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.

 

Kale and Vegetable Soup

Right now is the perfect time, to start back on to the blogging. Nothing special about this time, it's just that once you take a break from something it's always difficult to go back. So, right now and I really mean that, hardly 5 minutes back(before I started to write this post) while checking some old photos I saw this photo taken back on August 24th of this year and I decided right now is the right time to blog about it. If I don't do it right now it'll again take months.

 

This soup was not made for blog. But when I made it for the first time back in august and one spoon of it and first thing I said to myself(actually to my family) was that this recipe needs to be shared. It's so tasty, specially with the onset of cold weather it's perfect for any night of the week. Since then I have made few different versions of this but the one I'm gonna share today is the original one. Kale is the star ingredient in this. Kale is one of the super foods, it has lot of good qualities but it's also the food which has lot of residual pesticides, so organic is the way to go for this.

 

Notes :

•  It's not easy to buy everything organic but in my household I have my own list of what to buy organic and what not to. So kale, celery, carrots and corn from this recipe falls under the organic list. I so want to discuss more about organic food here but it has to wait.
• I like to chop veggies, specially kale, very fine for this kinda soup. Pressure cooker method does make veggies very soft but the veggies used in this soup still retain their shape & the reserved sautéed veggie mixture of mushrooms, peas & corn give the final soup a nice texture.
• In case if Kale is tough you can skip using it's stem or chop little extra at the bottom to discard & chop rest of the stem very finely. In my case I'm getting some really young & soft  organic kale in my local grocery store.
• I'm using Pressure cooker but this soup is very easily doable in any regular pot/pan.
• The peas and corn I use are usually very tender, in case if you have tough ones you can also boil them first.

What I Used :

• 1 small bunch of fresh organic kale, chopped(approx. tightly packed 3 cups)
• 2 stems of celery(pref. organic)
• half red onion
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 2 green chilies
• 2 medium size carrots
• one cup chopped mushrooms
• half cup peas (I used frozen)
• half cup corn kernels(I used organic frozen)
• water/chicken stock/ veggie stock around 4 cups
• salt as per taste
• 2 pinches of black pepper
• squirt of tomato ketchup (don't miss this, it add a nice flavor)
• Lemon juice as per taste
• 1 Tbsp. extra virgin oil (divided use)
• few spoons of grated cheese of your choice for garnishing(our new fav. is Jarlsberg)

What I did :

1. Clean and wash all the vegetables. In case of Kale if using fresh bunch, chop around 1 inch stems from the bottom & discard.
2. Finely chop all the veggies, garlic & green chilies.
3. Heat the pressure cooker on med. high and add 1/2  tablespoon of oil and sauté chopped mushrooms in it. Once they start to get little brown add peas & corn. Sprinkle pinch of salt and sauté  for 3-4 minutes, stirring in between.
4. Using a slotted spoon take out half of this mushroom, peas & corn mixture out of the cooker and save it for using it later in the soup.
5. Turn the gas to med. and add rest of the oil to the cooker. Add chopped garlic in the cooker. Let it cook for 30-40 seconds & then add rest of the veggies. stir everything and sauté  for 3-4 minutes.
6. Add salt, black pepper, green chilies and tomato ketchup. Add around 4 cups of water. Close the cooker lid and let it cook.
7. After one whistle turn the gas on slow & keep for another 2-3 minutes. Turn the gas off. Once all the steam escaped then only open the cooker.
8. When ready to serve. Pour soup into the soup bowls, add some lemon juice, mix and  garnish each bowl with tablespoon or so of reserved mixture of mushrooms, peas & corn and top it with some grated cheese. Enjoy it with some hardy toasted bread.