15 ounce can chopped tomatoes
15 ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 bay leaf
1 tsp basil
1-2 cups chard, chopped
1/2 cup uncooked pasta
DirectionsThe recipe is fine for all versions of the McDougall program (and most other WFPB ones, too), but if you're following the Maximum Weight Loss Program as written by Doctor McDougall, omit the pasta. If you're following Jeff Novick's revised MWLP guidelines for pasta, you can safely leave them in.
Place 1/4 cup of the broth in a large soup pot. Add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften slightly, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining broth, the water, yam, potato, tomatoes, beans, bay leaf and basil. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for about 45 minutes, until all vegetables are tender. Stir in the chard and pasta. Cook for about 10 minutes until pasta is tender
First, a moment of silence for my THIRD Vidalia Chop Wizard device. In the past, it was the blade part that broke. Today, the lid split in 2 down by the hinge.
I was able to finish chopping the carrots that were already in there by leaning one arm down on the hinge end and putting the rest of my weight on the other side to push down onto the carrot quarters. As you all know, you have to slice your carrots first into small and thin enough chunks to fit in the small section where the blades are, then slice the pieces thin enough the long way because this chopper has trouble chopping anything firmer than a hard boiled egg. As soon as I finished those pieces of carrots that were embedded in the blades I pushed this chopper aside, grabbed my knife, and cut the rest of the carrots the old fashioned way. No more of these choppers for me - I wasted enough money on them!
Now, on to what I did with the recipe.
Let's see, I used frozen diced onions, dehydrated celery, 2 small peeled red potatoes, half a large Hannah yam, petite diced no-salt added canned tomatoes, no-salt added small white beans, and frozen diced collards instead of fresh chard. You already know about the carrots. For the pasta I used Tinkyada shells. I looked around in 2 different Whole Foods stores and couldn't find any smaller gluten-free pasta shapes, like ditalini or orzo, in any brand. Turned out they were small enough.
Look at this nice, chunk soup! Loads of veggies, good tasting broth, very filling. We finished it off, again with me having one bowl and hubby having 2 full bowls (Plus some bread for dunking. I don't know where he puts it all!).
The pasta is a bit plump because I forgot to turn the heat off 10 minutes after adding the pasta and collards. I set the timer, and remember turning off the timer, and I swear I got up and turned the gas off, but when we finally went into the kitchen to eat I saw the flame was still on. Thank goodness I use those aluminum flame tamers when I know food has to heat on low simmer! This stove runs so hot I have to use 2 at a time to keep things from boiling away on the lowest setting.
Right now my husband has a cold, and has been coughing and sneezing, not just during the day but during the night, too. When he coughs, I wake up, and I'm awake for at least an hour after that. I just about doze off again and he coughs or sneezes again. This has been going on for a while now. But remember, I'm the one who's been coughing since mid-August and waking him up, but luckily, he can usually fall right back to sleep within seconds of waking. Anyway, during those sleepless hours many things toss and tumble around in this crazed head of mine, and one of those things last night was this soup. There was a nagging feeling that I had forgotten something. I had no idea what - I had all my ingredients measured out or out of the cabinets ahead of time. Looking over the recipe when I put it in this post, I saw what I did wrong - I forgot to add the additional 2 cups of water. To be honest, it didn't need it. Maybe when my appetite returns to normal and I'm eating larger amounts of food again I'll appreciate the extra 2 cups of this soup, but it was fine for us yesterday.
