Veggie Tales: Day 2

Today we made vegan dirt soup.  Or at least something that looked like it.  During the entire cooking process, we were really skeptical as to whether or not it would be any good or even edible. 

Skeptical Alvin

However, I'm proud to say that the Earthy Red Wine and Mushroom Soup from A Girl Called Jack is the best thing we've made yet.


The recipe comes from the Living Below the Line challenge, where participants are required to live off $1.50 per day for five days, so this fit what we wanted perfectly.  The fundraiser is over, but you should still check out the entries!

First of all, Alvin came over to my apartment with wine to cook with, and I always have an internal struggle not to drink all of the wine before we cook with it.  Soon enough, Alvin will have to start hiding it from me.

Look, I'm only human.

 The soup was very simple, only requiring a couple of ingredients.  We did add a bay leaf, as well, and we sauteed the ingredients in a bit of oil before adding the stock.  We doubled the recipe because we didn't think that it would be enough food for the two of us, but the normal portions would have been perfect for the two of us.

Seriously, it did not look appetizing.

No amount of photoshop can help this soup.

 We also made some foccacia from our favorite bread book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  The whole gist of the book is that you make a big batch of dough, put it in the fridge, and pull off whatever you want to make the day of.  Then you can have fresh baked bread pretty much whenever you want.

Our dough after rising.

My oddly shaped focaccia with nothing on top because no one told me you're supposed to put things on top.

 The soup turned out perfect.  It was easy too make, only took about 30 minutes, and was really filling.  The mushrooms provided a surprising amount of protein, even for us serial over-eaters.  If you are looking for a dish that makes you look fancy without taking a lot of effort, this is it.  The only thing you really need that you might not have is an immersion blender.  We left ours at Alvin's place, so we had to put the soup in a table top blender one portion at a time; it was a little bothersome.

No longer skeptical Alvin

So far so good with our vegetarian meals.  Right now we're striving for only vegan meals, but we'll see how long that will last.  Keep sending us recipes if you have them!