Sunday night at our homes often means a soup and bread meal, usually followed with some fresh fruit and a small wedge of low-fat or fat-free cheese. Nothing could be simpler yet so satisfying.
1. Spicy Turkey Soup
Our first meal features a Yeasted Corn Bread that is made in a bread machine. More substantial than quick corn bread, it is perfect with a robust-flavored soup such as our Spicy Turkey Soup.
In developing recipes for bread machines, we found that heavily chlorinated tap water killed off some of the yeast, producing an inferior loaf. So whenever making bread in a bread machine, we call for bottled spring water.
It’s important to watch the first few minutes of the first mix-knead cycle since the machine can’t compensate for variations in humidity. When you’re kneading by hand, you instinctively know when to add more flour if the dough is too wet or more liquid if the dough is too dry. In a bread machine, the dough should form a soft ball and cleanly pull away from the sides of the bread pan.
If the dough is too wet, add an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour. Conversely, if the dough is dry and crumbly, add water, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough reaches the right consistency to form a good loaf.
2. Yeasted Corn Bread
3. Italian Vegetable Soup
Our second meal features a hearty vegetable soup that’s Italian by flavor and particularly welcome after a day of planting the spring vegetable garden. With it, we’re suggesting serving a savory focaccia, made super easy by using frozen bread dough.
4. Rosemary Focaccia
5. Corn and Fish Chowder
For our third meal, we suggest making a delicious corn and fish chowder using fresh halibut. You could always substitute swordfish, sea bass, snapper, or any other mild-flavored fish for the halibut. With the chowder, we’re serving cheese toast.
6. Cheese Toast
7. Sun-Dried Tomato and Lentil Soup
Our last meal features a recipe from our Joslin Diabetes Healthy Carbohydrate Cookbook (Fireside) using red lentils and sun-dried tomatoes. If you find it difficult to chop the sun-dried tomatoes, stick them in the freezer for 5 minutes.
8. Baked Pita Chips
Then they will crumble easily by hand or with a rolling pin. With the soup, we’re serving Baked Pita Chips (from the same cookbook) – something that has become a staple in our homes as we find many uses for these easy-to-make savory chips. They keep for weeks in a self-sealing plastic bag. We’ve made these with fennel seeds, but you could use poppy seeds or a dried herb of your choice.
