Got Box Leftovers? Easy Vegetable Soup Recipe

 

Today is Wednesday – my Space Girl Organics produce delivery day and consequently one of my favorite days of the week!

On Wednesday mornings, I usually clean out my fridge in preparation for my new box of organic delights.  I get a large box, so depending on what our week was like, I occasionally have some fruits and veggies leftover.  On those occasions, we have veggie soup and fruit salad for dinner.  Both are great ways to use up any extras hanging around.  This past week was particularly busy for us and I didn’t get to cook a lot. I had celery, sweet potato and zucchini leftover.  However, I was able to use it up by making a great vegetable soup for us.

I LOVE making soup from scratch.  It is healthy, easy and economical – what more could you ask for!

Basic Vegetable Soup Recipe

You can make wonderful vegetable soup from any vegetables using this method.  You can modify this recipe based on what you have on hand.

Ingredients:

(1) Olive oil (or any other oil or fat)

(2) Aromatics (such as onion, garlic, celery, carrot)

(3) Diced mixed veggies (you can also add rice or small pasta towards the middle of cooking the soup)

(4) Broth

Leftover cooked meat from last nights dinner?  You can dice that and add it in also towards the end of cooking (optional)

Directions:

(1) Saute your onion and/or garlic in the heated oil until soft (do not brown).

(2) Add any other aromatics and saute several minutes.  Add any additional diced veggies and saute another few minutes.  I usually add a bit of salt in with the diced veggies to help them cook.

(3) Add enough broth to cover the vegetables (I prefer making broth with organic Better Than Bouillon beef base and water).  Add in any herbs you desire such as rosemary and thyme.

(4) Cook over a low boil until the vegetables are tender.  If desired, you can cook rice or pasta for the soup separately or add it in towards the middle of cooking the soup.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To create some different textures and flavor, I like to mash some of the cooked veggies in the soup with a potato masher and finish the soup by stirring in some parmesan cheese. Any leftovers can be frozen

Originally posted on christineiscooking.com