This post is, predictably, about the first of those activities. I can write another post about the different ways I've discovered of wearing/knotting scarves, but I don't know if that's of interest.
Let's get on to the recipe! I present to you, "Curried Leek and Vegetable Soup" with homemade bread bowls:
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| I overestimated the amount the bowls would rise, so we had to refill the soup multiple times. |
The soup was based off of the allrecipes.com curried leek soup, with multiple modifications, including making it vegetarian. I use leek as a base in most of my soups, but had not tasted the full kick this vegetable provides until it was at the centre of a recipe.
Serves four (4)
Ingredients:
- 3 medium leeks (outer leaves and any dark green parts removed), thinly sliced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can navy or white beans
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 3-4 whole carrots, thinly sliced
- 2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon mustard
- 1/8 teaspoon coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon thyme
- 1 cup (8 fluid ounces) milk or non-dairy substitute of your choice
Directions:
- In a soup or saucepan (original recipe suggested 3 qt), saute leeks and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until tender.
- Add the water, navy beans, carrots, celery and spices and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat; cover and simmer for until vegetables are tender (10-20 minutes)
- Add the milk
- Blend until smooth* using an immersion blender, blender, or food processor.
- Add more milk or water as needed to reach your preferred consistency.
- Serve immediately in bowls or bread bowls, or serve later and reheat as needed.
*whatever level of smoothness you desire. Less blending = more chunks, obviously.
Notes:
Vegetarian-izing it was unintentional: I forgot that I didn't have broth in my pantry, so I added navy beans and pureed them to give body and flavour. I'd read about another blogger using white bean puree as a cream substitute, and (successfully) experiemented with using the puree to replace broth instead of milk. I'm sure the taste was slightly different, but with the spices and the vegetables, the texture needed more "beefing" up than the flavour anyway.
With spices, I generally spin my lazy susan until I see something that I think would be a good addition, do a smell confirmation, then add a dash or two as needed. So... the volumes are approximate.
My bread recipe comes from the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. A few tips for making homemade bread bowls:
- Shape them carefully to get the size you want: mine turned out smaller than expected because they didn't rise a lot the second time, but then again the herb-wheat bread was kind of dense so more bread would have been too much to eat.
- Pair the bread and soup to complement each other's flavours: the herb-wheat bread had a wheat-y tang and soft herb flavour, which went well with the curried leek and veggie soup I made. For a stronger tasting soup, a simpler sourdough bread bowl might be better.
- Hollowing out the bowl is simple with the use of a grapefruit knife! slice off the top of the bowl, then use the angled serration to easily cut out as much of the crumb as desired. I did two turns: one with the blade pointed toward the middle of the bowl (cutting right inside the edge of the bowl), and a second with the blade pointed toward the crust (cutting from the center). I ended up with a sort of "ring" that could then be easily pulled out.
Enjoy!
