Soupy Sunday

It is another lovely, lovely day here in the Bogs.  Bright sunshine, autumn-blue sky, and warm (about 80 degrees) temperatures.  If it wasn’t for the colorful foliage, it would hardly seem like autumn.

A pile of Swiss chard waiting to become soup

I spent a little time outdoors, but not quite as much as I would have liked.  I had indoor things to attend to that included greens needing to be used in some way.  Swiss chard, spinach, kale, and rapini have been patiently waiting (and wilting) in the fridge.

A small handful of kale

I mentioned a few blog posts back that I recently purchased the book Love Soup: 160 All-New Vegetarian Recipes from the Author of The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas.  Prior to today, I have made two of the soups and a couple of batches of the Basic Light Vegetable Broth.  About once a week now I clean out the vegetable and fruit bins in the refrigerator, using the old, the tired, and the not-so-good-looking vegetables (and occasional fruit) to make a stock that I can use throughout the week.  I utilize a good deal of vegetable broth in my cooking now that we’ve gone mostly vegetarian.  I save the tops of leeks, stems and leaves of parsley and cilantro, and other good scraps for the stock by tossing them into a container and storing them in the freezer until I’m ready to make the stock.

Green Soup, the original.

Love Soup is filled with wonderful vegetarian and vegan soup recipes organized seasonally.  What caught my attention, and caused me to buy the book, were the Green Soup recipes.  I have been trying for years to find a way to like kale.  Today I found that way in the original Green Soup recipe.  It is an amazingly delicious soup, and I could almost feel my body responding to all the healthy greens that went into the pot to make this soup.  Kale and Swiss chard were the main players.  A handful of cilantro and 4-5 green onions added more green and flavor.  The recipe calls for potatoes, but I used the Arborio rice option which gave the soup a lovely texture.  Cayenne and lemon juice perk it up nicely.

Thomas uses caramelized onions to flavor a lot of the soups.  I am going to have to start buying onions in bulk.  Not just for the soups.  Onions figure into almost all of our meals lately.  I bought a peck of onions from the farmers’ market a few weeks ago, and have used almost all of them.  The garlic has been rapidly disappearing too.

A trip to the orchard

Love Soup also includes recipes for breads, hummus and other spreads, salads, and desserts.  I look forward to working (eating) my way through this book.  All of the recipes are appealing to me, and I foresee many great soups being made in my kitchen throughout the next year.

M and I made a trip to Stotler’s Orchard today to load up on a variety of apples for applesauce and for plain old eating.  I like my applesauce on the tart side.  M likes his sweet.  We ended up with a half bushel of a mixture of tart apples and a half bushel of the Golden Delicious variety that M likes so much.  We also have a peck or two of some heirloom apples to try, and a gallon of their freshly pressed cider.  Of course no visit is complete without getting a couple of their cider donuts.  Yum!

Yesterday evening, near sunset, we went out to the swim platform for what will likely be the last time this season.  It will soon be time to haul the platform to shore.  We sat out there for a little while talking and watching the moon rise as the sun set.  It was a beautiful evening.

Once the sun had set, we had dinner and then got the campfire going.  The temperature dropped quite a bit once the sun went down so the fire was welcome and warming.

It has now been two weeks since I began my daily yoga practice commitment.  I have no regrets at all about making this commitment.  As with the year-long outdoor commitment I just finished, this is likely to be life altering for me.

That’s about it from the Bogs for today.  Thank you for dropping by and joining me on my Sunday soup adventures.  🙂

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