I’ve Got all These Vegetables Soup

There are days when it’s raining and you sat in traffic all day and the kids have programs and you’re tired and you just don’t feel like cooking. There are days that are soup days. Fast, easy, vegetable soup days.

If you’re lucky, one of those days might be when the BBQ Rotisserie chickens are on special at your local grocery store (in fact, the store that I mostly shop at, Longos Markets, has them on for $7.99 every Wednesday. Seriously, I can’t cook a chicken for that price.) Personally, I don’t feel at all bad about buying a rotisserie chicken. Ninety four percent of the time, my family gets completely homemade food, or a very sincere replica thereof (I keep a stash of Longos tomato basil and arrabiata sauces in my cupboard, and they pass muster because they have the same four ingredients I would put in my homemade sauce. Also, I don’t make homemade french fries. I don’t have a deep fryer) My family gets so much homemade food that sometimes my youngest will actually BEG for what he calls ‘freezer food’.

So, no, I don’t feel bad about Rotisserie chicken. (My sister, who writes at Urban Moms, no longer does either.)

So, back to last Wednesday, where the weather was crap and one of the kids had been out playing Lacrosse in weird-April-weather freezing rain all day, and the other was hacking with a wicked cough, and in general, it was a day to roll up the rug and crawl into bed. But first, between hot showers and big duvets, those boys had to be fed.

Soup. To go with the chicken. That would be ticket. And also a way to get rid of some of the veggies lurking in my fridge.

Add some of my favourite Sprouted Rice & Quinoa blend from Tru-Roots, and a comforting and extremely healthy dinner could on the table in about 45 minutes, start to finish.

One of the easiest and healthiest things that I make is a pureed vegetable soup. You pretty much cannot go wrong with it-chop up a bunch of vegetables, really whatever you have got in the fridge will do, add water, some seasonings, boil, puree, and voila, you have soup. If I’m putting leeks (much yummier than onions), I sautee them in some melted fat (you can use a combination of 1 tbsp of butter and one tbsp of olive oil, or 2 tbsp of coconut oil-preferably the unscented kind.)

You’ll notice that the seasonings are very simple (salt, pepper, and herbs) as this soup is a place to let the flavour of vegetables SHINE.

Prep time:

10 minutes

Cooking Time:

40 minutes

What you’ll need:

About three large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

About 4/5 ribs of celery, including the foliage, cut into chunks

Add any combination of the following (eg. whatever is starting to go bad in your fridge that is puree-able. I don’t recommend eggplant or bell peppers):

2-43 large leeks, cut about two inches above where the white turns green, slices and then rinsed VERY well in cold water (I actually slice them and then soak in a colander placed in a bowl of cold water.

4 cups of butternut squash, peeled & cut into chunks (I buy it already cut. Also, squash makes the soup really really creamy and smooth.)

1/2 large cauliflower, cut into chunks

3-4 peeled parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks

2 medium turnips, peeled and cut into chunks

Stems of one large bunch of broccoli (don’t you save the stems?), peeled, and cut into chunks, plus the ‘trees’ of 1/2 the bunch

Asparagus, cut into chunks

1 medium Zucchini, cut into chunks

Optional:

1 cup fresh Italian leaf parsley, chopped

1/2 cup fresh dillweed, chopped

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (I added Cilantro this week with a cauliflower/broccoli/squash combo)

Note: I don’t recommend adding greens until the end, if you’re in a kale kinda mood. 

What You’ll Do:

Grab a large dutch oven or soup pot. If you’re using leeks, melt either coconut oil or a combo of butter and oil in the pot. Add your leeks, stirring until they start to glisten and get soft. Dump the rest of the vegetables in your pot. Add water to cover. Add salt and pepper (don’t worry, you can add more later).

I’ve Got all These Vegetable Soup

Bring to the boil, cover, and simmer for about 30-40 minutes, until vegetables are soft. Take the post off the burner (or if you’re gas like me, turn the burner off.) Using an immersion hand blender, puree the soup until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Add your fresh herbs, and stir. If you want to add some chopped cooking greens, go ahead and do that here.

Adjust your seasonings, stir, and let simmer for about 10 more minutes.

Sometimes I add matzo balls or noodles to the soup. You can serve with crusty bread also.

Your next question is what immersion blender do I use? And why don’t I put the soup in a blender to puree. I’ll address the second question first. Because I’m me, and if I tried to pour hot soup in a blender, that would not end well. Also, why would I do that when I can stick something right into the pot.

I use my recently acquired Cuisinart Power Trio (before I had a Braun, but goodbye old friend, hello new amazing one.)

Cuisinart Power Trio Hand Blender

Why is it so great?

• It’s stainless steel and super easy to clean
• I love how it feels in my hand
• It blends and purees like nobody has ever blended before.
• It replaces three other small appliances hat I had (stick immersion blender, mini-chopper, hand mixer)