A New Week, A New Soup & Salad (Meatless Monday)

Weekend trips to the Farmers Market prompted the desire to use my fresh stock of local produce.  There's not a better day to do that than Monday (Meatless Monday, that is!) I pulled local pinto beans, barley and canned tomatoes from the shelf to make the soup.

Vegetable Barley Soup

(Serves 5)

Saute vegetables in buttery spread for 5 minutes.
1/4 cup celery, diced
1/4 cup carrots, diced
1/4 cup onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 cups fresh kale, spine removed and chopped
1 tablespoon Earth Balance Buttery Spread

Add broth, beans and barley.
2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup pinto beans, dry
1/2 cup barley
Cook until beans and barley are soft.  (Mine took 1 1/2 hours in a counter-top pressure cooker).

Add tomatoes. parsley and more water.  Cook 15-30 minutes more.
1 cup diced tomatoes, canned without salt
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
1/2-1 cup water

The soup was for dinner, the salad for lunch.

Fresh Asian greens, colorful radishes and carrots and garlic scapes from the Farmers Market prompted the large salad for lunch.  I added other bits of vegetables from my produce bin to the chopped topping.  (fennel, cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash).  The dressing gets thicker as it sets.  I made mine in the morning and refrigerated to eat for lunch.  So this was a spoon-able dressing, but so good.

Strawberry Chia Dressing

(Serves 3)

Blend berries, vinegar, oil, juice and pepper.  Add more orange juice if mixture is too thick.
1/2 cup strawberries, quartered
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon honey
Fresh ground pepper

Stir in chia seeds.
1 tablespoon chia seeds

My salad is topped with Hemp Seed meal-an added bonus!