Healthy Comfort Food

Last night's dinner is one of my wintertime favorites. One of the best things about it is that we can usually have this meal any time; we always have the ingredients on hand. We just have to get a crusty baguette for the side and that is not even completely necessary.

Tomato and Rice (or Barley) Soup


Nate found a delicious recipe for Tomato and Rice Soup, which we have modified several times. We use our home canned stewed tomatoes, chicken stock and either rice or hulled barley. It gets topped with our homemade croutons and fresh grated parmesan cheese. I have become a believer that if you have a well stocked pantry, you can come up with a delicious & nutritious meal anytime. This meal is a very good example. The hard work done at the end of the summer to can several quarts of fresh local tomatoes, pays off when you can enjoy it all year long. We have also started saving stale bread and baguettes in the freezer for making large batches of croutons. We freeze the croutons once made and we now have those on hand most of the time. Grains like brown rice and barley and vegetable or chicken broth should always be in the pantry too! We make our own stock and store in the freezer, but more on that in a future post.....

To make it:

Cook your rice or hulled barley (1/2 cup or more if desired) in at least 2 cups of stock (from a 32 oz container). Once boiling, cover & cook for about 30-45 minutes. It's nice for the rice to be on the soft side and the barley will take closer to 45 minutes. You don't want the grains to absorb all of the liquid, so add more stock if it's getting too dry.

Once the rice or barley is cooked, add several cloves of minced garlic, about 3 tablespoons of olive oil and as much salt & pepper as desired. Stir and as soon as it begins to simmer again, add 1 quart of canned tomatoes. Ours had large pieces of tomato, so I used a smasher to break them up. Rinse the empty tomato jar with stock & dump that in.  Stir in the remaining stock and bring it to a simmer before serving.

Top your bowl with croutons & fresh grated parm. Garnish with celery greens, if you want to add some color. Serve with warm, crusty bread.

As pretty as it is TASTY!!

Nate added black olives to his bowl this time. Pretty tasty!