Vegetable Soup and Sourdough Biscuits

Have I mentioned to you how many vegetables I get in my CSA.  It is ridiculous.  It sometimes gets to the point where I'm totally stressed about having too many vegetables and never being able to finish them.  My CSA ends in two weeks and I'm sure after that I will be totally bummed about the lack of fresh vegetables.

In the meantime I am still trying desperately to come up with ways to cook them all.

I decided to try making some soup, because that would be an easy way to use them up.  I usually love eating soup at restaurants but I usually don't when I make it myself.  Maybe it has something to do with my belief that when cooking soup you don't actually have to measure things.

But this time I decided I would actually follow a recipe (but then I didn't).  Despite that it still turned out super delicious.  When October started here, Seattle decided it was officially Autumn and it got cold.  I've actually had to turn my heat on.  It's funny because I always complain about my parents' house being  really cold, but apparently I picked up a couple of habits from them.  Anyway, when it is cold outside (especially if it is rainy, although Seattle has been really lovely so far this Fall) hot soup is hard to beat.

Knowing me, though, soup was not nearly fancy enough on it's own.  So I decided to use some of my (amazingly still alive) sourdough starter. 

These sourdough biscuits made the dish and they were really easy.  You are supposed to roll the dough out and cut rounds, but I'm lazy (shocking, I know) so I split the dough into balls.

The recipe calls for dipping the biscuits in bacon fat, which although surely delicious, is not something I have readily available.  Bacon is delicious and all but I don't eat it very often and if previous behavior is any indicator, I would probably break or spill the jar of bacon fat and end up with a giant mess.

The butter seemed to work just fine though and my sourdough biscuits turned out super awesome.  I ate soup for three days in a row and it was totally delicious.  By the third day my biscuits had gotten a little stale, so I broke them into pieces and dropped them in the soup.  I almost wish I had started doing that on the first day.  Enjoy and keep yourself warm!

Vegetable Soup and Sourdough Biscuits

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup diced onion
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
Kosher salt
2 cups carrots, peeled and chopped into rounds (approximately 2 medium)
2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
2 cups fresh green beans, broken or cut into 3/4-inch pieces
2 quarts chicken, beef or vegetable broth
2 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes
2 ears corn, kernels removed
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp hot sauce (such as Tabasco)
1. Heat oil over medium high heat in a large saucepan. Add onions, garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook until soft, about 7 minutes.
2. Add carrots, potatoes and green beans and cook another 5 minutes.
3. Add stock, increase heat to high and bring to a simmer.
4. Once simmering, add tomatoes. corn kernels and pepper. Reduce heat to low and simmer until vegetables are fork tender, about 25 - 30 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and add sauces (or whatever spices you want). Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve with sourdough biscuits and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Sourdough Biscuits

1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 cup milk
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
butter or bacon fat for dipping
1. Mix all the ingredients except for the butter in a large bowl.
2. Knead dough in bowl until just mixed.
3. Shape dough into twelve even sized balls.
4. Flatten each ball and dip in the butter, then place in a 9x9 baking dish.
5. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 -35 minutes.

Soup recipe from the Food Network and biscuit recipe from CookingBread

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