French Onion Soup with Cheesy Bruscheta

Last week I was at the airport and for the first time ever wasn't in a rush to get to my next flight, so my husband & I ate at one of those sit-down terminal restaurants. I don't remember it's name, but it was french-themed. I ordered a bowl of french onion soup to go with my veggie panini. The soup was really good. I think I've only had onion soup a few other times and probably rarely home-made. I remembered seeing a recipe for it in my slow cooker book, but had been waiting to get a bunch of onions from my garden or grub box. That didn't happen this fall, so I never made it. So yesterday, I got a bag of sweet Vidalia onions from the grocery store & started slicing.

The recipe was super easy. I prepped the onions last night which only took me 10 or so minutes. And then this morning added them & olive oil to the slow cooker, set it to low & went off to work. Ten hours later, I added veggie broth & brandy to the fully caramelized onions. While it all got warmed together, I made cheesy bread in the toaster oven. Then served the soup with the bread on top, squishing it down in the bowl if need be to soak up the hot soup. The whole household enjoyed it. There were some onions that were a little past caramelized along one section of the slow cooker's bottom - maybe stirring it towards the end of the cooking would avoid that, not sure. Next time I think I would add some mushrooms to caramelize with the onions for a little more flavor. And serve with a green salad. I would definitely make this one again!

Pumpkin-Pecan Bread

12.28.10

I used the slow cooker twice in one day! (See below for cabbage rolls.) I cooked our Halloween pumpkin and ended up with 9 cups of pureed pumpkin, I tried this bread recipe from Katie's Vegetarian Slow Cooker book. The bread ended up being a little too dense and needed spices (it didn't call for any!). The pecan to pumpking ratio was nice though. I wonder if the the fresh pumpking had less flavor than canned.

Cooking bread in the slow cooker is interesting. It's more like steaming. We have a perfect loaf pan that sits about an inch off the bottom of the slow cooker. Otherwise you'd have to use a trivet or rack to hold the loaf pan up so it doesn't rest on the slow cooker. You put about 2c of boiling water in the bottom and you're ready to make tea bread.

Tempeh & Barley Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

12.28.10

My sister Abbey made this dish and had this to say:

Our People's Grocery Grub Box/CSA has regularly supplied our house with cabbage this winter. Sometimes we even end up with two heads in the fridge. I made fermented sauerkraut, but still there was more cabbage. So over the winter holidays, I had more time to cook and decided to make this stuffed cabbage. It was time consuming but very tasty. First I made barley which I'd never done before: 1c barley to 3.5c water simmered for 1hr yields about 4 cups cooked barley! I used half in this recipe and froze the rest for a future dinner. I then sauteed grated carrots and onion and then added tempeh. To soften the cabbage, steam in a steamer basket. Peel the soft outer leaves and then stuff with about 1/3 c filling. Roll up leaf and place stem side down in the slow cooker. If needed, re-steam inner leaves of cabbage. When all stuffing is used or you run out of cabbage, cover rolls with crushed tomatoes and cook on low for 6 hours. If the cabbage on slot continues long enough, I will try the recipe again using vegetarian burger crumbles.