Greek Lemon Rice Soup

OK, I got another cookbook.  I had to, because it's Vegan Eats World by Terry Hope Romero, author of Viva Vegan and co-author of Veganomicon.  I've been looking forward to it for ages!  It arrived a couple weeks ago and it is huge - totally overwhelming.  I've made a few things so far, though, and they have all been great, including this soup.

It's a lemony broth with carrots, orzo, arborio rice, and pureed white beans to thicken it and add some protein.  I also added a couple handfuls of chopped spinach because I had some in the fridge to use up.  I never think I'm a soup person but then I almost always really like it when I make it from scratch, and this one will be good to have in the repertoire.

Crockpot Chickpea Vegetable Stew

This started off as Spring Minestrone from Vegan Slow Cooker, but I ended up changing so many things I will call it something else and tell you what's in it so you can make it yourself!  And you should, because it's delicious.

1/2 a diced onion
3 cloves garlic
1-inch piece lemon peel
1 16 oz can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
3 cups cooked chickpeas (or 2 cans rinsed & drained)
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 yellow squash, diced
1 bunch kale, cut into ribbons or bite sized pieces
5 cups water
1 Tbsp dried oregano
salt & pepper to taste

Saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until soft.  Add to the crockpot, along with the lemon peel, tomatoes, chickpeas, carrots, and squash.  Add the oregano, about a tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper and the water.  (I did all this stuff the night before and stuck the whole thing in the fridge overnight to avoid having to deal with it in the morning.) Cook on low all day.

About a half hour before serving, add the kale and more salt & pepper if you want.

The end!

Harira

Harira is the soup traditionally eaten to break the fast during Ramadan. It's usually made with lamb, but this recipe (from Bean by Bean) is, obviously, vegan. The base is lentils and chickpeas, with lots of fresh herbs and vegetables and some noodles thrown in at the end. I used Japanese somen noodles because I had some on hand, so this is probably not strictly traditional even considering the lamb is omitted.

I've noticed a recent tendency I have to pick recipes that don't sound all that exciting or are even downright weird (see: African vegan meatloaf) in order to see if they'll actually be tasty. So far, I have not been disappointed. I thought this one might be on the boring side, particularly because I don't even really like soup, but I absolutely loved it.

I also made a loaf of the Vegan Diner Garlic-Dill Bread, but with chives in place of the dill. Our chives plant normally dies off in the winter but, as we didn't really have winter this year, it's going nuts out there and I've been trying to make a concerted effort to prune it back. ANYWAY here are some pictures of everything.

Mmmm, bread.

It was a great dinner!

Spicy Eggplant-Peanut Soup

This doesn't look like much, but it was so fantastic I'm posting it anyway.

This is a Veganomicon stew of eggplant, tomatoes, tons of caramelized shallots, and green beans in a thick peanut butter/tomato broth, served over white rice. It's multi-step and took at least an hour to put together but it was 100% worth it. We're having leftovers for dinner tonight in lieu of whatever was supposed to be on the schedule, because it is just that good.

Chickpea Noodle Soup & Garlic-Dill Bread

This winter has been basically like winter in Los Angeles. I think we've had less than 10 cold days. It's weirdly disorienting and I'm going to be a little disappointed if we don't get a little snow or ice or something before the brutal Southern summer pops back up again. We had one chilly day today, sandwiched in between two full weeks of 60+ degrees, so I made the most of it with homemade bread and soup.

This garlic-dill bread is from Vegan Diner and was maybe the easiest bread I've ever made. No yeast! It took about five minutes to mix together and stick in the oven. It came out looking kind of like a huge biscuit, but the inside was moist and bready and delicious.

The soup is a Veganomicon recipe I've been trying to make for two weeks, but I kept forgetting to get the called for mushrooms at the grocery store. I went to the store today and forgot them again (seriously, why are the mushrooms in a completely different area from the rest of the produce?), but decided to go ahead and make it anyway. I added some celery to fill in for the bulk of the mushrooms and it worked fine. This is very reminiscent of good old canned chicken noodle soup, except without the massive amount of salt and weirdly gelatinous broth.

We have a fire in the fireplace and ate our soup and tomorrow it will be 62 degrees again.

Samosa Mashed Potato Pancakes & Tomato-Carrot Soup

These Indian-spiced mashed potato pancakes and the apple cider chutney alongside are both from Vegan Brunch. They were both super good. I had to add extra flour to the potato mixture because my first "pancakes" did not work out well, but after adding flour they held up much better. The chutney is great - I'm having leftovers in my oatmeal this morning.

My BFF Anna made the carrot-tomato soup when she was here a few weeks ago - it's a recipe she learned from her Indian employer and it was really, really good. We froze it and I think that might have even made it better, letting the flavors really settle in. Or something.

Potato-Kale Soup with Chorizo

We have now entered the Detox Phase of the holidays and I'm so glad. It's such a weird thing we do, eating like maniacs for a month straight. Whyyyyy?? I feel gross and am afraid to get on the scale.

So here's some soup. It's a Viva Vegan recipe and the chorizo (vital wheat gluten-based) is hers, too. I cut the total oil in the recipe from 5 tablespoons to 2, and we didn't miss it.

It was so good I think we're just going to eat leftovers for dinner tonight instead of making something new.

Tortilla Soup

This is an Appetite for Reduction recipe I hadn't tried before - kidney beans, corn, tomatoes, and tortilla chips in a cumin-spiced broth. It was good, but I've made similar recipes before so it wasn't all that exciting.

I'm starting to accept that I might not really be a soup person, though. It doesn't feel like enough of a meal to me most of the time.