Winter Vegetable Soup please. It’s a new year and it’s time to get back to healthy eating, starting with this vegetable soup. This soup is a great way to clear out your vegetable drawer and provide a hearty and healthy meal at the same time. I have to admit that my kids gave me some major eye rolls when I told them they were having vegetable soup for dinner, they were less than thrilled. I was pleasantly surprised when we sat down and all 3 ate their entire bowls. I actually heard one of them say…”wow, this soup is actually really, really good!” Score! I know this sounds weird but I get a little giddy inside when I throw 10 different types of vegetables in a bowl and my kids eat everything….I’m always hopeful, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
Okay, so this soup is really easy, it just requires a lot of chopping. You can either chop as you go or have you veggies already chopped before you start assembling the soup.
Once your veggies are chopped and thrown in your dutch oven or soup pan you can add the chicken broth and chopped tomatoes. Bring the soup to a boil and reduce to simmer and cover for about 10 minutes until the veggies are cooked through.
Remove the bay leaves and add chopped spinach and S&P to taste and you are all set. Serve it up with some chopped fresh parsley or grated romano cheese and you have a healthy meal that hopefully your kids will eat too! PS, I served this with a side of broiled Naan bread topped with a sprinkle of cheese because it’s somewhat of a soup rule, at least in our house anyways, that you always need to have a little bit of bread to dip into the soup!
- 2 tsp good quality olive oil
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- 2 leeks, white parts only chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 Tbsp chopped thyme
- 1 medium zucchini, chopped
- 1 bell pepper (not green), diced
- 2 medium carrots, chopped
- 2 stalks celery with leafy tops, chopped
- 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
- 5 C organic chicken broth
- 2 C spinach, stems removed and chopped
- S&P to taste
- Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and leaks and and saute for 5 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and saute for another minute.
- Add remaining ingredients except for spinach and S&P. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer, continue to simmer with lid on until vegetables are cooked through - approximately 10 minutes.
- Turn off heat and remove bay leaves and add chopped spinach. Season woth S&P to taste.
- Top with fresh chopped parsley or grated romano cheese.
