Fresh Spring Soup

Hello, hello, hello!  My apologies on the break at last posting.  Summertime with the Blessings is quite busy.  I actually made this soup in the heart of spring, but I finally found a moment to post it.  Also, a warning, my middle Blessing seems to have spilled a fruit drink on my keyboard, and so until further notice I cannot depress the letter that is between "i" and "k" in the alphabet.  Luckily, none of the ingredients involve that letter. Also my mouse sticks to the desk now and seems quite "uncleanable."  But, we must carry on!

This is one of those cupboard dishes that almost always turn out great.  I loved the finished product; it was delicious and used up so much of the awesome seasonal produce that I picked up at the Farmer's market.  Give it a try in about ten months!  :-)  Ha ha, only kidding, you can have it now.

Fresh Spring Soup

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. canola oil
1 red onion, chopped
2 cups chopped cauliflower
2 cups chopped Brussels sprouts
1 corn on the cob, kernels sliced off (it's even good if they come off in chunks!)
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. salt
2 cups favorite spaghetti sauce (I used some in a glass cylindrical containers, er, storebought)
1 cup leftover rice
Water to cover
 1/4 cup mint leaves
1 cup chopped parsley

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the onion, and cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and corn.  Cook for another ten minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the pepper, salt, spaghetti sauce, rice and water, and cook for another twenty minutes.  Add the mint and parsley.  Stir well, and it's ready to serve.  So tasty!  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Savory Yellow Split Pea and Cauliflower Soup

Tis the season for soup, and this is a good one.  There are some uncommon partners in this soup, but they really work well together.  I like the combo of cauliflower and tomatoes and have been experimenting more and more with those these days.  You'll see another recipe coming up very soon with those two together again.  Also, the Napa cabbage is a nice contrast and mixes textures.  This will warm your tummy for sure.

Savory Yellow Split Pea and Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:

1 pound dried yellow split peas
Water to cover
1 - 32oz. box Imagine No-Chicken Broth
2-3 cups of Napa cabbage, chopped
5 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 small head cauliflower, chopped
1 - 29oz. can diced tomatoes
1 - 15oz. can tomato sauce
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Sort the peas for grit and place in a large pot.  Add enough water to cover the peas a couple of inches, and cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes.  Add water during cooking time, if it's getting too close to the level of the peas.  Add the remaining ingredients and cook for another fifteen minutes.  So easy but good.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Warming White Bean and Kale Soup

Here is a classic soup with my own twist on it.  For the kale, I used kale that was left over from the previous night's dinner, but you can certainly use fresh kale.  Also, I normally use fresh mushrooms, but I bought several cans worth at a discount store, so I put a can in; again, you can use fresh if you have them.  This hit the spot for me, and I hope it does for you too.

Warming White Bean and Kale Soup

Ingredients:

1 pound white beans
Water to cover
2 russet potatoes, chopped
1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained, maybe six ounces?
1 pkg. SmartBacon, chopped
2 cups cooked kale, or 4 cups fresh, chopped
1 tsp. dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Sort the beans for grit and place in a large pot with water about three inches above the beans.  Cook on medium heat for two hours, adding water as needed, to keep the level at least two inches above the beans.  Stir occasionally.  Add the potatoes and cook for another fifteen minutes over medium heat.  Add the rest of the ingredients, and turn down the heat to medium low.  Cook for another fifteen minutes.  Hits the spot on a cold day. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Fiesta Lentil - Pea Soup