And this soup will be made again. I've said many times that the Mary (and Heather) McDougall recipes are family favorites, and this is yet another one to add to the list.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Hearty White Bean Soup
Let's see, when last commented on (In the Comments to this post), I had just gone back on the inhaled steroids, was then given a round of antibiotics, was ordered to use the nasal inhaler the doc was prescribing, and told to force fluids to clear up that newest round of asthma and bronchitis. He kept the asthma med at the same dose strength but really wanted to put me back on the one twice as strong that he reduced back in 2017 AND put me on oral steroids, but once I plead my case to go easy on the steroids because of my cataracts he: 1) argued that inhaled steroids don't have anything to do with cataract development (I told him to just Google it or use any of the medical web sites he and the student docs have access to and he'll find I'm not making it up) and 2) caved in and didn't prescribe them when the student showed him some on-line article proving my assertion, but I now have to go back to him in early October so he can see how I'm doing. Since it's been over a month now since all this crap started and I picked up the Advair inhaler again and I still have bouts of coughing and laryngitis, I'm afraid he may win this war, afterall. I absolutely hate oral steroids! They make me feel weird, plus they really give me the screaming munchies! One round in the past led to 50 pound weight increase. :(
In the meantime, I've been making a lot of soup meals because they're not only easy to make but easy to get down this occasionally sore throat of mine. The antibiotics weren't for anything in my chest but he said my throat was as red as the shirt I was wearing that day. Well, duh! If he were coughing 20 out of 24 hours a day, his throat would be red and sore, too! I never did have a fever or pulmonary wheezing, just the cough, cough, cough. At least most of that is behind me and aside from some soreness in my neck muscles, the throat is fine (I hope).
Anyway (I DO get off on tangents!), many of the soups I've made have been the old tried and true Mary McDougall ones, like Festive Dal Soup, Mexi Soup, Bean and Corn Soup (a.k.a. Your Kids Will Love This Soup, Quick Black Bean Soup, Split Pea Soup (both with green split peas and white potatoes and yellow split peas and sweet potatoes - tonight's dinner, BTW). Other soups have been Jill McKeever's Soy Curls Noodle Soup, and even the Bob's Red Mill Veggie Soup Mix. Many of my lunches were one of the soups or chilis from the Harmony House Sample Kit (Yes, even the one or 2 with TVP. Don't tell Dr. McDougall!) if I had no soup leftovers.
I had assumed soup weather was going to be here by now, but temps are still in the low 80's most days. I already have menus made out for the next few weeks with mostly soup meals planned. I'm so glad neither my husband or myself mind hot soups on warm days. Some days it's those same old tried-and-true recipes, but every now and then I have planned a new-to-me soup. The one I made last night, Hearty White Bean Soup, goes back to the fairly new book The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook.
NEW??? OMG!! That book is from 1999 - it's 20 years old already!! I also react this way when people on TV say someone lives in an "old" house that was "built almost 30-50 years ago." In our city, a 50 year old house is referred to as one of the *new* houses in town! The house I'm currently living in goes back to the 1920's, the 6-family house I was born in from the 1880's.
Anyway, here's the recipe:
So, what kind of comments do I have? I used frozen diced onion, half a pound; for a change I used fresh carrots that I chopped up a few days ago with the Vidalia Chop Wizard; I used dehydrated celery flakes instead of fresh; half a bag of Dole cole slaw mix for the cabbage; and as usual, skipped the bay leaf.
Delicious! And yes, hearty. My husband said it was so filling he didn't need any bread to sop up the liquid. He also requested it again soon. Lucky for him I still have half a bag of cole slaw mix in the refrigerator, so his wish will be my command later this week.
In the meantime, I've been making a lot of soup meals because they're not only easy to make but easy to get down this occasionally sore throat of mine. The antibiotics weren't for anything in my chest but he said my throat was as red as the shirt I was wearing that day. Well, duh! If he were coughing 20 out of 24 hours a day, his throat would be red and sore, too! I never did have a fever or pulmonary wheezing, just the cough, cough, cough. At least most of that is behind me and aside from some soreness in my neck muscles, the throat is fine (I hope).
Anyway (I DO get off on tangents!), many of the soups I've made have been the old tried and true Mary McDougall ones, like Festive Dal Soup, Mexi Soup, Bean and Corn Soup (a.k.a. Your Kids Will Love This Soup, Quick Black Bean Soup, Split Pea Soup (both with green split peas and white potatoes and yellow split peas and sweet potatoes - tonight's dinner, BTW). Other soups have been Jill McKeever's Soy Curls Noodle Soup, and even the Bob's Red Mill Veggie Soup Mix. Many of my lunches were one of the soups or chilis from the Harmony House Sample Kit (Yes, even the one or 2 with TVP. Don't tell Dr. McDougall!) if I had no soup leftovers.
