Want to share your vegetable soups recipes?

[MaryMary]

The weather is getting colder, and it turns my mind to soup!

Please share your recipes for vegetable soups.

I grew up eating a lot of soup. (Mom liked to make soup.) (It's cheap and easy, so I can't fault her logic!) When I moved out of my parents' house, I tried to make "her" soup as best I remembered, but it wasn't the same. I asked her for a "list" of vegetables, and it turns out, I forgot the cabbage! It surprised me that one ingredient cold make that much of a difference. (Hey, I said I had just moved out... I was still new at cooking for myself!)

Since then, I switch up my vegetable soup from time to time. (With or without cabbage! ) If it's cold out, I will sometimes add chili pepper to heat it up. (I'm not a big fan of hot and spicy.)

It has occurred to me that different posters will have different recipes, so please share them. What is your "cabbage" ? And since this is in the Chat forum, if yours is hot and spicy, go ahead and post it. I might not be the only person reading this thread.


In the thread title, I said "vegetable soups." I am also looking for a couple different recipes for potato soup. And cream of broccoli soup. I have never had corn chowder, and admit to being a bit curious.

Basically, if it's a recipe for soup made with vegetables, I would like to read it!

I promise I will post my recipe to the thread, but right now I have to get ready to go to work.

Which reminds me, I am also looking for a couple recipes that contain the sentence, "put all this in a crock pot, and go to work. Come back in 10 hours. Dinner will be done."

 

[Beth_B]

Wow I have so many...love to cook!

Warning I like spicy. The following can be made with sweet potato, potato, cauliflower, lentils, broccoli, carrots, or a mix of any, etc:
Stir fry finely chopped onion, garlic, grated ginger in oil (coconut or any type), curry powder/spices* until soft.
Add hot pepper if you want. I like eye-popping heat so YMMV.
Add chopped sweet potato etc, fry briefly
Add some stock of your choice. Cook until mostly soft. I like home made chicken stock, or Maggi brand but any will work.
Chopped greens optional at this point.
Add one can coconut milk. Simmer until all done and heated through. Leave chunky or blend until smooth.
Optional garnishes: grated coconut, lime juice or zest, cilantro, cream cheese or any cheese really.
Freezes and reheats amazingly well. Also easily made vegan if that is your thing.

*Curry powder and related spices ARE NOT HOT. Really. The heat if you want it comes from chili pepper or whatever hot spice you add.

I have a chicken/bean/cheesy crockpot recipe that is my go-to and a hit at potlucks. But it is not exactly vegetable soup. I'll post it if you want though!

 

[Esther Knapicius]

most soups I just wing it. and it comes out great. start with good chicken or turkey stock. bay leaf, onion, french beans (for body) celery, kale, carrot, seasonings (depending on mood) . Or I might float some pork meatballs, or cut up left over chicken, or left over corn on cob, squirt of tomato paste, maybe pasta. who knows, whatever it is, husband eats it up and that is it.
Now that it is squash time, love making apple butternut squash soup ( I use Martha Stewards one) good to freeze minus the chicken stock to add later.

 

[MaryMary]

@Beth_B and @Esther Knapicius, thank you both for your answers.

Wow I have so many...love to cook!

Post as many as you want! Soup is a cold-weather food, and winter is long. I am learning to like cooking. ( My boyfriend insists that if it wasn't for him, when I needed to clean the kitchen, it would be washing coffee cups and dusting the stove!! )

I have a chicken/bean/cheesy crockpot recipe that is my go-to and a hit at potlucks. But it is not exactly vegetable soup. I'll post it if you want though!

I may start a different thread for crockpot recipes!
Nothing is growing, we'll need something .to talk about over the winter!!
Making dinner after 10 hrs at work is really where cooking loses its appeal. "I'm hungry, I'm tired, and what can I microwave?"

most soups I just wing it.

Same here! I expect most of the recipes that get posted won't have measurements.

My vegetable soup:
Always has: A tomato base. (Usually two small or one large can of paste.) I add green beans, light and/or dark kidney beans, corn, peas, carrots, one medium onion, and potatoes. Spices - garlic powder and onion powder. Celery seed or celery flakes.

