Morning everyone.
Good to have you back.
Thanks to Brother TAJ for stepping in last week. Always appreciated.
We’re in August for shits sake and despite fairly mild temps it’s been a humid motherfucker. Very strange weather patterns this year. It just feels wrong.
Like acknowledging it will make it better. The goddamn end is nigh folks and the hard part about that shit is it’s only the intelligent people who understand that.
On that cheery note.
After messing around and perfecting my workday vegetarian soups over the last year and a half I figured it was time to add a new one. Again, these soups are part of my dinner every single work day Monday through Friday.
I know that you’re out there thinking “Jesus Christ. Again with the vegetarian shit!”
You’re right, I get it but I wanted to convey how integral this shit is to my life now. After doing this diet this long, the positive effects on my body and mind are very fucking real and I’ve vowed to keep doing this from here on out.
The best part is it still allows me to get all primal on whatever the fuck I want on the weekends and that part fucking rules.
Just wait, you damn kids will see. When you get up in years and haven’t adjusted your diet your doctor WILL tell you it’s time to stop eating like a damn teenager then you’ll be all reactive and shit. You’ll start with the “all raw” diet and you’ll fucking hate it. You get into the depravation diets and you’ll fucking hate it. Then a lot of people simply get disgusted and say “Fuck you Doctor! I’ll eat what I want!”
Then you’re deep in the shit.
I’m trying to be proactive before it reaches that point and the results are proving to be fucking sound!
Maybe when I retire it won’t be a “5 days of soup in a row” type thing but I don’t know. Maybe it will.
Anyway where the hell was I?
Oh yeah a new soup. I realized that I don’t have a rice soup. The fuck am I doing over here? Let’s make a vegetarian(ish) brown rice soup that I promise is stunningly delicious and crazy good for you!
Using a similar preparation and most of the basic ingredients of my vegetarian barley soup, I figured we could add in some brown rice instead of the barley.
As per usual we begin with our mire poix.
That’s one large onion chopped.
4 or so celery stalks chopped
2-3 carrots chopped.
I’ve taken to chopping up my mire poix on Saturday prior to cooking the soup on Sunday. So every Saturday I’m hacking veggies. Regardless of which soup I’m making, every fucking one of them starts right here. Saves a bit of labor on Sunday too. This will come in handy when football season gets here.
Add some olive oil into a Dutch oven over medium heat and add in the mire poix.
Cook down for 10 minutes.
For most of my soups I only need the one box of veggie stock but for this one and the barley soup?
Yep. I use all three of these. It’s a big flavor improvement over plain water.
Yes, I also need to make my own stock and maybe I’ll fuck around with it now and then but all the vegetables I buy are in the soup, not cooked to shit in the stock.
Our new player today.
I’ll be using 1 cup of the brown rice.
Since this soup is vegetarian(ish) and needs some jazzing up. I’ll bring in a unique cast of characters to the soup world.
You want to funk this fucker up? This’ll do it. From left to right we have soy sauce (1 tablespoon), better than bouillon roasted onion (1 tablespoon), Worcestershire sauce (1 tablespoon) fish sauce (1/2 tablespoon) and XO sauce (1 teaspoon).
This is officially a yeah right original, along with several of my other soups.
The various sauces and condiments you see here are basically mimicking the meat flavor that isn’t present in a vegetarian soup. Those last 2, the fish sauce and the XO sauce are also the reason why this dish is vegetarian(ish) since both contain a small fish element. Shit now that I think about it Worcestershire and soy both have traces of anchovy too. Fuck it, I’m sticking with the (ish).
While the mire poix is sweating down let’s chop up a few more items.
Always garlic. Always.
Followed by fresh rosemary. About 1/2 tablespoon or so.
When the veggies are good and sweated, add in the garlic and your tablespoon of the Better than Bouillon.
Combine with the veggies. Be sure everything is coated.
Start adding in the vegetable stock, the rosemary, maybe 1/2 tablespoon of fresh thyme, the XO sauce, the fish sauce, the soy, Worcestershire, 1/2 tablespoon of salt (yes it will need it) and several good grinds of black pepper.
