Mushroom Barley Soup

This soup has a wonderful earthy flavor. It fills the kitchen and surrounding rooms with this incredible country home aroma.

Just imagine rolling green hills with majestic oak trees (or your ideal landscape) visible through the kitchen window, your home warm from the wood burning stove flickering in the corner ... a slice of home made bread right out of the oven joining your bowl of soup on the table ...

Can you picture it?

That's what this soup will do for you. Honest.

Ingredients:
2-3 Garlic cloves (as preferred)
1 Lrg Onion
1 Mushroom basket
1 Lrg Carrots
1 Celery stick
1 cube Veggie Broth* (see below)
1/2 C Barley
4 C Water
Bay Leaf
pepper as desired

Direction:
This soup is best in quick stages of sautéing initial ingredients to help flavors become more pronounced.

1. In a big soup pot, sauté garlic and onion.
2. Add mushrooms and stir, sauté another 5+ mn. or until mushroom release their juice.
3. Add sliced carrot and celery, stir, and give it another few minutes.
4. Add 4 C of hot water and the veggie broth.
5. Add barley, bring to boil then simmer for 40-45 mn.
6. Throw a couple strings of bay leaf on top of the water for additional flavor if desired.

***Useful TIP: Barley takes 4 times the volume in water, or 2 C water for 1/2 C of barley. In order to keep the soup "juicy," be sure to add a couple (or more) cups of water to the soup.***

Do you notice an additional ingredient in the above and below picture?
Yes, black eye peas ...

It so happened I had a cup left in the fridge and threw that in the soup for good measure. Beans would be great too I think, with this mix. Hmmm!

*Veggie broth: you can find both salted and non-salted version of veggie broth. This being a big pot of soup, the salted version will do fine. In smaller batches, I often opt for the non-salted, preferring to control the amount of salt myself.

Cabbage Potato Soup

Cabbage is certainly not the most mouth watering produce out there, to say the least.

I never really thought of cooking cabbage until I went to a Celtic Festival and talked to a participant in the historic section in the midst of stirring the most amazing smelling pot of soup.

Off course that one included bacon and cream, so a few adjustments had to be made ...

And the results? Hmm, a surprisingly amazing tasting soup!

Ingredients:

- 1 med Onion
- 2-3 cloves Garlic (or as prefered)
- 1 Green Cabbage, roughly sliced
- 5-6 sm Red Potatoes
- 1 cube Veggie Broth
- 4 C Water
- salt / pepper

Directions:
1. Quickly sautee onions and garlic in a big soup pot with a little oil.
2. Add cabbage and stir. Sautee 10 mn., stirring occasionally.
3. Add chopped potatoes, herb, salt and pepper. Mix and sautee 2-4 mn.

4. Add 4 C water and broth. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer for 30-40 mn.
5. Keep an eye on the water level and add as needed, according to your desire for broth.

Cabbage soup ... who would have known it could be soooo good!
... and even better with chunk of home made bread thrown in. ;p
(see bread category)

Cauliflower Potato Soup

As strange as that may sound, cauliflower is actually good in soup!

It would not have been my first choice, I admit, and it turned out to be a very good surprise.

I made a big pot of it and it went in no time. It even has a slightly sweet smell to it whenever re-heated the next day -and not because I added any kind of sugar to it, I didn't (though it could be because I typically use coconut oil to sauté my veggies). Regardless, very nice with a bowl of greens and slice of homemade bread.

Zucchini Avocado Soup

With all the zucchini coming out of the garden this year, finding new ways to eat it has been an interesting exploration. I've got about 3 recipes coming up with said zucchini, all a success. Yeah!

This first one is a cold Zucchini Avocado Soup.

What you'll need for the soup:

• 1 C Water
• 1 med Zucchini (about 3 C chopped, peeled)
• 1 stalk Celery
• 2 crushed Garlic cloves
• 1 Avocado
• 1 tsp dried Dill (or fresh if available)
• sea salt, cayenne to taste

Creamy Carrot Soup

my little man :-)

Yeah, another soup recipe! It's winter after all, and soups are easy, quick, nutritious, and oh so yummy.

This one comes to me through my sister. She made it over the Christmas holidays when we all got together and everyone absolutely loved it, myself included. So off course I had to add it to my "soup repertoire," and share it with you here.

Split Pea Soup

I fully believe that a good, heart warming bowl of soup is complete and utter BLISS.

I never get tired of eating it, particularly in winter. In fact, I'll often make a big pot and have it 2 to 3 dinners in a row, sometimes even for breakfast. A good bowl of soup, a side green salad, and maybe a piece of toast or wheatberry bread and I'm in Heaven.