Melissa's Cooking!

We are off to a Soup Night later on at our good friend’s, Dave D. Ever since a local winery has hosted soup days during the winter, where they have several soups available paired with wines, we decided it’d be cheaper (well maybe not after buying all the ingredients and wine) and more fun to do it ourselves! So every so often someone hosts a Soup Night where everybody brings a soup they’ve made and a bottle of wine that goes well with your particular soup, and shares with that with everyone.

I’ve decided to make a Mushroom Barley Soup for tonight. It’s a good hearty soup that goes perfectly with the cold winter days. I’ve made this before following one of 3 particular recipes, but today I’m making this my own.

Ingredients include:
(Try to use organic!)
• 2 TBS of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 medium white onion, chopped
• 1 TBS of minced garlic
• Salt and fresh ground pepper
• 5 medium carrots, chopped
• 1 cup of crimini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup of pearled barley
• 1 bay leaf
• 8 cups of Vegetable Broth (reduced sodium)
• 2 TBS of soy sauce

Prepare your ingredients. Put your olive oil into a soup pot over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper for about 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and carrots, and cook until the mushrooms get brown (about 5 minutes). Stir in your barley and stir constantly for about 5 minutes, until the barley starts to toast and stick. Add your veggie broth and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Cover and Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the soy sauce, taste and adjust the seasonings. Serve and enjoy! (Now since this has a few hours until we are heading to the gathering, I will pour into a crockpot and leave on warm until everyone gets to enjoy.)

This soup is very tasty and light. It’s pretty quick to make and has lots of nutrients in it.

Ingredients include:
(Try to use organic!)

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup diced yellow onion
• 4 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 1 (32-ounce) box reduced-sodium vegetable broth
• 4 cups packed chopped kale***
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can Italian-Style Diced Tomatoes
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• two large carrots, peeled and sliced

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes longer. Add broth, kale and tomatoes and fresh carrots and cover. Cook 5 minutes or until kale is tender. Add beans and heat thoroughly. Serve hot.

Add fresh Parmesan cheese and extra salt if wanted. Enjoy!

***I’d like to add a note after having the leftover soup sit overnight in the fridge. You might want to add only enough Kale that you will be eating the evening that you cook up the soup. If you have leftover Kale, it will turn brown on you and then it’s just gross to look at, not to mention, I’m sure all the nutrients are probably gone.

My suggestion: Add only the amount of Kale that you will need for your first batch, and then if you have leftovers for the next night, cook up new Kale for that next batch.

With the sweet potatoes and apple cider stewed together with the juicy diced tomatoes and veggie broth, and with the addition of Italian sausage, it seriously tastes what Fall should taste like. A bit on the sweeter side, but again, very seasonal and delicious. I found this recipe online, made my own adjustments and it turned out to be super yummy. Needs a tad of tweaking, but what I made is quite good!

Again, like the Burger Soup, feel free to use animal sausage…but I used the Field Roast Grain Meat Italian Sausages…which added a nice flavor to the overall soup.

Ingredients include:
(Try to use organic!)
• 1 box of Veggie Broth (4 cups)
• 1-28 oz can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of black beans
• 2 garlic cloves crushed
• 1.5 tsp of cumin
• 2 tsp of paprika
• 1.5 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of pepper
• 1 package of Field Roast Grain Meat Italian Sausages (or 1 lb of lean ground beef or turkey)
•1 large (or 2 small) sweet potatoes chopped in small cubes)
• 2 cups apple cider

Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes…Enjoy!

Note: This is plenty for a family of 4 to 6, but if it’s just the 2 of you, you will have enough for lunch and dinner the next day

This recipe is SO good on a chilly fall or winter day. It’s a slow cooker recipe so you can prepare everything early in the day, and then enjoy it hassle-free with some yummy gourmet bread in the evening. That’s what we did Sunday

So the original recipe I found called for 1 pound of lean ground beef…so if you like ground beef, by all means, use lean ground beef (but please make sure it’s from a happy cow that once roamed the open fields and was fed yummy grass and not yucky corn products, okay?) Same goes if you’d prefer to use lean ground turkey meat, which is what we used before I went total vegetarian. NOW I use Field Roast Grain Meat Italian Sausages. I cut/dice up the sausages small enough for it to seem like burger meat. And the flavoring of the Italian sausage is simply perfect for this soup!

Also, I’ve diverted from the original recipe quite enough, that I feel like it’s almost my own, so I will give you the details of what ingredients I used instead of what they call for. I use more whole ingredients than what they suggested anyway, which is totally better for you

Ingredients include:
(Try to use organic!)
• 1 package of Field Roast Grain Meat Italian Sausages (or 1 lb of lean ground beef or turkey)
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 green bell pepper chopped
• 1 TBS of Italian seasoning
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 1/4 tsp of black pepper
• 3 cups of boiling water
• 1 – 16 oz can of italian seasoned diced tomatoes
• 1 – 8 oz can of tomato sauce
• 2 TBS of soy sauce (reduced-sodium)
• 1 cup of sliced celery
• 1 cup of thinly sliced carrots
• 2 cups of cooked macaroni
• 1/4 grated parmesan cheese

Crumble up your sausage or ground meat and heat it up on the stove. (Please make sure you brown the beef/turkey. This particular sausage is already precooked. I just heat it up to put heated sausage in the stew pot.) Chop up your vegetables.

Add your ‘meat,’ onion, garlic, bell pepper, italian seasonings, salt and pepper to slow cooker. Stir in the boiling water, tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce and soy sauce. Add celery and carrots.

Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours. (Set timer!)

About a 45 minutes before you want to eat, cook up your macaroni. Increase your stew pot heat to HIGH and stir in your cooked macaroni and Parmesan cheese. Cover and cook for 10 to 15 minutes more.

Dish some soup into your bowl, shread some more Parmesan cheese on top, serve with a side of sliced gourmet bread and enjoy! Oh, and this is plenty for a family of 4 to 6, but if it’s just the 2 of you, you will have enough for lunch and dinner the next day

Sunday, September 20, I made Barley Soup with Seasonal Vegetables. I made this several times now and when I do this, you know it’s gotta be a good dish to make . I got this recipe out of a book, my favorite 2nd cousin got me last year, called How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, by Mark Bittman. You can use pretty much whatever vegetables that you are in the mood for, but thinking environmentally friendly-wise, use the vegetables that are in season/local.

Ingredients I used:
• 2 TBS of neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn (I didn’t have this, so I just used extra virgin olive oil…)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 TBS minced garlic
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup pearled barley
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• basil, dried or fresh chopped
• about 2 lbs of root vegetables. For my vegetables, I used
— 2 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2″ dice
— 4 stocks of celery, sliced
— 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes
— can of corn drained
— 1 zucchini, cut into cubes
— 4 carrots, diced

I used my big cooking pot. Put the oil in the pot and let it heat up over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onion and cook, sirring occasionally, until soft, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook for 1 minute more. Add the barley and cook, stirring constantly, until the barley starts to toast and stick, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat so the liquid simmers, cover, and cook until the barley begins to soften, 10 to 15 minutes.

Turn the heat up to medium-high  and add the vegetables. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer again, cover and cook until the vegetables and barley are very tender, another 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in some basil. Serve in some bowls, grab some yummy bread to dip in your soup and taste this yummy goodness!

Oh, this makes about 10 servings, so if you’re just a household of 2 like us, then be ready to eat for the next 2 days for both your lunches and dinners!