When all of the stock has been added, put a lid on the pot, bring to a slow boil and let it go for about an hour. We want to build that flavor profile.
When the hour has elapsed in goes the rice.
Add the rice to the pot, bring the soup back to a low, steady simmer and set a timer for 15 minutes. I’ve been tinkering with my timing on when to add the various remaining ingredients and I’ve got it pretty well down pat.
When those 15 minutes pass we prepare our next ingredient.
Bet your ASS! I fucking love mushrooms. In fact in addition to that mire poix up there, mushrooms are in every single fucking one of my soups. I really do eat these at least 5 days a week. Oh yeah, spinach too!
Give the shrooms a quick rinse and add to the pot.
Same deal as with the rice. Bring back to a steady simmer, and set a timer for 30 minutes this time.
During this step you have the chance to prep the next item.
Wash, peel and cube up a good sized potato.
Shit man! Just because this is vegetarian(ish) don’t mean it doesn’t have heft to it! It’s a right hearty motherfucker.
After the 30 minute timer goes off, in go the potatoes and repeat the “bring to a simmer and set a timer thing.” You only need a 14 or so minute timer for the potatoes.
We’re almost done here. Don’t stress. When the timer goes off turn the heat off on the soup.
No, Not done yet. One final step.
Chop up some fresh baby spinach, removing the bigger stems if you see fit.
Hell don’t ask me how much spinach. You know those plastic containers with the fresh spinach in them? I use about half of a container. Spinach, just like the mushrooms are the finishing step for every one of my soups.
Add the spinach to the soup right after turning the heat off on the soup.
Give several good stirs to combine everything.
Now all you have to do is wait for this shit to cool off. Which, believe me, doesn’t happen quick.
When the soup is cooled place it into a container.
Then stick it into the refrigerator for next week’s work dinner.
Since there is no animal fat in here it will last through Friday and believe me this shit gets exponentially better each day. So much so that by the time Thursday or Friday roll around you’re going to think this is some of the best shit you’ve ever eaten in your life.
And you would be right!
Lemme show you how I make my work day lunch. It’s pretty simple.
Got my soup Tupperware – always a few extra grinds of black pepper on my soup – an apple, my nonfat yogurt and a piece of 21 grains and seeds bread that I turn into toast at work.
The apple is kind of my midday snack eaten around 3:30 PM (remember my workday start at 10:30 AM) and dinner (yogurt and the soup) is usually around 5 after everyone else has gone home and I’m stuck here until 7:00 PM.
This is it. Every workday 5 days a week for over a year and a half now.
Know what? I feel fucking AWESOME!
Full disclosure:
You absolutely must have the gene that allows you to eat the same thing daily. I know many, many people who don’t have this gene. I do. Hell before I went weekday vegetarian I had baked chicken breast – either a sandwich or a burrito – instead of the soup and I had been doing that every weekday since 2003!
Additional psychotic insight? I actually have a schedule for what flavor of yogurt I have. Monday: strawberry, Tuesday: blueberry, Wednesday: strawberry, Thursday: blueberry, Friday: peach.
See? Totally normal behavio(u)r!
I think it’s this very type of structured lunacy that keeps me on tract to continue eating this diet.
Besides I’m throwing down some swine later today and I can eat that shit unapologetically. I have no regrets with the diet as structured. Fucker just works for me.
Well shit, folks. I sure do appreciate you being here. Getting close to wrapping up season 9 of Sunday Gravy with just a few more to go.
Don’t forget you’ve got your Week 1 Chiefs at Saints sweaty preseason action today at 10:00 West Coast time. You’ve also got that Niner’s at Raiders mighty tilt at 1:00 Pacific time.
Do enjoy your preseason action.
Come on by next week. Got a real tasty one for you. Goddamn keeper it is.
I’ll see you then.
PEACE!
I’ll make this, but w/o rice. For me, it always sponges up quickly.
Make it on the side, and put a scoop in the bowl before the soup.
How we doing good folks?
I hope we’re all doing great
Don’t the rice and mushrooms just suck up all the juices by day three?
