Healthy Vegetable Soup

An everyday soup that is comforting, healthy, and versatile. Need to say that this vegetable soup is both delicious and convenient. Since you can change the vegetables to get a different flavor and taste each time, there is a lot you can do with vegetable soup.

Have a few vegetables in the pantry and wondering what to do with them? This soup is your savior.

I have used a readily available list of vegetables like potatoes, carrots, beans, and peas. You may add a few others or change them to your liking. Keep in mind the flavor and how well the vegetables go when added to the soup.

There is just a very brief sautéing of the onions and garlic and later a light stir of the veggies that is required. Doing this helps in improving the overall flavor of the soup. The veggies are stirred lightly enough to cook them and add flavor from the sauteed onion and garlic.

Vegetable soup is super healthy. Since the soup is just simmered for a bit of time and not boiled, the veggies and the body of the soup are rich with nutrients, and they still hold their shape. The stock adds its bit to the soup as well.

A warm and comforting soup with vegetables of your choice is what you need on cold winter nights. Delicious and at the same time healthy.

Ingredients

• Vegetables - I have added these vegetables - Baby potatoes, carrots, green beans, green peas. You can use some other vegetables. Just make sure that the cooking time is more or less equal. Else, you might have to cook some much earlier or separately.
• Crushed tomatoes - Adds lot of flavor and adds to the body of the soup.
• Diced onion and Minced garlic - Used to sauté for getting great flavor.
• Vegetable Stock - provides the body to the soup.
• Spices & Herbs - Rosemary, basil, oregano, bay leaf and celery.
• Butter
• Oil - You may use olive oil or regular cooking oil for sautéing the veggies.

How to make

Vegetable soup is a super quick recipe. A vital step to get flavor into the soup is to sauté the spices properly. The aroma from the spices then gets added to the soup when you cook the vegetables.

The rest of the steps are easy to follow. 

Melt butter and oil in a pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add onions and other spices and sauté them. Watch out for the onions to turn a tad pink and soft.

Cook potatoes next, and you can check if they are done with a fork or pick. If they come out cleanly after pricking, then the potatoes are done.

Add the other veggies along with flour and mix them. Add the vegetable stock and spices and let it simmer for 10 minutes. You should add green peas at the end and switch off the flame. The peas will get cooked in the heat of the soup. This is the best way to cook soft peas. They will turn chewy if you let them cook too much on the flame.

Store

You can store this soup in the refrigerator for four days. You can also freeze it for weeks.

If you plan to freeze it, I recommend not adding the stock to the stirred veggies and freezing them separately. When it is time to make the soup, take out and defrost them, add the stock later, and simmer it for 15 minutes.

Other Soup Recipes

• Creamy Spinach Soup
• Creamy Pumpkin Soup
• Homemade Tomato Soup
• Healthy Spinach Soup
• Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
• Chicken Tortellini Soup