Poato Vegetable Soup

I just love a good soup. All you have to do is throw a bunch of ingredients in a pot, let it cook and presto! - you have dinner.
Like tonight when I realized just how sad my produce level was. I haven't been working for a while, so  money has been very tight lately. The past few days i've been eating pasta and frozen foods. But today I yearned for something wholesome and homemade. When I realized I was seriously lacking in the produce department, and didn't have enough for a salad or a stir fry, my plans turned to soup. A welcome dinner at this time of the year.

It all started with what vegetables I found laying in my crisper. A green pepper, a zucchini, and some arugula. In my pantry I found some potatoes that were passing their prime, and chopped 'em all up as a base for the soup. I didn't even worry about not having any veg stock on hand, as I keep a jar of Better Than Bouillon in my fridge for such cases. I lucked out with a sole can of fire roasted tomatoes and broad beans in the pantry and with some fridge staples I had a delicious dinner. This soup really embodies the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to cooking. Which is a great approach to take, in my humble opinion. Yet it was different than most soups i've made. It was the lemon juice that really set it apart. Adding a fresh taste while still being a big warm bowl of comfort.



3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, cubed
1 zucchini, sliced and quartered
3 small yellow potatoes, cubed
1 clove of garlic, crushed
salt and pepper
2-3 tbsp garam masala, yellow curry powder
1 tbsp mrs.dash, + dried italian herbs

2 1/2 cups of water mixed with 2 tbsp better than bouillon paste
1 small can of fire roasted tomatoes
1 can of beans (i used broad beans - any beans would work here -white beans, chickpeas sound good.)
1/4 cup lemon juce
1/4 cup red miso paste
1 tbsp green curry paste
1 tbsp capers, chopped finely
2 bay leaves
2-3 cups of arugula (or any leafy green)

Saute the onion in the olive oil until soft. Add the potatoes and cook for a few mins. Next add the peppers and zucchini until softened. Add the spices and cook for a min.
Add the tomatoes, the water with the boulion (or veg broth), beans, miso paste (make sure it's all dissolved in the liquid), curry paste, capers, and bay leaves. Simmer over medium heat for 45 mins. Remove the bay leaves and stir in the arugula. Serve with crumbled feta, or shredded parmesean cheese.

Pumpkin Soup

^{13°C. Showers. In July.}

^{Rather than let the forecast get me down, I am embracing the rain, as it is giving me a chance to make soup! The weather is allowing me to enjoy it without questioning my sanity for eating hot soup on a hot day. So yesterday that's exactly what happened.}

This soup may scream Autum not only because it is a soup, but because it is a pumpkin soup. And it's got tons of fall flavors, not only the aforementioned pumpkin- but cinnamon, and nutmeg. (Now that i'm writing this ginger would have been right at home here, but I forgot about it at the time. Oops.) But whatever, I still have 6 cans of pumpkin from last fall. So it's a helpful soup.

As with all my recipes, this is all an approximation. So take it with a grain of salt. (Literally... Get it? SALT? FOOD! Haha!)

Erm....this will serve around 4.

Pumpkin Soup

1/2 onion, diced

2 carrots, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 tbsp olive oil

1 can of pumpkin

1 can of fire roasted tomatoes

1 can of black beans

1 box of veg broth (no idea how much this was...it was a smaller box though?)

3 tbsp yellow curry powder

1 tbsp cumin, coriander,

paprika, nutmeg,

3 tbsp of parsley (dried or fresh)

splash of lemon juice

lil' splash of maple syrup

2 cinnamon sticks

red pepper flakes (to taste)

Heat the oil and add the onion, garlic, and carrots. Soften and add your spices. Cook a min or so. Add the pumpkin, the beans, the broth, and the tomatoes. Also take one of the empty cans and fill it with water, then throw it in the soup. Add the cinnamon sticks. Let simmer a while. 10-15 mins. Then add the parsley, lemon juice, maple syrup and red pepper flakes.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream, and garnish with green onions and pecans if you are so inclined.

