September Soup with Whole Wheat Biscuits

Not exactly Fall but not fully Summer, September's vegetables are a mash up of seasons. This soup reflects the fun mix up of flavors available at the farmer's market this time of year. Normally I rely on chicken broth as a base for most of my soups, but here I've harnessed the abundance of fresh corn on the cob and the other soup vegetables to make the broth as you are making the soup - one step and one pot, baby! I usually cut my corn off the cob to make sautéed fresh corn as a side dish for other meals and instead of throwing the cobs away, I put them in a zip lock back in the fridge for just this type of soup. Feel free to add other vegetables to this soup such as green beans or eggplant. I'm always the sucker for the beauty of eggplant but no one in my family will eat them on their own, so I hide them in soup. If you want to just make vegetable broth for other uses, add your vegetable scraps (carrot ends, tomato cores, celery ends, onion tops and skins, etc) to the bag of corn cobs over the course of the week and by the end you should have a decent volume of veg to make broth.

My daughter's egg and dairy allergy has come back and I have to revamp my baking to accommodate. The biscuits I serve with this soup are a simple baking powder biscuit but made with almond milk and vegetable shortening, making it vegan. But you don't have to be vegan to enjoy them. They are just as delicious as biscuits made with butter and milk. Sometimes I will lightly brush the tops of these biscuits with a flavored olive oil as soon as they come out of the oven to turn up the volume. They're delicious as they are but work as a blank canvas for your favorite fruit preserves, cheeses or whatever else suits you. This is a really healthy, seasonal meal and if you can stop yourself from eating more than one biscuit, it may even help keep your waistline in check. The Castle Valley Mill whole wheat I use is local and freshly stone ground and contains a good amount of protein. If you don't have access to this wheat, please use an organic white whole wheat such as King Arthur.

For the Soup:

2 large tomatoes, medium dice

1 large red pepper, diced (or any color available)

1 to 2 frying peppers, sliced in rings, (optional)

1 xlg red onion

Corn from 2 fresh ears plus 4 more cobs

1 large yellow potato, medium dice

1 large red potato, medium dice

3 medium carrots, medium dice or sliced on the bias

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 teaspoons kosher salt

10 cups water

Olive oil for sautéing

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large soup pot saute onions, peppers and corn in olive oil with 1 teaspoon of salt over medium high heat until lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more, add several grinds of freshly ground black pepper to taste and stir. Add the 10 cups of water, all 6 cobs of corn, 1 teaspoon of salt and the rest of the vegetables. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover pot and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste soup and adjust seasonings. Continue to simmer if necessary until vegetables are tender. Remove corn cobs, give the pot a stir and serve.

For the biscuits:

2 cups Castle Valley Mill bolted whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/3 cup cold vegetable shortening

1 cup cold almond milk

Flavored olive oil for brushing (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

In a medium bowl, add first 4 ingredients and stir to combine with a fork. Add cold vegetable shortening and cut in with a pastry blender (or a fork if you don’t have one) until course meal texture is achieved. Slowly pour in the cold almond milk while stirring with the fork until batter is just moistened and blended. Turn dough out onto a heavily floured counter and sprinkle top of dough with a little flour. Flour your hands and very gently pat/shape dough into a circle if you will be using a round cutter or a square if you will be cutting the biscuits into squares. Using a floured rolling pin roll dough to about 1 ½ to 2 inches thick and cut into about 2 inch squares or 2 inch rounds. Do not twist the cutter but push straight down and pull straight up, otherwise you will seal the edges and the biscuits won’t rise properly. Dust off excess four and place biscuits on a baking sheet spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 15 minutes until lightly browned. For extra flavor, brush with flavored olive oil as soon as the biscuits come out of the oven, such as lemon, orange or lime.