Tortilla Soup

This is one of our new favorites. I just made it up one night and it never ends up the same way since I've never even written it down until right now. But it's always good.

olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
1 cup frozen corn
1 leek or some cabbage, chopped (optional, but I love cabbage in soup so I put it in whenever I can)
2 cans (or 3-4 cups) pinto beans
1 Tablespoon cilantro, chopped
salt
pepper
some cumin
some paprika
some garlic powder
some chili powder
1 quart vegetable stock

Saute the onion and carrot in a tablespoon or so of olive oil until they begin to soften. Then add the rest of the above ingredients. Let simmer for an 30-60 minutes until all vegetables are tender. Adjust seasonings as needed.

Serve with:
sour cream
tomato
avocado
crushed tortilla chips
more cilantro

Now, unfortunately, my photo up there is sadly lacking in a couple ingredients that make it most delicious: sour cream (I'm working on making my own. Yep, you heard me), avocado (Mine aren't ripe. Sad face) and I just forgot to add the chips before I took the photo and I'm too lazy to take another. But, it's still good.

If you wanted to add chicken you easily could. Maybe slow cook in a crock pot for a couple hours with the stock and then shred it up? I've never done it but it sounds viable and I'm sure you'll figure something out. :)

Vegetable Broth

I have been working on some recipes but between being sick and then my mother-in-law being in town, not a lot of cooking was happening around here.

So, I figured I'd talk about making your own vegetable broth. Because I love it. And it's so easy and so superior to anything you can buy pre-packaged. And I feel so environmentally friendly when I make it myself.

All you have to do is save all of your leftover bits of veggies as you're cutting them up. Ends of carrots, skins of onions, leaves from celery, leek tops, ribs of kale, mushrooms stems, herbs, almost anything (except broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, asparagus, artichokes). I collect all of these scraps in a plastic bag in the fridge. After about a week I have enough to make some stock.

Dump the scraps into a big stock pot and add water. I usually add about 2 quarts. Then, just simmer for a couple hours. I simmered mine today for too long without watching it and I lost about 1/2 of a quart of water (oops).

Then, strain the now-stock into jars and either refrigerate for a few days or store in plastic containers and freeze for a month or so.

I love using something that is usually regarded as "garbage" and making something amazing (it'd be even better if I had a compost pile that I could toss the veggies in after making stock). I also love not having to buy something from the store that I can make myself, and not having packaging to throw away. It's a win-win-win situation!

I'll be back with some incred soup recipes you can make using this vegetable stock.

Minestrone

This soup was originally based on a recipe from The New Basics Cookbook, but I've made so many alterations that it's really my own now. So here you go!


Cara's MINESTRONE

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, finely diced
1 leek, finely diced
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 head of cabbage, roughly chopped into bite-size pieces
1 potato, peeled and diced (I also have used a parsnip, which was really good)
6 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons tomato paste
5 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
salt, to taste
15 oz red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
15 oz white kidney beans (or Great Northern), drained and rinsed
15 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes (I get this from Trader Joe's and it's amazing -- it's tomatoes and green chilies. If you don't want a spicy soup, just use regular canned diced tomatoes)
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar(the "secret" ingredient that I think totally makes it!)
freshly grated Parmesan, for garnish

optional: Italian sausage, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces

Heat olive oil over med-high in a large pot. Add garlic, onions, carrot and leek and cook until veg start to become tender (10 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally). Add cabbage, potato, stock and tomato paste and turn heat to high. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add 2 tablespoons of parsley along with the oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes.

Add beans, tomatoes and cider vinegar. Simmer until all veg are tender. Adjust seasonings and add sausage if desired. Stir in remaining 3 tablespoons of parsley before serving. Serve with Parmesan.

(You can also add pasta to this at the end. Add a few ounces of a small pasta before adding the sausage and simmer until pasta is cooked. We leave out the sausage and pasta generally to reduce calories.)


This recipe yields 6-8 servings and is only between 200-300 calories per serving (without sausage or pasta)! It makes for a tasty, quick, healthy, filling-but-not-heavy lunch. And, like all soups, I like this more the day after it's made. All the flavors really come out and blend.

To stick with my challenge rules, I'll have to make my beans from scratch next time I make this! I usually make this soup on Sunday afternoons and we eat it for lunch through-out the week. I'll have to plan ahead to get my beans soaking!

I will be sad when these veggies go out of season (they've all been coming in our CSA box for the past couple of months), but will be just that much more excited to make it next winter! That is the joy of eating seasonally -- you're not likely to burn out if you can only have them at certain foods at certain times of the year! It really makes you not take anything for granted, too. Which is a lesson we all need to learn. :)