I had assumed soup weather was going to be here by now, but temps are still in the low 80's most days. I already have menus made out for the next few weeks with mostly soup meals planned. I'm so glad neither my husband or myself mind hot soups on warm days. Some days it's those same old tried-and-true recipes, but every now and then I have planned a new-to-me soup. The one I made last night, Hearty White Bean Soup, goes back to the fairly new book The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook.
NEW??? OMG!! That book is from 1999 - it's 20 years old already!! I also react this way when people on TV say someone lives in an "old" house that was "built almost 30-50 years ago." In our city, a 50 year old house is referred to as one of the *new* houses in town! The house I'm currently living in goes back to the 1920's, the 6-family house I was born in from the 1880's.
Anyway, here's the recipe:
Hearty White Bean Soupservings: 8prep time: 15 minutescooking time: 30 minutes
1/2 cup water1 onion, chopped2 carrots, sliced1 stalk celery, sliced1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic1 15-ounce cans white beans, drained and rinsed4 cups vegetable broth2 cups frozen hash brown potatoes1 bay leaf1 tablespoon soy sauceseveral twists freshly ground black pepperPlace the water in a large pot and add the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and cabbage. Cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.Add the remaining ingredients; bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.Remove bay leaf before serving.
So, what kind of comments do I have? I used frozen diced onion, half a pound; for a change I used fresh carrots that I chopped up a few days ago with the Vidalia Chop Wizard; I used dehydrated celery flakes instead of fresh; half a bag of Dole cole slaw mix for the cabbage; and as usual, skipped the bay leaf.
Delicious! And yes, hearty. My husband said it was so filling he didn't need any bread to sop up the liquid. He also requested it again soon. Lucky for him I still have half a bag of cole slaw mix in the refrigerator, so his wish will be my command later this week.
Monday, August 26, 2019
Mom, Make Meals That Are Less Complicated
Or, "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
In my case, a bigger food processor, but I'll get to that later in this post.
A few weeks ago Ann and Jane Esselstyn demonstrated this recipe for Oberlin Corn and Shallot Chowder from the Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook (page 89), except they called it Summer Corn Chowder in the video.
The other day I decided to give it a shot, and even bought the twice-as-expensive Pacific lower sodium vegetable broth as suggested. I also mistakenly bought leeks instead of shallots, not realizing my mistake until I was half-way checked out at the register, when the clerk asked me what those things were and I replied: "It was supposed to be shallots but grabbed leeks by mistake. Aw, crap!" I knew I had a container of freeze-dried shallots at home and decided to just use those instead of finishing my order, putting all the bags in the car and going back into the grocery store to grab 2 shallots. I'll find some other use for those leeks, even if it's just cleaning and chopping them and sticking them in a bag in the freezer.
Time came to start the soup, and I took the rehydrated shallots, celery, and broth on to cook as directed. While that was bubbling along I dragged out my food processor and got ready.
Here's where things started to go off the rails.
Instead of putting the veggies and broth into the food processor container first I put the defrosted corn and then started to pour the broth in. I get it only half poured when I notice puddles forming under my food processor!
ACK!!
I quickly grab some paper towels and start sopping the area of the puddle that wants to pour over the edge of the cabinet. Then I quickly get the top of the food processor off and start pouring what's left in it into the pot and toss that in the sink, then continue grabbing paper towels to clean the still growing mess up.
In my case, a bigger food processor, but I'll get to that later in this post.
A few weeks ago Ann and Jane Esselstyn demonstrated this recipe for Oberlin Corn and Shallot Chowder from the Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook (page 89), except they called it Summer Corn Chowder in the video.
The other day I decided to give it a shot, and even bought the twice-as-expensive Pacific lower sodium vegetable broth as suggested. I also mistakenly bought leeks instead of shallots, not realizing my mistake until I was half-way checked out at the register, when the clerk asked me what those things were and I replied: "It was supposed to be shallots but grabbed leeks by mistake. Aw, crap!" I knew I had a container of freeze-dried shallots at home and decided to just use those instead of finishing my order, putting all the bags in the car and going back into the grocery store to grab 2 shallots. I'll find some other use for those leeks, even if it's just cleaning and chopping them and sticking them in a bag in the freezer.
