The weather is winter appropriate and so our thoughts turned to soup when we were trying to figure out a menu for this week.
Vegetable soup with bow ties
Meatballs for adding to the soup as desired
Green salad with roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts and a soy-toasted sesame seed oil vinaigrette
Hearty bread
Dessert was an applesauce spice bundt cake. Jenith also brought over a Boston Cream Pie. Both were devoured.
For the soup I fine diced 1# carrots, 1 bunch celery and 1.5 red onions. These were sauteed in a bit of vegetable oil until the onions were translucent. Then we added about 5 quarts of veggie broth which we had previously made and frozen. I added about a quart of water as well to bring the total up to 6 quarts. I let this come to a boil and then dropped it to a simmer for about an hour.
Meanwhile I peeled & fine diced 2 sweet potatoes that were hanging about. These I tossed with a little olive oil, salt & pepper and then roasted at 400F until just tender (about 30 minutes). I set these aside.
About 20 minutes before eating I cranked the soup back up to high heat. Once at a boil I added a 16 oz. box of bow tie pasta. I also added the roasted sweet potatoes to the soup. 10-12 minutes later it was soup.
The meatballs were store bought “swedish” meatballs I had hanging about in the freezer.
The applesauce spice cake recipe was from Joy of Cooking. It made a short bundt cake. I probably should double the recipe if I use it for a bundt cake again.
