Fall is all about warm things. Foods that help your blood slow and thicken in preparation for the long winter. Unfortunately, a lot of the time these slowing foods take time and preparation to make! This week Sara’s Table offers us a warming “throw it all in” vegetable soup that you can usually put together with the random things you have in your kitchen. Even if it has been weeks since you stepped in a grocery store.
Throw It All In Vegetable Soup
- 2-3 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1 Onion, diced
- 2 Celery stalks, chopped
- 2 Carrots, chopped
- 2 small potatoes (Yukon gold or Red potatoes are my favorite), chopped into bite sized pieces
- 2 zucchini, halved and chopped
- 1 quart of chicken stock (if you want to make this truly vegetarian you can use vegetable stock)
- 1 pint of whole canned tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
- 1 can of white beans
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Directions,
Over medium heat, pour in the olive oil and the onions, letting the onions cook for 2-3 minutes until soften a little bit. Add the celery, carrots, potatoes, and let cook for another 5-10 minutes. Add zucchini, chicken stock, tomatoes, bay leaf, and thyme. If needed because the broth is too thick, add water. Simmer for 25-30 minutes, or until all of the vegetables are soften. Add the beans. Salt and pepper to taste.
This is the basic version
of my vegetable soup, but as the name conveys, you can do almost anything with a base like this. Sometimes I don’t have beans on hand, but I have barley. When that is the case, I add dried barley in with the hard vegetables. Sometimes I don’t have zucchini, but I do have green beans. When that’s the case I use those instead! There is almost no way to get this soup wrong.
I especially like to serve it with large croutons made from day or two-day old bread. To do this, I turn the broiler on, butter or douse the bread in olive oil, rub it with fresh garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper and then send it into the oven. You’ll have to keep a watch on it so it doesn’t burn. But, after about 3-5 minutes, or when its brown on the top side, you’ll turn the pieces over and repeat on the other side. When both sides are brown, the croutons are ready. Take out of the oven and let cool and crisp.
I also like to serve this soup with grated Parmesan on top. It brings a richness to the soup. Parmesan is something I almost always have on hand, and it just brings this soup to another level.