Time came to start the soup, and I took the rehydrated shallots, celery, and broth on to cook as directed. While that was bubbling along I dragged out my food processor and got ready.
Here's where things started to go off the rails.
Instead of putting the veggies and broth into the food processor container first I put the defrosted corn and then started to pour the broth in. I get it only half poured when I notice puddles forming under my food processor!
ACK!!
I quickly grab some paper towels and start sopping the area of the puddle that wants to pour over the edge of the cabinet. Then I quickly get the top of the food processor off and start pouring what's left in it into the pot and toss that in the sink, then continue grabbing paper towels to clean the still growing mess up.
Yes, those are pencils in my sink. They were on the counter near the pad where I write my shopping lists. The pad went right into the garbage. Those were just a handful of towels I used before getting the food processor opened and food dumped into the pot. There was a heck of a lot more paper towels on the counter, sopping, while I ran to grab the iPad so I could snap this shot. Right after this I poured everything into the pot and put it back on the stove while I washed out the food processor container, the food processor itself, the counter, and everything the broth touched on the counter, like the electric tea kettle, a bunch of spice bottles, and those poor pencils. Hey, they had erasers that worked - I wasn't going to toss them our just because they got a bit of broth on them!
After all the clean-up was done, I tried again, this time only putting a few scoops of soup into the food processor, whirring that up, pouring it into a different pot, then repeating until it was all done. Now I finished up the recipe by heating it all up again before dishing it out.
By now, the lacinato kale that I also bought was finished in the Instant Pot. It was the first time in a few years our store had this and not the curly kale. It tasted so delicious even plain! I did what the Engine 2 Seven Day Rescue book says to do and made half my bowl full of greens, then ladled the soup into it.
A bunch of black pepper got added on top of this.
Now for the taste test.
Well, the kale is delicious. The soup? As Ann says at the end of the video, needs more pepper. It needed something - otherwise it tasted not all that different than a can of no-salt added creamed corn.
Will I ever make this again? No. Not that it's bad - it's just blah. My husband took a taste and grabbed his ever-present bottle of sriracha and added so much his soup was almost pink. Not a good sign. He also told me I can have all the leftovers for myself. Gee, thanks. I had a bit yesterday, and will probably finish it up at lunch today. If I go a bit heavy-handed with the salt shaker it's not too bland.
When my son heard this story (He was at work when it all happened. Hubby wasn't home at the time I did the above, either), he turned to look at me, put his hands on my shoulders, and said the title of this blog post: "Mom, make meals that are less complicated." Will do.
Either that, or buy a bigger food processor. Mine is the 11 cup model, and in all the years I've had this, I never made a mess as big as this one was. I looked up the one I think Jane has and discovered it's most likely the 16 cup capacity. So word of warning - if you try this soup yourself, either use a larger food processor, a fairly large capacity blender, or an immersion blender. Consider yourself warned!
As for those "less complicated" meals, since 3 days a week I make rice and frozen veggies, 2 days a week some kind of pasta with a very simple sauce, and either a McDougall soup, a SNAP meal, or potatoes and frozen veggies the other 2 days, what I usually make isn't complicated at all. I just wanted something different! That'll teach me!
Friday, February 8, 2019
Bob's Red Mill Veggie Soup in InstantPot
I love Bob's Red Mill products. Half my pantry, it seems, is filled with Bob's products. I was so happy when local stores started selling them a few years ago - from the local health food store to the discount chain Big Lots, I can find a great many of their offerings within a 15 minute drive, the rest I can get from Amazon.
One of the first items I fell in love with many years ago was their Veggie Soup Mix - a combination of all sorts of tiny beans and lentils, plus the tiniest alphabet pasta - whole wheat, too - that I've ever seen. It's such a tasty soup made using just the mix and water, made with as many added veggies and spices as I want when feeling adventurous. I've used frozen soup vegetables, fresh, even dehydrated ones.
The past few times I've made it I've done it this way:
6 cups of water
1 cup of Bob's Red Mill Veggie Soup Mix
1/4 cup dehydrated cut carrots from Harmony House
1/4 cup dehydrated celery, also from Harmony House
1 cup of diced frozen onions (instead of dehydrated, only because I have so many bags of them in the freezer right now)
1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach (ditto)
1 tablespoon Mrs. Dash Table Blend
Toss all this into the Instant Pot and cook using the Manual button for 10 minutes. I let the pressure come down naturally.
