There's something sublime about the three of these ingredients simmering in a little butter in a pot over medium heat. The smell smacks of cold weather comfort food: of soups and stews and dishes to sop up with home-baked bread.I opened my fridge the other day and saw some carrot and celery sticks wasting away in my veggie drawer. I'd pre-cut them for the kids thinking they'd be a convenient snack, but snacks are only convenient if your kids will actually eat them. So rather than let them dissolve into a soupy mess to be discarded weeks later (don't pretend this doesn't happen in your fridge - I know I'm not the only one!) I hauled them out, chopped them up, added some onion and voila, you add a little butter and you have the pic above.
That's my new dutch oven, btw. I'm very excited about it. I bought it to make a no-knead bread recipe. The bread came out not so good, but I'm certain that was my fault and not the bread's or the dutch oven's. My friend made some and it came out light as air. It had holes
the size of Texas, and a crumb and crust to cry over, but mine, well, mine just made you want to cry. It was small, dense and very yeasty tasting. I let it sit for three days, and I think that was too long. I'm going to try a shorter set up next time. Back to the soup. I winged this soup, but it came out pretty well. I did beef, since that's the broth I had on hand, and basically, I did two cans of broth, four cups of water and three bullion cubes. I added a bay leaf, some basil, some Italian seasoning and some white pepper. No salt. The bullion and stock had plenty already. And that's about it. Oh. Except I let it sit overnight, and added barley - 1/2 cup dry barley and it was kind of like french onion soup meets vegetable barley. The veggies got overcooked, but here's the funny thing: my one year old loved it. We put some rice in it to make it less "soupy" and he gobbled it up like a maniac.
I'm loving soups right now. They're hard to mess up. Usually, if they're bland, you add more salt. Or seasoning. But mostly, it's about playing with flavors, and if you start with those three colorful veggies at the top of this post, you really can't go wrong.
