Vegan Potato Kale Cauliflower Soup with Bernard Clayton's Dinner Rolls (let me catch you up on what's happened. . .)

It's soup season. I could eat it year round, but soup's appeal really begins to nestle in my bones around late October and runs all the way through til April. I blame this soup on my sister. She visited last week, and during one of our many "excursions" around town--(and there were many), we stopped in at Foundation Grounds Coffee in Maplewood, Missouri. They have vegan options on their menu! Yay! I had a bowl of their potato kale soup--a very restorative and nourishing break, with a cup of their hot chocolate. So. Good. I couldn't get the soup out of my mind and my food memory backlash wouldn't let go. So here I was yesterday afternoon trying my hand at the same soup, only this time, going into our garden for fresh kale, tossing in some cauliflower we had on hand and aromatics of onion and garlic for good measure. In total this soup has six ingredients give or take. The hands on time is minimal for such a ridiculously good soup. So simple. I needed simple as I am experiencing my first full-on cold. Or maybe it's a light case of flu. Whatever I have, it's rendered me light headed and low-energy. So soup making was something I could handle. Well, and then I craved bread. 

 Never one to ever, ever serve a bowl of soup without crusty rolls or a loaf of bread, I opted for one of my old time favorites: I whipped up a batch of Dinner Rolls from Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Small Breads. Love this cookbook. 

When I bake these, I modify the recipe quite a bit to my vegan/whole grain style of baking.  

If you'd like to make these rolls with less "hands-on" time, place all the ingredients in a bread machine. It's much quicker. I make these at least once a week.

They bake up superbly, crusty and are pure heaven. Freeze the left over rolls for the next night.

 (*My god it's taken me an hour to write this first paragraph, cough, cough, sniffle, sniffle.) 

All summer long, this kale looked like a giant bunch of weeds. I always leave it alone knowing that come fall--kale's beauty emerges. 

Kale meals, and kale smoothies. 

Well, as I was saying, my sister visited from Chicago. And we did and saw so much while she was here. When you take someone as a guest around your home town, it makes you really love where you live that much more. It's beautiful in St. Louis this time of year. The weather was amazing, the fall colors were stunning, and there were plenty of things to do and see. One day we dedicated to shopping--and I don't mean small shopping, we went big--which is exhausting for me because normally I don't venture out of my lair in the basement except for a trip to WM or Target. Then we spent another day hanging out in some of St. Louis' best used book stores. (St. Louis has many.) It's one of my all-time favorite pastimes: book shopping. We even went so far as to attend a "festival": OMG.

 Saturday, the introverts in us decided we needed to go outside our comfort zone BIG time. So we attended the Apple Butter Festival in Kimmswick, Mo. Again. . . OMG. I was a little paralyzed with fear stunned at the attendance. But I thought this might be a great place for my sister to get some early Christmas shopping done. And she did. But by about our last turn in walking the entire square of the city through about a million human beings, I said two words: "I'm done." My sister laughed and said, "Me, too. . . you read my mind". We were both done. Heading up the hill back to our car, what do we spy with our little eye, but Jack Skellington! We both instantaneously looked at each other. What happened next is obvious.  

We also spent some time in Tower Grove Park and I took her to my favorite local vegan restaurant, Lulu's Local Eatery. Again, anytime you are in St. Louis my vegan friends, you must visit here. 

The pavilion at Tower Grove Park. 

Tower Grove Park Scenery. 

Frankie is now fifteen months old. She's slowly but surely turning into that Great Pyrenees we always knew she could be. 

I have more gray hair as a result of it, but still. 

I finally finished knitting this beeeuutiful, lacy, frilly scarf. I am not usually a "frilly" scarf woman, but for some reason, this speaks to me. I bought the yarn two years ago and have since done the unthinkable: I have no idea what yarn I used, the manufacturer's tag/wrapping is gone. I nonetheless wanted to share this and will provide this description: gossamer thread, berry-colored yarn, drapey and lacy and completely time consumptive.

 It took me two years to finish. 

Three hours to bind off. 

Two seconds to fall in love with--unblocked. 

As I said farewell to sissy, I captured a moment that so clearly captures what is most important to me in life. 

Family. Love. Happiness. 

Vegan Potato Kale Cauliflower Soup

serves 4

5 medium potatoes sliced (russets and red potato-combo is fine)

2 onions chopped

4 cloves garlic minced

1/2 head medium cauliflower chopped

4-6 leaves of kale

6 cups veggie broth

1/2 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon Italian herb blend

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, saute the onions and garlic in about a 1/4 cup of olive oil until they just begin to soften. Add seasonings--and you may use a bay leaf if you'd like, but we skipped it. Add the remainder of the ingredients, place lid on pot and simmer for about an hour. The potatoes and cauliflower should be fork tender. Break up the potatoes with the back of a spoon, leaving big chunks in there. Taste and add salt if and pepper as needed. Remove from heat about a half hour before serving to allow the soup to "settle" down a bit. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and some yummy dinner rolls.

Bernard Clayton's Dinner Rolls

makes 9-10 rolls

1 small russet potato cooked (about 1/3 cup--you can leave skin on or scrape out the flesh)

1/3 cup soy or almond milk

1 teaspoon flaxseed mixed with 2 tablespoons warm water

2 tablespoons Earth Balance butter

1 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup spelt flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Place all ingredients in bread machine in order specified. In mine, I put the wet ingredients first, then dry, with the yeast going in last. Select the "dough" program. After dough is finished, remove from machine and roll into log, cut into approximately ten pieces. Roll each dough piece into a round ball, tucking in at the bottom, or pinching together at bottom. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Make sure the dough balls are not touching. Sprinkle with a bit of the flour, then cover with plastic wrap and let the dough balls proof for about 30 minutes in a warm spot in the kitchen. While the dough proofs, preheat oven to 400. After dough has proofed, remove plastic and bake rolls for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool for about ten minutes before serving.