Wednesday, November 26, 2014

i made this :: roasted beets + squash lentil soup

The other night Hunter asked me "How much time would you say you spend thinking about food on a daily basis?"  I'm embarrassed to admit that wasn't the first time someone has asked me that question, and I'm sure won't be the last time.

Between planning our Bountiful Basket pickup, Door to Door Organics delivery and the meals to fill our week, plus juggling Hunter's and I always changing schedules, I have to admit...I think about buying, preparing and eating food a lot.  The main reason for this thinking and over thinking can be attributed to reallllly trying to minimize eating out, picking up lunch a few times a week, grabbing a morning juice etc. and is all in an effort to prepare most of our meals at home.  I'm currently reading Julie and Julia while simultaneously listening to the audiobook  Cooked by Michael Pollan.  Safe to say I have home cooked and home prepared food on the brain.  I just finished a really interesting { to me! } section in Cooked talking about the decline of home cooked foods + meals, and he discussed how we give up time at night to cook a meal and instead use that time for watching tv, spending the night on our computers + phones while eating take out food.  He made such a great point on how even when we do carve out time to "cook" at home, so much of the time we are simply heating up already cooked and packaged pasta to pair it with already prepared jarred sauce.  Michael gave the challenge to cook once a week/month something you'd typically buy.  Examples being granola bars, bread, pasta, pickles, beer etc.  So!  It's given me the extra kick in the pants to make the effort of cooking more meals at home instead of picking something up out of laziness and convenience.

Needless to say, I've been thinking about food quite a bit on a daily basis.  Ha!

Last Wednesday night, I was on my 3rd day of a nasty cold, Hunter was out of town and I had given in to the thought of veggie broth + toast for dinner again.  That was until I saw Katie post her Spiced Lentil Soup with Roasted Beets & Delicata Squash, and did a quick mental round up of ingredients at home to realize all I was missing for this soup was the beets.  I knew my evening dinner was set!  I ran by the store lickity split for 2 beets and within seconds of walking in the door I had ingredients on and in the stove.  



Ya'll.  I can't even express how delightful this soup was.  I never say ya'll!  That's how good it is.  The roasted squash + beets were the perfect addition to the intense harmony of spices in the soup.  I loved the flavors and the addition of coconut milk gave it a really creamy and satisfying comfort while the lentils were enough to make sure you were full after one bowl.  Sadly, the entire pot of soup was gone in 24 hours { Hunter did return from out of town and had some, so I didn't eat the entire pot!  Though I could, would and wished I had. }

This one without question will be put into heavy rotation at the Madfield Casa { along with her thai coconut curry soup that I can't get enough of.  This girl knows her soups! }.  Man oh man.  I wish like crazy I still had some of this in the fridge/freezer at home.  I'll need to whip up a batch when we get back from Thanksgiving for sure!

I love soup.

1 comment:

  1. One of the million+ reason I love you... your food-obsessed in the brain just like me! I love cooking at home and think it is such a soothing and fulfilling process. I need to start challenging myself a bit more during week-nights to cook things that are out of my normal scope too... cannot wait!

    ReplyDelete