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Tomorrow is St. Brigid’s Day, so I wanted to share a post I wrote for our neglected real food liturgical year blog. Included is a simple recipe for a seasonal soup to be paired with bread and honey butter. It’s quick, easy, and as St. Brigid’s Day falls on a Friday this year, vegetarian. Enjoy!
February 1st celebrates the Feast of St. Brigid (c. 451-525), a nun, abbess, and friend of St. Patrick’s in early Christian Ireland. St. Brigid founded the monastery of Kildare where the Book of Kildare, an illuminated Gospel manuscript was created. The art historian in me needs to follow a brief tangent to say that according to 12th century writer, Gerald of Wales, this manuscript was so wondrous that he believed the illuminators were assisted by angels. The Book of Kildare has since been lost but would perhaps have rivaled the Book of Kells in intricacy and beauty.
To celebrate this patron saint of Ireland, I made “St. Brigid’s Oaten Bread” from a recipe I found on the Catholic Cuisine blog. I used 3/4 whole wheat flour and 1/4 spelt flour and it turned out great.
It was so simple to make! We paired the bread with a simple chickpea soup inspired by a recipe in Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette. I made some substitutions, simplified, and added some seasonal veggies we already had.
Here’s my recipe:
2 cups dried chickpeas (soak them the night before)
1 onion, diced
olive oil
10 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth
chopped spinach
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 turnips, diced (you can substitute potatoes if you like, turnips were just ready in our garden)
seasonings: dried thyme, rosemary, oregano, salt, pepper and 1 bay leaf
Directions: Sauté the onion in olive oil then add the other ingredients. Bring to boil then cook for an hour.
Daniel concocted our favorite supplement to a dinner of soup and bread: honey butter. Just add some honey to some softened butter and bam! It makes a simple meal into a treat.
And we used our green dishes to celebrate this Irish saint! Pray for us, St. Brigid!
If you looking for more resources on how to celebrate St. Brigid’s Day, be sure to check out Sarah O’s recent Little Holydays post all about it!
My husband was born and raised in Ireland. He taught us about making “Saint Bride’s Crosses” on St. Brigid’s day. It’s a fun, quick project for the kids. Here are some directions on how to do it : http://catholicicing.com/2012/01/how-to-make-a-st-brigids-cross-with-kids/
We’ll also be making candles on Saturday for Candlemas, so it should be a fun weekend!
Yum! Looks like a good meatless Friday meal too! You settled it for me, that’s what I’ll make tomorrow.
I love Brother Victor-Antoine! I don’t have that book, but if it’s his recipe, I know it will be tasty. We are totally trying it tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion.
Thank you for the link to the Catholic Cuisine page – it’ll come in handy! I made the bread this morning with the honey butter and it is wonderful :). And so filling! I’m impatiently waiting until I’m hungry again to eat more of it