In the Kitchen: Walkaway-and-Enjoy Soup

This is another toss-it-in-a-pot "recipe." Because of course such dishes are not recipe-built. It's a bit of a lost art, isn't it, this "toss stuff in a pan and apply heat"? (Or not. Because we do the same thing sans heat, especially in summer, when we call it "salad.")

• package of frozen spinach
• can of navy beans (any white bean, but Roman/pinto would work, too.)
• half can of tomatoes (although once we were eating it, I realized the whole can would have worked fine).
• handful of millet and of bulgar
• half handful of barley and of a quite small pasta (I used the the rice-kernel shaped ones)
• a carton or so of chicken stock or homemade or whatever you've got for stock. Water works just dandy. (Adjust seasonings accordingly.)
• meat. Or not. I found sweet "Italian" chicken sausage in my freezer. But you can skip the meat. This is a whatever dish.

I cooked the sausage (using just a tad bit of olive oil because I let the pan get too hot).

Added the liquid (stock, water, whatever) and scraped up the bits. Tossed in the beans, tomatoes, spinach (mine was frozen because forgot to get from freezer; I just tossed it in).

Located the grains in the drawer. Had a nice selection, so in some of them went. What a lovely way to add good food with zero effort. Seriously!

Added the grains. Heated liquid to just boiling, which took longer than I would have thought. (All that lovely starch!)

No biggie. Walk away. Do something else while it's concocting its magic.

Oh: about an hour later, I remembered that bunch of  parmesan rinds in the freezer and  I tossed one into the pot. No need to thaw. Umami, as we westerners are now calling it. (The American English term is "meaty.")

Pour the wine, etc. Enjoy!