Soup-a-long: Week 1

I'm breaking the first rule of soup club: I'm talking about it. But, since I can't figure out what the penalty would be... (No soup for you!?), I'm going out on a limb and sharing.

Some friends and I have decided to do a soup of the week club. It's pretty darn simple. Each week a different person will choose a soup recipe and everyone will make it, reporting back with how it went. 

Soup club couldn't have come at a better time...with the chilly temperatures and the early darkness making me feel all homey, whipping up a pot of soup sounds just about perfect, really. 

The first soup up is a bean and barley soup submitted by my friend Rachel. The original recipe comes from 1001 Low-Fat Soups and Stews and has been adapted slightly. I added Rachel's commentary in orange, and then my own in green. 

2 cups Great Northern beans (I used canned, so 3 cans or so) 

2 1/4 quarts water (skip this if you're using stock, which you totally should because stock is awesome) 

1 meaty ham bone or 2 pork hocks (you could leave this out if you're veggie but it will be bland. We don't dig on swine, so I did leave this out, and yeah...kinda bland.) 

1/4 cup pearl barley 

2 cups chopped onions (2 medium onions. I appreciate this comment b/c for a visual-spatial challenged person like myself, it's always hard to figure out how many onions will make up a cup once chopped) 

2 large carrots, sliced 

2 large ribs celery (including leaves), sliced (skip the leaves if you're using stock, which I always do) 

3-5 beef bouillon cubes (skip these if you're using stock - any stock will work here, I use chicken stock most of the time. I ended up using vegetable broth instead of water/bouillon. Again, probably contributed to the "eh" overall feeling of the soup) 

2 garlic cloves, minced 

3 bay leaves 

1 1/2 tsp dried thyme 

1/4 tsp ground celery seed 

1/4 tsp pepper 

3 cups cabbage, thinly sliced (I did not use the cabbage. I had the cabbage, but the boys in my house were all "NO CABBAGE!" so...I will be making some homemade sauerkraut later today. sigh.)

8 oz (1 can) reduced-sodium tomato sauce 

1. Cover beans with 2 inches of water in a dutch over and heat to boiling; boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 1 hour. Drain. (skip this part if you're using canned beans. I did.) 

2. Return beans to dutch oven with remaining ingredients except cabbage, tomato sauce, and salt; heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, 30 minutes. Add cabbage and simmer 30-40 minutes or until beans are tender. (if using canned beans, then 40 minutes is way too long. Simmer until the cabbage is cooked) 

3. Remove ham bone and cut meat into small pieces; return to pot. Discard bone and bay leaves; skim fat from surface of soup. Add tomato sauce and simmer 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt. 

My overall impression of the soup was: "eh." - definitely not a resounding response, I know, but...it wasn't bad.

Really. 

I did do a few things differently, though. I don't like crunchy veggies in my soup, so I sauteed up the onion, carrot and celery in some olive oil (probably losing the whole "low-fat" aspect of the soup in the process).

The holy trinity

I thought I had purchased pearl barley. Turns out I got quick-cook barley...it looks more like oatmeal, but since the amount was so minimal in the recipe, it didn't seem to matter one way or another. 

There was no meat in this soup and I used vegetable broth instead of stock/water/bouillon cubes. And, like I mentioned before, I omitted the cabbage.

But, these are the hazards you encounter when you switch up a recipe. I'm okay with that. It was kind of a bummer that the first soup up was sort of a bust, but I'm excited to see what soupy treats (I can mess up) are up next.