Dressed Up Black Bean Soup and Corn Meal Biscuits

The dawning of warmer temperatures and tulips also brings along the spring soccer season.  Adding multiple evenings a week spent out at the soccer field means that I have even less time to prepare a meal for my hungry, dribbling, shooting soccer stars.  We do not have the ability to drop by a fast food place or pop a pizza in the oven due to food allergies.   But, a little planning and preparation goes a long way.

I like easy and convenient options when I can find them at the store.  One of my favorite things to do is to ‘dress’ up a boxed soup with a can of beans, tomatoes, diced carrots, celery, onion, etc.  

Dressed Up Boxed Black Bean Soup

1 box of black bean soup (I used the Simply Balanced brand available at Target)

1 can of black beans

1 can of diced tomatoes (optional)

2 carrots, diced

2 stalks of celery, chopped

½ onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

Place everything in a crock pot, stir, and race onto to soccer practice. 

Once home, top the soup with shredded cheese, pour in some of your favorite milk for a creamy soup, place in a dollop of plain coconut yogurt, diced avocado, cilantro.  Serve with cheesy tortillas (corn, rice, or flour) heated in your toaster oven.   If you have extra time, try serving the soup with cornmeal biscuits.

Corn Meal Biscuits

¾ cup rice milk (or milk of choice)

1 tablespoon lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar)

1 ½ cups gluten free flour blend (reference breads and baking)

½ cup corn flour, finely ground

¼ teaspoon xanthum or guar gum (omit if your flour mixture contains this ingredient)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

6 tablespoons of butter spread (Earth balance or real butter if you can!)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Combine milk and lemon juice and let it sit for 10 minutes.  This is to ‘sour’ the milk.
2. Combine the ingredients, flour through baking soda.  Cut in the butter spread with the flour mixture using a fork or pastry knife until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
3. Stir in enough of the soured milk so that the dough leaves the side of the bowl and combines into a round ball.  There might be some milk left over-that's okay.   The dough should not be too sticky or too dry, just right.  Turn the dough a few times onto a floured surface.  Roll the dough into a ¾ inch thick circle.  Cut the biscuits using a small cup.  Place biscuits onto a baking sheet.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm!  

I browse food magazines for new recipes that are well suited for my family.   The biscuit recipe came from Delicious Living, May of 2013.  I didn’t need to make any substitutions as the recipe met our allergy needs.