I made THE best vegetable soup last night!

Here's the recipe: Cooking Classy Vegetable Soup I usually make vegetable soup with meat (ground beef or turkey) so I was looking for a strictly vegetable soup recipe. This one is great and really flexible. I used a bag of frozen soup vegetable mix (corn, carrots, peas, green beans) instead of the individual elements, and a combination of chicken stock and vegetable broth, and whole canned tomatoes, chopped, which I think are a little saucier than diced. I also used oregano and basil because I dislike thyme. And I threw in some chopped baby bok choy that I needed to use up, only a cup and a half or so. AND I left out the potatoes and instead stirred in 3/4 cup orzo for the last 10-15 cooking minutes. So you can see that you can do pretty much what you want with it.   I think the flavor keys are good stock/broth (and not necessarily low-sodium, or maybe a mix) and canned tomatoes that have some sauciness to them. A splash of tomato juice might add some of that flavor if all you have is diced. The bok choy added a little bit of sweetness, I think. I would definitely put cabbage of some sort into this again. My husband and I each had two bowls and I just had another bowl for lunch. Just thought I'd share since there's still a lot of winter cold ahead for most of us.


Ingredients

2 1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion (1 medium)

2 cups peeled and chopped carrots (about 4)

1 1/4 cups chopped celery (about 3)

4 cloves garlic , minced

4 (14.5 oz) cans low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth

2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes (undrained)

3 cups peeled and 1/2-inch thick diced potatoes (from about 3 medium)

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp dried thyme

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 cups chopped frozen or fresh green beans

1 1/4 cups frozen or fresh corn

1 cup frozen or fresh peas


Instructions

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.

Add onions, carrots, and celery and saute 4 minutes then add garlic and saute 30 seconds longer.



Add in broth tomatoes, potatoes, parsley, bay leaves, thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste (for more flavor add in more dried herbs as desired).



Bring to a boil, then add green beans.



Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 - 30 minutes, then add corn and peas and cook 5 minutes longer.