Do you ever have those Sundays where you just know that the coming week is going to be a hard one? That was my Sunday. I was just exhausted this past weekend and had little to no motivation to meal prep some fancy, new, time consuming meal that I’ve never made before….so…I opted for a classic. I opted for simple. I opted for comfort. I opted for vegetable soup.
**On the plus side, what’s healthier than a big old bowl of vegetables??**
From my previous posts, you’d know that I am in the process of moving…well, getting ready to move. I have been re-organizing, cleaning, clearing, trashing, donating, and trying to sell anything we could. I’ll be moving to Washington in a couple of months, and my boyfriend and I decided that we only want to fill our two cars with as much as we can, and leave the rest. We want a new start. We want simple. So we are saying no to a big moving truck and only keeping what we need/can fit. I spent literally the entire weekend doing as much as I could and I actually did get quite a bit done. But by the end of the day on Sunday, though, I really just wanted to cuddle up with a blanket and a yummy bowl of soup.
I think we can all agree that soup gives us a sense of comfort…am I right?
I didn’t want to make a heavy soup, and I wanted to skip out on meat this week, so I decided on classic vegetable. You can really add anything and everything into your version of vegetable soup, but I am just here to share my version.
Also, crock pots are my saviors.
My local stores didn’t have every ingredient I wanted on sale this week, so I did use a few frozen veggies..which is fine..fresh or frozen are what I like to use. I try and stay away from canned veggies if I can, but hey, use what you can.
Since I did get some of my vegetables frozen. that saved me a little time on prepping. This was such a quick meal to prepare, the longest part is waiting for it to cook in the crock pot. You can even make this soup stove top if you want, but I went with the crock pot because I wanted to let it simmer for a few hours.
I started out by cutting up my onion and celery stalks. I wanted to add in some extra flavor by slightly carmelizing my onions before I put them in the crock pot. I simmered them for a few minutes over the stove and then added in some minced garlic and my chopped celery. I let that brew for a few minutes while I got my other ingredients ready to go.
As soon as I saw my onions starting to slightly brown, I removed the pan from heat.
I got my green beans, carrots, peas, and corn frozen, so no prepping there! You can just throw those bad boys in your crock pop straight from the bag.
For the broth, I went with vegetable broth and a small can of chicken broth (just for a little added flavor). You can do all vegetable, all chicken, whatever your heart desires. I went with vegetable because it was the healthier option and the sodium content was quite a bit less than what it was in chicken broth. (If you remove the chicken broth, this is a perfect vegetarian meal!)
I decided to thrown in some chick peas for protein since I was straying away from meat this week. However, customize your version any way you’d like! You can use kidney beans, ground beef, turkey, etc.
**It was at this moment I realized I would be needing 2 crock pots**
As you can see, I added in some additional veggies that I had laying around the house. I found some pre-diced (thanking my past self for cutting these a few weeks ago when I did) sweet potatoes from a meal prep I made a few weeks ago, so I threw those in my crock pot(s) along with 3 small russet potatoes (diced, of course), and some freshly cut parsley. I also added in some spices before I left my soup to cook. Those spices consisted of salt, pepper, chili powder, crushed red pepper, basil, italian seasoning, and a couple bay leaves.
And that’s it. That’s all there is too it. I wasn’t actually going for a spicy soup, but somehow I made it that way. I mean, it wasn’t spicy spicy, but it definitely has a zing to it. And not going to lie, it tastes freakin’ delicious.
Recipe:
- 3 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 large yellow onion
- 3.5 c. celery
- 3 tbsp. minced garlic
- 1 lbs. frozen peas
- 1 lbs. frozen green beans
- 1 lbs. frozen carrots
- 2 lbs. frozen mixed green beans, peas, and corn
- 6 c. sweet potatoes
- 3 c. russet potatoes
- 2 cans chick peas
- 2 cans italian diced tomatoes
- 3 48 oz. boxes vegetable broth
- 14.5 oz. chicken broth
- 4 bay leaves
- Salt, pepper, basil, chili powder, crushed red pepper, italian seasoning, fresh parsley, to taste
-Heat vegetable oil in pan. Once hot, add in diced onions and cook until transparent. Once transparent, add in cut celery and minced garlic. Simmer until onions start to brown.
-Add in peas, carrots, green beans, corn, chick peas, potatoes, and tomatoes (not drained) into crock pot.
-Once onion mixture is cooked, add into crock pot.
-Add broth into crock pot.
-Add spices.
-Let simmer 4-10 hours.
(I left mine to cook about 8 hours on low-medium heat)
ENJOY!
*Prep Your Meals* 