Table Traditions ♥ Simple Vegetable Soup & Homemade Yeast Biscuits

It's time for another soup and bread post!

Last week, I shared two recipes from my teenage years and today I'm back with two more. The first being Simple Vegetable Soup. This is a recipe that I came up with after playing around with many that I had found online. I basically just combined all our favorite veggies and made a soup out of them. The Italian seasoning is the perfect flavor in this soup and it comes together in no time at all. Just leave it to simmer in the late afternoon and check it every so often to see if it needs more broth or water. This recipe is also special to me because it was the first one I had published in a Gooseberry Patch cookbook several years ago. {{smiles}}

And the second oldie-but-goodie recipe for today are our homemade yeast biscuits. I learned about this recipe when I was probably sixteen or seventeen years old and my mom and I were watching one of our favorite cooking shows. It's a simple way to make biscuits and the secret is to make sure you melt the butter in the pan as the oven preheats and to dip each biscuit's bottom into the melted butter before placing them in the pan. That truly makes for a crispy, yummy biscuit bottom. These are not the traditional, southern-style flaky biscuits, but rather almost a roll-like biscuit. Nonetheless, they are delicious and pair perfectly with my homemade apple butter. (Recipe HERE.)

Happy cooking!

 

Simple Vegetable Soup

Combine all of the following ingredients in a stockpot:

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can kidney beans- drained and rinsed

1 can green beans- drained

1 can corn- drained

1 can diced potatoes- drained

1 small can sliced mushrooms- drained

1 can peas- drained

1 cup frozen lima beans

3 carrots- peeled and diced

1/2 onion- diced

1/2 cup celery- diced

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

4 cups vegetable broth, plus more as needed

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Allow the soup to cook for at least one hour. Stir every so often and check to see if you need to add more vegetable broth. 

Serve and enjoy!

Homemade Yeast Biscuits

In a large mixing bowl, combine the following:

2 1/4 tsp. yeast

5 cups flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

Meanwhile, place 1 stick of butter in a 9x13 inch baking pan. Place in the oven as it preheats to 350*F and allow the butter to melt in the pan.

Coming back to the dry ingredients...whisk together to combine thoroughly. Then cut in 12 Tbsp. cold, cubed butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender until the mixture reaches a crumbly texture. 

Pour in 2 cups buttermilk and stir until just combined. Gently press the dough out with your hand on a lightly floured surface to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into biscuits until you use up all the dough. 

Remove the baking pan from the oven and dip each biscuit in the melted butter before placing it in the pan to bake.

Bake at 350*F for about 15-18 minutes, or until the bottoms are nicely browned and the tops are just beginning to get color on them. 

Serve and enjoy!