Soup's On!

I got a little soup crazy this weekend! With colder weather heading our way, I thought that soup would make the perfect "go to" meal! I rolled up my sleeves and spent about a day cooking two batches of veggie broth and seven batches of soup! 

Bowtie Veggie Soup; Corn Chowder with Lima Beans; Chipotle Black Bean Soup

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Last year I had also pre-packaged a bunch of soup, but I made two mistakes:

1. I made only one kind of soup at a time

2. I stored it in large containers

This meant that whenever we wanted soup we had to commit to eating that same soup for a whole week straight!

This year I invested some extra time to improve my set-up: I made four different kinds of soup and put them in small-medium sized containers. Now whenever we want a quick, hot meal we can heat up exactly what we're wanting for that meal. I'm excited because this will be perfect for the winter weather and will be a lot healthier than store-bought soups or freezer meals--not to mention how much better homemade soups taste!

Here's what I did:

First I made the broth. Fresh, homemade broth sounds intimidating, but is actually SUPER easy to make! You basically heat a couple of Tablespoons of olive oil in a giant pot and then add onion, garlic, and a bunch of chopped veggies (celery, carrots, potatoes, etc.)...

After they've cooked in the oil for about 5 min., add some parsley, peppercorns, bay leaves (make sure to remove these at the end), 12-15 cups of water, and salt to taste. Something I love about homemade veggie broth is that it has no preservatives and it has a ton less salt than pre-packaged broth! I don't even add salt and it's still flavorful and delicious!

Next, bring the broth to a boil and let it cook uncovered over a med-low heat for about an hour or so. It'll look kind of like dishwater, but don't worry, it'll taste delicious! Yields about 10-12 cups of broth!

TIPS: Squash the veggies in a strainer to get the juice from them. 

After I've strained the broth, I set aside the carrots and potatoes to add them to some soups.

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While the broth is cooking, I chop the veggies for my soups and put them into various bowls so that they'll be ready to go when the broth has finished cooking.

I made four kinds of soup and doubled three of the batches. This took about 2.5-3 batches of broth. If I had any leftover broth I would have pre-measured and froze it. TIP: Be sure to double and triple check that you have everything you need for your soups before embarking on this soupy endeavor!

The soups I made:

- Corn Chowder with Limas (double batch)

- Bowtie Veggie (double batch)

- Creamy Tortilla (single batch, but I would have doubled it if I had more broth, containers, and freezer space)

- Chipotle Black Bean (double batch, but I should have tripled it! YUM!)

I'm not going to include the recipes because I got them all from the same cookbook, but I will give you the name of the cookbook: Quick-Fix Vegetarian, by: Robin Robertson. I highly recommend it because it contains a lot of awesome recipes!  I'll also tell you what I did for each that was different than the recipes in the cookbook:

- Tortilla Soup: I used cilantro in place of parsley, and I added extra avocado. I also added black beans and corn to give it some texture and to make it a Tex-Mex kind of soup. It was delicious! My husband commented on how he liked that it had beans and corn in it instead of being just a creamy broth with tortilla strips.

TIP: Leftover toasted tortilla strips get kind of stale, so I recommend toasting fresh ones while you reheat the leftovers.

- Corn Chowder with Limas: I used unsweetened almond milk in place of the soy milk. I added extra potatoes too! Potatoes give the soup a thick and smooth texture when added to the food processor/blender.  I pureed a little more than the recommended 2 cups to get the texture I wanted. I also ditched out on the pimentos (yuck!) and added a little cayenne pepper for some kick. It was delicious!

Before stirring in the cayenne pepper

- Chipotle Black Bean: I added extra carrots and a can of green beans. I also added extra chiles, some cilantro and lime, and some potatoes. I like to add potatoes because it thickens the soup nicely when blended. The finished product ends up more like a vegetarian chili than a soup! In fact, my husband has notified me that he's officially going to refer to it as chili instead of soup! It's one of our favorites! We eat it with sharp cheddar sprinkled on top, a dollop of sour cream, and either tortilla chips or crackers! Yum!

TIP: Chipotle chiles in adobo sauce aren't very spicy but they can be pretty strong, so be careful when adding them. 

- Bowtie Soup: I added a bunch of veggies, such as carrots, potatoes, green beans, etc.! It ends up being more of a stew than a soup! This one is my favorite! I eat it with either fresh bread or crackers. You can never go wrong with fresh soup and bread!

TIP: Be careful that you're aware of how many red pepper flakes you're adding to the soup! It can get spicy pretty quick, and the red pepper flakes continue adding heat--even after the soup is done cooking!

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TIP: These are all vegetarian recipes, and are delicious as veggie soups, but if you feel the need you can always add meat to yours.

The cookbook where I got these recipes is called, Quick-Fix Vegetarian, by: Robin Robertson; ISBN-13: 978-0740763748 I highly recommend it! There are SO many great recipes in it--not just soup and broth, but hummus and other amazing snacks and dishes! And they're all quick and easy to make!


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Still to come:

- Thanksgiving!!! I'm in charge of making several signature dishes and family recipes this year! I'll also be making the turkey for my first time! Tune in for some great recipes, photos, and laughs!

- Homemade Pizza! The weekend following Thanksgiving weekend is when I'll be making pizza with my friends! It's going to be amazing! It'll be well worth the anticipation!

- Requests??? On the left side of my site you'll see a survey where you can vote for the types of recipes you'd like to see more of! I want to post what you want to read, so please take a moment to vote!