Quick and Simple Vegetable Soup

What do U do next  after baking a big batch of smelling so good kinda  and of course so yummy bread sticks ? You make a soup for the dinner. I know it doesn't look very tempting but taste wise it's not a compromise. Simple enough to put together in just a few minutes, let it simmer for little bit and it's ready.

It also happened to be the day when I was running out of  my fresh groceries. I did had enough carrots,celery & garlic to make a base for this soup. I used up whatever I had on hand but one can easily change the vegetables as per their taste & convenience. Use olive oil & vegetable stock and it's a perfect vegan soup.

What I used :

• three stems of celery
• two carrots
• one small turnip
• 3-4 radishes
• 1 cup chopped asparagus stems/bottoms *(see notes)
• few cloves of garlic(I used 6)
• small floret of broccoli ( I added it because I had to use it, usually I don't put broccoli floret in the soup)
• 1 Tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil/ butter
• salt (as per your taste)
• black pepper (as per your taste)
• 2 tsp. of any kind of hot sauce
• 2 big squirts of tomato ketchup
• 1 Tbsp. of white vinegar
• 4-5 cups of vegetable/chicken stock

* Notes : cut the coarse woody ends of the asparagus stalk. Technique here is, hold the bottom end of the stalk with one hand & with the other hand hold the center part of it & now try to break it, where it breaks taking that as guideline cut the bottom from all the stalk usually around 2-3 inches from the bottom. For the soup we are only using bottoms, so peel them because skin of those hard part of the stalk  doesn't get soft even after cooking.

 

What I did :

1. Chop all the vegetables into small cubes, try to keep them equal size.
2. Chop the garlic.
3. Heat oil/butter in a pot.
4. Add garlic, sauté it for 30-40 seconds. Add all the chopped vegetables, sauté them till they get soft around 7-8 minutes.
5. Add salt, black pepper, hot sauce and ketchup, stir.
6. Add chicken/vegetable stock. Once it reaches boiling stage turn the heat to low & let it simmer for 15-20 minutes.
7. Once it's almost ready. add vinegar mix it up & turn the heat off.

Soup is ready to be served with sun dried tomatoes & cheddar cheese breadsticks. To turn it into complete meal on a cold day(which this year seems to be never ending) I pan fried some chicken sausages, oven roasted some asparagus and sweet potatoes.