Erik’s Challenge, Day 1 and Knot-so-good soup

This morning I had strawberries and coffee. When I got done with a run (it’s been pouring today) I scarfed some Girl Scouts Cookies (tag-a-longs). For lunch, more Girl Scouts Cookies (this time do-si-dos), a cheese sandwich with home made bread, NY cheddar, and mayo, and a raw green pepper stuffed with lettuce, alfafa sprouts, and a spicy tofu spread. Here’s the recipe for the tofu spread, but I didn’t have lecithin granules and I added walnuts, flax meal, and a little balsamic vinegar.

I found the recipe for the tofu spread because I tried to make a soup with Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) yesterday. The Wild Man Steve Brill has a recipe for Knot Soup that calls for the tofu spread, but I ended up using a recipe from Euell Gibbons’ Stalking the Wild Asparagus, which is just a quick boil of the young shoots, then puréed with a little butter, salt, and sugar. The result was unappealing in sight and odor. The taste wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t too great either. Even though I had used shoots that were between 8 inches and 16 inches, there was already considerable amounts of fibrousness remaining. Mixing in the tofu spread and dipping with bread made it more palatable.

I haven’t totally given up on knotweed soup. I am going to try the purée again, but squeeze it through cheesecloth (since it was too viscous to make its way through a metal strainer!). I am also going to try Steve Brill’s recipe, but that requires that I purchase (or make perhaps…) some vegetable stock. And since this is the week of Erik’s challenge, purchasing veggie stock is a big no-no.

Updates: Reports on Day 0/Day 1 for Erik and Kali Mae