Recipe: Veggie Soup

Once in a while I go soup crazy. By that I mean that I start craving soup. I’m  not a soup person. Not in the least bit, but I sometimes have these phases that I go through where I could literally eat soup every day. Now is such a time. So I decided to make a vegetable soup last night. There is one thing you should know about my veggie soup though: it’s actually not that vegetarian, it is a meal all on its own accord and I can only make it to feed at least 10 people, meaning that I only make it when I have people over. I shared last night’s soup with a friend and now am still left with another 8 servings, which I have put into containers and into my freezer. Here’s how I make it.

The first thing you need is a broth or stock, which is the base for your soup. I like to keep my stock all vegetarian. It is usually a stock on a veggie or herbs basis. I know for one thing that my mom’s veggie soup has stock made out of meat which she boils, but I just think that is too much of a hassle and I like to have the option of keeping the soup entirely vegetarian. So what I do is, I take some of this:

All it is, is a bunch of tablets which you can chuck into boiling water. It makes stock instantly! Of course you could make your own stock by boiling veggies, but that takes a while. It is tastier though. In my experience though, your stock just serves as your basis, it’s the other ingredients that give your soup more kick.

Once I have that settled, I go sort of nuts on all the other ingredients. Since my soup is meant to be a meal in itself, I make sure everything is in there, including meat & pasta. These things however are optional and if you don’t feel like adding these things you can just leave them out. In fact, not adding pasta will keep your broth clear. The starch in the pasta will make your soup go murky and not so pretty looking. All the other ingredients are simply a chuck load of veggies. Here’s what yesterday’s soup contained:

– small meat balls (optional) (just take some ground beef, one egg, and some flour, mix and roll little balls)

– whole wheat pasta (optional)

– celery (sticks & leaves)

– leak

– spring onions

– cauliflower

– mushrooms

– yellow bell pepper

Other veggies very suitable for veggie soup:

– carrots

– broccoli

– white or green cabbage

– paksoi

– bean sprouts

– brussels sprouts

– green beans

– other types of bell pepper

In other words, any pretty tough veggie that is suitable for boiling can be put into a veggie soup. You just make a combination of the things you like best at that moment. Chop them up and add them to your soup. Make sure you add things like carrots and sprouts first, as they take longer to cook. Mushrooms & bell pepper usually go last, as they’re softer.

And really, veggie soup is probably the simplest thing to put together. Once you have your stock, all you do is cut your ingredients and slowly add them one by one. Then let it cook for a little while until all the flavors have come together and they are all cooked. Just give it a taste a few times and you’re ready to go! Serve it with bread and butter if you like. Oh and make sure your pan is big enough!

Here’s pictures of yesterday’s soup:

This is what it looked like when we had finished dinner. Most of the liquid is gone. All you do is add some more water and you’re set for another round!

This is the soup when it was ready to be served. Notice how my spoon is sticking up out of it. And no, no one’s holding it. That’s just how many ingredients are in there.