I used more water than the directions called for to allow for absorption from the dehydrated veggies, plus the fact that my husband loves to dunk bread in his soup, and without the extra water there's nothing to dunk into, that's how thick this soup gets.
I used to make this on the stovetop when I remembered to start it early enough - it takes an hour once it boils - but usually I don't even think of lunch until I get hungry, and then I usually start cooking so it's ready when I am, about a half hour later or less. This soup is so speedy to make in the pressure cooker, especially if I start the water boiling on Saute mode or heat it up in the electric teapot while getting all the ingredients together. Once everything is in the pot and I seal the lid and set the time, it's usually ready in about 15-20 minutes. It makes about 2 quarts of soup when done. If I use fresh cut or frozen veggies instead of dried, a little bit more. Since we each eat 3-4 cups of it at a sitting, it makes lunch for 2 for one day or just me for 2.
I would have taken a picture of the soup in a bowl but my husband didn't want to wait and dived right in, so you're stuck with the soup in the IPot picture.
This winter our local Stop and Shop grocery store has had a lot of other brands of dried soups on the shelf using small beans and lentils and whole grains. I've had a great time trying them all, but this Bob's Red Mill mix is still my favorite. I'm glad I can eat products with gluten again and not have joint pains!
One of the first items I fell in love with many years ago was their Veggie Soup Mix - a combination of all sorts of tiny beans and lentils, plus the tiniest alphabet pasta - whole wheat, too - that I've ever seen. It's such a tasty soup made using just the mix and water, made with as many added veggies and spices as I want when feeling adventurous. I've used frozen soup vegetables, fresh, even dehydrated ones.
The past few times I've made it I've done it this way:
6 cups of water
1 cup of Bob's Red Mill Veggie Soup Mix
1/4 cup dehydrated cut carrots from Harmony House
1/4 cup dehydrated celery, also from Harmony House
1 cup of diced frozen onions (instead of dehydrated, only because I have so many bags of them in the freezer right now)
1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach (ditto)
1 tablespoon Mrs. Dash Table Blend
Toss all this into the Instant Pot and cook using the Manual button for 10 minutes. I let the pressure come down naturally.
I used more water than the directions called for to allow for absorption from the dehydrated veggies, plus the fact that my husband loves to dunk bread in his soup, and without the extra water there's nothing to dunk into, that's how thick this soup gets.
I used to make this on the stovetop when I remembered to start it early enough - it takes an hour once it boils - but usually I don't even think of lunch until I get hungry, and then I usually start cooking so it's ready when I am, about a half hour later or less. This soup is so speedy to make in the pressure cooker, especially if I start the water boiling on Saute mode or heat it up in the electric teapot while getting all the ingredients together. Once everything is in the pot and I seal the lid and set the time, it's usually ready in about 15-20 minutes. It makes about 2 quarts of soup when done. If I use fresh cut or frozen veggies instead of dried, a little bit more. Since we each eat 3-4 cups of it at a sitting, it makes lunch for 2 for one day or just me for 2.
I would have taken a picture of the soup in a bowl but my husband didn't want to wait and dived right in, so you're stuck with the soup in the IPot picture.
This winter our local Stop and Shop grocery store has had a lot of other brands of dried soups on the shelf using small beans and lentils and whole grains. I've had a great time trying them all, but this Bob's Red Mill mix is still my favorite. I'm glad I can eat products with gluten again and not have joint pains!
Friday, December 28, 2018
Jeff's Almost Instant Soup
Back in August, Jeff Novick posted his thoughts on emergency food, now that hurricane season was starting up, and since he lives in Florida, there's always a chance they lose power. He and I corresponded on his forum about dried/dehydrated foods a year or so ago, too. Since then, I always had some dried veggies around the house. After this thread, I invested in even more of them. My favorite place to buy from is Harmony House - I've been buying dried veggies from them for over 20 years and never had a problem.
