Veggie soup

I know it sounds silly but I have to tell you how stressed I was the first time I went to go make veggie soup.
I wanted simple, no frills veggie soup and what I ended up with was a really rough recipe of my MIL's soup.
I was a little phased by words like "use whatever veggies you have on hand" and "add in a little water" so here I am, blogging the version of soup we like to eat. I still don't measure everything so I hope you'll get the idea. Go ahead and make it your own!

Cut all your veggies the same size, I like 1/2 inch dice
2 large carrots
1 bell pepper
1 large onion
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
your favorite spices parsley, red pepper, thyme, basil, oregano
1 can drained corn
28 ounce can of your favorite diced tomatoes
1 can of hearts of palm, sliced
a few handfuls of baby spinach
and for the toddlers in my life 1/4 c. orzo or star pasta

Saute the onions, carrots and bell pepper until beginning to soften
Stir in the squashes and add in your spices and salt and pepper (maybe 1 tsp of the dry spices, 1 tbs of kosher salt and just a little bit of red pepper).
Cook another 2-3 minutes.
Add in the tomatoes, corn, 5 cups of water a 1 tbs of chicken base.
Simmer for 5-15 minutes (depending on how much time you've got really).
Add in torn spinach leaves and hearts of palm, simmer 5 minutes.
Add in the orzo and simmer another 5 minutes.
Serve with crusty bread and parmesan cheese if desired.

Edit 9/4/2012
I had some bulk barley to use up so I added it to this soup.  I cooked 1/2 c. barley with 1 c. water (chicken broth would be good too) in a separate pot and then added it in at the end.  It was great.  I'll be making this version again.

Comments

Popular Posts