good 'n planty

Since yesterday was a rainy day following an exhausting (but fun!) weekend, it seemed like the most natural thing to do was put on a big pot of soup and bake some homemade bread. I followed a recipe from (of all places) a pressure cooker manufacturer's website, because it most closely resembled this awesome soup I had at my friend's restaurant. The problem was- I don't own a pressure cooker AND I had never cooked lentils or barley before and was nervous about everything coming out ok. So I cooked everything separately- which took for-ever and let me tell you, I call this "sit around soup" not because I was actually sitting around while it was cooking- quite the opposite- but once this labor intensive soup does sit around, it becomes savory and smooth and lovely, and I might actually make it again one day. So here's how I did it- and please- by all means, tell me if you think there's an easier way!

Ingredients:

1/2 pound Italian sausage, casing removed, crumbled
3/4 cup diced onion
1 cup pearl barley 
3 cloves garlic
3 quarts chicken stock
1 cup lentils
4 chicken thighs
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1 can (15 oz.) chickpeas, rinsed
10 oz. spinach, chopped
1 cup mild to medium salsa

1. Start by cooking the pearl barley: combine the barley and 3 cups of stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cover till cooked, about 45 minutes. Start the lentils by adding them to 1 1/2 cups of stock, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, checking frequently until cooked.

2. Poach the chicken thighs, let cool, remove the meat from the bones and skin and shred or pull.

3. Cook sausage in a skillet until brown and crumbly (I added water so everything would cook evenly since I planned on rinsing the fat off once it was done cooking anyways). Set aside cooked sausage and saute onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil.

4. As ingredients are ready, add them to the remaining stock in a large pot and simmer. Eventually combine the barley, lentils, chicken, sausage and salsa and bring to a boil. Add the chopped spinach and parsley and stir until wilted. Add plenty of salt and enough pepper. 

Serves... I don't know, 16? This made an enormous amount of soup, but the leftovers are incredible so I'm not complaining. :)

I'm not really into carrots. I think they're cool to grow, and I like the different colored varieties, but I don't love them. However, when I recently harvested some carrots from the Organic Gardening Test Garden, I wanted to love them. So I made them into something else: pickles!

I used this recipe and it worked quite nicely. Now I kind want to pickle everything! 

Here are some more pickling links:

Willi made some tasty giant pickles recently.

Giardiniera at Smitten Kitchen. 

Pickled red onions at David Lebovitz.

I was inspired to write this post after a friend sent me home with a kale slaw so tasty I was tempted to eat it for breakfast the next morning! (Seriously, I think it gets better overnight- thanks Pam!)

Here's the recipe that accompanies that glowing recommendation, and a few more that I'd like to try:

Saag Paneer at The Hungry Engineer

Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Garlic Chips at Smitten Kitchen

Farro with Roasted Cauliflower, Kale and Chickpeas at Choosy Beggars

Almost Cheeseless Casserole at 101 Cookbooks

How do you get your greens?