Soup Recipe
12 July 2002, 2:33 PM

I am so proud of myself.

Yesterday I made some scrumptious blueberry muffins and a chicken and potato dish. Yum. Today I made a soup from scratch. Completely made it up - no recipe or anything! (Well, actually I'd been reading several dozen soup recipes the day before, so I guess I just figured out "soup basics".) I'd just bought some yummy veggies and wondered what to do with 'em.

It turned out perfect.

I started with one bunch (with the leaves all still on) of smallish organic carrots. Small and expensive, but wow - what taste! I chopped them up into smallish bits, then chopped a clove of garlic and two medium stalks of celery (after I'd peeled all the tough strings out of the celery) into same size smallish bits. Peeling out those tought strings made a huge difference.

I sauted the veggies in olive oil very briefly - just 3 to 5 minutes - then added about six roughly chopped mushroom caps (no stems). I also chopped the white ends of green onions (about six smallish ones) and added those and a tiny bit of water. I let that saute for another 5 minutes or so.

Then I added about 4 cups of water and three chicken boullion cubes. (I was out of chicken stock.) I also chopped up the two chicken breasts I had left over from the previous night's dinner (they'd already been baked with tarragon, thyme and rosemary before) into medium chunks and added those and a half can of (drained) "toovar liva", otehrwise known as Indian bean seeds. (They're like a firm and smallish black-eyed pea. Lentils or some other smallish bean would substitute nicely.)

I tossed in some seasonings: sea salt, onion powder, black pepper, basil, tarragon, lemon pepper, sesame seeds, and about ten dashes of white wine vinegar.

Finally I added a couple of handfuls of egg noodles, lowered the heat a bit and simmered the whole schmere (covered) for about ten or so minutes.

YUM.