Tomato Soup & Fresh bread for lunch.  Life is good.

When I was a kid, I didn’t like tomato soup.  At all.  Sunday afternoons, we’d get home from church, and standard fare would be tomato soup and open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches (definitely better than some versions):  Thick round slices of homemade bread topped with a generous hunk of Tillamook orange cheddar cheese, and often finished off with slice of summer sausage (metwurst) before being grilled at high temps in the oven until the cheese melted, started to bubble, and turned all lovely and crisp around the edges.  The sandwiches were great and I happily ate those.  The tomato soup, on the other hand, was not.  Ah, Campbells!  What did you do to us? Someone (not me – I refused to touch the stuff), would pull out several cans of Campbell’s tomato soup from the cupboard, empty it into and appropriate-sized pot, and heat up for everyone else to enjoy.   Condensed soup out of the can.  High in sugar (why?  cheap flavor).  High in sodium (same reason).  High in vitamin C (thanks to the tomatoes).  You know you can do better than that.

It wasn’t until I had passed my third decade and was sent off to complete a project in Bielefeld, Germany for a month that I finally had tomato soup worth talking about.  I stayed, for the duration of the project, in the Mercure Hotel at the center of town, and because I was working long hours, ate a good number of my meals there too. Hotel restaurants don’t typically change their menus very often, and so one night, having exhausted all the other menu items a few times too many, I decided I had nothing to lose by ordering the tomato soup.  A white bowl was placed in front of me with a few fresh, chopped tomatoes, some roasted pumpkin seeds and chopped basil.  Over this was poured a steaming hot, fragrant tomato soup.  I dug right in and ate with relish, only coming up for air when the bowl was empty and my stack of German bread (oh my how I love German bread) was gone.  A revelation!

Since then I’ve made many tomato soups, and it’s a simple meal I love when time is short but I want something warm and savory to fill my belly, as I did last week while working from home and needing something quick for lunch.  This is a soup that needs very little coddling, comes together quickly, and is deeply satisfying.  Leftovers, if there are any, taste just as good the second day, and of course you could freeze it – though thawing & reheating would probably take the same amount of time as making it fresh.  The red pepper flakes add a nice hum to the soup and the vinegar adds depth.  You could leave either or both of them out, but I highly recommend adding them in – it makes a big difference in the overall flavor of the soup.  And I guarantee you that either way, it’ll make you a lot happier than the aforementioned Campbell’s soup.

Let’s dig in.

Simple Tomato Soup

Tomato Soup

In a pot over medium heat, pour:
2 tablespoons olive oil

Heat for about 30 seconds and then add:
one onion, chopped
1/4 cup (about 1 stalk) celery, diced

Saute the onion mixture for 3-5 minutes until softened.  Add:
1 bottle (650 g) tomato passata (or two 15 oz cans of tomato sauce)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Bring the mixture to a boil; reduce to a simmer; cook 5 minutes.  Blend the mixture in the pot using an immersion blender, or carefully transfer it to a blender and blend until smooth.

Serve garnished with a drizzle of olive oil and a few fresh basil leaves.

Serves 4.

Bilberry Apple Walnut Breakfast Bowl

Happy days start here.

This is the simplest of breakfasts, has a pile of protein, great flavor, a nice crunch from the apple and chia, and a touch of sweetness from the jam.

First you need to understand why I need the color and super foods in my life: Winter has finally arrived in all it’s snow-covered, long-lasting, sigh-begetting glory.  I am not a fan.  I much prefer the rainy days of a milder winter, but nonetheless, here we are, parkas unpacked, hats unrolled, scarves unfurled, ready to face a morning commute, and the only thing between us and departure is breakfast.  We might as well make it a very good one!

Any apple will do here.  You could even substitute pears or pommelo, pineapple or pomegranate seeds – or even thawed berries that you lovingly froze last summer.  Any jam will do too:  I happened to have an open jar of Bilberry Thai Basil jam, so I used a generous spoon of that.

Any type of yogurt that makes you happy works well too – or do as I did one morning and use viili instead.  Delicious!  Chia seeds  and walnuts could be replaced by sunflower seeds, sesame seeds or ground flax seeds, almonds, cashews or pecans – or a few spoonfuls of your favorite muesli.  You can really make this one your own.  And it’s dead simple:  layer the ingredients in the bowl, one on top the other, grab a spoon, and indulge sitting, or standing, or on the bus. Your call.

One side note on viili:  once you have some, you can easily make your own from there on out.  All you need to do is save one tablespoon of viili.  Put it into a clean one liter bowl or container and smear it around the edges of the container.  Add one liter/quart of whole milk (or other milk if you insist – even coconut milk will work), cover, and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.  The natural cultures in the viili will inoculate the milk, and there you’ll be, smiling into your breakfast bowl.  If you live outside of the Nordics, here’s one source for the cultures.  

