Chicken barley soup with fresh baked bread
Today I decided to use some of our local veggies and wanted to make soup and bread. So I decided on chicken barley soup because that's simple enough and I can just put whatever I want in it. And I wanted fresh bread, so I used a simple french bread bread machine recipe and made the dough in the bread machine, then did the last rise and the baking in the oven. I used my new pizza stone for the bread and it worked fabulously. I just sprinkled a little corn meal on the stone right after I heated up the stone in the oven, then put the dough on it and it worked perfectly. I'm going to do all of my baking on that stone - bread, cookies, pizza, etc. Here's the bread:
And for the soup I made it without a recipe - I poached the chicken to cook it, then put it aside. I used our own homemade vegetable stock (we freeze all of our vegetable clippings and when the bag is full we make broth), with boneless skinless chicken breasts. I sauteed the onions, carrots, celery and garlic until soft (I added a little dried basil and thyme into the veggies, along with salt and some of Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning), then added the stock (about 8 cups). Brought to a boil, added 1/2 cup pearl barley and simmered for 20 minutes, then added the diced cooked chicken and cabbage (sliced into strips) cooked for 5 minutes, added the fresh peas, and cooked the whole thing for 15 minutes. The carrots, cabbage and English peas were all grown at a local farm.
It was all delicious. The bread took time, but was extremely simple. The soup was very hearty and low fat. The only fat was a little oil to sautee the veggies at the beginning. This would be really good as a vegan recipe if you use cubes of extra firm tofu instead of chicken - it would be delicious.
And for the soup I made it without a recipe - I poached the chicken to cook it, then put it aside. I used our own homemade vegetable stock (we freeze all of our vegetable clippings and when the bag is full we make broth), with boneless skinless chicken breasts. I sauteed the onions, carrots, celery and garlic until soft (I added a little dried basil and thyme into the veggies, along with salt and some of Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning), then added the stock (about 8 cups). Brought to a boil, added 1/2 cup pearl barley and simmered for 20 minutes, then added the diced cooked chicken and cabbage (sliced into strips) cooked for 5 minutes, added the fresh peas, and cooked the whole thing for 15 minutes. The carrots, cabbage and English peas were all grown at a local farm.
It was all delicious. The bread took time, but was extremely simple. The soup was very hearty and low fat. The only fat was a little oil to sautee the veggies at the beginning. This would be really good as a vegan recipe if you use cubes of extra firm tofu instead of chicken - it would be delicious.