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The cooler weather this week had me craving warmth. I’ve enjoyed different variations of this soup from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian recipe book by Mark Bittman. I doubled the recipe to have more to enjoy throughout the week. Don’t feel the need to follow the exact recipe. If you have other “hard” or “soft” vegetables, feel free to throw them in and leave out what you may not have on hand. Makes 4 servings, 45-60 minutes.
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 carrot or parsnip, chopped
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- Salt & Pepper
- about 1 1/2 cups chopped hard vegetables like potatoes, winter squash, rutabaga or turnips, in smaller than 1/2 inch dice
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 1 cup chopped tomatoes (canned are fine; include the juice)
- 6 cups any vegetable stock, water or other stock
- About 1 1/2 cups soft vegetables like green beans, cut into pieces, drained cooked, canned or frozen shell beans; diced zucchini or summer squash; or chopped fennel bulb
- 1/2 pound dark, leafy greens like kale, collards or spinach, stems cut out and leaves cut into thin ribbons.
- Put the oil in a large pot over medium heat. When hot, add onion, carrot & celery. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, stirring until vegetables begin to soften, about 3-5 minutes.
- Add hard vegetables and garlic and cook, stirring, for a minute or 2 before adding the tomatoes. Raise heat so mixture sizzles. Continue stirring until tomatoes darken and begin to become dry. Add stock and bring to boil, and adjust heat so soup bubbles gently. Cook, stirring every now and then, until the hard vegetables are fairly soft and the tomatoes have broken up, 10-15 minutes.
- Add soft vegetables and adjust heat so the mixture bubbles enthusiastically. Let them have a 2 minute head start before adding the greens. Cook, still stirring occasionally until all the vegetables are quite tender, a final 10-15 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning, and serve, drizzling olive oil.
Enjoy!
