Irish Soda Bread, and Something Green...

This Irish soda bread is adapted from SkinnyTaste.com. It’s not too sweet, rustic and perfect warm, with a slab of butter.

The "something green" is Everything Green Soup. This comes from Goop.com, and although it’s described as a detox soup, that’s only because it is super, duper healthy. I promise, it’s also super, duper delicious!

Irish Soda Bread (Adapted from Skinnytaste.com)

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups of whole wheat flour

1 ½ tsp. of baking soda

1 tsp. of salt

2 tbsp. of sugar

1 ½ cups of low-fat buttermilk

1/3 cup of currants or raisins

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the first 5 dry ingredients together with a whisk.

Add the buttermilk and stir with a wooden spoon until a soft, shaggy dough is formed.

Stir in the currants or raisins.

Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for just a minute, until the dough is smooth. Shape the dough into a rounded, slightly flattened mound, and place it on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

With a sharp knife, mark an X, about a ½ inch deep, into the top of the dough. Bake for about 35 minutes, until golden. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted into the top comes out dry and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it.

Everything Green Soup (from Goop.com)

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large leek, cleaned and chopped (white and light green parts)

2 stalks of celery, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, smashed (with the blunt edge of a knife)

1 bunch of curly kale, loosely torn (by bunch, I mean the amount that is typically sold in the grocery store)

1 bunch of green Swiss chard, loosely torn, I did not use the stems, but if you chop them finely, you certainly can.

½ lb. of broccoli, florets and stalks, chopped

6 cups of low sodium vegetable broth

Optional: 1 tbsp. of nutritional yeast (this is a healthy, granular cheese substitute, similar to parmesan cheese in flavor. It’s recommended as a non-dairy flavoring. I added it and loved it!)

Heat 2 tbsps. of olive oil in a large soup pan. Add the onion, leek and celery, and sauté until soft but not brown. Add the garlic and cook for another few minutes. Add the broccoli and the broth and increase the heat to a nice simmer. Here I add a tsp of salt and a few grinds of pepper. When the broccoli is fork tender, add the kale and the Swiss chard and cook on low heat until thoroughly wilted, about 5-10 minutes. Take off the heat and stir in the nutritional yeast, if you are using it. Puree the soup in batches, using a blender, or you can use an immersion blender, if you have one. Season to taste and serve hot (with the Irish soda bread, of course!)