How can anyone not got that happy feeling about vegetables!? Maybe it's just knowing how good they are for you...but when I start putting together my big ole container of salad together for the week, it really does make me happy!
This week I've also decided to make a vegetable soup for lunches. This "recipe" was given to me from a co-worker and is so easy to tweak into something you can call your own. In fact, I must say that with this batch, I've out done myself!
The basis for this soup is easy...canned vegetables! I used a regular sized can each of peas, corn, green beans, lima beans, carrots and diced tomatoes. UNDRAINED!! That's important!! The liquid from the vegetables become your broth! Use whatever veggies you like, use more of something or less of another, it really is all up to you!
To start the soup, saute some onions and garlic in the pot, then add all the veggies! Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes so the flavors get a chance to blend. If you're concerned about sodium, you can get canned vegetables with low salt or even no salt. The only other seasonings that are suggested are black proper and garlic powder. Read on though for my special seasoning I added this time, but first, let me continue with the how-to.
Now, my co-worker at this point adds meat. She drops in ground beef, or once I added in ground turkey breast. If you do add meat, continue to let the soup simmer another 45 minutes or so.
This go around, I didn't want to add any meat, but I did come across some lentils I had that only needed to cook for 30 minutes so they went into the pot and cooked with the veggies. Now, for the kicker this batch!.... Remember the pesto I made a few weeks back and froze? I dropped in 4 of my "cubes" and that was all the seasoning I needed!
What a delicious flavor the pesto lends to the soup! Yum! Yum! Yum! this goess to show what possibilities pesto has beyond a pasta sauce.
