Angela Stew

Angela is one of my oldest friends from high school. By a unique turn of events, she'll be spending New Year's Eve in Atlanta this year and I decided to honor said occasion with soup, especially since I'm trying to get her to move here and I need to show her that Atlanta is awesome, and not as ghetto as she thought it was the first time she was here when I lived in the Projects.  Slightly complicating my cooking is the fact that Angie is a vegan. I couldn't be further from a vegan, after all, Brian and I have bacon fat in our fridge right now. However, vegan soups are super easy to make. Angie, I hope you like this, there will be some in my freezer for you once you get here.

For this Angela Stew (or mushroom-barley stew if you don't know Angela), you'll need: 3 cloves of garlic, 1 onion, 3 carrots, 4 stalks of celery, 2 parsnips, some veggie broth, a bit of white wine, random fresh herbs if you have them lying around, bay leaves, some spicy seasoning to taste, 2 leeks, cremini mushrooms, kale, barley and canned diced tomatoes.

The first few steps here are optional.  All three of my vegetarian friends always comment that store bought vegetable broth is gross. Since I pretty much only use meat-based broths (which I find tasty), I took their word for it and set out to jazz up the broth a bit. If you like the taste of vegetable broth or are using another broth you like, then skip all this. If not, mince or finely dice the garlic, onion, carrots, celery and parsnips.  I also peeled the parsnips and celery because I didn't want to scrub them.

Next, go foraging for herbs.  I found this frozen rosemary outside. I used a huge sprig since rosemary is hearty and I knew a little ice wasn't going to harm it.

Next, heat a bit of olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat and throw all the veggies in.  Cook these for about 5 minutes.

Then, add the vegetable broth.  I only bought a 32 ounce container, and I knew I would need more broth that that, so I also added about 16 ounces of water.

Now add some white wine.  I really only added this because the bottle had been open in the fridge for a week while I was away on Blivmore Holiday Road Trip 2010 and I truly believe that wine goes bad in 3 days and this would be gross to drink. Gross to drink, but okay for soup, I guess.

Stir all that up and throw in some bay leaves, the rosemary sprig (or whatever else you found), and some salt and pepper.  I also threw in a bit of dried smoking hot peppers to add a little kick. Let this simmer for at least one hour, preferably 2 hours.  The longer it simmers, the better the broth will taste.  Alternatively, throw it all in a pressure cooker and cook for like 20 minutes.

What to do with the free time while this is simmering? Well, maybe you have Christmas presents to put away. Maybe one of those presents is a gel pro mat (aka, the best thing in my kitchen) and you're so excited that you'd rather stand on the mat than sit on the couch. Or maybe that's just me. Go relax, like a normal person.

While the broth is simmering away, prep the rest of the vegetables.  I started with the leeks, slicing them in half then in small pieces.

Next, the mushrooms. I chopped them up a bit even though they were already sliced. I didn't want giant mushroom chunks in my stew.

Lastly, the kale. Angela, like myself, is a wholesome Italian girl so I have no doubt she has a fondness for kale. After all, we all grew up with Italian wedding soup chock full of kale.  The secret to making kale edible is to remove the tough stem and shred the leaves.  Also, once you're done shredding, give this a good wash. Kale can be a bit dirty and dirt is gross to eat.

By now, your broth should be well simmered.  Pour it into a large bowl, remove the bay leaves and rosemary sprig, and blend with a stick blender.  Alternatively, you could just drain all the solids out. But I wanted to keep them for their yumminess and vitamins. Yes, your broth will be a tad bit orange. Get over it, orange is awesome.

Finally, it's stew time. In the same stock pot as before, heat a bit of olive oil over medium heat and add a cup of pearl barley. Toast the barley for about 2 minutes.

Next, add the leeks and cook for 5 minutes, until softened.
Then, add the mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes, until they begin to shrink and brown.

Add the tomatoes with their juice.  Isn't this pretty? This stew could easily be turned into a barley risotto if you'd like.

Lastly, add the broth and kale.  Stir this up, throw in a pinch more of salt, and simmer for another 40-60 minutes until the kale is wilted and barley is cooked.

I ate my stew with a almost heart shaped grilled cheese sandwich, but I suck at making grilled cheese and only some of the cheese was melted. At least the soup was yummy! Enjoy!