Dear
Friend,
That
is the question people ask me after I tell them that I had homemade soup for
breakfast. They usually squint
their eyes and scrunch their face when they repeat in question form what I had
just told them. They look at me as if they heard incorrectly or I made in error
in my meal schedule. But I reassure them that, yes, I do eat soup for breakfast
at least four out of seven days and yes it has to be freshly made. I enjoy a
nutritious start to my day because it gives me a boost of energy and carries me
through until lunchtime.
This
morning I decided to make a mushroom vegetable, my favorite. First because I
use a base made with my home grown frozen tomatoes. I can certainly see the
value in all the hard work of planting, weeding, harvesting, washing, stemming
and pureeing when I pull a container of heirlooms out of the freezer.
I also have frozen corn and in my root
cellar plenty of onions and garlic from the garden as well. The carrots I have
in the ground covered with straw. The fresh added ingredients that I purchase
are celery, kale, spinach, butter beans and of course a variety of mushrooms. I
adore mushrooms but I will leave that for another blog.
Now
if you are looking for a recipe here, I apologize because I throw together my
soups on a whim and a taste. I believe if you have on hand all the basics, then
anything goes. It is a rare cooking day when I use measuring tools but I do
have a few secrets that tend to improve any recipe.
For
this soup, I just start out chopping the celery, onion, garlic and carrots and
sautéing them lightly in olive oil.
The secret here is to chop into small pieces. I stir often on low heat
(secret), and patience and close proximity are necessary. This takes about 10
minutes. I remove the vegetable mix to a bowl and add to the pan my thinly
(another secret) sliced mushrooms and cook those until they brown just
slightly. Again I stir often (secret) and lightly salt them (secret).
In
a soup pot I pour in the tomatoes and then add a bit of water or vegetable
stock. I toss in all the sautéed vegetables, add the butter beans,finely
chopped kale and spinach along with a bit of basil, a couple of bay leaves,
salt, pepper, a pinch of marjoram, a hint of thyme, and I top it off with vitamin
A power packed parsley. I cook on low heat until carrots are soft and the herbs
seep into the mix.
It
sounds like a lengthy process but the whole soup takes me about twenty minutes
to prepare plus however long I want it to simmer or how long I want to wait to
eat. So grab some veggies and choose a day or two or three or four to have soup
for breakfast. Be aware of how awake it makes you feel and you will soon be
joining me at the soup table in the morning.
RSVP,
Jude
