Chickpea and Rice Soup (Vegan).

This flu season has hit my family hard, ya'll. It seems like one of us has been sick since December. This week, we have yet another bug that is taking its time to make its rounds through our house.

I haven't left the house in five days except to teach a yoga class. I think I may have forgotten what actual human interaction  really feels like.

No one has been eating anything substantial, despite my best efforts. There's been lots of crying, more coughing, and a ton of sleeping going on, except not, you know, at night.

 And all hail the wrath of an angry, sick 4 year old. There's nothing quite like it.

When I was little, I remember eating chicken and rice soup when I was sick. Comforting, hearty, it was always the perfect just-getting-over sickness soup.

This is my best version of it to date. I've made it in the past, but like  yoga , cooking is a practice. And I think I finally perfected this baby. Every one ate, sickness or not, and loved it. Finally, some good nutrition into these sicky little bodies.

Cole, my soup-lovin' middle son, actually gave it two thumbs up and told me "It's awesome! Write that!" (So there you go).


Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sprig of fresh rosemary (or about 1/2 tsp dried)
1 sprig of fresh thyme (or about 1/4 tsp dried)
3/4 cup of rice
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 medium zucchini, sliced into half moons
3 carrots, diced
4-5 cups of vegetable broth (chik'n flavored veggie broth would be best if you can find it)
2 14 oz. cans of garbanzo beans, drained
2 cups of de-veined and chopped rainbow chard
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion, garlic and celery until soft. Add in the rosemary and thyme, cook 1 minute. Add in the broth, rice, carrots, zucchini and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer about 10-15 minutes. Add in the chard, garbanzo beans, salt and pepper to taste, and cook another 5 minutes.

Serve warm with a fresh baguette.

Vegan Chard Rolls

When I was in Chicago in February to co-teach a pelvic floor teacher training with my mentor Leslie Howard, I had the pleasure of going out to tapas with blogger and fellow teacher Brooks Hall and a few other pelvic floor compatriots. My foodie experience of Chicago was amazing. Everything I ate there was simply delicious. Mmm...Chicago....what was I saying?

Oh yes. So while there I had the pleasure of sampling these little beauties and finally, yesterday, I made them. They almost remind me of a dolma, but are closer in nature to a cabbage roll. A little time consuming, but well worth the effort, as I watched my kids down a couple rolls each with nod of approval, and marveled that I actually get my family to eat this stuff. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining!

Ingredients:

10 large Chard leaves, stems cut off

1 pot of boiling water

1 cup Jasmine rice

1 cup water

1 can stewed tomatoes

4 tbsp chopped, roasted red peppers (I have a jar of these on hand at all times)

salt and pepper

First, combine your rice, 1 cup of water, tomatoes, peppers and salt and pepper to taste, in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stir, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let sit another 10 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed all the liquid. Remove cover and let cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, blanch your chard leaves, one at a time, in boiling water for about 30 seconds each. Remove with tongs and let cool on a rack.

On a cutting board, slice out the thick part of the main vein in the leaf, nearly to the top,  like this:

Then overlap the edges of the leaf. With your hands, shape the cooled rice into a small rectangle and place on the chard leaf.  I found it helped to put it nearer the base.

Fold the base over the top of the rice, tucking in the sides as you go, and roll, burrito-style, all the way to the top. Place on plate seam-side down. Serve at room temperature (whick is what I did) or you can steam them, or cook in a dish with more tomato sauce.