Meatless Monday – Vegetable soup!

Yes, it is June 14th, and yes it was 25°C outside today, and yes I did decide to have soup for dinner.

Vegetable soup is one of my favourite types of soup, not only is it full flavour but it’s also packed with goodness and nutrients - it's the best way to eat your vegetables! Another key feature of vegetable soup is that it includes no meat or fish products... thus, perfect for my weekly Meatless Monday's features! (See last week's Meatless Monday appetizer here)

When it comes to soups, I prefer a pureed soup over a brothy soup, I prefer the texture, so I decided to puree this vegetable soup. This isn't typically the way vegetable soup is served, but I think it makes it even more mouth-watering. And on the plus side, I feel like pureed soups are more likely to be eaten by picky eaters who hate vegetables, because there aren’t any visible vegetables!

Ingredients

1 ½ tbsp olive oil
1 cup broccoli florets
1 carrot chopped
6 green onions
1 stalk celery
¼ tsp ginger
2 large garlic cloves chopped
32 oz (4 cups) of vegetable broth
½ 28 oz can (14 oz) of crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 ½ 14 oz (21 oz) cans of white northern beans
½ tsp coriander
1 tbsp honey
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp dried thyme
1 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cayenne
salt & pepper

Directions

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in your soup pot, sauté green onions, carrot and celery for 6 minutes. Add in the ginger and garlic – cook for 1 minute. Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, vegetable broth and beans. Add spices and honey. Stir and bring it to a boil, reduce heat to a slow simmer. Add broccoli florets and cover and cook on low heat for 20-25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and puree the soup in a blender or using an immersion blender.

And there you have it, the most delectable, thick, flavorful vegetable soup! Feel free to indulge in one, two... or in my case, three servings!

- Lou

This recipe was adapted from Slice of Feist