Recipes for when you've (at last) transitioned to a sourdough starter girlie
More bread = more soup
Hello, chefs.
A colleague recently sent me this TikTok about the backyard-chickens-to-conspiracy-theorist pipeline. Ha ha. While I’m the proud chicken mother of eight egg-laying beauties, I’m a hard sell for the conspiracy crowd, primarily because I just really like my life. Please do not ask me to distrust the things that bring me joy (birds, powdered cheese, the Denver airport, etc).
Probably 24 hours later, though, I ordered Mark Bittman’s new whole grain baking book. Naturally. Is a chicken lady really a chicken lady without a sourdough starter in her fridge? Plus, I do hate laying down $5+ every week for a loaf of whole grain bread that I know in my BONES is just full of sketchy stuff. The alternative used to be making a no-knead loaf, but the white flour/yeast/water combo I know is bereft of any nutrients. What else is a girl to do besides DIY here?
So I’ve been on a whole grain sourdough journey this week. I’ll admit the hours upon hours of folding the dough every thirty minutes is annoying, but if you work from home, it’s kind of a fun pomodoro timer. Mark’s method is actually pretty easy and I’ll say even for the cautious baker, it’s worth giving a whirl. You’ll need to buy or borrow the book—the recipe isn’t online, and it really does feel like so much more than a recipe—but it’s worth it. It’s truly the one bread book to rule them all.
I now have four loaves of whole grain sourdough sitting on my counter, four batches of apple cider donuts, a bourbon punch, pumpkins that need carving, and a few dozen people en route to our place in a few hours. Almost all of those things pretty much demand a pot or two of soup on the stove. Here’s the veggie option and the hearty option I’m making today to fuel the pumpkin artists.
-Faith
Garlic sweet potato soup with chili crisp
This one is from Nik Sharma and I gotta say, usually I’m not a drink-my-veggies kinda girl, but this soup feels hearty and meal-worthy.
Preheat your oven to 400. Peel and cube 3 large sweet potatoes and 1 yellow onion. Toss with olive oil, salt, and 1 tsp cumin, and spread on a baking sheet. Rub 1 head of garlic with a bit of oil and put it in the middle. Bake it all for ~25 minutes and let cool a bit.
Add the sweet potatoes to a blender and squeeze in the garlic. Add as much vegetable stock as will fit in this blend (up to 3 cups - and if you want to be fancy, use a splash to scrape off the burned bits from the baking sheet and add that in, too) and blend until smooth. If you have to do several batches to get your consistency right, pour out a bit after the first blend into a pot. Add the remaining stock to what’s left in the blender and pulse. Then combine the two in the pot.
Add salt, pepper, and turmeric to taste. Keep warm on the stove and serve with a dollop of chili crisp on top.
Sausage and tortellini soup
This recipe feels like a meat sauce or pancakes to me…like yes, I know everyone has made it, and yes, I know there are one million methods and recipes to do so. But truly, this one from The Modern Proper is my all-time fav and it ditches all the steps and ingredients that aren’t really necessary for a great hearty soup. Pro tip: Get the Costco tortellini and make this bad boy once a quarter.
In a pot, saute 1 lb of mild Italian sausage and 1 chopped onion until the sausage is cooked through. Add a spoonful of minced garlic when it’s juuuust about done.
Add 4 cups chicken stock (the whole box), 1 14-oz can of crushed tomatoes, and 2 tbsp of tomato paste. Bring to a boil, season with salt, and reduce to a simmer. Let cook for 15 minutes.
Add 1 bunch of chopped kale, 10oz of cheese tortellini (it’s ok if it’s frozen), and a cup of cream. Bring the soup back to a simmer and gently cook for about 15 minutes until the kale is wilted and the tortellini is warmed through.