I made a soup the other night that used up some food in the pantry, cupboard and freezer, that might not otherwise ever had the chance to meet, were it not for: What's-Mother-Going-To-Make-For-Dinner-Tonight?  Low on practically anything fresh, I began scouring haphazard flavors, thinking, "Could this go together? Sure!  How about this?  Why not!"  I had thawed out two packages of Yves Meatless Ground Turkey that I got from a discount store, so I have no idea if they are available anywhere else.  SR was shocked when I pulled out an ancient can of enchilada sauce from the pantry, and so she had to tell it good-bye and how much she'll miss seeing it in there...before it faced the cruel blade of the can opener.  And, before you could say, "Anything goooooeeees," I had a bubbling pot of crazy deliciousness percolating in a pot.  How did this go over with the fam?  Well, I didn't have high hopes, for even when I put in an all-out effort into a dish, I can get very lukewarm responses.  But, wouldn't you know it? - They all loved it!  Even five-year-old JK gave Mommy ten points for a good dinner (upgraded from an initial one point).  Did you hear that?  Ten points!  Hah!  So, you can see in the picture below, that I went a little crazy with the garnish.  I hope you can still see some of the actual soup in there.  But, it's all good; trust me - and G, and SR, and GR, and JK.  (Ten points!)  Oh, also SR wants credit for helping me come up with the term "Fiesta."
 

Fiesta Lentil - Pea Soup

Ingredients:

1 cup dried split green peas, sorted for grit
1 cup dried lentils, sorted for grit
Water to cover
2 cups of vegetable broth
2 pkgs. Yves meatless Ground Turkey
1 - 28oz. can enchilada sauce
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. onion powder
16 corn tortillas, halved and cut into strips
Non-stick spray

Directions:

Put the legumes in a large pot with water about two inches over them.  Cook on medium heat for 40 minutes, adding water as necessary to stay at least one inch over the top of the legumes.  Add the remaining ingredients, except for the tortillas and the non-stick spray, and cook for twenty minutes over medium low heat.  You can add additional broth or water at this point, if you want. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Spray a cookie sheet with the non-stick spray and spread the tortilla strips on it.  Bake for ten minutes.  Spoon soup into bowls and garnish with the tortilla strips.  So good, every one in your family will praise you all night long, and you need that, don't you?  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Creamy Pumpkin Curry Soup

I've been trying to continue to come up with creative ways to use up my pumpkin puree, and I've never made a pumpkin soup before, so I thought I'd give it a try with the ingredients I had on hand.  It turned out pretty well, and I will make this again.  I'll keep you posted as I develop more pumpkin recipes - I've been working on some bars.  :-)

Creamy Pumpkin Curry Soup

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
4 cups of pumpkin puree
5 cups of vegetable broth
2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup fresh basil, sliced thinly width wise
More basil for garnish, if desired

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot on medium heat.  Add the red onion, and cook for at least fifteen minutes, until caramelized.  Add the next six ingredients (pumpkin puree through pepper), and cook for a half hour.  Lower the heat to low, and add the soy milk and basil.  Cook for five more minutes.  Ladle into bowls, and add additional basil for garnish.  Simple and elegant.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Veggie Soup with Rice

Hello, everyone! It's good to be back, and I really hope this posts well, and I can comment on my site and on yours. Thanks to Vegan Flower, we added on Firefox, and that's what I'm using to create this current post. Since this is my first post using Firefox, I have a new question: how do we upload pictures so that they stay in the order we want? I've tried two times so far. The first time, Firefox loaded them alphabetically, not the way I had intended. So, then I went back and changed all my pics names, so that they were alphabetical and in the order I wanted them to upload. But now Firefox hasn't loaded them alphabetically! This will be important when I have a post that has recipe steps involved with photos; I'll need them to be in order. Anyone? Vegan Flower?

