Irish Soda Bread & Sauteed Rosemary Potatoes

Happy Monday! It’s crazy how fast the weekend – our last one living in San Diego – flew by. I had planned on getting a lot of packing done, and while I did make some progress, have tons to do this week for our move up to northern California. I wanted to enjoy my last weekend here, so things like the beach, hiking, and meeting up with my parents’ friends who are in town took up a lot of my time. But I had a lot of fun this weekend, and think it was worth the tradeoff for my probable hours of midnight bubble wrapping this week. I’m not too worried though – it’ll get done at some point, right? 😉

With all of the busyness going on, I totally forgot to check out St. Paddy’s Day parades going on in San Diego. Being partly Irish and from New Jersey, it’s a holiday that I grew up celebrating every year. Since we missed out on any nearby festivities this time around, I decided to recognize my Irish roots by making some themed fare: Irish soda bread and potatoes.

While Irish soda breads typically is made with buttermilk, this bread is a healthier version of the traditional recipe. My mom relayed it to me over the phone and I only modified a few things, so I can’t take credit for coming up with it. The trick is to cook the bread for the perfect amount of time – undercook it and the middle will be doughy, overcook it and the bread will brown too much and dry out easily. Sometimes this is hard to master!

Irish Soda Bread

Foodie Loves Fitness

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 55 minutes mins

Servings 16

Calories 150 kcal

Ingredients

  

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• 2 cups whole wheat all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white all-purpose flour
• 2 TBSP plus 1 TSP sugar
• 2 TSP baking soda
• 1 1/2 TSP salt
• 1/4 cup [light] butter
• 2/3 cup raisins I used golden
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1 cup milk

Instructions

 

• First, you'll need to plump the raisins. Do so by placing raisins in a bowl of warm water, then letting them sit for awhile. I left mine for 2 hours before proceeding to the next step.
• Mix flours, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
• Cut the butter into the flour mixture, cutting until the butter pieces are very small and mixed in with the flour.
• Add in the raisins.
• In a small bowl, mix the white vinegar and milk, and let it sit until it curdles.
• Add half of the vinegar mixture to the flour mixture, then use an electric mixer to blend it quickly.
• Add the rest of the vinegar mixture and quickly blend again with the mixer just until combined.
• Place dough on a floured surface. With flour dusted hands, lightly knead the bread about 10x.
• Shape the dough into a loaf. Place onto a greased baking sheet.
• Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Check on bread, and if the center is too doughy, bake for 5-10 minutes longer.
• Let the bread cool on a wire rack, then cut into 16 slices.

Notes

Make sure to pay close attention to the bread if you're baking it over half an hour. There's a fine line between undercooking and overcooking it!

Nutrition

Calories: 150kcalCarbohydrates: 30gProtein: 4gFat: 1gSugar: 8g

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

I also whipped up sauteed rosemary potatoes. I don’t think this recipe is particularly Irish, but it still seemed to stick with my St. Paddy’s Day theme:

I found this recipe in my Essential Vegetarian cookbook. It was easy, only required a few ingredients, and came out flavorful and tasty. I’m definitely keeping this one in mind for the next time I’m looking for a starchy vegetable side.

I’m off to meet up with my friend Jackie for dinner. She just got back from New Zealand and I’m dying to hear all about her trip & what it’s like there. I’m pretty sure that New Zealand is on my list of places to travel to one day! Good night!