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Solstice Stone Soup

December 21, 2015 By Lauren

soakedriceToday is Winter Solstice, or Yule, the darkest day or longest night of the year, a major turning point in the wheel of the year for light is beginning to return, the Sun king or Sun goddess or God-like figure, depending on yr vantage, is born again, hallelujah, blessed-be, the darkest hour is here and soon will be gone, will be light.

As it turns out, the darkest hour is b4 the eggnog.

Christmas (celebrated just a mere handful of days after Solstice) is one of those holidays whose more earthly (read: pagan) roots have somehow slipped through the cracks, persisted.  The yule log, the mistletoe, the evergreen branch bespotted w/ trinkets, the orange pin-cushioned w/ cloves, the (yes, really) glass of eggnog; no matter what yr spiritual persuasion, whatever holiday you celebrate come December, you’re probably also enacting some age-old traditions and celebrating (even if unawares) not just birth of deity, but more earthly delights, things specific to this point in the season, when we stop leaning away from the light and start leaning toward it.

navets spinach carrots

What better reason to celebrate and merry-make?!  This Solstice, I’m giving you a most practical gift.  A how-to on soup.  That’s right, soup.  Stone soup.  You know, the kind of soup you can make w/ whatever you have on hand.  The kind of soup that gives new life to a bowl of soaked grains or beans, a bunch of wilting spinach, those few forgotten carrots.  Basic soup.  The kind of soup I imagine simmering in a cast-iron cauldron over an open hearth in a cabin in the mountains centuries ago.  The kind of soup I make in my kitchen almost weekly.  Improvisational soup.  The kind of soup that needs, not a strictly adhered-to recipe, but only some gentle guidance.  Self-love soup.  The kind of soup that is deeply–bone-deep, blood-deep, soul-deep–nourishing.

Winter is officially here and what better gift to give yrself and/or yr loved ones than a bowl of all that?

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Stone Soup How-To:

Preface:  There are two cooking habits to get into groove w/ for maximum stone-souping this Winter.  They couldn’t be easier, but they do require a bit of time and forethought.

Habit #1:  Soak some grains.  And/or beans.

There’s a reason for this blog’s name, y’all.  Getting into the habit of always having a bowl of some grain or bean soaking has made preparing nutritious meals on-ze-fly easy as can be for me.  Simply measure out a cup of whatever grain or bean you haven’t used in a while (I rotate through different varieties of rice, spelt-berries, wheat-berries, barley, polenta, black beans, flageolets, etc., etc.) into a bowl, cover w/ warm water and a splash of something acidic (apple-cider-vinegar, lemon, sauerkraut-juice) and let sit overnight or at least 7 hours.  This deactivates compounds that bind-to and prevent absorption of certain nutrients.  Having a bowl of a grain or bean soaking on yr counter everyday means that you’re eating different whole grains and beans everyday which means that your fiber intake is probably soarin’.  More fiber = better digestive health = better overall health.

Habit #2: Make bone-broth. Lots of it.

Having a freezer full of bone-broth is like having a secret spin-straw-to-gold kind of goblin in yr very own kitchen (and w/o all the weirdness regarding yr first-born).  See my how-to on broth here.

Onto the recipe! I’m detailing the last version of stone soup I made, w/ brown-rice, lots of spinach, carrots, turnips and potatoes, but don’t pay as much attention to the specific ingredients as to the method.  Feel free to make adjustments, substitutions; to improvise as you see fit.

#1.  Dice onions.  I usually use at least one large yellow onion to start my stone-soup.

#2.  Heat large, cast-iron pot on medium heat.  Add big knob of ghee.  Let melt and add onions.  Sprinkle w/ salt and stir.

#3. While onions are cooking, prepare your other vegetables:  mince garlic (I like to use 5+ cloves), dice carrots (usually 2), cube turnips and potatoes (2 of each), chop dark leafy greens (I use the whole bunch.  These will cook down a lot, so don’t be shy).

#4.  Add your vegetables to the pot as they’re ready.  Add more ghee if things are looking dry.  Add salt.  I usually follow the above order (1st garlic, then carrots, and so on).  Stir.

#5.  Drain yr grains or beans.  Add them to the pot.  Stir.

#6.  Add your bone-broth along w/ a bouquet-garni (thyme, sage, rosemary, bay laurel).  If you don’t have enough broth to cover the contents of yr pot, add some water.  Turn heat to high.