I thought I'd give you a very short summary of what's been going on with us in the last couple of months. G's toe's skin has finally healed, but his toe joint and foot are still in pain. SR's wrist is still in pain, even after a cortisone shot. I'm trying to talk her into acupuncture. I pulled a calf muscle, the same one three times now in two years. And, I'm just healing from a back sprain. Ugh. I did earn my certificate to become a birth doula; that was a two and a half year process. We celebrated SR's, JK's, and both my parents' birthdays, as well as their anniversary, so we've been twirling in frosting over here. Both girls graduated from the last and highest level of swimming class, and JK is proud to be a guppy! We've had appliance repairs, auto repairs, and everyone but JK got new glasses, yay. Our garden went kaput. I took pics in June, and very soon after that, the dogs ate the grapevine and most of my nectarine tree, and the almond tree died. Both pups got spayed and had cone hats at the same time, very funny. What about you? What have I missed? I've been offline, not just on blogging, but pretty much everything - just trying to enjoy the summer with my kids.

Below the photos is a simple soup recipe that is a winner every time. You can use it as a guideline to build your own delicious soups. :-)

Veggie Soup with Rice

A simple wrestling cake for JK's 5th birthday

Strawberry Tall Cakes for SR's actual 14th birthday

Cookies 'n Cream Cupcakes for SR's party - GR's grabbing one!

One of our artichoke plants, while it was thriving

Veggie Soup with Rice

Ingredients:

8 to 10 cups of fresh and/or frozen veggies, choppped
We used: broccoli, cauliflower, orange carrots, yellow carrots, red bell peppers, green beans, corn, and celery
1 - 32 oz. box of No Chicken Broth
1 - 15 oz. can of chopped tomatoes
1 - 15 oz. can of tomato sauce
(In a pinch, I'll use spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce V8 or tomato juice)
1 - 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans (or any beans you have on hand)
Water to cover everything by one to two inches
1 Tbs. garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1 to 2 cups of leftover rice (your rice should already be cooked, or else it will soak up all the broth)

Directions:

Heat all the ingredients, except for the rice, in a large pot over medium heat for thirty to forty-five minutes. When it is bubbling, and everything is tender, add the rice. Turn down the heat to medium low, and add a bit more water if needed. Simmer for about ten more minutes, until the rice is thoroughly warmed up. Easy squeezy. Delicious and feeds five hungry vegans!

Bean and Facon Soup

Well, wasn't that fun? Experiencing almost two weeks of not being able to access my computer was an exercise in time well-spent otherwise. Now that most of the electrical problems in our home have been fixed by my sweet G (Happy Anniversary today!), I can blog again! Aren't we all happier now?

This soup is a take on my favorite canned soup from my childhood. I've tried remaking it a few times, as I do with my most of my dishes before I post them, and I think I've come up with a recipe that is strikingly similar, except for the cruelty to animals. G grew up with a mom who worked the swing-shift and retired from said canned soup company, and he thinks this version is spot on. My children have fortunately never tasted the inhumane original and love this. I have to say, my other tries, which were too dark and heavy, take a back seat to this lighter, well-balanced tasty bowl of goodness. This is definitely going on my menu board on the inside of my cupboard.



Bean and Facon Soup

Ingredients:

1 pound bag of Great Northern Beans
Water to cover
1 - 32 oz. box of Organic Imagine No-Chicken Broth
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 pkg. of LightLife Smart Bacon, diced small

Directions:

Sort beans for grit and put in large pot with water a couple of inches over the beans. Cook on medium heat for one hour. Add broth, seasonings, and enough water to stay about an inch over the beans. Continue cooking on medium heat for another hour. When the beans are tender, add the facon, and cook for twenty minutes more. Can serve with crunchy bread and a yummy green salad. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Rustic Lentil Zucchini Soup

This is a soup made from some of our garden zucchini abundance. We are thankful for the bounty that these plants continue to offer us, but I have been trying to come up with new ways to serve zucchini so that my children will continue to eat it. This soup certainly stepped up to the plate, er, bowl. The zucchini didn't overpower the other flavors and was a nice change for my children, who ate it all up. By the way, we eat soup year round, we love it so, therefore the hot dish doesn't bother us. Maybe you'll like it, too.

