Comfort Food! Two Great Soups for Fall: Barley Vegetable, and Bean with Sage and Mustard

I love fall, and I love warm comforting soups - beef stew, chicken noodle, corn chowder.  I have been pleasantly surprised at all the amazing warm fall veggies I have been eating.  I thought when summer left was gone, I would really struggle on a mostly vegan food plan.  Boy was I wrong!  Fall veggies - and fruits - squash, potato, corn, onion and their relatives are wonderful and rich and loaded with flavor - especially when roasted!

Here are 2 I made this week.

Barley Vegetable Soup in Crock Pot
Based on Sarah Jayne's recipe at Food.com

Highlights - Amazing variety of textures and layers of flavors - This is cold rainy day comfort food heaven.

This was my first try - and I loved the way it came out.  I have a big crock pot.  This made a lot of soup.  Basically It involves broth, barley, leeks and 1 cup of as many other vegetables as I could find.

Ingredients I Used:

6 cups veggie broth (low sodium)

1 cup water

1 cup low sodium V8

¾ cup barley (Use more for thicker more calorie dense stew)

Rough Chopped Veggies:

2 cups leeks*** (I love the way these break apart and flake into a wide noodle-like texture)

2 cups mushrooms

1 cup carrots

1 cup celery

1 cup spinach (I used fresh- I would not mind more)

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup baby potatoes

1 cup of mung bean sprouts (more noodle texture)

1 bay leaf and 1 bundle soup herbs in cheesecloth

1 tbl dried parsley

½ tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried onion flakes

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

5 cranks of salt and pepper grinder

*** If you have not worked with leeks before, chop of the end, and then split down the middle and THEN rinse them like crazy - very gritty - then proceed with your rough chop.

Just throw all this stuff in a crockpot on low and let it go for 4-7 hours - you may want to check in after 3 hours if you are worried about it getting too thick from the barley absorbing the water. Take out the bay leaf and soup herbs



Pinto Bean with Sage and Mustard Soup

Based on this white bean recipe by Patricia Wells at foodandwine.com

Highlights - Warm, and rich, and extremely simple. Initially I planned on this being a side dish but it was thin enough it made a great soup..

Ingredients:

2 cans salt free pintos
1-2 cups of veggie broth
1 onion - halved
2-4 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp ground sage
1 bay leaf
3 Tbls Stone Ground Mustard
Oil to Coat Pan

1. Spray pan with oil and quickly saute whole cloves of garlic...just sweat, don't brown. A little water will also help keep it from burning.
2. Add the broth and onions and bring to a boil.
3. Turn down to simmer and add beans, sage, bay leaf.
4. Allow beans to heat with onion and garlic etc for 15-25 mins.
5. Remove boiled onion and garlic, and 1 cup of beans and whirl in food processor.
6. Add the whirled mixture and the stone ground mustard back into the soup and stir. Remove bay leaf and serve.
Optional: Drizzle with high quality olive oil.