sweet miscellany

Let me start off by saying it is officially fall here! It was about 50 degrees when I got up to go to the market this morning and it only warmed up to about 65. I think it will even get down into the upper 40s here tonight (gasp!). It seems that a large pot of veggie chili or soup is in order as well as a good fire in my much neglected fireplace. Oh how I love this season.

Speaking of chili and soup, I seem to have fallen into a pattern of requiring something bread-y to enjoy with them. For chili I typically go the corn muffin route, but for soups, I tend to be boring and toast up a couple of slices of bread. I remembered this post from Edible Perspective and thought it would be the perfect accompaniment to my roasted tomato and coconut milk soup. It was damn delicious with the soup, but it’s really versatile and can be used in a myriad of ways. I’ve included some ideas for how to enjoy these skillet flatbreads below the recipe.

I decided to use a combination of basil and mint in these to complement the soup, but feel free to use whatever you have available, whether they are dried or fresh. I’m betting a rosemary, thyme, and lemon zest combo would be particularly delicious.

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Rain and a cool front in the forecast mean it is officially soup weather! I used to not be a big fan of soup. In elementary school, the cafeteria had specific food on specific days. One of the days was dedicated to grilled cheese and soup. My friends and I loved the grilled cheese, so much so that we would take delight in eating the discarded crust off of our picky friends’ sandwiches. I don’t remember much about the soup except that it was some sort of vegetable soup and that we deemed it “rat poison” because it was gross. It was lackluster compared to the toasty, gooey, buttery grilled cheese. I sort of kept the same sentiment about soup until a couple of years ago when my tastes changed and I began making my own soup at home.

I tend to prefer hearty soups with a bit of texture instead of thin, broth-y ones. Looking back at the other 3 soups I’ve posted on the blog in the past, I also tend to prefer adding a bit of coconut milk to my soups. I like it both for the creaminess and flavor it adds to soups. It works really well with the tomatoes in this soup because it balances out their acidity and adds a tiny hint of sweetness. The herbs add an earthy dimension to the soup so don’t skimp. If you aren’t much of a soup person, this actually makes a really tasty sauce for pasta.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what the bread ia in the last photo, I’ll be sharing the recipe for it later on in the week. Happy soup season!

**sorry for the graininess in some of the photos… I had the ISO up high because I was trying to shoot everything before I lost the sunlight
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Herbed Millet Flatbread

Roasted Tomato Coconut Milk Soup