Hearty Veggie Soup

The past two days have been disturbingly chilly, while this weekend past was filled with warm, sunny, glorious weather. It was a pretty big damper (pun somewhat intended) when Wednesday reared it's cold, rainy head.

So in order to comfort myself I set out to make some soup. Not expecting much, I was pleasantly suprised with what I came up with. Simple and delicous.




Broccoli, Carrot and Kale soup with Pasta

makes two servings

1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 yellow onion, diced small
1 1/2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/4 head of broccoli, chopped
2-3 leaves of kale, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp italian herbs
4 cups of water
2 tsp veg. bouillon paste
splash of lemon or lime juice
1 cup of pasta (I used rigatoni)
1/4 cup of miso paste

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add onions and carrot and cook 5 mins. Add broccoli florets and chopped up broccoli stalk and cook another 5 mins. Next add the garlic and kale and cook another minute or so. Add the herbs, water, lemon/lime juice, bouillon and bring to a boil. Next add the pasta and cook until pasta is al dente, about 7-10 minutes depending on what you use. When the pasta is cooked, add the miso paste and simmer until incorporated. Serve topped with parmesean cheese if you really want things special.

Soup is souper!

Judging by my last post, it seems like soup is the only exciting thing i've made as of late. And since all I have to post about right now is soup, I guess that still holds true.

I find that soups are the one meal where it's possible to make a single serving. Since I live alone and begin to resent leftovers the third night in a row, I try to make one person meals whenever possible. However, it's something still find difficult. Whenever I begin a meal I always add too much of an ingredient, because it looks so scant-but then I have to up the quantity of other ingredients so that it all balances out, which sticks me with lots of leftovers and the same boring meal all week long!

Now I know these photos are dark and dingy, and the soups may seem a bit passe, but they've been nice meals to me when I am at a loss of what to eat and have 3 boxes of vegetable stock that is going to expire in two weeks. The looming expiration of my veg. stock was a good motivation to try out a soup i'd never had before-french onion. Since it's traditionally made with beef stock i've had to stay away from it-even though the cheesy goodness looked so appetizing. I just so happened to have an onion around at the right time and as fate would have it, I had my first bowl of onion soup.


Onion Soup



This is really too easy for words. Basically just slice up an onion, sautee at bit in a saucepan for about 15 mins. Throw in some salt and pepper and some dried herbs of your liking. Next add about 1 cup or so of vegetable stock and let simmer for as long as your hunger will allow. For me this was about 15 mins. Throw it in an oven safe dish and top with some homemade croutons and swiss cheese, then stick it under the broiler until the cheese is nice and melty.

No nutrition, but oh so yummy and warming.



Broccoli Cheese Soup
This one at least will give you some vitamins, but is just as easy as the onion soup!



Saute a small bunch of broccoli with 1/2 an onion and a clove of garlic in some olive oil until tender. Feel free to add salt, pepper, or whatever herbs or seasonings you like. Next, add your veg. stock and simmer about 20 mins. When you are ready to eat puree the soup with an immersion blender and top with cheese.


Really these are incredibly simple easy dinners to fall back on. Especially on cold rainy February nights when it's dark out and need a warm cup of comfort.

Spicy Soup!

Please forgive the less than steller photo in this post, because this is a really stellar soup! I finally got a new camera but have yet figured out how to get a good macro out of it. And since when I made this it was dark, the little bit of lighting I do have in my apartment really didn't do much to help the situation.

It all started when I set out to make this white bean kale recipe from 101 cook books. I started out making the tomato sauce (with a few adaptions) until I realized that I had to be at work in less than an hour, and since this recipe had a 45 min baking time that was just not going to work. (I really need to plan these things better.) So I decided to take the same ingredients and make a soup out of it!

This is an incredibly easy, healthy and hearty stewish soup that would be great on a chilly day. Or any ol' day will do!



