Rustic No Knead Whole Wheat Bread

I'm pretty sure I've been making bread off and on since getting married. I started off using a recipe that was 2/3 white flour and 1/3 wheat. It was a delicious recipe, but as I've learned more about healthy eating, I've been trying to find a good recipe that uses 100% whole wheat flour. It's been a bit of a frustrating process. I had a recipe that we all liked, but it usually got crumbly if it wasn't used very quickly. Then another recipe was never consistent and often came out with huge holes in the middle. I tried my hand at sour dough for a while and while it was delicious bread, the time it took to care for my starter and then make the actual bread was just too much. I mean making bread in and of itself is a time commitment. If it weren't for the hefty price tag of over $3 a loaf (and that's cheap for good bread), I would just buy bread from a local bakery here, but I just can't justify that long term. And well, I just don't really like the bread off the shelf from the store. So, it was simply necessary for me to find a good recipe. And I did! Everyone has different desires for their bread. We like ours to be fairly dense and hearty, but not crumbling apart. This recipe is just that. It reminds me of those delicious whole grain baguettes you can get with your meal from Panera Bread. It's perfect for toast, sandwiches, and even makes great bread crumbs. And the best part, (aside from the taste) is that it requires no needing or double rising. It goes directly from being mixed to the bread pan with no rising needed in between. Delicious and fast. What more could you want?

Rustic No Knead Whole Wheat Bread

5 1/3 cups water
4 teaspoons honey
8 teaspoons yeast
1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon honey
10 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons ground flax meal
1/4 cup millet (optional, but it gives it more of that rustic crunch)
2 Tablespoons oats

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.Combine water, yeast, and 4 teaspoons honey and let sit until the yeast is dissolved and the mixture is foamy. Stir remaining honey into yeast mixture and stir until dissolved. In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, combine 5 cups flour with salt, flax, and millet. Pour in a little more than half the water mixture and mix until well combined. Alternate remaining water with remaining 5 cups of flour and mix well until dough is evenly mixed. The dough will be very wet and elastic like. Grease three 9x5 bread pans well and divide the bread dough between them. Let dough sit in a warm place until just more than doubled in size. Carefully place bread in the oven and cook for 30-35 minutes. I usually cover the loaves lightly with foil after 20 minutes to avoid over darkening. Bread is done when it has a hollow sound when tapped. Cool completely before storing.

Moroccan Curried Lentil Soup

One of my favorite things about living where we do is the weekly farmers market and the fresh vegetable stands. Since moving here, we have had raw milk cheese, fresh green beans and potatoes, to die for peaches, my favorite flat leaf kale (which is unavailable at any grocery store here), range fed chicken, and grass fed beef. I love eating healthy (not all the time of course) and I love the idea of purchasing most of our food from locally grown and raised sources. Both because I like the idea of supporting local farmers, and because most of them use little or no pesticides in their growing process. However, this is a very expensive way to eat and my frugal side just can't justify it. I do not want to have to have only the best and I don't want healthy eating to become an idol, so I'm looking for what that balance is. I haven't found it yet, but in the search, and in trying to justify spending $2.69 a pound for free range whole chicken, I have been looking for yummy but nourishing meat free meals to have several times throughout the month. I have this theory that it would be better for us to eat less meat and have that meat be good quality, than to eat meat at every meal. So, all that rambling to say that I discovered a delicious and frugal lentil soup recipe yesterday and thought I'd share it. It came from the Schwarzbein Principle Cookbook, but I did lot of tweaking, so I'm sharing my tweaked version. It's a little bit spicy with hints of fresh ginger and cilantro.

I didn't feel like a salad last night, so instead I chopped up some fresh spinach and stirred it into my soup. It was delicious!

Moroccan Curried Lentil Soup
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large red onion, diced
2 minced garlic cloves
2 stalks celery diced
2 large carrots, diced
2 zucchini diced
3-4 teaspoons cumin
3-4 teaspoons curry powder - this depends on the hotness of your curry and how spicy you want your soup
2 cups dry lentils
8 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced - this is a key flavor, so dried ginger just won't work
1 cup medium salsa
1/2 - 2/3 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 1/2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1-2 teaspoons salt (omit if using canned broth with salt in it)

In a large soup pot, heat butter until melted. Add onion, garlic, and celery and saute until softened. Add carrots, zucchini, cumin, curry powder, and salt and saute another five minutes. Add the lentils, chicken broth, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let cook over low to medium heat for 40 minutes or until lentils are tender. Add ginger, salsa, cilantro, and pepper. Stir to incorporate the flavors and then add lemon juice. Let stand 5 minutes and then taste and adjust seasonings as desired. This soup is delicious served with buttered whole wheat toast (recipe for that coming soon).