#7.  Once pot is boiling, skim away any surface impurities (the foam that rises to the top).  Turn heat to low, put lid on pot and simmer.  Simmer as long as it takes to fully cook yr grain/bean, checking tenderness of vegetables while you go.  For this brown-rice version, it took 40 minutes.  For bean versions it’s taken 1+1/2 hours.

#8.  Ladle up and enjoy w/ drizzle of olive oil, plop of sour-cream, squeeze of lemon, and/or whatever else floats yr vessel.

Yule tidings to ye, and merry stone-souping!

Filed Under: Dinner, Lunch, Plant, Recipes, Seasons, Winter Tagged With: basicsoup, bonebroth, simple, soup, stonesoup, vegetablesoup, winter, wintersoup

Belated Imbolc Tidings & Squash Soup

February 6, 2015 By Lauren

oven

Lulu & I celebrated Imbolc this past Sunday with a loaf of sourdough poppy-seed bread and two bowls of this nourishing squash soup with three beeswax candles, a jar-full of fiery fringed-tulips and an almost-full moon beside.

For the uninitiated: Imbolc falls midway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox, a celebration of fertility goddess brigid, a heralding of spring & all the fertile life and light it brings.

soup&pickles

bulgare

Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Midsummer: though I by no means consider myself a pagan (okay, maybe just, like, a neo-neo-one), there is something so wondrous about celebrating holidays that are unabashed celebrations of the seasons.

I say unabashed because, of course, many of our American holidays are still guided by seasonal rhythms.  In fact, many have been derived from the pagan calender–Ostara (or the Vernal Equinox) has become Easter, Yule (Winter Solstice) Christmas, Mabon Halloween.  Even Imbolc has wedged its way into our culture through Groundhog’s Day (for which I am grateful solely because without GD, we wouldn’t have that Bill Murray masterpiece).

But while their pagan counterparts are centered around these seasonal transitions, I find American holidays take them for circumstance (See: Christmas in July), trading in traditions based on nature for (and I swear this isn’t turning into a [major] rant against commercialism) ones based on consumerism.  Not to mention the replacement of every single female representative for a male one, with goddesses Ostara and Brigid replaced by a male bunny and a male groundhog, respectively.  A bunny and a groundhog.  Shaking ma tête.

The celebration of Imbolc depends on personal preference.  Goddess worship, if that’s your thang, could certainly be apart of it, weather divination (like in the case of ol’ Groundhog’s Day) by a walk in the woods and a watching for creatures who have emerged from winter-den, a candle-lit dinner, a bonfire with friends, a jar of bright flowers, a bowl of squash soup. A way of celebrating the season, the moment at hand.

I’ve found this to be the brightest balm for late winter blues: a reminder that the wheel is ever-turning, changes are afoot, Spring is almost almost-here.

coven

I’ve made many versions of this soup before (with cumin and coriander, paprika and za’atar, lots of garlic and fried sage).  This is, by far, the simplest one. It’s also my new favorite as the minimalistic approach really lets sweet Kabocha shine.

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Print
Imbolc Kabocha Squash Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 small celeriac, chopped
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 1 kabocha squash, gutted and chopped (leave the skin on! it's edible & full of fiber & nutrients)
  • 2 good knobs of ghee
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 pint beef bone broth
  • water (if needed)

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 350F. Chop celeriac, carrots and squash so that the pieces are roughly the same size. (Important, as you're roasting them together and you want them to roast evenly). Place on roasting pan. Melt knob of ghee and pour over vegetables. Add generous sprinkle of salt. Cover with foil and roast for 45 minutes, or until all vegetables are soft.
  2. When vegetables are almost through roasting, heat soup pot on stove on medium-flame. Add knob of ghee. Once melted, add onion and another good sprinkle of salt. Let onion cook until translucent, then lower the flame.
  3. Add roasted vegetables and ghee-drippings to pot. Cover with pint of bone broth, adding additional water if necessary. (Liquid should cover the vegetables so that your soup is velvet-creamy). Bring broth to a rolling boil, then take off of heat.
  4. Let cool for a few minutes, then use immersion blender (Important, as pouring hot liquid into a standing blender or food processor can lead to major leakage) to blend.

Enjoy with hunk of sourdough bread, spoonful of raw sour cream, lacto-fermented pickles,and/or drizzle of olive oil and squeeze of lemon.

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Filed Under: Dinner, Lunch, Plant, Recipes, Seasons, Vegetable, Winter Tagged With: bonebroth, dinner, soup, squash

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