Valah here. It has been far too long since I have posted anything, here or anywhere else. In my defense, I was finishing my dissertation and life got crazy. The stress had my head going all sorts of places that were not fit for sharing, so I abstained from writing. But that is now past, my dissertation has been accepted, and I can breathe again!

I have been enjoying cooking soups for the past month or so. My current go-to soup book is Twelve Months of Monastery Soups, which has wonderful recipes that Brother Victor-Antoine has pared down to just a few beautifully simple steps.

Today’s soup does not come from a recipe. Instead, it was inspired by the fact that there were no good leftovers in the fridge for lunch, so I made a soup.

The purplish color comes from using leftover black rice, which will taste great, but makes the broth a bit scary. I also had a bunch of grilled chicken breast strips left over, which I cubed up and put in. As well as the leftover rice and chicken, there are onions, carrots, celery, diced tomatoes (canned), and fresh mushrooms.

I sliced the onions, mushrooms, and celery, and sautéed them in 4 TBSP of butter for 3 minutes to soften them up and start to bring out their flavor. After 3 minutes, I added the sliced carrots and sautéed for another 3 minutes.

I put some chicken bullion into 8 cups of hot water and added that into the soup, along with the tomatoes, rice, and chicken. I brought this whole concoction to a boil, then reduced to a simmer and covered to let it cook for an hour.

I baked up a par-baked mini baguette to go along with it (I know, I should have made bread, but I am lazy. I will get around to baking again one of these days).

All in all, a nice, filling lunch.