Vegetable Soup

The weather in Boston lately has not been very spring-like (well, I guess it has been spring-like for Boston… which is not known for typical spring weather!).  It’s been gray and rainy and damp.  Fun!  I was deciding what to cook for the week and found some soup recipes from an old issue of Martha Stewart Living.  As you may remember, soup is on my “to do” list so I decided to try a vegetable soup, based on what I had purchased at the vegetable store that weekend.

 

This is adapted from the “Autumn Harvest Soup” recipe in the October 2010 issue. 

The most time-consuming part of this was the prep work – first, I chopped up 5 carrots and 4 stalks of celery, then mixed them with minced garlic and basil.

I chopped up 2 sweet potatoes.

And a head of kale.

And some green beans.

Then I pulled out my other ingredients.

I heated 1 tbsp of olive oil in my dutch oven, then added the carrots, celery and garlic.

Once the carrots & celery began to soften, I added sweet potatoes, tomato sauce, water and vegetable broth.

I brought that to a boil, then reduced the heat and simmered for 15 minutes.  Next I added the kale, green beans and cannellini beans and simmered that for 15-20 minutes.

I topped this with some grated parmesan cheese, per Martha’s suggestion, and voila!  I also ate it with some homemade whole wheat bread, which I’ll post about later this week.

This soup was much easier to make then I expected, and it made a lot – I froze several batches for days when I don’t feel like cooking.  This soup is great because it’s not too heavy, but it’s very filling. 

Not to get all preachy, but it was great to eat this soup knowing everything that went into it was fresh.  Unlike some canned varieties, which contain ingredients I can’t even pronounce!  It’s obviously a little more work than heating up a can of soup in the microwave, but it makes several batches and is well worth the extra time (in my humble opinion) J

Vegetable Soup

1tbsp olive oil

5 small carrots, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp basil

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 head kale, chopped

½ LB green beans, chopped into 1-inch pieces

2 cans cannellini beans

¾ cup tomato sauce

4 cups water

4 cups vegetable broth

Grated parmesan cheese (to top it)

·         In a large dutch oven or soup pot, heat the olive oil. 

·         Add the carrots, celery, garlic and basil.  Cook, stirring occasionally, approx 8 minutes, or until vegetables are soft.

·         Add the tomato sauce, vegetable broth, water and sweet potatoes.  Bring to a boil.

·         Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

·         Stir in the kale, green beans and cannellini beans; simmer for 20 minutes.

·         Top with parmesan cheese and enjoy!