It’s time to bust out sweaters and coats and make some soup.  It was also time for me to clean out the pantry and figure out what was in the zip-lock bags in the freezer.

This week, vegan “cream” of broccoli soup and lentil quinoa crackers. Yes, vegan.  With fall breezes come allergens.  With allergens, the mucous builds up.  Dairy products become the enemy.

Ingredients

• Can of white “northern” beans
• vegetable bouillon (I highly recommend the “Better than Bouillon” that comes in a jar.)
• ~4 cups broccoli florets (I used frozen)

Cooking

• Drain white beans, cook on low with 1 can of water and ~tbsp bouillon
• add 1/2 the broccoli florets and cook until broccoli thaws (yes, I use frozen veggies as a timer)
• Let mixture cool,  and puree it in the blender (or food processor).
• Chop the remainder of the broccoli (I used the blender)
• Combine the mixture,  add salt and pepper to taste.  If the soup is too thick, you can add water, soy or rice milk.

Crackers

This week’s freezer excavation yielded Lentil Quinoa Biscuit dough.  I had intended to use it as pot pie crust but I had a little left over.

Dough Ingredients

• 1 c.  white flour
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 6 tbsp. vegetable or grapeseed oil
• 2/3 c. Rice Milk (you can use water if you don’t have rice milk)
• 1 cup cooked quinoa (this time I cooked the quinoa with lentils and vegtable stock and added savory spices)

Preheat oven to 425. Mix all ingredients together.  Add more flour or rice milk to even out the texture of the dough. Roll the dough out on a floured surface until it is about 1/4″ thick. A this point you can use it as pie crust or crackers.  For crackers I used a heart shaped cookie cutter and placed the cutouts on an oiled cookie sheet.  I brushed oil on the top of each cut out and sprinkled them with sea salt.  Bake for about 10 mins (or until they are browned).