Winter Vegetable, Barley & Lentil Soup for Hanukkah

Until recently I had no idea what a Latke Party was. I had just finished creating our Winter Vegetable, Barley & Lentil soup for the Jewish holidays when an invitation, to join friends in lighting their Menorah and to share in a latke dinner to celebrate Hanukkah: The Festival of Lights, serendipitously dropped into my inbox.

Regardless of our creed, there’s a celebratory feel to our food this month. We observe Christmas so being asked to share in a family celebration, and take a real sneak peek into other religious traditions and symbolism with which we are unfamiliar, is special.

I dived into The Essential Book of Jewish Festival Cooking earlier this month to find a holiday recipe suitable for slow cooking. The latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (doughnuts) are traditional offerings fried in oil during Hanukkah, but don’t translate well to the slow cooker. However, the various lentil and barley soups do and help round out a festive feast.

So as the legendary tradition of Hanukkah claims, when the olive oil to keep the golden 7 branched Menorah looked destined to burn out miraculously lasted for another 8 days before the fresh pressed oil made it to the Temple in Jerusalem, the Festival of Lights was born. 

In addition to the soup, I chose a rosemary, olives and olive oil quick bread to make in the slow cooker, perfectly timed to bring as an offering to the party next week. (Both the soup and quick bread freeze well.)

This soup is good. Eat simply by itself or with toasted rosemary olive oil bread croutons. The bread can be cubed into bite size pieces and topped with cream cheese and green onions for an hors d’oeuvre.

Ingredients

1 medium onion, 1 cup, diced
2 carrots, 1 cup, diced
1 small turnip, 1 cup, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp coriander, ground
1 tbsp cumin, ground
1/2 tsp black pepper, ground
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup barley
1/2 cup lentils
1 x 28oz can crushed tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water

Olive tapenade or croutons to garnish

In a skillet, sauté the onion and garlic gently for 2 minutes. Stir in the carrot and turnip before transferring the mixture to your slow cooked.

Stir in the coriander, cumin, pepper and salt, lentils, barley, crushed tomatoes and finally the broth and water. Stir the mixture well and cover. Set to cook on HIGH for 4 hours, or LOW for 8 hours.

Serve with croutons (see below for quickbread recipe) or a spoonful of olive tapenade.

Ingredients

2 cups wholewheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp rosemary, dried
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp grapeseed or vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1 tbsp honey
1 cup olives, green or black, chopped

Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the baking powder, baking soda and rosemary.

In a separate bowl, stir together the olive oil, grapeseed oil, yoghurt, honey and chopped olives.

Pour the oil mixture into the bowl with the flour and stir well.

Spray the inside of a 9 x 5 loaf pan with non stick cooking spray. Pour the bread mixture into the loaf pan and set on top of a folded piece of aluminium foil in the bottom of your slow cooker. Set to HIGH and cook for 2 1/2 hours.

Once cooked, remove from the slow cooker and leave to cool before wrapping. Serve sliced, topped with cream cheese and chives or green onions and black pepper. Alternatively cube and toast it to use as croutons.

Zen Moment

“May love and light fill your home and heart at Hanukkah.”

~Author Unknown