Comforting soup

Today is rainy and grey, although quite warm (by Toronto's January standards at least)... What a difference compared to yesterday's glorious sunny and warm weather!

It is a perfect day for curling up on the couch, watching videos, reading a little, and cooking for the week ahead.

And on a day like today, the mere thought of a nice, warm bowl of soup is comforting in itself.

This weekend also marks the end of the Weekend Cookbook Challenge, so this post is my entry to the challenge (my first blogging challenge).

The soup I made is from Nigella Lawson's How to Eat (one of my favourite cookbook reads), modified slightly.

To make it, you basically soak 2 cups of chick peas in water (if using the quick-soaking method, bring to a boil, let boil for one minute and then let stand for one hour). Drain the chickpeas and rinse them, then put them in a pot with 3 litres of stock, 8 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed, but not chopped, 4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, and 2 or 3 sprigs of rosemary (Nigella recommends that you tie them in cheesecloth).

After this has boiled for one hour or so (when the chick peas are almost tender), add a 28-oz can of tomatoes, puréed, salt to taste (I added herbes salées du bas du fleuve, a blend of leek, parsley, onions, carrots, chives, watercress, chervil and savory preserved in salt), pepper, and about one cup of rice (I used a blend of rices), then simmer for another 30 minutes.

Very easy, very tasty, and oh so comforting!

Also today, inspired by Pascale at C'est moi qui l'ai fait, who made great-looking little sunflower seed buns this week, I decided against letting my bread machine do all the work for me and shaped the dough into little buns instead. What a great idea that was! The only problem is that the sunflower seeds I sprinkled on the breads before baking did not quite stick to the buns and are falling off. I need to find a better "glue".

Suddenly, this rainy Sunday does not seem so bad after all...