Vegetable Soup for #Veganuary?

Well The Holiday Week is now well and truly underway and I’ve taken the opportunity to help my Beagle, Millie and I work off a few of the pounds we just put on, by hiking up and down the hills of the Hudson Valley and wandering around the Lower East Side of Manhattan

It’s pretty cold out and about in New York this time of year and I almost chilled my fingers off!  So,  when I got home, I thought it might be a good idea to cook up a home made soup, the ideal dish for defrosting and a meal in a bowl with low danger of adding much to the weight already gained this season

Some of the Ingredients I used

My personal recipe for Vegetable Soup has been something I’ve been working on for at least a couple of decades, with the definitive edition finally coming together on a vacation in Croatia over 10 years ago

This soup has one added benefit: it is a great means of disposing of just about every left over vegetable in one’s pantry at the end of the festive season, turning those forgotten odds and ends into a delicious wholesome meal

Try out my recipe and see if you agree?

Ingredients

• Root Veggies
  • 2 potatoes (peel and dice into 1/2 inch cubes)
  • 2 carrots (peel and slice in rounds)
  • 1/2 a medium swede / Rutabaga (peel and dice into 1/2 inch cubes)
  • 1 small purple top turnip (peel and dice into 1/2 inch cubes)
•  Other Veggies
  

  Pile of Chopped Veggies for the Soup

  • 1 medium to large red onion (slice into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 1 clove of garlic (roughly chopped)
  • 3 sticks of celery (slice horizontally)
  • 1 leek (slice in rounds)
  • 2 tomatoes (chop roughly)
  • 1 red pepper (dice into 1/2 inch pieces seeds removed)
  • 1 handful of green beans
  • 1 handful of garden peas
  • 1 handful of broccoli florets
• Other ingredients
  • Fresh parsley (roughly chopped)
  • 1/2 tsp each of dried rosemary, thyme, parsley, basil and oregano
  • 1/2 cup pearled barley (rinsed)
  • 2 cups (500 ml) Vegetable stock
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 dessert spoon of marmite
  • 1 cup of passatta
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • (Sour Cream as a vegetarian option)

Method

Sautee those veggies

• Warm up the olive oil in a large saucepan / stockpot
• Simply throw in all your chopped root and other veggies into the saucepan adding the dried herbs and a pinch or two of salt and pepper to taste
• Stir into the oil, increase the heat to medium and sautee for around 10 minutes until the vegetables soften and reduce
• Add the tomato paste, then the passatta and work into the vegetables
• Add the vegetable stock, marmite and bay leaves and bring to the boil adding a further 8 cups (2 litres) of boiling water and a handful of the chopped fresh parsley
• Reduce the heat, cover the saucepan and simmer for between 30 to 40 minutes

That’s it! You are done. Serve piping hot and thaw out….. (and, if you are not vegan, feel free to add a large dollop of sour cream to the mix)

Millie the Beagle is after my Soup

Great healthy winter fare to warm you up after venturing into the cold outdoors, whether your companion is of the canine persuasion, or not!!