Old Fashioned Veggie Soup
Who doesn't love a steaming bowl of tummy-warming homemade vegetable soup? Chock-full of your favorite veggies, oh-so healthy and best of all it can be ready FAST! This delicious veggie soup makes enough for school and work lunches or serve as an accompaniment to your favorite dinner this week. You can also choose to divide the soup into single portions and freeze for future meals for time-crunched nights.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 4 carrots peeled and chopped
- 3 stalks celery chopped
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 6 small yellow potatoes or any kind, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 14 ounce can reduced-sodium garbanzo, black or kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 14 ounce can tomato puree
- 2 28 ounce cans whole tomatoes, coarsely chopped, with juices (San Marzano’s are extra flavorful)
- 32 ounces all-natural reduced-sodium vegetable broth or homemade broth (or beef or chicken broth which won’t make it vegetarian)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1 ½ teaspoons marjoram
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
- Coarse ground pepper to taste
- 1 1/2 cups frozen peas or lima beans
- 1 1/2 cups corn kernels fresh or frozen
- 1 1/2 cups cut sliced green beans fresh or frozen
Instructions
- In a large stockpot, heat olive oil over medium-high setting until hot. Sauté carrots, celery, onion and potatoes for 5 minutes or until crisp-tender and lightly browned. Note: sautéing the vegetables does enhance the flavor. If short on time, simply skip this step, adding the vegetables to the pot along with next set of ingredients.
- Stir in next set of ingredients. (garbanzo beans through pepper)
- Bring soup mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, uncovered for 40 minutes or until vegetables are almost tender.
- Stir in peas or lima beans, corn and green beans. Continue simmering for 5 minutes. Note: I prefer to add these almost at the end so they don’t overcook. But feel free to add them earlier.
- Taste; adjust seasonings as desired.
Notes
Make Ahead and Storage Tips: soup may be prepared up to 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Reheat over medium-low setting for 5 minutes or until hot. Soup may be frozen for up to 4 months.
Cooks beautifully in the crockpot! Add sautéed vegetables and remaining ingredients (except peas, corn and green beans to crockpot. Cook on High setting for 1 hour. Cook on Low setting for about 5 hours. (or Low setting for 6 to 7 hours) About 30 minutes before serving, stir in peas, corn and green beans. Taste; adjust seasonings as desired.
If a thicker soup is desired: carefully puree up to 1/2 of the soup using a hand-held blender, food processor or standard blender. Add pureed soup back to the pot, stirring to combine.
For a heartier soup: add a 2nd can of beans or omit the beans when adding the vegetables. Instead, add a pound of cooked cut-up chicken turkey or beef (or cooked lean ground beef or turkey) during the last 15 minutes of cooking.
Get "personal” with your soup! Swap out any of the spices listed with favorite flavors such as cumin chili powder. For extra “green power,” stir in 2 cups fresh organic spinach during the last 5 minutes of cooking. (or add a handful when reheating individual servings)
Go veggie crazy! Using this recipe as a template, have a blast using any and all of your favorite vegetables…no two pots need to be the same! Delicious additions would be parsnips, sweet potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, edamame, cauliflower, broccoli, snow peas, sugar snaps…the possibilities are endless! Not to mention this soup is extremely frugal! Got little bits of “this and that” to use up? In they go!
Other delicious soups to try: Crockpot Lentil, Quinoa 'n Vegetable Soup, Crockpot Butternut Squash ‘n Apple Bisque and Turkey-Vegetable-Barley Soup.
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