Redeeming my culinary honor: Mushroom-barley soup and pizza



Well!! One of the commenters thought my recipe for fake lasagna was “unappetizing.” So I’m hoping to redeem myself with this mushroom-barley soup seasoned with rosemary and parsley and spinach-tomato pizza with mushrooms, onions, olives, peppers, cheese and fresh tomatoes.The picture is before baking..

Soup: Saute onions and mushrooms, add barley and cook for 10 minutes in a pressure cooker or half an hour in a conventional pot. Add sliced carrots, celery, parsley, rosemary and tamari sauce and cook again for the same amount of time. If not using a pressure cooker add the parsley closer to the end. Sorry, I’m not good at quantities.

The pizza recipe is from Craig Claiborne’s no-salt cookbook:

3 cups flour (I use what’s known here as 70% whole-wheat flour–it’s coarser than white but not as heavy as whole-wheat)
1.5 tbsp yeast (I use instant dry yeast that can be mixed straight with the flour and not “proofed”)
1 c. lukewarm water (water leftover from cooking potatoes is best)
2 tbsp olive or corn oil (I use canola)

Here I deviate from Craig because I use dry yeast. Mix up the flour and yeast together, then add the water and oil. Otherwise mix the yeast, a cup of flour and 1/3 cup of water together first and then add the other ingredients. It can be done in a food processor but since I make about 3-4 times the quantity I knead it by hand. The dough should be sticky. Cover it and let it rest for half an hour. Split it and make two 13-inch circular pizzas. Let them rise for another half an hour, brush with olive oil, add the toppings, and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Then increase the temperature to 425 and place on the bottom of the oven for another 5 minutes.

Comments

  1. looks delicious. Do your kids appreciate homemade pizza, or do they say they prefer it from the pizza store?

  2. mother in israel says

    Good question! Some of them have said they prefer it from the pizza store, but they do like making it. As long as they eat it, I just ignore those types of comments. Same with the homemade challah!

  3. sounds yummy but whats the base of the soup?

  4. mother in israel says

    Just water–the tamari gives it some body, but you could use vegetable stock or meat stock.