savory sundays

happy sunday night!  hard to believe it's the start of another new week already.  on my weekends, i always love making big batches of food to use throughout the week for quick lunches or last minute dinners when i'm on the run.  soups, stews, and chilis are always favorites that usually end up holding up really well as leftovers, sometimes tasting even better the following day after they're left to stew in all their own ingredients.  tonight i was really craving something almost gravy-like in consistency...a little bit viscous, but mostly just hearty and satisfying with lots of comfort food flair.  the result was this new soup, which will definitely be a new regular.  so simple and sooo full of flavor.

lentil chard soup and microwave quinoa corn bread: the new kids on the block!

hearty mushroom lentil chard soup

makes about 4-5 servings depending on your portion size

• 2 small to medium onions chopped into chunks
• 3 smallish cloves of garlic finely sliced
• about 1/2 ts fresh ginger finely diced
• about 2 cups of fresh mushrooms cut into large chunks (i just cut mine in half)
• 1 large bunch of rainbow chard, ripped/cut into pieces with stalks removed (i like to save the stalks and roast them in other dishes, but that's just me getting all waste not-want not with it.  they are tasty roasted, though.  just sayin.)
• 1 can of lentils, drained
• 1 can of broth (chicken, veggie, or other)
• about 6 oz of soft tofu (2 servings of nasoya tofu or most other tofu types)
• 1/2 cup strained tomatoes (i used pomi)
• 1 T garlic powder
• 1 1/2 to 2 ts sea salt
• 1 ts oregano
• flour or corn starch to thicken as needed (i ended up needing about 2 T garbanzo bean flour)

heat a pot on medium low with a bit of olive oil.  cook onions until just starting to turn translucent.  add garlic, ginger, and mushrooms and cook until tender.  throw in chard and cook until darkened and wilting.  add lentils.  while they warm, throw the broth, tofu, strained tomatoes, garlic powder, salt, and oregano in your blender or food processor and blend until consistent and no chunks of tofu remain.  add the blended broth mixture to the pot and turn the heat up to medium.  cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes or so to help it to reduce, adding the flour/corn starch as needed to thicken.

this would be awesome with quinoa, rice, or even some pasta.  OR!  you could do what i did and try this out with some of this yummy quinoa flour corn bread i came up with for an extra satisfying treat.  the corn meal and quinoa flour mixed together so well in this...both a little bit sweet with a really nice, dense texture.  sooo yummy dipped in the soup

microwave quinoa flour corn bread

this made about 2 nice sized servings for us, but if you wanted to have it as a meal on its own, it could probably be good as a generous single serving as well

*if you haven't read my notes on using quinoa flour, you should check out this link to get some info.  i heat treat my quinoa flour in the oven prior to using it to eliminate any bitter taste (spread it on a baking sheet and heat it in an oven preheated to 215-250 for 1 1/2 to 2 hours...it's all explained in the link)...it ends up taking on a really delicious, mildly sweet, nutty, toasty flavor that just works incredibly well for cakes and muffins and the like.  it's nutrition is through the roof, too.  soooo worth it*

wet ingredients:

• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 T soy (or any) milk
• 1 T greek yogurt
• 2 egg whites

dry ingredients:

• 1/4 cup heat treated quinoa flour
• 2 T corn meal
• 1/4 ts baking powder
• 1/4 ts sea salt

whisk together all wet ingredients in a small bowl.  mix in all dry ingredients until smooth and well combined.   pour batter into a microwave safe bowl, container, tupperware that has been lightly greased or sprayed with cooking spray and microwave for about 5 minutes or until cooked all the way through.  allow the bread to cool for a minute and then flip out onto a plate.  eat it plain if you're all about it or spread it with butter, honey, jam, or dip it in soup!  so many more possibilities with this one.  this is just the beginning, guys...you can definitely expect to see some more varieties of this bad boy in the not so distant future.  i mean...sweet, cinnamon corn bread?  or maybe...apple butter cornbread??  what??   :)