Hearty Vegetable Soup Recipe

I served my soup with a slice of bread with mashed avocado & hardboiled
egg! YUM! 

Holy frigid temperatures with a side BRRRRRRRRR! This winter has been cold, but honestly, for me it's just a great excuse to eat more soup! It's really one of my favorite foods to eat in the world. Soup has so much flavor packed into each flavorful bite. These days, I am trying to keep it healthy for me and my little baby bump, so I'm trying to pack in as many vegetables as I can.

So what in the world could be better than a vegetable soup?!?!?!?! It's a classic, and it's packed with lots and lots of great veggies. There are no hard and fast rules to what you can put in this soup, but I am going to offer some great suggestions. You can do more, you can do less. This is up to you.

Also: I enjoy using a variety of veggies both fresh and frozen. Some of them I froze in season myself and others I store bought. Really, I draw no distinction between fresh and frozen vegetables--they are all good to me! I love frozen vegetables because they are available all the year long and that makes me happy. I love fresh because, c'mon, who doesn't?

Ready to make some soup that'll warm your toes? Yes, me too!

Olive oil adn garlic: meet some carrots, celery, and onion! 

I cook these for just a couple of minutes, and then I add.... 

My tomato and vegetable broth. Sorry this picture is out of focus. Deal with it. 

Once that is all boiling, I add my frozen veggies and the cabbage and then reduce the heat and simmer until it's all done. 

I served my soup with a slice of toast topped with mashed avocado and a sliced hard-boiled egg. It was the perfect lunch....in fact I'll be eating it all week. 

Hearty Vegetable Soup 

Time: Just over an hour | Makes 1 big pot | Difficulty: Easy 

You Will Need: 

5 cups (1 quart plus one pint) crushed tomatoes (NOTE: If you like it "less tomatoy, you can use 4 cups)

4 cups vegetable broth 

Glug of olive oil

1 onion, diced 

3 cloves garlic, minced 

2 carrots, sliced 

2 celery stalks, sliced small 

Shredded cabbage (a couple of good handfuls)

Frozen veggies: (I add these by the handful and according to what I have on hand, so rules here!!) shredded zucchini, corn, green beans, cauliflower, and broccoli 

1 bay leaf 

a few dashes cayenne pepper (optional) 

salt and pepper to taste 

Method: 

In a big old soup pot, add your glug of olive oil and allow it to heat over medium high heat. Add your garlic, onion, carrot and celery and cook for 3-5 minutes or until onions are becoming translucent. 

Add your crushed tomatoes. But before you do, let's talk about it: if you like a thicker, heartier vegetable soup, then add five cups of the tomatoes. If you want a more brothy soup, then go for four cups of tomato. The choice is yours and yours alone. 

Add four cups of vegetable broth. I made mine with Better Than Bullion because it packs the most flavor. It's so awesome. But you can use whatever you want. Bring it all to a boil. 

Once it's boiling, add the rest of your ingredients. That's the frozen veggies (and really, the above vegetables are suggestions, feel free to throw in peas, lima beans, or whatever else you have on hand!!), the bay leaf, the cabbage, some cayenne, and salt and pepper. 

Let it come back to a boil and once it does, reduce the heat to simmer and cover. Allow it to simmer away for about an hour. I like to let my soup cool and then refrigerate it overnight. I feel the flavors really have time to mingle and get extra yummy. If you want to serve it right away, knock yourself out! It'll taste great! 

But a word to the wise: remove that bay leaf before serving! Once, as a child, I choked on a bay leaf. It was unpleasant and it scarred me for life. Remove. The. Bay. Leaf. 

And enjoy with a crusty piece of bread!