Soup into Bread

I turned soup into bread. It's not nearly as miraculous or impressive as water into wine, but considering the fact that I'm not the incarnate God of the universe, I'll take it.

You may have noticed that I went a week without posting anything, and these last few days I've been posting up a storm I have not been that ambitious in the kitchen, I can assure you. No, actually I am catching up with posts I meant to write earlier in the week. Sadly, Paul's grandfather died unexpectedly last Friday. This was the grandfather who raised Paul as his own kid, so they were pretty close.  It was a very nice funeral, and the whole family appreciated that Paul was there to help plan it. It was a blessing to be able to visit family, share stories about our beloved patriarch, look at old photos, and commend Grandpa Paul into the hands of Jesus. (And yes, my husband is named for his Grandpa Paul, because it was Grandpa Paul who helped save his life during his emergency birth.) We just got back from our surprise trip to North Dakota on Wednesday night.

The day before we left town, I made two variations of Deborah Madison's recipe for cucumber yogurt soup. I needed to use up some cucumbers, and the chilled, creamy soup looked like it would do the job. In addition to using plenty of cucumbers, the recipe also cleaned me out of yogurt and buttermilk.

With a double batch socked away in the fridge, we sat down to enjoy our refreshing summertime meal. It was awful. The soup was overpoweringly garlicky, and its texture did not recommend it. It was sour, and sharp, and we did't like it at all.

The next morning we got the call about Grandpa. As I had not originally planned to drive 9 hours to North Dakota that day, my fridge was filled with garden and CSA produce and the two batches of cucumber yogurt soup. I had to act fast. As my husband talked to the church elders and made travel arrangements, I worked like crazy to sock away all my beets, beans, tomatoes, corn, broccoli, peppers, squash, and of course, soup. I wasn't about to let an entire carton of yogurt and a jug of buttermilk go down the drain. As I pondered my options, I realized that the soup might bake up very nicely into a savory quick bread. Shoot, what did I have to loose, other than all my buttermilk, yogurt, flour, and farm fresh eggs?! Nothing! A quick Google search turned up the ratio of ingredients in quick bread, and I gave it a go. I also added in my Anaheim Peppers and some cheese, because cheese never hurt anything.

It worked! Not only did the bread turn out beautifully, but I also managed to preserve every last perishable item in the fridge. The only casualties were an ear of corn and two slices of a beet, because I miscalculated how much we would eat for lunch. Winning.

So now you know. Yogurt and Cucumber Soup (pg 209) is much better as a bread than as a soup.

As you can see, something had to be done...

Everything looked so creamy and promising at the start!

I made both the mint version, and the dill version. Neither was good as soup. Both were good as bread.

Our pretty but disappointing taste test

Yogurt soup, transformed, redeemed, hallelujah! My double batch of soup made two full sized loaves of bread.

Since the ratio I followed is not part of Madison's book, and is already public on the internet, I will share it with you in case you want to engage in renegade bread making.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour (any kind you prefer)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt (up to 1 tsp if making a savory bread)
• 2 eggs (or egg replacement)
• 1 cup buttermilk (or other milk or liquid)
• 1/4 cup oil or liquid fat
• additional flavorings (1/2-1 cup of sugar will make it sweet)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly oil a loaf pan or muffin tins and set aside.
2. In a large bowl stir together flour, salt, baking powder, and other dry herbs or spices if using.
3. In another bowl, lightly whisk together the eggs, oil, milk and sugar and other wet ingredients such as extracts if using.
4. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together just until combined.
5. Bake at 350 for about 30-35 minutes (Or an hour if using a regular size loaf pan.) until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle.

The original recipe can be found here

So go forth, and make revolutionary soup breads of your own!

***Disclaimer: All representations of Deborah Madison's recipes on this blog are intentionally incomplete. Do not attempt to copy a recipe from this blog. I have intentionally left out critical steps and ingredients to avoid copyright infringement. All such recipes should only be attempted when referencing the book in which they were originally published.***