I love snowmen. My best friend knows this, so my homemade Christmas gift from her this year was topped with some snowman fabric. I don't have a picture of the whole thing because by the time I remember to take a picture, the contents were looking something like this:
At least I got the picture while the peas and lentils were still colorful, right?
The gift, if you haven't already guessed, was a 12 bean (ish, I didn't count...maybe she will chime in and tell me) soup. It was packaged all pretty, like when you make those layered sand creations, when you're a kid, at craft fairs and stuff. Or maybe that's just me? I dunno.
You may have seen me commenting on others' blogs with soup lust recently, and since today was all cold and snowy I thought it was the perfect day to utilize my Christmas gift. I quick soaked them, which I've never done before, I usually soak overnight. I think it worked well for this because of the different beans. So, they boiled for two minutes, then were covered and soaked for an hour. Then drained the soaking water, and added them to 6 cups of water, 1 can of diced tomatoes, vegetable bouillon, and a bay leaf, then simmered it for an hour.
Zoe says: stop taking my picture and go read your stupid book
The stupid book is Twlight...the third one, Eclipse, which came into the library for me today!
Anyway, after it simmered for about an hour, I needed to add another 2 cups of water. Half an hour after that I added a bunch of spices. I wanted so badly to make it spicy (cumin, chili powder, etc), but I always do that. So I tried to keep it more Italian. So, I added dried basil, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, crushed red pepper, 1/4 cup nutritional yeast, and salt to taste. It cooked for about 20-25 minutes after that, until it started sticking to the bottom of the pot a little.
Okay, this picture doesn't really do it justice, but this was my brother's bowl and he was hungry, so I only got one shot, haha.
Serves 5
Nutrition Information: 204.0 Calories; 1.1g Total Fat; 0.3 Saturated Fat; 0.0mg Cholesterol; 35.5g Carbohydrates; 10.7g Fiber; 15.2g Protein.
**I'm not sure how accurate that is. It was kind of hard to get accurate nutrition information for each kind of dried bean, plus I didn't know exactly how much there was of each kind because I didn't make it. Should be close enough though.
It came out really good. I love how the lentils and split peas are pretty much mush and make the soup nice and thick while the bigger beans stay in tact. My brother really liked it, he had seconds. In fact he told me multiple times that he really liked it. Also, it was awesome that everything was from the pantry, which can definitely be a good thing sometimes.
Gotta love Christmas presents that feed you! Now if only I had some Christmas cookies left...
Don't forget to sign up for the Juicer Giveaway if you haven't already!
That soup looks so comforting and delicious! I want some ;)
ReplyDeleteThat looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteI loved those layered sand creations!
Yummy! I've been enjoying soup this season a lot, and that looks really good!
ReplyDeletewow the mix of beans looks so colorful!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a huge split pea fan but your soup looks so yummy!
ReplyDeleteI think there were 8 types of beans it in or maybe nine... red lentils, lentils, split peas, kidney beans, great white northern beans, black eyed peas, black beans, red beans and i think thats it. I am glad you liked it and it looks really yummy
ReplyDeleteMmmm, your soup looks so warm and filling. I love anything with lentils! Great gift...especially the snowman topper!
ReplyDeleteI just started Eclipse this week. I'm 100 pages in...love it. I wish I could just blog and read all day - too bad I don't get paid for either. :)
Yum, I can't wait to have more of this tonight, its still so cold out.
ReplyDeleteRebekah, its not even close to resembling split pea soup. There really weren't a lot of split peas in it, and by the time everything cooks, they completely disintigrate.
Jackie, there were at least nine, there were Roman Beans in there too. I remember because I thought "hey, I have a can of those in the pantry that has been there for a long time".
The pinto beans too i was thinking about it all day today
ReplyDeleteI didn't think I would ever say this, but what beautiful beans! All the shapes and colors are just really pleasing to the eye.
ReplyDeleteohhh, that soup!! wow! i love all beans ad grains, so that is pure heaven to me :)
ReplyDeletei love bean soup!! the grocery store sells 15 bean soup and it's damn good.
ReplyDeletejust started twilight today and i like it so far. i don't know why it's taken me so long to read it but i'm finally getting serious.
i hope eclipse is good!! i have a few friends who are on the second book but none on the third except for you obviously. let me know how it is!! it'll be months before i'm done twilight though. i'm a really slow reader.
Yum! I love multi-bean soups. They're like eating a bowl of rainbows!
ReplyDeleteYou asked about egg substitute in my Duncan Hines cake mix. I used Energy egg replacer. It doesn't do great with binding, so the cake didn't hold together well. But it was moist. If I use cake mix again, I'll try a combo of egg replacer and silken tofu (which I think is a better binder).