In that thread he shared his recipe for what he called Almost Instant Soup. I finally had all the veggies it called for and made a batch earlier this week. He's right - it does make a lot of soup and lasts a long time in the refrigerator! I made this up on Monday morning, and still have enough to last at least 4 more lunches after today.
Here's the basic recipe. The posts in the link above gives all the details:
1.5 cup dehydrated (not dry) lentils
4 cups dehydrated vegetables. (Some of my favorites are carrots, onions, broccoli and green beans)
1 gallon of water
- Place all ingredients in a 6 -8 qt pot. Bring to a boil. Simmer 10-20 minutes.
- Adjust water to make it thinner or thicker as desired.
- Add desired herbs, spices to taste.
Along with those ingredients I added a quarter cup of dehydrated soup vegetables blend from Frontier Co-Op. Even though there's nothing else in this, just the dried veggies, it has a unique taste, as if there are added spices or herbs. And since I'm unimaginative when it comes to spicing foods, I also added 3 tablespoons of Mrs. Dash Table Blend, too. I should have left this out and just gone with the added flavor of the soup mix. I used my 8 quart Instant Pot on Sauté then Keep Warm to make this - it was the only pot I own that was big enough.
It's delicious! And since I bought the gallon sized jug of all the ingredients that Jeff recommended, I can have this for every lunch all winter long without having to go out shopping and never be bored! If I want a change of taste, I'll add a can of diced tomatoes or choose one of the many other versions of Mrs. Dash I have in the kitchen.
What else can I say about this soup, but YUM!
Thanks again for a delicious recipe, Jeff!
OK, Mother Nature, bring on Winter! Between those dried veggies, all the canned tomatoes, bagged beans, boxes of broth, bags of pasta, and all the other staple items stuffed every nook and cranny of this little apartment, we're ready if you want to start dumping a few feet of snow on us every few weeks. Of course, I'd much rather you didn't, but I'm ready if you do.
In that thread he shared his recipe for what he called Almost Instant Soup. I finally had all the veggies it called for and made a batch earlier this week. He's right - it does make a lot of soup and lasts a long time in the refrigerator! I made this up on Monday morning, and still have enough to last at least 4 more lunches after today.
Here's the basic recipe. The posts in the link above gives all the details:
1.5 cup dehydrated (not dry) lentils
4 cups dehydrated vegetables. (Some of my favorites are carrots, onions, broccoli and green beans)
1 gallon of water
- Place all ingredients in a 6 -8 qt pot. Bring to a boil. Simmer 10-20 minutes.
- Adjust water to make it thinner or thicker as desired.
- Add desired herbs, spices to taste.
Along with those ingredients I added a quarter cup of dehydrated soup vegetables blend from Frontier Co-Op. Even though there's nothing else in this, just the dried veggies, it has a unique taste, as if there are added spices or herbs. And since I'm unimaginative when it comes to spicing foods, I also added 3 tablespoons of Mrs. Dash Table Blend, too. I should have left this out and just gone with the added flavor of the soup mix. I used my 8 quart Instant Pot on Sauté then Keep Warm to make this - it was the only pot I own that was big enough.
It's delicious! And since I bought the gallon sized jug of all the ingredients that Jeff recommended, I can have this for every lunch all winter long without having to go out shopping and never be bored! If I want a change of taste, I'll add a can of diced tomatoes or choose one of the many other versions of Mrs. Dash I have in the kitchen.
What else can I say about this soup, but YUM!
Thanks again for a delicious recipe, Jeff!
OK, Mother Nature, bring on Winter! Between those dried veggies, all the canned tomatoes, bagged beans, boxes of broth, bags of pasta, and all the other staple items stuffed every nook and cranny of this little apartment, we're ready if you want to start dumping a few feet of snow on us every few weeks. Of course, I'd much rather you didn't, but I'm ready if you do.
Friday, January 19, 2018
Jill McKeever's Soy Curls Noodle Soup
Soy Curls - those lovely little chunks of dried and stretched soybeans that, like tofu, are basically tasteless on their own but taste great when cooked with other things. But because soybeans are one of the fattiest beans I don't use them as often as I would like to.
