Throw-It-Together Vegetable Soup

Hi Friends.

I'm sorry I've been absent from this blog for well over a month (or two) now. I haven't been posting because I haven't been cooking. We've been really busy, and I've been exceptionally tired after work, so we've been eating out, or eating "staple" meals that I've already described on this blog.

One day, however, I was really in the mood for some soup. So I decided to raid the fridge, freezer and pantry to concoct something sans recipe.

I hope you all can use this recipe as a foundation, and add or remove ingredients to your liking.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post a little more frequently now that the holidays are just around the corner and I will at least be doing some baking!

Throw-It-Together Vegetable Soup

Serves 6-8 (Or 2 people 3 times. Hah.)

Ingredients:

1/2 medium red onion, diced

1/2 bunch of celery, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 head of a small cabbage, shredded

1 can sweet corn, drained

1 can garbanzo beans, drained

1 can whole tomatoes, chopped and juice reserved

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp Lawry's seasoned pepper (or any coarse ground pepper)

2 Tbs vegetarian bullion

8 cups water

salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a large soup pot over medium heat, saute the onion and celery until translucent. Add the garlic and saute for about 30 seconds (don't let the garlic burn!).

2. Add all of the rest of the ingredients except the salt, and bring to a boil. Cover and turn the heat down to allow the soup to simmer.

3. Simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes, or until celery and onions are very tender. Finally, add salt to taste.

4. Serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top and a whole wheat roll on the side.

Chickpea and Lentil Soup

Ok, so I'm posting this a little prematurely. I haven't actually had an entire bowl of this soup yet--but I have had a little taste. And it. tastes. good. I made the soup for a Middle Eastern-themed dinner I made for a yoga group I attend. There will be soup, pitas and homemade hummus, and a special surprise for dessert!

This is a pretty hearty soup, and I think it would be delicious all year round!

Not exactly sure where I found this recipe, but kudos to the chef!

Chickpea and Lentil Soup

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

2 Tbs Olive or vegetable oil

1/2 onion (I used red), diced

2-3 carrots, cut into thin rounds

2 stalks of celery, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 cup lentils, rinsed and picked over for stones

4 cups vegetable stock (or 4 cups water and vegetable bullion cubes)

1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed

2 tomatoes, diced (or 1 can diced tomatoes with juice)

1 6 oz can tomato paste

1 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Procedure:

1. Saute onion, carrot and celery in olive oil over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and spices and saute for about 5 more minutes. (Careful, don't inhale the pepper!)

2. Add the vegetable stock and the lentils, and bring the soup to a boil.

3. Add the chickpeas and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, covered, for about 1 hour, or until the lentils are fork tender.

4. Add the diced tomatoes and tomato paste and stir thoroughly.

5. Stir in the parsley, and serve with a parsley garnish.

Corn and Black Bean Soup

This recipe is a mish-mash of most of the black bean soup recipes out on the web. I took a few ingredients here, a few there, and put them together into something that I thought Tony and I would enjoy. 

Once you learn the basics of making soup, it's surprisingly easy to throw flavors together to fit your mood. Tonight, I wanted to have a Mexican dish, but without all of the tortillas, re-fried beans and ground beef (yesss...I know that isn't the whole of Mexican food, but that's what I probably would have made otherwise, minus the re-fried beans, yak!).

Try this recipe, or adapt and add on to it as you see fit!

Note: There are a lot of pictures in this post. This is primarily because this time, I was not the photographer! Tony took all of the pictures while I frantically chopped, pureed, stirred and sweated. I was scanning through the photos, and I noticed that I liked almost all of them! So, you get blessed with a bunch of photos for this recipe :). Enjoy!

Corn and Black Bean Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 Tbs vegetable oil

1/2 cup diced onion (or more, if you like lots of onion)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup celery, sliced

1 cup carrots, sliced into discs

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained (or 3/4 bag of dried black beans, soaked overnight and drained)

1 can whole kernel corn, rinsed and drained

1 can light (fat-free), low sodium chicken broth

2 tsp red wine vinegar

Dash (or a little less than 1/4 tsp) liquid smoke

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

Dash of cayenne pepper, or a pinch of red pepper flakes for extra heat

1/4 tsp salt

Procedure:

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a soup pot over medium-low heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots.

2. Saute the vegetables for about 10-15 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and the carrots are beginning to be tender.