Variables: If I am lonesome for Mom, it has to have cabbage. Depending on what's on hand (or my mood,) I may add sweet potatoes, Lima beans, black beans, navy/northern beans, pinto beans, and celery. (Sliced thin, I like the flavor of celery, but don't like eating it. Weird, I know.) Sometimes barley. Spices - minced garlic cloves, or chili powder.
*If I have gone to the store for cabbage, then more of the variables go in the soup.

Sometimes I make it without meat, but I usually put some beef in it.

I got a deal on chicken thighs, ( 39¢ a pound, and since there was room in the deep freeze, I went a little crazy. ) This winter, I'm thinking chicken instead of beef.

 

[Beth_B]

Yes indeed...for basic veg soup (with or without meat) I do much the same as @Esther Knapicius ... whatever I have on hand, basically. I always start with sauteeing stuff in some sort of oil, usually add beans (or potatoes or sometimes rice or noodles) for body and protein. Or some sort of meat. Or both. Or whatever. Bacon or sausage is always good.

So you are right...like chili or lasagna, soup recipes with precise instructions are harder to find.

Crock pot chicken, no amounts included!
Some chicken thighs or breasts.
One can corn.
One can black beans.
One jar salsa.
Throw in crock pot, set on low, go to work.
About an hour before dinner after you come home, put an 8-oz chunk of cream cheese on top. Right before serving, stir it in. Yes, that would be a half-pound of cream cheese.

That's it. Totally customizeable with additions but this has been my go-to potluck dish for years and I have people ask me for the recipe all the time.

 

[Elena]

Russian vegetable soup is borsch. You need to cut 2 beets and put it into boiling water. Then juice half the lemon ( keep the red color) and a spoonful of sugar. After 20 minutes, put sliced cabbage, 2 potatoes and salt. Fry the carrots and onion and add to the pan. Sometimes I add boiled beans and pepper. Finally put chopped parsley, dill and garlic. Eat with sour cream, chili and garlic bread. This soup you can cook with chicken or meat. Cooking that soup takes about an hour, but it's very delicious.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Eaten borsch a few times. have not gotten around to making it myself. guess cause husband would not eat it. so just eat beets on its own . and pee pink.

 

[Elena]

[QUOTE="Esther Knapicius, post: 92527, member: 2011" and pee pink.[/QUOTE]

You can cook without beetroot. This soup's name is shchi.

 

[Beth_B]

Also there are golden/ yellow beets. Much milder flavour and no pink pee.

@Elena , thank you for the borscht recipe! I'm saving that...I love beets.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

that is not a complaint of the pink pee, its just saying it happens.

Yes I know about the yellow beets etc. again do not care about the pink pee. To me its a good sign that my body can process that quickly.

 

[Beth_B]

that is not a complaint of the pink pee, its just saying it happens.

Yes I know about the yellow beets etc. again do not care about the pink pee. To me its a good sign that my body can process that quickly.

So what are your observations on asparagus pee?

 

[Esther Knapicius]

So what are your observations on asparagus pee?

Smells bad. never noticed a color change .

 

[DeborahJane]

I like to use left over roast vegetables in soup. It always adds a lot if flavour without much work

 

[Elena]

Yes, it's easy and delicious.

 

[marlingardener]

I love making soups, especially from "left-overs" and bits and pieces from the garden. One of my favorites is Minestrone. It takes two days, but is quite worth the time!
Day one:
take as many beef bones as you can fit into a 12"x8" pan and roast in the oven at 350 degrees.
When brown and fragrant, remove the bones to cool, add water to the roasting pan, and scrape all the brown bits up and put the water, brown bits, and fat from the bones into a bowl and refrigerate.

Day two:
Skim the fat from the cold beef broth, chop up any meat from the bones and add to the broth.
In a large pot, add the broth with meat to an 8 oz. can of chopped tomatoes (better if you have canned your own), 1/2 c. coarsely chopped onion, a 1/4 c. chopped oregano, a 1/4 c. chopped parsley (flat leaf Italian, but curly parsley will do in a pinch), and one large clove of garlic, mashed and chopped.
Let this simmer for about 2 hours (the volume determines the time). Add chopped celery, sliced carrots, chopped green beans, and a handful of small pasta. Let this cook down until the consistency is that of a loose stew, add either more beef broth or chicken broth, taste and add salt and pepper to taste.
There are so many variations of this--chick peas instead of green beans, sliced cabbage added, a bit of red pepper flakes for "zip", it is a soup you can have fun with!