soup of the week

This took a little longer to get posted than I planned, but anyway, here it is. This is loosely based on a recipe from "Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant." I don't think I ever make a recipe exactly as written, but my food mostly turns out tasty anyway. This is a great cookbook, by the way. All vegetarian, with some fish dishes, and each chapter is from a different country or ethnic region. I have a tiny problem with some of their ingredient choices (does cabbage actually grow in southern Africa?) but I know enough to substitute what I like.

Hungarian Bean Soup

1 cup dry beans (navy or kidney)
or 1 can beans

1 leek, finely chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste (~1/4 tsp)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
2-3 cups vegetable stock

1/4 cup sour cream
2 tsp cider vinegar
chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Soak dry beans overnight, then cook until tender. Drain and rinse beans, but reserve 1-2 cups of the cooking liquid.

In a separate saucepan on medium heat, saute leeks and carrots in 1-2 tbsp of oil. When leeks start to brown, add garlic and spices and saute for about 30 sec to 1 min (warming the spices brings out more flavour). Add vegetable stock, bean cooking liquid, and beans (or add can of beans, liquid and all). You want a total of about 4 cups liquid, so add more veg stock if necessary. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes.

Take soup off heat, and stir in sour cream and vinegar. Check seasoning, and adjust if necessary (if you like spicy, you can add some chili flakes or sauce). Ladle into bowls and garnish with parsley (if you're feeling fancy). Makes about 4 servings.


It's really quite simple, and if you can't be bothered with dry beans, I think the canned ones should be fine - you'll just need more veg stock. I added some cauliflower I had in the fridge, and you could add other vegetables if you want, although I recommend keeping it fairly simple. The flavour of the broth isn't strong, but it's very tasty. Have this with some dark rye bread, fresh from the bakery or oven.

long weekend

I had a delightful, lazy weekend with my sweetie. We didn't celebrate Easter, but managed to fit in a bunny, some chocolate ice cream, and things made with eggs, so I think we did okay. And, I have photos to document some of the best parts!

Before the weekend got started, I made a big batch of borscht. It does look nice in photos, being such a lovely red colour. I'm not posting the recipe, because borscht is one of those dishes that is made differently in every family, and I make it differently nearly every time, so just find a recipe that sounds good to you and go for it. Just because the main ingredients are beets, cabbage, and potatoes, doesn't mean it has to taste like bland and over-cooked peasant food.


On friday, I decided to take a break from work and do some sewing. I've been planning this quilt for our living room wall for ages, and finally had all the necessary bits, and time to make it.


I spent saturday putting together some toys I had knit over the past week or so. I had already made a super bunny names Clark, so this one was dubbed 'Wonder Bun.'


On sunday, I spent some time mending clothes. My most comfy pair of jeans got patches to cover up the holes in the knees, but I had to concede that my most favourite red angora sweater is on it's way out. No amount of darning will fix all the holes and thin patches. I think it may have to gain a new life as some kind of plushie...


Yesterday, we went for a long walk in the sunshine. Although we took the camera, the huge snow banks were too depressing for us to bother taking photos. Instead, I will show you a peak of the April feature pattern I'm working on.


And in case you thought I was busy and industrious all weekend, we did watch some Lord of the Rings, 5 episodes of Red Dwarf, eat nachos for supper, and drink some very nice beer.

weekly soup feature!

I had this silly idea last night that I should share the soup I make each week. It does say in my bio that I make delicious soup, so maybe I should prove it. My husband thought this was a good idea, since I've been lacking interesting things to talk about lately.

As a bit of background, I make a big pot of soup at the beginning of each week. We eat it for supper on workdays, so I don't have to take time to make supper every night. My husband loves soup, and usually I'm too hungry to care what I'm eating, so it works well for both of us. There are a couple hitches in the plan, though. First, my husband is mostly vegetarian (he will eat some fish and humanely-raised meat) so that limits the kinds of soup I can make. Second, I'm allergic to garlic and onions, so I need to modify most recipes. In spite of these limitations, I do manage to make something pretty tasty each week, and because I dislike repeating recipes too often, I make quite a variety of soups.

I recently bought myself a copy of "The Joy of Cooking" which seems to be a very good all-round cookbook. It's possible to get recipes on various websites, but I find they often lack good basic recipes, and you can't always trust that they'll work and be tasty. "Joy" has been around for years, so I can trust the recipes and information in it. On the downside, nearly every soup recipe in it has onions, so I'll need to modify any that I want to try.

Okay, if you're still with me after that dissertation on soup, here's the one I made last night: mushroom and barley. I added carrots and parsnips, and seasoned it with thyme and bay leaf. The recipe called for beef broth, but since I can't get good broth at my grocery store, I substituted free-range chicken broth plus some red wine and tomato paste. It turned out very tasty, although I only made enough for about 3 meals. I didn't want to go overboard with a new recipe.

If you would like me to share my recipe for anything I post here, just let me know. I'll try to remember all the changes I made to the original!