3. Take about 1 cup of the black beans, mix with 1/2 cup of the chicken broth and puree in a food processor or blender until smooth.

4. Once the sauteed veggies are tender, add the pureed beans, whole beans, corn, spices, vinegar and liquid smoke to the pot.

5. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a simmer (setting 2-3 on my range top). Simmer uncovered for 35 minutes on low heat, until the soup is thick like a stew. I added about 1/4 cup hot water to the soup at 30 minutes so it wasn't too thick.

6. Serve garnished with cheese, if you like. I shredded one of my Babybel Gouda cheese wheels on top and it was delicious! I also served with a side of packaged (Martha White) Mexican cornbread, which went with the soup excellently!

Hearty Lentil Stew

Ok, so I know spring is just around the corner (or already here, for those of us that live in the southwest), but hear me out---this soup is really delicious, no matter if it's frigid and snowy or 75 degrees and sunny. Moreover, this is one of the few recipes without meat my husband will eat (yay!).

I can always tell if he actually likes something I made, because he goes back to get more. If he instead adopts the "No, no, honey, I'm stuffed!" attitude, he really means "Ick. Please don't make that ever again..."

Anyway, this soup is really tasty and inexpensive, and I think you should try it, dag nab it.

Hearty Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

2 celery ribs, chopped
1 small onion (or 1 tsp onion powder if you can't stand onions, like me and the hubcap)
2 small cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs butter or margarine
6 c water
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
3/4 c dry lentils, rinsed
3/4 c pearl barley
2 Tbs chicken bullion granules
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed (use that mortar and pestle!)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

dash of red pepper flakes (if you like it a bit spicy)
1 c sliced carrots
shredded cheese for garnish (I used parmesan, and it complemented the stew really nicely!)

Procedure:

1. In a large soup pot sautee the celery, onions in garlic in the butter until tender--about 5-7 minutes over medium-high heat.

2. Add the water, tomatoes, lentils, barley, bullion, oregano, rosemary and pepper (and the dang kitchen sink), and bring the mixture to a boil, thoroughly mixing.

3. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 40 minutes, or until the lentils and barley are just about tender.

4. Add the carrots, and simmer another 15 minutes, until everything is tender.

This makes about 8-10 servings, so be sure to freeze some for later! Sorinkle a little bit of your favorite cheese on top for some extra flavor!

North African Stew

North African Stew

My Aunt Norma, who is a veggie lover, gave me a really awesome cook book for my birthday, Jump Up and Kiss Me: Spicy Vegetarian Cooking, by Jennifer Trainer Thompson. This is a wonderful book for me because 1) Tony and I love spicy foods and 2) Handling raw meat is nasty. A "limited preview", which seems to me to be the entire dang book, is available on GoogleBooks. I am posting a rendition of the recipe, but, of course, all the credit should really go to the author.

Reagents:

2 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tbs. diced jalapenos (i used a refrigerated canned version)
1 medium yellow onion, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbs. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
3 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup lentils (washed and picked over)
1 medium butternut squash, diced
1 bunch of kale, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

*If you're really daring you could add in some crushed red pepper for extra heat, but this recipe is pretty spicy as it is*

Procedure:

1. Chop and mince the onion and garlic. If you want to use fresh jalapeno chilies, use about 3 and also dice them finely. I ended up having some jalapenos diced in a jar, so I took the lazy route and just measured out about 2 tablespoons.

2. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large stock pot, until the veggies sizzle upon contact. Cook the onions, garlic and jalapenos until tender, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the chili powder and cumin to the pot, allowing them to mix with the chopped veggies for about 1 minute.

4. Add the broth, can of tomatoes and lentils to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the lentils are tender.

5. Meanwhile, chop up the butternut squash. This is actually surprisingly easy, especially if you follow this tutorial from Simply Recipes. Also take this time to wash and chop up the kale.

6. Add in the butternut squash, and simmer on medium-low heat until the squash is tender (about 20-25 minutes). At this point your whole house (or teensy apartment) will smell incredible.

7. As the last step add the kale and allow it to wilt for about 5 minutes in the stock pot. Season the stew with salt and pepper to taste.

This, by far, is now one of my favorite recipes. Tony also enjoyed it (or at least he ate all of it), which I was very happy about. He normally doesn't enjoy going the "vegetarian" route. This stew tastes delicious left over as well, probably because the flavors melded after the stew was ...um...stewing? :)

Enjoy!