Soup, salad, and bread

Soup

I'll have to post the recipe later. I'm beat and it doesn't appear to be online. But this is Mollie Katzen's Golden Chickpea soup, a lovely, if labor-intensive soup that has been a favorite of ours for a long time. It tastes luxurious, but is low fat and great for you. Briefly: sautee 2 cups of minced onions, a couple tablespoons of garlic, a couple teaspoons of mustard and cumin, and a few threads of saffron for about 10 minutes in about 1 tbs olive oil. Then add 4 cans rinsed and drained chick peas. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Next, add 1/4 cup lemon juice, a couple more cloves of minced garlic, and salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Finally, puree. Top with any combination of sesame oil, chopped tomatoes, or cilantro (this is the garnish pictured above).

Salad

Per Mollie Katzen's suggestion, I served the soup with an arugula and butter lettuce salad with homemade orange vinaigrette. It's basically this recipe, but I didn't add orange sections - that would have made it even better.

Bread

80-Minute Oatmeal Bread from the bread machine, made by my husband, author of Internal Monologue (it turned out beautifully!) It's a recipe that came with the machine, and the one we turn to most often. It's just delicious and quick. You can find it here in the product manual on page 53. We modify the recipe slightly. I do not add dates (just because I like a more versatile bread for sweet or savory purposes) and I use regular rolled oats rather than instant.

Soup, salad, and bread is a favorite meal here, so I'll periodically add more favorite combinations.