As many people know, here on the East coast we've been having really cold temperatures, as low as single digits with wind chills in the negative teens at times. You know - SOUP WEATHER!! Since many of my favorite soups I now have penciled in for future dinners, I wanted to try something different for lunch, and this recipe cried out - "Choose me!!"
I wrote about this soup in the past, when Jill's Winter Soups video first appeared on YouTube, but for some reason never made it again, I guess because the only Soy Curls I had at the time were outdated and it took a long time to buy more. In fact, the ones I used when I made it this time were dated November 2017 but I figured what the heck, they've been refrigerated all this time and still smell okay, so why waste them, right?
This time around:
Soy Curls - What a difference they made! Better than the Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup I used to eat as a kid! I loved that stuff and would sometimes just open a can and eat it cold for a really quick lunch. Those days are long gone.
Veggies - Once again, I used one of the pint containers of mirepoix I had in the freezer and a can of no-salt added mushroom stems & pieces. Why mess with the classics? But this time I did have fresh baby spinach that I chopped up and tossed in.
Noodles - Instead of using the baked rice ramen, because I forgot I had some, I used half a package of Tinkyada rice fettucini noodles broken into small pieces. This makes it more of a traditional noodle soup than ramen, but either would fit this dish.
Vegetable Broth - The written directions in the PDF file say to use 8 cups of vegetable broth, so I used 2 boxes of Pacific no-salt added broth.
Picture - Yes, this time I remembered, but not until I ladled out a second bowl.
Now I have the recipe all printed out and sitting in a file folder right in the kitchen with my weekly menu recipes, so I should remember to make it more often. It really is a great tasting noodle soup.
Friday, September 9, 2016
VeganMoFo in November for 2016
Vegan Month of Food (a.k.a. VeganMoFo) is going to be in November again this year. IIRC, it was November the first year they had it, too.
If interested in joining, go to the VeganMoFo page for details.
I didn't participate last year because I really didn't like the idea of having to follow their themes and daily prompts for posts, but it seemed a lot of other people disliked it, too, and didn't follow them. Because of that, it's not going to be an official requirement this year.
Right now I'm following a really stripped down version of the McDougall program, eating close to how Dr. McDougall has said in webinars he and Mary currently eat and how Jeff said to eat in my last post. Weekend dinners I make the old tried and true McDougall soups; twice a week I make rice and veggies; once a week we're again having baked or mashed potatoes with veggies and one of Mary McDougall's gravies, now that I can eat spuds again; another day we have sweet potatoes with either broccoli or saurkraut and black beans. The seventh day changes weekly - sometimes it's a McDougall chili, or a Jeff Novick SNAP recipe, or just a pot of spaghetti with jarred sauce and a bag of veggies tossed in. Breakfast every day is oatmeal with fruit. Lunch for my husband is a hummus sandwich or 2 with a handful of romaine, Boston lettuce, baby kale, or baby spinach. My lunches are either leftovers or some rice or taters with veggies.
I really don't have the energy or inclination to start making more elaborate recipes again, and at this point in my life, anything with 5 or more ingredients is "elaborate" to me now Because of all this, I'm most likely not going to participate in VeganMoFo this year, either. I'm not closing to door on it entirely - when the new McDougall book comes out later this month, The Healthiest Diet on the Planet, there's going to be a recipe section of some of Mary McDougall's favorite tried-and-true recipes with full color pictures. I may be moved enough by this to do a month of these recipes to get non-believers interested in the book, even if I already wrote blog posts, even past VeganMoFo posts, on the exact same recipes. I guess I'll find out in about 3 weeks what the 60 recipes are and see then.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Pinto Bean Soup
Back in January, Jeff Novick posted a recipe that his cousin Sheila's grand daughter developed using dehydrated dried pinto beans. It looked interesting so I nabbed the recipe but did nothing about it for a while because I had my basic monthly menu that I already used.
I was roaming through my soup recipe folder to rotate out some soups we were getting bored with and replacing them with not-so-familiar ones and rediscovered this a few weeks ago. I had a choice of buying the beans from a vendor through Amazon or buying direct from Harmony House. When I saw HH allows payment through your Amazon account, that's what I did. The shipping was the same no matter where I bought it from, but buying direct from Harmony House was a buck cheaper than from a vendor, I knew I would get the freshest stock, and I certainly trust Amazon for payment. The beans came, I put the jar in the pantry closet, and again forgot about it until last week, when planning this week's menu. Finally, I was going to try this recipe!
