Chicken noodle soup (and French bread!)

First things first-- I made bread today! This was my first attempt at gluten-free bread after many, many trips to various grocery stores for strange items like vegan gelatin, white rice flour (I only had brown), soy milk powder (found after the dough was already mixed), navy bean flour (never found)... the list goes on.

Partly I was overwhelmed by the desire to try a few different recipes at once, but I finally settled on making "New French Bread" in Bette Hagman's The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread (thank you, Ann!). For all of the recipes I've found so far, you first make batches of custom flour mixes. Only then can you follow the recipe. I am so bad at reading ahead and following directions that I had a really hard time with this. Once I buckled down, wrote out a shopping list, and went to two different stores today for last-minute stray ingredients, it really wasn't difficult.

Gluten-like strands form in the dough during a three minute session in the stand mixer, thanks to the gelatin. You have to hand-form the dough, which doesn't smooth out at all in baking. I used the trick of placing a container with 2 cups of water in the oven and spraying water onto the hot oven walls every 8 minutes or so. The steam helps to crisp up the crust, and it really worked here. The result was a soft, chewy center and a lovely snappy crust-- delicious dipped in an attempt at making homemade Yumm sauce (more on that later).

On to today's recipe. Erik came home from a long day at work not feeling well. It's been a wet and very windy past few days, which can only mean one thing-- time for soup!

Chicken noodle soup

vegan, gluten-free

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil


• 1 onion, chopped


• 2 carrots, chopped small


• 1 celery stalk, chopped small


• 2 garlic cloves, run through the garlic press or minced


• 1 package of vegan, wheat free chicken nuggets, torn into bite-size pieces
  
  I found Kuan Yin Hsiang Vegetarian Diet Co vegetarian chicken nuggets (see photo here) at my local Asian mega-mart


• 1/2 tsp ground coriander


• 1/2 tsp ground cumin


• 1/2 tsp ground mustard


• 1/2 tsp celery salt


• 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary


• 1 tsp chopped fresh oregano


• 1 tbsp miso (could be white or red, something mellow)


• 1/4 cup cooking sherry, white wine, or mirin


• 3 cups vegetable stock or broth


• 1/3 cup frozen green peas


• 1/2 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed (optional)
  
  I only added these because I used half the can in something else, and they were sitting out. You could use any number of other beans here like cannellini, navy or other white beans.


• 1 package of gluten-free spaghetti, roughly broken into 4" lengths (I like the stuff made with quinoa)

Directions

• Heat oil in a big stock pot, add onions and saute til translucent, about 5 minutes.


• Add carrots and celery, saute 2 minutes. Add garlic, saute 1 minute.


• Add faux chicken (or favored protein), turn up the heat, and saute til the bottom of the pot begins to stick and brown a bit.


• Add all of the spices and miso, mix thoroughly.


• Add the sherry/wine/mirin to deglaze (scrape off those brown stuck bits).


• Pour in the stock and add about 3 cups of water. There should be a little more broth-to-chunky ratio than you want in the end product, as the soup will thicken. Mix well.


• Add peas and beans if using, then cover. While soup is coming to a low boil, make the pasta. Be very careful not to overcook pasta-- if anything, slightly undercook it.


• Soup should simmer for about 15 minutes, stirred often. When it thickens a bit and the flavors meld, salt to taste and add drained, rinsed pasta. Serve with a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper.