Vegan Farro Soup with Crusty Ciabatta Bread (Strumming Pain And Tire Tracks on My Music)

Wednesday night is guitar lesson night. Dinner needed to be something quick and something I could either cook the heck out of the hour before I leave the house and just "leave" warm on the stove until I get home after lessons or. . . it's vegan grilled cheese and a can of soup night again.

I have been neglectful of my kitchen lately because of all the topsy-turvy remodeling taking place. I can't stand chaos and thus, was unable to "work" in such conditions. Now that all seems to be in order (this after a serious purging from the pantry and fridge)--I am able to navigate the possibilities for dinner more easily. (I could spend several posts on the virtues of keeping your kitchen in an OCD sort of way--but I'll wait for another time.) During this purge, I unearthed quite a chache of beans, rice and other pantry staples that had somehow been residing in either another time dimension or happened to pop their little heads out for the new kitchen unveiling. Either way, that's how the farro came into the picture. During one of my shopping trips to Whole Foods, I must have stumbled upon "farro".

 (Because it certainly didn't happen at one of my "local" grocery haunts, trust me.) I had an unopened bag of it sitting in the back of the fridge. I always keep rice in the fridge. Farro is actually in the wheat family--from what I understand. It is more popular in European regions (especially Italy) than it is here. Much like rice. In fact, I'll just call it rice. I happen to love both its texture and nutty taste. Note to self: use farro in more recipes. 

I recalled a farro soup I had seen in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day cookbook that I had been dying to make. This is one cookbook for which there is always inspiration for creating something beautiful and delicious, with minimal ingredients and usually quickly. She allows room to make changes, to jump off wherever you'd like and make any recipe your own--that's another reason I love the cookbook. There are really only five main ingredients to my soup version and only a "few" spices. Mainly the spice called for was curry. I amped up the spice volume a bit in my version and the result was superb. Served with a crusty loaf of Jim Lahey's Ciabatta Bread, it was sublime.

Newly stored/labled farro rice for many more delightful dinner moments.

The C chord. And. . . hand cramps. I am diligent about my guitar practice. Every day, no matter when. If it's ten-thirty at night, so be it. I have to play the guitar. It makes me happy--this guitar.

Yesterday I felt out of sorts a bit. A little spacy. A little. And as the hour approached for me to leave for my lessons--I'd debated not going at all. When I feel a little off kilter, I tend to take that as a sign that my hormones are running full tilt and it may be best to lay low. I should have listened to myself. I fed the kids and let them all out--during which, I lost track of time and before I knew it, I saw the clock and thought, Dang it! I've got to go NOW! I arrived for my lesson all winded and disheveled. I was ushered into my "room" for practice and apologized profusely for my tardiness, THEN, pick in hand, realized I had completely forgotten my "stupid" lesson book. (And that's exactly what came rolling out of my mouth: I. Forgot. My. Stupid. Lesson. Book. What the heck is wrong with me!? Am I going to start crying? Right here? Right now? No. You will NOT cry! It's guitar lessons, not a doctor visit for crying out loud!) And where had I left said book? On the floor of the garage. I had run over it with my car as I left in a bit of a hurry.  

Teacher was understanding and we arranged for an earlier afternoon practice time because, as I said to my tutor: I have a husband I need to feed. So. Here's hoping that new time slot alleviates the "drama" of trying to haul my butt out the door in a timely fashion.   

I have moved from learning the first three strings and their cooresponding notes along the first three frets to the fourth string (D, E, F)--to last night's introduction to "chords". The strumming portion of playing the guitar. Well. Did I really expect to be plucking Yankee Doodle and Love Me Tender forever? (Love Me Tender is titled Aura Lee in my music book because, according to my guitar instructor, Elvis sort of hijacked the notes for his famous song and later paid a hefty price for doing so. Who knew?! I love music trivia like that. Plus I've been to Graceland.) My awe at the instrument continues to grow. So as I was instructed to jump from the C chord to the G7 chord and just "play along with me". . . then told, "you know this song, right" and some Credence Clearwater Revival began to take shape, my jaw dropped. Then we jammed to some Eagles. Yes. I said "jammed". 

Part of my OCD kitchen re-do. Me like very much. This is why having a pressure cooker is essential in this house. Whole, dry beans-to-soup in 30 minutes.

Vegan Farro Soup

Adapted from "Super Natural Every Day" by Heidi Swanson 

1 large yellow onion chopped

1 stalk celery chopped

4 garlic cloves minced

1 sweet potato, peeled and diced (you could use carrots instead if you'd like--one should do it)

2 bay leaves

1 cup farro (*you could use regular brown basmati rice, too)

1 cup dried brown lentils

1/2 tablespoon garam masala (*optional)

1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons curry

1/4 teaspoon ground tumeric

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 tablespoon dried oregano

salt and fresh ground pepper

juice of 1/2 lemon (and some zest for topping it off)

vegan sour cream

veggie boullion cube and 6 cups water OR 6 cups veggie stock (*I use unsalted vegan veggie cubes from Whole Foods--I love having these on hand and using in soups)

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add all the chopped veggies and saute for about ten minutes--until the onion begins to soften. Add the bay leaves, farro, lentils and spices and the veggie stock or veggie cube and water. Cover and allow to simmer over low heat for about an hour. Check on the soup at about 45 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Finally, zest half of a lemon. Then, cut lemon in half and add the juice from it to the soup. Serve soup topped with vegan sour cream, some extra virgin olive oil and shaved lemon zest over the top. Very yummy.