I was roaming through my soup recipe folder to rotate out some soups we were getting bored with and replacing them with not-so-familiar ones and rediscovered this a few weeks ago. I had a choice of buying the beans from a vendor through Amazon or buying direct from Harmony House. When I saw HH allows payment through your Amazon account, that's what I did. The shipping was the same no matter where I bought it from, but buying direct from Harmony House was a buck cheaper than from a vendor, I knew I would get the freshest stock, and I certainly trust Amazon for payment. The beans came, I put the jar in the pantry closet, and again forgot about it until last week, when planning this week's menu. Finally, I was going to try this recipe!
Pinto Bean Soup with Brown Rice and Veggies
3 cups Harmony House dried pinto beans (blend until all are broken up).
3 Bay leaves
Teeeeeny pinch of thyme.
1 - 3 tsp crushed garlic
2 tsp Mrs Dash Fiesta Lime
6 cups of water.
3 Bay leaves
Teeeeeny pinch of thyme.
1 - 3 tsp crushed garlic
2 tsp Mrs Dash Fiesta Lime
6 cups of water.
Bring water to a boil.
Add everything.
Cook on low stirring 20 minutes. Add water or cook longer for desired thickness.
Before serving add Cooked Birdseye Steamfresh Brown and Wild Rice with Broccoli and Carrots.
Add everything.
Cook on low stirring 20 minutes. Add water or cook longer for desired thickness.
Before serving add Cooked Birdseye Steamfresh Brown and Wild Rice with Broccoli and Carrots.
First step was to toss those beans in the food processor and break them down into tiny pieces. I pulsed them for almost 5 minutes and still had about a third of unbroken beans, a third of smaller bean pieces, and a third of bean powder. Good enough.
I never use bay leaves, so skipped that.
I used 3 Dorot garlic cubes, equal to 3 large cloves. I know I should stop using these, since they contain a bit of oil, but I stocked up before winter with a dozen packages and I'm still working my way through them all. Only 4 trays left, then they're gone.
The "teeeeeny" pinch of thyme grew to about 2 tablespoons as cooking and tasting went on on, the last whole tablespoon going in the pot immediately prior to serving. It could have used more. Same as the Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime. I wound up with around 2 tablespoons of that, too.
I tried 3 stores and neither had the broccoli rice blend called for so grabbed another wild rice and veggie blend.
Here's where the directions get confusing. She wrote to add everything to the boiling water and cook, then add the frozen rice and veg mixture in before serving, yet in the photo on Jeff's page it shows a ladle of soup served over the separately cooked rice in a shallow bowl. I had bought 2 bags of the rice, assuming I was going to do as Sheila's grand daughter did in the photo (one bowl/bag for me, one for hubby), but even after letting the soup cook down for over an hour it was still very watery, so I just microwaved them and added both bags directly to the soup.
As you see, the soup was still so watery the heavier vegetables and rice sunk to the bottom, and I only filled this bowl about a third full.
My husband and I had a debate over this soup. He liked it just fine, after the addition of all the extra spices, whereas I still found it quite bland. He told me my tastebuds must be messed up. He could be right - my sinuses had been acting up this allergy season. The leftovers did taste better the next day, but still on the bland side to me.
So, would I make this again? Well, since I only have 1 cup of the dried beans left I would have to buy more of them first. And decide if I want to buy another quart or go for the gallon size this time. Would I make this soup enough to make the larger purchase worthwhile? I'm not sure. I can always just use canned pinto beans and pulse them in the food processor for a while and greatly reduce the water. It would make a thicker soup, for sure. And I can always cook up a Lundburg wild rice blend and add my own vegetables, too. Of course, doing it that was would negate the "fast food" quality of the recipes Jeff usually shares with us. I'll have to think a bit before adding this one to our usual recipe rotation.
Jeff, if you see this, please tell Sheila to thank her grand daughter, and tell her to keep experimenting and sharing these recipes that fit into your Simple, Nutritional, and Affordable Plan. :)
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