Rustic Lentil Zucchini Soup

Ingredients:

8 cups of water
1 cup of lentils
2 Tbs. of homemade bouillon or one cube of store bought bouillon
5 zucchinis, chopped
1 - 28oz. can petite diced tomatoes
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1/2 cup of parsley, chopped
1 and 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 and 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 cup of pre-cooked brown rice

Directions:

Put the water and lentils in a large pot together on medium heat. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the remaining ingredients, except the rice, and continue cooking for another fifteen minutes or until the lentils are completely cooked and the veggies are tender. Add the rice and stir five minutes before serving. Great with a hunk of good bread and a side salad. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Creamy White and Green Soup

Well, first off, there is no cream in this soup. However, the beans are so creamy and add such a creamy feel to it, that it deserves this name. This was a soup that I made out of stuff I currently had in my fridge and pantry and had no prior intention of posting the recipe, but it came out so tasty, that I thought it deserved to be passed along. It's warm and comforting, simple and healthy. I hope you like it, too.


Creamy White and Green Soup

Ingredients:

1 pound of dried great white northern beans
Water
1 turnip, peeled and diced small
2 cups of mushrooms, sliced
1 large stalk of broccoli, trimmed and diced
1 bunch of collard greens, removed from stems and chopped small
2 cans of vegetable broth
2 tsp. of salt
1/2 tsp. of pepper
1 Tbs. garlic powder

Directions:

Sort the beans and put in a large pot with water to cover them about two inches. Bring to a boil, and continue boiling for five minutes. Drain and rinse well. Put back in pot with same amount of water, and cook over medium heat for an hour. Reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook for another hour, adding water as necessary to keep it at about one inch above the beans. Add the remaining ingredients, and cook for another half-hour, until the turnip is tender. This is surprisingly tasty, and even all the children liked it! So, that's saying something. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Seitan Noodle Soup

Here is definitely a family favorite - one of our top five dishes we love. My oldest daughter actually requested this when she got one of her extremely rare colds recently. It's good and chunky and so yummy. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Seitan Noodle Soup
Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
4 packages of seitan, chopped into bite-sized pieces
3 carrots, chopped
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1 - 6 ounce pkg of very small pasta, like stars or alphabet noodles
1 - 32 ounce box of vegetable broth
water to cover
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 Tbs. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried thyme

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the seitan and veggies and cook until the seitan begins to brown and the veggies just become tender, about ten minutes, stirring occasionally. In a separate small pot, cook the noodles according to package directions; set aside. In a large pot, put in the seitan, veggies, broth and spices. Add enough water to cover an inch or so. Cook over medium heat for another twenty minutes, or until the veggies have become more tenderized. Add the noodles to the pot and cook until heated through, about five minutes. Add more water if necessary. Serve with oven-heated rolls. Deeeelicious! Feeds five hungry vegans.

Chunky Miso Soup

This is one of my favorite soups; I serve this a few times a year. I actually got the start for this off a miso container lid. It was a miso soup recipe that I had never seen before. Anyway, over the years I've tweaked it just enough to make it mine. I really like this photo, too. See the steam still rising from the bowl? I have to put this away right after dinner, or else I'll literally be eating it all night long until bedtime. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Chunky Miso Soup

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. canola oil
1 yellow onion, sliced
1 small cauliflower, florets sliced
2 large carrots, grated
1/2 head of cabbage, sectioned and sliced thinly
4 cans of vegetable broth
4 cups of water
1 package extra firm tofu, drained and diced very small
1/3 cup of peanut butter (or your favorite nut butter)
1/4 cup miso

Directions:

In a large pot, heat the oil on medium heat. Add the vegetables and cook until just tender, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the remaining ingredients and keep cooking for about another 20 minutes, until the peanut butter and miso have dissolved and been mixed in. A note on the peanut butter: it can be smooth or crunchy - I prefer the crunchy because I love to crunch the bits of peanut. Also, you can use cashew or almond butter, as well. They all work deliciously in this soup. Feeds five hungry vegans.