I haven’t had a flu in a long time. It’s the strangest sensation. I have no symptoms of a cold, such as runny nose or cough, and I don’t have a fever. But my entire body feels like it’s been pummeled. My back aches and I’m so lethargic I can barely move. I’ve never slept so much in my life. I equate this to the way I felt after I had my wisdom teeth removed, passed out and exhausted in the bed. Only this time I’m not bleeding all over my pillow, or pumped full of codeine.

Now that I have sufficiently ruined your appetites, perhaps I could bring it back with a comforting bowl of yellow split pea soup? This really cheered me up this afternoon, right before I collapsed back into bed for another two hours of sleep. This is another hit from Mark Bittman, who makes a very valid point about vegetarian split pea soup in his book, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian:

Meat-eaters automatically associate split peas with ham bones, so many vegetarian versions of split pea soup add a smoky taste through smoked chiles like dried chipotle or ancho. Tossing a piece of toasted seaweed into the pot is another way to add a “meaty” dimension. The truth is you don’t need either. Why muddle that distinctive pea flavor?

I couldn’t agree more. Once again, vegetarian food doesn’t have to mimic meat to be delicious. The proof: Bittman’s Yellow Split Pea Soup with Pantry Vegetables. The surprise is in the pumpkin, which dissolves beautifully into the soup, adding an extra dimension of creaminess and subtle sweetness. Apparently, this is the way they do it in the Caribbean.

One of the dishes we made at Rachel Demuth’s “Fast and Delicious” vegetarian cooking course was a spelt Irish soda bread. Before this, I always thought spelt was one of those grains that only gluten-intolerant people would appreciate (which just goes to show how much I knew at the time – spelt contains gluten; it’s a little different from wheat gluten, but it’s gluten all the same).

Gluten aside, it turns out spelt is pretty tasty, even to wheat-fiends like myself. It has a nutty flavor and tastes somewhat sweeter than wheat (at least I think so). Besides, I’ve been looking for alternatives to wheat in my diet – variety is the spice of life, right? The spelt loaf inspired me.

After this revelation, I went home bought a bag of Sharpham Park wholemeal spelt flour and set out to make some bread. There’s a surprising dearth of wholemeal spelt bread recipes out there (plenty of them call for white spelt flour, but few are made with the wholemeal stuff, and my earlier attempt to bake a wholemeal loaf using a white loaf recipe was a miserable failure). I finally found this recipe for wholemeal spelt bread buried deep in Fresh Loaf’s forum. This one’s definitely a keeper.

Word of caution: this is not a fast recipe, but it sure is delicious. This bread involves making an overnight “sponge”, then mixing more flour and yeast with the sponge, then letting the dough rise several times, kneading between rises, then baking, then finally waiting impatiently for the loaf to cool before diving in with a bread. But this is bread baking, after all – a task for the patient and a labor of love. And it was totally worth it.

The resulting spelt bread was light, fluffy and flavorful, both on its own and smeared with a bit of butter (but let’s face it, there aren’t many foods you could ruin with a smear of butter). It was especially good with this evening’s roasted tomato soup (another keeper from Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian). Tomorrow, the spelt bread will make great sandwiches. Sandwich filling: TBD.