Weeknight Minestrone

This is essentially my take on vegetable soup with sausage. I never make it quite like this, as I adjust it to throw in whatever vegetables I might have on hand, especially the ones that aren't the freshest from the back of the fridge. The trick, though, is to add cabbage or broccoli to give the soup some body.

2 spicy Italian sausage links
1/2 a medium onion, diced
a box of low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
2 cans mixed vegetables, drained and well-rinsed *
1 cup of shredded cabbage or broccoli **
Italian spices
1 cup macaroni (elbows or shells or something that size)
1 can kidney beans, drained and well-rinsed

Cut the sausage into bite sized pieces. Saute in a large soup pot for 5 minutes. Add the chopped onion and continue cooking until the meat is cooked through and the onion is translucent. Add the broth, tomatoes, vegetables, cabbage, and spices. Add enough water to cover, if needed. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, then add the pasta, and simmer until the cabbage and pasta are cooked. Add the kidney beans and cook for 5 more minutes, or until the beans are heated through.

* I usually use one can of vegetables and a cup or two of fresh, diced vegetables.
** I use a large handful of pre-shredded cole slaw or broccoli slaw.

Summertime Soup

It's been a strange month. Unlike last year's and many previous June's, this month's weather has been mostly moderate with a lot of rain. Usually it's just hot, humid, and miserable. We got a taste of normal June weather mid-week last week, which put me in the mood for some of my summer recipes. I made a batch of fresh-squeezed limeade (which is easy if you have the proper lime-squeezing tool). I also made my first bruscetta of the season.

For this week's soup, I made gazpacho. Some day, I'll have to tell you the story of how and where I had my first, perfect bowl of gazpacho. I've yet to recreate something similar, and probably won't ever do so, but it doesn't stop me from trying. I found this recipe last week. Here's my variation.

Ingredients

4 cups low-sodium V8 juice
6 ripe tomatoes, seeded
1 purple onion
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded
1 sweet yellow bell pepper, seeded
2 stalks celery
1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small can of tomato paste (to thicken)
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
2 teaspoons sugar
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Hot sauce to taste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Decide how pureed or chopped you want each of the ingredients. Put the veggies you want completely pulverized in the processor first, adding the rest in descending order.

So this is what I did, emptying each batch into a large glass bowl as I finished it, since my processor isn't big enough to hold a gallon of soup.

Batch 1: onion, celery, chives, parsley, 1 cup of the V8 juice
Batch 2: bell pepper, oil, vinegar, garlic
Batch 3: cucumber, tomatoes, 1 cup of the V8 juice
Batch 4: tomato paste, 1 cup of the V8 juice

Add the last cup of V8 and the rest of the seasonings and stir well. Use a spoon with large slots to pull out any large chunks of veggies and pop them back into the processor, if needed.

Store and chill overnight. Serve cold.

Serves 8.

Sunday Soup

Recently, the food offered by the cafeteria at work has gone down in quality and up in price. I also find myself buying fried stuff way too often. Therefore, I've decided that I need to bring my lunch more often. Given everything else going on in my life, I've realized that the only way that this is going to happen is if I make soup every Sunday. I might add some other leftovers in here and there, but rather than coming up with more complicated entries, I'm going to stick with soup for now. It's cheap, it's easy, and it makes a big batch. What more could I ask for?

This week's soup is a recipe that my MIL gave me several years ago. I make this a couple of times a year. My MIL likes it served cold with dill. I like it warm with lots of ground pepper and croutons. It's a very flexible and forgiving soup, and you can flavor it anyway you'd like. Just add the seasonings at the end, after you've pureed the soup.

Pureed Carrot Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 leeks (or onion, but it's better with leeks)
a couple of cloves of garlic, to taste
1 lb. carrots
3 med. potatoes
1 box of fat-free chicken broth (or veggie broth)
1 bayleaf

Chop all the vegetables. In the bottom of a soup pot, heat the oil. Add the chopped leek and saute until almost soft. Add the garlic and saute another minute or two. Add all of the other ingredients. Add enough water if needed to cover the vegetables. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cook until carrots and potatoes are soft.

REMOVE THE BAY LEAF.

Using a hand blender, puree the soup. Add a little more water if the consistency is too sticky. Serve hot or cold.