Soup's On!

 
I love raw food…but cooked soup is what I crave when the temperature dips below freezing. This winter has been especially cold and snowy,

Our backyard!

which inspires me to keep a pot of soup simmering on the stove.

A view from the kitchen window!

 Each week I make a large pot  which supplies days of simple  lunches or dinners.
 That said, variety is a nice thing too! So, don't hesitate to change it up. Make two smaller pots and trade off.  We all need inspiration!

Vegan Lentil/ Miso ready to eat!

Here’s how we like to eat our soup. Fill your bowl to the brim with greens and ladle warm soup over greens.

baby chard, kale and spinach

soup over greens!

 Use what you have on hand. Our favorites are kale, collard, chard or spinach. If you are pressed for time, or looking to keep things easy, there are nice blends available of baby organic greens. No chopping required!

my favorite blend of baby greens!

Just fill up your bowl and you are good to go!

Any vegetable, green or grains can serve as the star of your soup.Just go for variety and you'll never get bored. We love lentils in any form: red, green or black, they are all delicious, quick to cook and easy to digest. Lentils love cumin, garlic and brown rice miso. Honestly, it’s hard to go wrong. In general, use fewer ingredients. Too many ingredients make it difficult to taste and appreciate individual flavors. Featuring a single ingredient with some basic background players works best for us. Try  roasting onions  to bring out their sweet nature and creates a yummy base. Leaving the skins on allows you to roast onions whole, or you can chop and roast them diced.

(roasted diced onions)

Either way, we never add oil to our soups. So, every bowl is fat-free, nutrient packed -goodness!

Kombu makes lentils easier to digest!

Here’s a simple recipe you can easily embellish… (This makes a large pot of soup just  perfect for sharing!)

Lentil/Miso  Soup

4 cups of lentils, rinsed

8 cups of water

4-6 bay leaves

2 inches of kombu (seaweed)

4 onions diced and roasted

4 carrots, diced

4 sticks of celery, sliced

3 tbl brown rice miso (or your favorite miso)

8-10 cloves of garlic

1 ½ cups of millet, rinsed and cooked in 3 cups of filtered water * (directions below)

Greens, cut in thin slivered ribbons-  or use mixed baby greens or baby spinach

Rinse lentils and place in a large pot. Add water, bay leaves and kombu. Simmer on medium heat until lentils are tender but not mushy (about 25 minutes). While lentils cook, dice the onion and place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Roast at 325 degrees until tender (20 minutes). Chop carrots and celery, set aside. When lentils are tender, remove the kombu. Kombu helps tenderize the lentils and make them easier to digest. Add the carrots, celery and onions. Simmer an additional 15-20

minutes. Peel garlic and place in a 4 cup mason jar. Add 3 tbl of miso. Remove 2 cups of broth from the lentil pot and pour into the mason jar. With an immersion blender, blend the garlic, miso and water. Pour that mix back into the pot. Taste and adjust seasoning. Feel free to add more miso or garlic.  This recipe makes lots of soup! If you are cooking for yourself, or a small family you may want to cut the recipe in half or freeze half in smaller portions.

To Cook Millet:

Some people prefer toasting the millet first. This is optional.

Rinse and drain the millet. Dry  roast in a skillet, stirring constantly until it turns golden and smells nut-like. Bring water to a boil, add grain then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and continue to cook about 25-30 minutes until water has been absorbed and the millet is tender.

To serve:

Fill your bowl with greens and cooked millet. Ladle soup over raw greens and millet. Allow the soup to rest 1-2 minutes so greens get soft.

Here's a photo of Harry trying to keep warm his way!

 Check out our upcoming  class-
Cooking-For-Peace class scheduled for  Sunday May 18, 2014
at The Patapsco Friends Meeting,  at Hebron House in Ellicott City, MD.

 We will be sponsoring The Holistic Life Foundation.
 Here's a little bit from their website, or go directly to:  www.hlfinc.org  for media coverage and  much more!
 We can't wait to work with them! 

 To Read about Holistic Life :  

• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Issue Brief
• Shambala Sun Article
• Baltimore Sun Article
• Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology Scientific Article
• ServiceSpace Forest Call
• Excel Academy at Francis M. Wood Alternative High School Article
• Baltimore Magazine Article

About the HLF Founders:

"Hi! We're Andy, Atman, and Ali, the co-founders of the Holistic Life Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization bringing yoga & mindfulness to under-served communities for over 12 years, both in our hometown of Baltimore, Maryland and internationally.
Growing up, our father taught us (Ali & Atman) about yoga and mindfulness. When we got to college, we met Andy, and together we came up with the idea to bring our experience with holistic practices to the community. (That's the short version of the story, which you can see on TEDxTeacher's College here).

Patterson High serves a number of really at-risk students, just look at the following statistics:

• End-of-year suspension rates up to 16% of students
• A 4-year graduation rate of only 86% of students
• More than 60% of students are absent more than 20 days each year
• The school's state testing falls far below the average in Maryland.

What we aim to do, with your help and the help of some of our partner organizations, is take our own, proven yoga & mindfulness curriculum into Patterson High School with hopes to improve participation in class, academic scoring, and graduation rates, while helping the 1,000 students find some inner peace of their own."

Stay warm,
bethanne