Meatlessballs soup

[Guest guest]

Feel better Jeanne. Summer colds are the worst.

Donna

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

 

 

Jeanne B <treazured

 

Sun, 2 Aug 2009 15:33:06

 

Meatlessballs soup

 

 

I feel like bleah. It isn't the flu or mad cow disease, just enough of a summer

cold to feel like bleah yuk ptooie. So I want soup. Seeing as I usually want

soup, that isn't so odd. Some of the ingredients are what I used, some I used

but didn't keep track of how much so your milage may vary.

 

ABOUT TVP. Generally how much liquid you use to reconstitute the TVP depends on

what form you're using. The granules, which I used today, takes less liquid to

reconstitute and will absorb whatever liquid they are cooked in, so I

reconstitued my TVP with about half of the usual liquid. Ordinarily you'll be

using about 1 cup liquid to 1 cup TVP, but be sparing since it is a lot easier

to put more liquid in than take it out. KWIM? Vegetable broth or a mix of

vegetable broth and herbs/spices, whatever adds a plus.

 

Meatlessballs soup

 

4 large carrots, scraped and sliced (from the garden, yay!)

1 large onion, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

1 tablespoon oil

3 tablespoons taco seasoning (Tone's - love the stuff and always keep on hand)

2 1/2 cups (more or less) beefish TVP, reconstituted (I pour a little veggie

stock over, stir and let it sit in the fridge to absorb liquid and get soft)

1 egg

1/2 cup Italian style bread crumbs or stale bread grated

2 tablespoons ketchup

Mixture of V8 vegetable juice and water or vegetable stock to make enough to

cover the veggies and float the meatlessballs. (A quart or so - maybe more)

4 large red potatoes, diced (small enough to fit on the spoon)

Snips of fresh herbs - I took the pot outside with my scissors and snipped

whatever smelled like I wanted it (parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary and a bit of

oregano)

 

Reconstitute granular TVP while getting the soup part done. See note above. 2

1/2 cups will magically grow before your eyes and with the bread crumbs will end

up being about 4 cups.

 

Cook onion and celery in oil until soft. Add potatoes, carrots and herbs. Add

enough V8 and water or vegetable stock to cover the veggies plus a couple of

inches more. Simmer while making the meatless balls.

 

To make the meatlessballs, beat egg, taco seasoning (or whatever floats your

dumplings) and ketchup together. Mix bread crumbs and reconstituted TVP

together. Smush it all together, then smush it with the egg, taco seasoning

(chili powder, whatever you like) and ketchup together.

 

Make small meatlessballs, about a tablespoon of mixture. As I do them, I like to

put them on a jelly roll sheet and put them in the fridge after making. If I'm

having a problem keeping the livestock from stealing the meatlessballs, I drop

them into the boiling soup as they're made.

 

When the balls are done, bring the soup to a boil then drop the balls

in, one at a time. After they're all in, I cover the pot, put the temp

down to simmer and let it cook until the potatoes and carrots are done.

 

After the veggies are soft, adjust seasoning to what you like.  I made a pan of

cornbread to go with it since I didn't feel like making tortillas.

 

V8 works well in this but if you hate it, don't have it, use whatever liquid you

like. I used a lot of it when the kids were growing up since only one of them

would eat tomato that looked like tomato. The rest wouldn't eat until the tomato

was turned into a red slush.

 

Jeanne in GA