Bilberry (Blueberry) Apple Breakfast Bowl 

1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup yogurt (or viili)
1/2 apple, core removed, diced
1 heaped tablespoon of bilberry, blueberry or jam of your choice
8 walnut halves, crushed in your hand
1 heaped teaspoon of Chia seeds

Layer the ingredients in a bowl in the order listed.  Sprinkle Chia seeds over the whole thing.  Grab a spoon, take a seat, enjoy.  This also travels well – so make a second one in a portable container while you are at it, and enjoy it as an afternoon snack!

Serves 1.

Kamut, Egg, Goat Cheese and Veggie Breakfast Skillet

Whole Grain Mornings.  That’s the title of a new cookbook I don’t yet have, but whose very title has my head spinning with ideas.  Megan Gordon‘s new cookbook will be arriving at my front door soon, thanks to Amazon, but I already have to thank her for inspiring me to make one of the best breakfasts I’ve had in a long time.

A week or so ago, while prowling the aisles of my local Punnitse ja Säästä shop (it’s a bulk foods store for those of you who don’t understand Finnish or live nowhere near here – the name means “weigh and save), I came across a bin of Kamut. A relatively unknown grain, Kamut is believed to be the grain of the Pharaohs, with legend proclaiming grains found in their tombs in Egypt – a great story, even if unproven.  Though its actual origin and history are not known, it is believed to have been cultivated in small quantities in the Near East, North Africa and Central Asia.  It had not been grown for commercial wheat until, the story goes, an American airman sent a few grains across the ocean to America to his family in 1949.  Eventually two farmers from Montana, Mack and Bob Quinn, decided to begin growing the grain.  Originally called Khorasan, the Quinns registered the grain under the name Kamut(r) after the Egyptian word for “wheat or wheaten bread” (source: Wikipedia)

So what’s the big deal about Kamut?  Besides the fact that I love the idea of cooking with an ancient grain, I also like that Kamut seems to have far fewer allergens than common wheat, with tests showing that two-thirds of people with wheat allergy have no allergy to kamut.  Like all wheat, it contains gluten, but many gluten-sensitive people can eat it without side effects.  (Source: Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford) In addition, it is rich in unsaturated fats and proteins, slightly larger than the modern wheat kernel, and has a pleasant, chewy flavor that holds up well next to heavy meats and vegetables, in soups, or, well, as a pleasing base for your breakfast.  I had it first with Teriyaki Chicken and Steamed Broccoli and it was fantastic.

I don’t know yet if Whole Grain Mornings has any recipes for kamut, but here’s one I’d like to share with you.  This recipe is for one, because I was the only one home for breakfast by the time I dreamed this up.  If you are feeding more people, get a bigger skillet and multiply the quantities accordingly.   Could be served up for any meal of the day – but I especially liked it for breakfast

Most health food stores and many larger grocery stores now carry kamut.  Here in Finland, Punnitse ja Säästä carries a big bulk bin of it.  You can also order it online.  If you can’t find it, substitute regular wheat kernels, farro or brown rice instead.

Kamut, as with many whole grains, takes a while to cook. I recommend pre-soaking it: I soaked it for about 8 hours (overnight) and then cooked it for 30 minutes.

Thank you Megan, for the inspiration.  I look forward to cooking through the book.

Kamut, Egg, Goat Cheese and Veggie Breakfast Skillet

Kamut, Egg, Goat Cheese and Veggie Breakfast Skillet

small knob of butter, approx 1 teaspoon
1/3 cup / 3/4 dl cooked kamut (can substitute other whole grains if you can’t find kamut)
1 small shallot, diced small
1/4 yellow pepper, sliced in half and then into thin strips
1 organic egg
1 tablespoon soft goat cheese
1/4 cup alfalfa sprouts
4 basil leaves, julienned
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a small frying pan over medium heat.  Add the shallots and cook until slightly softened, about 2 minutes.  Add the kamut and stir until the grains are fully heated, about 1 minute.  Add the yellow pepper and stir to lightly cook it, one more minute.  With your spatula, spread the mixture toward the outer edges of the pan to create a hole in the center.  Put a small piece of butter there, and crack an egg on top.  Allow the egg to cook for 1 minute, then pour in 3 tablespoons of water and cover the pan with a lid to steam-cook the egg.  Allow it to steam for 2 minutes.  Remove the lid and distribute the goat cheese in small dollops around the kamut mixture in the pan.  Cover with a lid and cook for one more minute.  Turn off the heat, arrange the sprouts over one side of the mixture, sprinkle on the basil, add salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy!

Serves 1.  Multiply quantities to suit the crowd.

Enjoy!