Few things are more relaxing than making bread and soup (when it works). And this worked:
[Getting the raw ingredients chopped, some red onions, shallots, celery and lots of carrots with some beans, canned, and dried inside a soup mix of pasta and split peas]
I got a dry mix of minestrone and followed the package instruction for fresh ingredients.
[After some serious time, simmering the rest is next.]
[Kneading bread dough. It was riffed off a bread bun recipe so was a little sweet. That was offset because the primarily unbleached all purpose flour had mixed in a bit of quinoa flour (which tends to be bitter), wheat germ with oatmeal thrown in as well.]
[Floury toes are part of the sensual process.]
[For a stuffing I used what was at hand — in this case some chopped fresh spinach, 4% fat Allegro cheese, grated some curried cauliflower with some hot pepper flakes for bite]
[Somehow the idea of a simple loaf idea got enlarged into one that is stuffed and braided.]
[Baked braided bread topped with a little olive oil and parmesan to promote color.]
[The final plated combo with the stripes of cheese and spinach and spiced veggie.]
