Homemade Italian Style Vegetable Soup

The sudden arrival of Spring means two things. One, the weather gets warmer so that frolicking outdoors starts to seem more appealing than slaving away in the kitchen.  Two, the farmer’s markets are full of the freshest, cheapest delicious produce. To take full advantage of the best of both situation, I highly suggest that you make this soup!

Now I know that making soup just as it’s finally starting to get warmer out may seem counterintuitive, but I promise, this really is a good idea… This soup is chock full of delicious vegetables to provide you with energy without weighing you down. By making this soup now, you can have it stored away in your freezer for easy, nutritious meals all summer long. My logic is, stock up now so that you don’t have to think about it later!

Homemade broth

This soup makes a veggie-filled accompaniment to any lunch or dinner. Store it in individually-portioned glass jars in your freezer, so that you can take it out the night before and have a delicious, preservative-free soup ready when you want in.

Mishmash of delicious veggies

This is an incredibly flexible soup to which you can add any vegetables, herbs, or spices that you have on hand. Feel free to add beans and pasta to make it more of a traditional Minestrone. Or top the soup with a bit of pesto to give it a French provincial flavor. You can even substitute the basil, oregano, and thyme for some miso paste and siracha sauce to give it a slightly Asian taste.

Delicious and nutritious and ready to go!

Homemade Italian Style Vegetable Soup

Servings: 8

Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

• 4 cups of assorted vegetables in less than pristine condition (onions, carrots, celery, bell peppers, mushrooms, lettuce, leeks, ect)
•  2 bay leaves
• 12 peppercorns
• 3 cloves of garlic, lightly chopped
• 1-2 sprigs of rosemarry or other herbs
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 1-2 leeks, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced or chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 medium zucchini, chopped
• 1 (28-ounce) can of diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups of frozen green beans
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspooon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups coarsely chopped fresh or frozen spinach or kale, defrosted

Directions

1. Dump your assorted vegetables, bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic, and herbs into a large stock pot and fill the pot with enough water to just barely cover the vegetables. With the stove on high, bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. In the mean time chop up and prepare all of your vegetables for the soup itself. Use a strainer to remove the vegetables, and then set the remaining vegetable broth aside. Alternatively, if you don’t have the time, you could skip this step altogether and use boxed or frozen vegetable broth.
2. Using the same stock pot as before, lightly saute your celery, onion, leeks, and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add your carrots and zucchini and continue to lightly saute for another 1-2 minutes.
3. Pour in the tomatoes, green beans, basil, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, and broth (from step one).
4. Allow soup to simmer for 30-45 minutes, then add in the spinach or kale, and allow it to cool for an additional 10 minutes.
5. Ladle into bowls and serve (or freeze). Enjoy!

Gingered Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup…A recipe fix up

A few days ago I posted about how I am trying to reorganize and simplify my life; that means fixing up my blog too. Now that I’ve gotten the hang of this whole blogging thing, I’ve gone through and cleaned up some of my previous posts, added my recipes to my Foodbuzz profile, and reflected on what type of blog posts you all seem to enjoy most.

Soup garnished with greek yogurt, garam masala, and roasted squash seeds

In doing all of this, I came upon one blog post that I was unhappy with: my recipe for Butternut Squash Soup. This soup tasted too much like heath food and not enough like a delicious puree of the season’s bounty. I want my blog to be full of healthy, delicious recipes, not bunches of vegetables that you have to pinch your nose to swallow. I’ve been experimenting in my kitchen with different adaptations and reading various butternut squash soup recipes from around the blogosphere to try to come up with a soup that tasted smooth and luxurious, while still being absolutely guilt-free.

caramelizing aromatics...yum!

By leaving out the celery, increasing the number of carrots, decreasing the amount of liquid, decreasing the amount of spices, increasing the amount of garlic and ginger, and increasing the time for the vegetables to caramelize, I’ve drastically improved my butternut squash soup recipe. Please try out the new and improved version and let me know what you think!

Vegetables simmering

Gingered Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

Softened veggies with broth and spices...Delicious!

Adapted from With Style and Grace and a Sofa in the Kitchen

Soup ready to blend!

Ingredients:

• 1 Tsp olive oil
• 1 Yellow onion
• 3 Cloves garlic
• 1/2 Leek
• 1 Tbs freshly grated ginger
• 1 Medium butternut squash
• 3-4 Carrots
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 Cups vegetable broth (depending on how thick you want your soup)
• 1 Sprig rosemary
• 1/4 Tsp ground cumin
• 1/8 Tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

1.  Slice your onion, garlic, leeks, and set them aside.
2. Peel your carrots and your butternut squash, then cube the squash and slice the carrots, then set them both aside.
3. Heat the oil in a large stock pot over medium for about a minute then add in the onion, garlic, leek, and ginger. Stir the vegetables occasionally for about 5 minutes, or until they begin to turn translucent.
4. Next add in the carrot, butternut squash, salt, and pepper for about 10 minutes, or until they begin to soften. Feel free to add 1 Tbs water if the vegetables start to heat up too quickly.
5. Add the vegetable broth, rosemary, cumin, nutmeg, and cayenne. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the pot, leaving it alone for 30 minutes.
6. Use an immersion blender or transfer the mixture to a blender in batches, and blend until smooth, then enjoy!

Soup!