After the first 24 hours they’ve absorbed as much as they can but getting the viscosity right is part of the challenge.
“It sure is!” – Joseph Hazelwood
fair result between Praise Beesus’ holy war with the Yid Army
Who gives a fuck about fair? The Spuds should’ve lost this (and every other match they ever play in their slide down the British footy pyramid).
Speaking of things I hate, I’ve been informed that I should be going to a funeral in the old country, for a person I despised at that. So, I must ask the Commentariat – should I go piss on that person’s grave, or tell the part of my family I speak to that I ain’t going? After all, I told that prick all I wanted to tell him before I put a couple of 9mm rounds through his kneecaps after he beat my aunt once too many?
Sorry for your loss….
That said, I thought that was the whole ‘authenticity’ bit of the old world. If you will not fly around the world to personally speak with a chip on your shoulder about the deceased….well, then what really is your connection to that culture?
It’s your duty.
Thankfully, it’s hanging by a thread and I’m a couple of family get-togethers to completely forget that ~95% of my family exist. Also, because of the “connection” (or lack thereof) to most of my family/country of birth, my kiddos haven’t learned a single word in Bulgarian and that’ll remain the case while they live under my roof, share my Netflix account and raid my hobby supplies for their projects.
Not even the swears?
Not a single word (I’d sooner let them learn French!), they don’t know shit about my hometown, they haven’t met most of their relatives on my side of the family tree.
Oh.
My two cents, you’re better off skipping it. The more unmemorable the funeral, the quicker he is forgotten/you win.
Yeah, that’s probably the comment that kinda pushed me into skipping it tbh 🙂 Well, that or the realization that I don’t care in the slightest if my non-immediate family disapprove (turns out my parents are on the fence ’bout going too, so.. yay)
Humanity’s death rituals are vastly overrated and completely unnecessary. Just piss on said grave the next time you happen to be in the vicinity on other business.
I’ve sold all my remaining assets in country, the family I speak with regularly don’t live there (parents are in Finland and my first cousins live in Canuckistan) outside of my aunt that kept taking back the fucktard that ded’d, so pissing on that grave ain’t in the cards.
Plus, “Hit her again and I’ll make sure you drown in your own blood” (well, in Bulgarian) were as good as final words as any I had for that bastard.
Stick to your guns. A man who hits a woman doesn’t deserve respect. Even in death. Even if other family members think he may. You are alive to set the better example.
We had a memorial service for our son a month after he died. No funeral. We knew our family thought it was weird, still don’t care. When I was about 11, my Aunt Patsy died. The funeral home did such a shitty job, she was made up like a clown and her lips started coming apart. I swore then and there noone was going to paint my face and stick me in a box. It’s grotesque.
It’s probably just as well not to have too many things in common with Buddy Cole’s Halftime Show.
Mom had a memorial service for my Dad. He was cremated. The Army honor guard did a flag presentation to Mom. They unfolded then refolded the flag. In all my years I never knew that was the protocol for cremated service personnel. Buglers played taps. I slipped the NCOIC a 100 bill and told him to square the 3 Soldier detail away.
I’ve not tried the BtB roasted onion, but the beef and chicken varieties are priceless to have around. The only time I ever cook rice without them anymore is when only pure white rice will do.
They just came out with a few new ones. I love that shit, it adds such a depth of flavor without any fuss. I call it crack!
Looks really tasty! That said, when I’m inevitably going to try this recipe (I’ve printed* it out so I don’t forget) I’m calling it vegetable soup or noone in my family will give it a fair shake. Not kidding about that, btw, since I’ve already tried this out with the kiddos and wife by making one dish split in two pots, with a bit of food colouring so they look slightly different and somehow the vegetarian one was horrendous, while the other was delicious XD
*well, printed to the Kindle in the kitchen. We’re not in the dark ages when we had to use paper 😀
As long as what you are eating is balanced and vitamine packed, eating it each day is not a big deal. I’ve never had that problem but in truth I just rotate about a half dozen old standbys. This looks solid enough to be a daily lunch.