Monday, March 23, 2009

Creamed Vegetable Soup To Go with Rice and Beans & Vegetables

In addition to the soup ingredients:

1 cup Riceland long grain brown rice
1 15 oz can Jewel black or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
16 oz Jewel winter vegetables, also known as broccoli and cauliflower

Bring rice, beans, and two cups of water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Turn heat down as low as possible, cover the pot, and let simmer until water is absorbed and rice is cooked, at least twenty minutes. Turn heat off and let rest at least ten minutes.

When the rice is on, make the soup. And as long as you're making the soup, you might as well eat some for whatever meal is nearest. And by the time you've eaten, the rice will be rested. And actually, I don't time my rice; I just put it on the low heat & sort of forget about it, so it burns sometimes. But I figured out a trick for rice and really everything else that burns: just turn off the heat and let it sit for maybe ten minutes & the liquid in the dish softens the burned bits, and you can scrape them right up. This is an excellent metaphor for actual rest. Softening your burned bits.

Okay so, divide the rice into four takealong containers. Ladle a half cup of soup over each portion of rice, and put away any leftover soup in the fridge; it will keep for about a week.

Now cut open the bag of vegetables and empty them into the soup pot. I don't even wash the pot. What, it was just soup. Add a very little bit of water to the vegetables, cover the pot, and bring to a boil over high heat until the vegetables are just about cooked, about five minutes. Drain any water from the vegetables and divide them between the four containers. Pop on the tops, and you have four totally healthy lunches ready to go.

At work:
Heat in microwave, add a little bit of salt.

Per 1/2 cup soup and 1/4 recipe rice and beans & vegetables: broccoli, 368; carrot, 371; cauliflower, 366; corn, 403, peas, 388 calories