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Mom’s vegetable soup
Ever since my boys were little, I have been making a completely vegan vegetable soup. This was one of the puréed food I fed them when they were babies, albeit with less spices 🙂
Now that they are away, they are looking to reproduce this recipe. Well here it is!!
You can be creative with the vegetables, adding or omitting with what you have in your fridge. This is a catch all soup 🍲!!
Ingredients
1st batch:
- 2 small cooking onions diced
- 2 large garlic cloves minced
- 4 large carrots sliced or cut in chunk as you prefer
- 2 branches of celery sliced
- 1 zucchini cut in half and sliced
- 2 big handful of green beans cut in 1 inch pieces or 1 cup of frozen green beans Optional:
- 2 cups of frozen peas
- 2 cups of chopped spinach
2nd batch:
- 8 cups (or 2 litre) of vegetable broth
- 750 ml tomato sauce (or 1 mason jar)
- Optional Add 2 cups of broth after pasta/rice is cooked to thin the consistency.
3rd batch:
- 1 can of white kidney beans (or romaine beans)
- 1 cup of rice, orzo or small pasta
Spices
- 2 tbsp of garlic salt, celery salt, onion powder
- 1 tbsp of black pepper
- 1 tbsp of parsley, dried thyme and/or basil
Use a large pot or preferably a dutch oven. Spread 1 tbsp of grapeseed oil and heat. Add the onion and caramelized them for a few minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables from 1st batch EXCEPT the optional ones if you are using them. Cook for 7-8 minutes.
Add ingredients from the 2nd batch and bring to boil.
Add ingredients for the 3rd batch as well as the spices and herbs and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 30 minutes.
Add the optional vegetables if using and cook for another 15 minutes or until the vegetables and rice or pasta is cooked.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
This makes a large pot of soup. At least 22 cups of soup. A typical bowl of soup (serving) is 2 cups.
Adjust the recipe according to the number of servings you would like to make.
Yummy salmon filet on The BBQ….or not, with asparagus and light creamed spinach.
Tonight’s special at the Rock on Sparrow Lake, Muskoka was salmon. I prepared dinner in under 20 minutes while hubby was reading his newspaper on the couch in the Muskoka room….Life At The Cottage!
No carbs tonight but a full filing meal. The secret to the light creamed spinach is light herb and garlic cream cheese 🙂
I marinated the salmon about 2 hours before cooking but 1 hour would have been sufficient.
Here is the 1st step:
Mix together:
- 2tbsp of olive oil
- 1tbsp of lemon juice,
- 1 1/2 tbsp of Dijon mustard,
- 1 1/2 tbsp of soya sauce (optional),
- 2 tsp of dried dill,
- 1 garlic clove,
- 1/2 tsp of black pepper.
Place the salmon fillet meat side up in a container or aluminum foil and spread the marinade on the salmon. Put in the refrigerator for 1-2 hour.
About 20 minutes before dinner, start the BBQ or the oven at 425F
.
While you wait for the BBQ to heat up, break off the end of a bunch of asparagus and place in aluminum foil.
Drizzle with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle salt and pepper. Close up the aluminum to make a bundle ready for the BBQ. If you are cooking the salmon in the oven, place the asparagus in a cookie sheet and drizzle the same way. They will go in the oven for 10 minutes.
Once the bundle of asparagus is ready, the BBQ should be hot. Place the salmon filet on the grill. 
Meanwhile, prepare the creamed spinach.
Put about half the container of light Philadelphia herb and garlic cream cheese with about 2 tbsp of lemon juice in a saucepan.
Heat at medium on the stove until cheese is melted and add a whole package of spinach. Heat for about 2 minutes, turn the burner off and leave the cover on to finish cooking.
Now back to the BBQ. Add the asparagus bundle to the grill and close the cover. Leave everything in there for about 8 minutes depending on the thickness of the salmon. Time for an apero and a book 🙂
8-10 minutes later, check the doneness of the salmon using a fork to see if it will flake up.
Once ready, dish out the spinach first.
Place the salmon in the plate, leaning it on the spinach with the asparagus besides. Add a wedge of lemon and a tbsp of caper sprinkled on the salmon. Remember that how it looks is almost as important as how it taste!
Pour wine and go down to the lake to watch the sunset. Why would we travel anywhere in the summer!
Green Soup / Crème Verte
This is a recipe that is based on the teaching of my aunt Raymonde. When I first moved into our house, she and my parents drove down from Montreal for weekend visits. We would go to the farmer’s market, which was quite fun with aunt Raymonde and my mom, and always came back with some sort of leafy greens (Swiss chard was her favourite). She taught us how to make a cream of vegetable with pretty much any leafy greens, although she often would only use Swiss chard leaves. My baby food purees for my boys when they were little were largely based on this recipe adapted with less spices. I have modified it over the years to what has become known in our house as the “green soup”. You can substitute pretty much any green vegetable in this recipe. Really whatever you have on hand including broccoli and their stems, asparagus etc…This is really a base for any cream of vegetable.
Cette recette est basée sur mes souvenirs de la cuisine avec Tante Raymonde. Lorsque nous avons déménagé dans notre première maison, mes parents et tante Raymonde venaient en visite de Montréal pour une fin de semaine de temps à autre. Nous allions souvent au marché des fermiers et revenions à tout coup avec des légumes verts tel que de la bette à carde (drôle de traduction!). C’était sa préférée et souvent le seul légume vert de sa recette. Mes cubes de nourriture en purée pour mes garçons lorsqu’ils étaient petits étaient en grande partie basée sur cette recette. J’ai adapté et ajouté à sa recette au fil des années pour créer ce qui est devenu dans notre maison comme étant la “soupe verte”. Vous pouvez remplacer à peu près n’importe quel légumes verts dans cette recette. C’est vraiment une recette de base pour faire une crème de légumes.
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch each rapini, swiss chards leaves, kale, spinach and coriander.
- 2 zucchini sliced (I often add leftover broccoli or asparagus).
- 5 potatoes (to thicken the soup, I often freeze leftover mash potatoes or cooked rice to use in this soup)
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 large onions
- 3 tbsp of vegetable broth concentrate (powder or liquid). I have discovered the Better than Bouillon brand and it has become my favorite.
- 1tbsp of garlic salt and celery salt
- 1 tsp of pepper
In a large dutch oven or stock pot, place the coarsely chopped rapini and cover with water. Bring to boil and cook for 15 minutes. In a separate pan, fry the chopped onions and the minced garlic in oil for 3-4 minutes or until onion is browned. Add the zucchini and sweat for a couple of minutes. Add the onion mix to the pot with the rapini. Chop all the other greens and add to the pot as well. (If you are not using rapini, you would fry the onions in the stock pot and add everything in there). Add the potatoes cut into small cubes, 3 tbsp of vegetable broth concentrate and the spices. Add enough water to cover the greens completely. Again if you are not using rapini and do not have any liquid yet, you would add 6-8 cups of water or homemade broth.
Cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Remove from heat and using a hand blender (or a blender), puree the mixture.
Serve with crackers for a boost of antioxidants and vitamins!
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