Spicy Tomato Kale and White Bean Soup
makes one super serving, or two smaller ones

14 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp red chili flakes
1 tbsp italian herbs
1 tbsp chili paste
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp lemon juice
few tbsp of sriracha, to taste (optional, throw in if you like things spicy)


1/2 can white beans
2 stalks of kale, washed and chopped well

Simmer the garlic and oil in a small pot until fragrant. Add the can of tomatoes, as well as the spices and other sauces. Let simmer 5 mins. Next add the beans and kale and let simmer another 10-15 mins.


I'm really looking forward to the little bit of this I had left over for tomorrow's lunch. I think I will enjoy it with some sauteed mushrooms thrown in and some crumbled feta on top.

Apartment Soup v.1

First some exciting news:
I have moved to Vancouver! Woo-hoo! I have always had an admiration for this city, and I am so happy to finally be living here! I love it so much, except for one factor.
The heat.

I've been here a little over a week and every day it has been sunny, hot, and muggy. Not at all what I expected from a city in the pacific northwest that is known for rain and overcast skies! I love the rain, and have been very sad that I have not had any to enjoy. There has only been one overcast day so far, and it only sprinkled then.

But through all this heat I am craving one thing and one thing only. SOUP! Why? My only guess is that maybe I am trying to make my new apartment and my new city feel "homey" and I guess soup does that for me? I don't know any other reason why making soup in almost 30 degree weather seems like a good idea.


But alas, since I moved in a little over a week ago, all I could think of was making a big pot of lentil soup. It's just something I had to do. So on my first (and so far, only) overcast rainy day last week, I decided to take a walk to Granville Island to check out the farmers market. I ended up with a pretty bounty of fresh and cheap vegetables, all begging to be put in a soup.

So with a combonation of farmers market loot, and some kitchen staples I bought at a swanky Save-On downtown, my first Apartment Soup was born.




My biggest problem with making this soup was only one thing-I have no blender! As I was doing my apartment shopping back in Alberta, I kept telling myself I have no need for a blender. I told myself, "It's just so big and bulky, and all i'd need it for is to make smoothies, which I can do much easier in my Magic Bullet." Of course the one thing that a blender is good for that a bullet isn't would be BLENDING SOUPS. I stupidly realized this when I really wanted this soup blended, and so in a haze of hunger and impatience did a few quick blitz of the soup serving by serving in my magic bullet. It was a bit scary, since the bullet is plastic and I had hot soup in a little container. But all turned out fine. There were a few remaining chunks as seen in the picture, but that's okay since it adds more of a rustic feel.
The point of all this is that if you have a blender, feel free to chop the peppers and veg to any size you like. If you are like me and are sans-blender, I'd reccomend chopping them very small, unless you like big chunks in your soup.


Red Lentil, Pepper, and Kale soup.

1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, chopped
1 small yellow pepper, chopped
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp curry power
1 tsp paprika
a few generous cracks of black pepper
1 tsp salt
16 oz can of chopped tomatoes, with juice
1 cup of water
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1/2 bunch of kale (no idea how to measure this really, just throw in a few handfuls.)
hot sauce (optional)

Finely chop the onion and add to a medium sized pot with the olive oil. After the onions begin to soften*, add the salt, pepper and spices. After about a min, add the red and yellow peppers and a little more olive oil if needed. Add the canned tomatoes, water, and lentils. Cover over medium heat about 20 mins, or until lentils are ready. Chop up the kale, and throw into the soup during the last few mins. Blend if desired. For added heat, add a few squirts of hot sauce.

I have made this soup similar to this in the past with all different sorts of veggies added-carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, etc. Feel free to play around with what goes in here.

*A lot of lentil soup recipes advise to put a tbsp or so of tomato paste in this step. I would be all for it if i could get my hands on tomato paste in a tube. But since I cannot, and I have no other use for a can of tomato paste, I omit this step.