Friday/Saturday: One Pot...Two Meals?!?

Okay, so how do you cook two different meals in one pot?

10 Bean & Vegetable Soup

1 cup 10 bean soup mix, soaked for 24 hours
5 cups water
3 medium red-skinned potatoes (cut into 1/2 or 1 inch pieces)
3 medium carrots (sliced)
2 bouillion cubes
1/4 cup dried mushrooms (the small broken bits from the bottom of the bag)
1 piece seaweed (I left this whole so I could pull it out later)
1 jalepeno (I left whole so I could remove it)

When I made this, I put all these ingredients in the crock pot and cook for 12 hours. But 12 hours later the beans were still tough! I don't know if they were a little old when I bought them or if cooking them on "low" was not hot enough. Luckily beans sink when they aren't cooked, so I pulled all the rest of the soup off the top and left the beans in with a little bit of broth.

So I was left with a savory, brothy vegetable soup. Served with cheesy toast that crispy almost like giant croutons...mmm! It actually reminded me a little bit of French onion soup for some reason; I think the mushrooms made it really rich in flavor, and the cheesy toast was delicious when it absorbed that broth.


I kept going with those beans...

1 cup 10 bean soup mix, cooked for 12 hours in a small amount of broth
4 additional cups water
2 tomatoes
1 jar heat & serve tomato soup
1 bag alphabet noodles

I added the extra water and the diced tomatoes and left it cooking for another almost 48 hours! Then I added the jar of tomato soup and the noodle and heated those for about 30-45 minutes and served.


Well, to be honest, this second soup did not turn out all that well. The beans were still slightly tough. I think they were old or something. I also cooked the noodles in the crock pot, so they got pretty mushy. I advise you and my future self to cook the noodles on their own and add to the soup just before serving. And toss the beans that don't seem to be cooking - they probably won't.

Wednesday: Easy Dinner of Soup and Side

Mid-week, and I am feeling tired. But yet I want something fresh for dinner, and don't want to go out. Soup is always easy, and you'd be amazed at how many vegetables can fit into a bowl of soup! Another trick is to combine something homemade with something store bought or already prepared. Tonight I used that trick twice! I had some Aisan-style dumplings, and they only needed 2-3 minutes to boil. That sounded good to me. I also had some pre-cut sweet potatoes.

Asian Dumpling Soup

1-2 carrots
2-4 mini bell peppers (1/2-1 regular bell pepper would work, too)
1 small handful broccolini (broccoli flowering stalks, but 1/4 head of broccoli would work, too)
1 small handful already shelled edamame beans
4-6 cups water (6 if you are using larger volume of vegetables)

6-12 small Asian-style dumplings (mine were stuffed with mung-bean noodles, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, and a lot of flavoring, but mostly soy sauce)

1 large spoonful miso paste (or 2-3 packets instant miso)
1 large spoonful tahini (sesame seed paste)

Chop the vegetables to your preferred size. Larger chunks are easier to cut, but slower to cook (and vice versa). Add to boiling water. Cook for a few minutes, until carrots are just turning soft. Add the dumplings, cook a couple more minutes. Remove from heat.



After you remove from heat, add the tahini and miso. If using paste, you may want to mix well in small bowl with 1/2 water before adding, to make sure it gets dissolved. Miso is "living" (it is fermented), so it is best to add it after the soup has stopped boiling, so it stays "alive."

Curried Sweet Potatoes and Apples

Curry used on anything besides curry in an instant way to fancify. I prove it here with curried sweet potatoes.

1 package pre-cut sweet potatoes (or 1 large sweet potato, cut into strips)
1 apple, sliced thinly
1-2 tablespoons curry powder



I used an apple slicer to slice the apples, and they were too thick. If you use an apple slicer, cut them in half after you use it, so they are closer in size to the sweet potatoes. Place sweet potatoes and apples on a cooking sheet, spray with oil, spread around, and spray again. You could also put them in a bowl and pour oil over them and mix them up; more oil would make them crispier. Once arranged on try, sprinkle with curry powder. Bake at 350-375 for 15-30 minutes (longer for crispier product).



Marshall says: "The soup needs more salt." "Woah! Are these apples?? I just dipped them in my ketchup!" I recommend warning guests that apples are mixed in with sweet potatoes so they don't make the same mistake. I thought the soup would have actually been better as a stir fry - all the same ingredients, but without the water and in a pan instead of a pot. With a little more oil of course.
Total Time: 45 minutes or so
Leftovers: Ate all the potatoes and apples; had 1 bowl of soup for lunch the next day.