Swiss chard, Feta, and Herb soup with Garlic Parmesan Beer Bread!

I had been wanting to try making beer bread for a while, and when I cam across this lovely healthy recipe for swiss chard, feta and herb Soup on BonAppetit.com, I thought, what better bread to pair it with? Beer bread is incredibly simple, it's basically:

3 C flour

1 tbs. baking powder (unless you're using self-rising flour)

1 tsp. salt

~2 tsp. sugar

12 oz beer

I had a 16 oz. can of beer (yes, I used Coors, I'm a poor college student) so I had to measure out half a cup (4 oz) to omit before pouring the remainder on the can in the batter.

I know I look so scientific! I gave Mark the 4 oz of beer to finish, as I was drinking wine...

I looked at many beer bread recipes, all variations of the basic one listed above, and ended up adopting the approach of using 1/4 C (I added an extra 1/8 C) melted butter, separated to pour in the pan before adding the dough and on the dough once it is in the pan.

Because I wanted garlic parmesan, I sauteed some minced garlic in said butter, and mixed more in the dough, along with ~2/3 C parmesan. I threw some parmesan on top of the bread too, about 20 min. before I took it out. Because I was using a bundt cake pan (I had to improvise!!) I wasn't exactly sure of the baking time. It ended up being about 55 min at 350 degrees.

Now, on to the soup! I really wish herbs came pre-stemmed in the grocery store...

After that was done, I sauteed 1 chopped onion and a few cloves garlic in the pan I used for the garlic butter for the beer bread until they were tender. I then added

3.5 cups veggie broth

~12 chopped asparagus

1 whole bunch of swiss red chard

~1/2 cups parsley

~1/3 cups cilantro

some fresh mint

...and simmered that for about 15 minutes, until the greens were nice and soft.

Mark is somewhat of an immersion blender fiend, so I granted him the pleasure...

Once the consistency was smooth, we added 1/2 cup plain greek nonfat yogurt (Fagé) and ~1/2 cup feta. Also nutmeg.

Pulled the bundt beer bread out of the oven,

Flipped it over..

And prepared ourselves for a romantic feast (garnished the soup with yogurt, feta and herbs...)

Really though, we blew out those candles after we finished taking pictures and watched Lost on my laptop while we ate soup-doused beer bread... drinking Bud Light Platinum 3.5% (him), which we accidentally bought at the grocery store (they can't sell the 6% version) and cheap pinot noir (me) that I had bought for the bleu cheese biscuit with pinot noir infused butter recipe I am saving for Friday.

I honestly didn't know if I would like pinot noir, but like pinot grigio, (they can't be that different, right? doesn't pinot indicate how it is made and the noir/grigio just indicate the color of the grape?) and love merlot and was secretly hoping it wold taste just like it. Turns out, I loved it. Not too different from merlot or pinot grigio--it's almost like their lovechild. Wine snobs, don't hate me for saying that. I am but an amateur. Everyone else, don't worry, I still have a cup and a half of it to make infused butter.

Soup verdict? Good! Pretty mild, considering it's basically all nutrient packed veggies you'd expect to be bitter. Good dip for bread. Could use some extra salt/nutmeg/maybe even spicy.

As for the beer bread, the parmesan-y top (well, bottom) crust was the best. Didn't taste the Coors at all, (no surprise) and is fairly dense (also no surprise as it didn't rise before baking.) Pretty darn good though! Again, for dipping. They were like a match made in heaven. Next time I would try a more distinguished beer.