December 2, 2008

Creamy (or not) Vegetable Soup

This is one of our favorite soups, partly because it tastes so good and partly because it is so easy.
The recipe as is makes 4 servings, so I doubled it last time and then put a bag of soup in my freezer.

The Creamy Way (your veggies can be cubed pretty large)
1 Turnip, peeled and cubed
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, cut in chunks
1 celery stick, cut in pieces, leave the greens on
1 small onion, quartered
2 Tb tomato paste or 1 large tomato
2 tsp salt
5 Cups water
1 Tb vegetable bouillon
Pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a pot, bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook until veggies are soft about 45 min. DO NOT drain. Blend in blender.

The Chunky Way (as the picture shows)
My husband much prefers chunky soup, so I cut my veggies smaller, then I cooked it the same. Instead of blenderizing all of the soup I only put about half in the blender, lightly pureed it then added it back in.

This was delicious with homemade rolls. My girls loved it!

Whole Wheat Rolls

So I have tried, rather unsuccessfully, in the past, to make some really good whole wheat rolls that do not have a lot of butter in them. I confess my favorite whole wheat recipe calls for 8 sticks of butter and yes they taste good, but I think you lose the 'healthy' part with all that butter.
So here goes our favorite healthy whole wheat rolls. To get it to fit in my KitchenAid I halve the recipe.
Note: These were quick to about an hour total.

Mix and rest 15 min:
3 1/2 cups warm water
3/4 c sucanat or 1/2 c honey
1 cup Olive oil
6 Tb Yeast

Then add:
1 Tb salt
10 1/2 c whole wheat flour
3 eggs (or energy egg replacer or 3 Tb ground flax mixed with 3/4 cup water)
3 Tb vital wheat gluten or you can use Dough Enhancer

Knead for about 5 minutes. Shape into rolls, cover and let rise until double (30min-1 hour). Bake 425' for 10-12 minutes.
One more thing- I used this recipe to make cinnamon rolls and they were good as well.

**** a few notes about eggs*** after reading books like 'The Omnivore's Dilemma" and then realizing there was no way we could raise our own healthy chickens, my husband an I did some research; This is where our opinion now stands... after doing some reading and then taste testing we have decided that buying Cage-free eggs really does make a difference. We are able to get a dozen cage-free brown eggs at Sam's club for about $2.20. We don't eat very many eggs maybe about 18 a month, but I do believe a small amount of eggs are good for us when used sparingly.