Soup

There's something comforting about homemade Soup. To that end, here are six vegetarian soup recipes to help you through the day, including West African Peanut Soup and Smokey Tomato Soup. Enjoy!

WINTER VEGETABLE BEAN SOUP WITH PESTO

This recipe, from FamilyTime, begins, “The easy-to-make basil pesto adds great flavor to this hearty soup, featuring carrots, potatoes, turnips and leeks. Best of all, it's ready in less than an hour.”

Serves: 10 servings (1-1/2 cups each); Prep Time: 25 minutes; Cook Time: 30 minutes

To view this online, click here.

Ingredients

2 medium carrots, diced (about 2/3 cup)

3 medium potato, peeled and diced (about 3 cups)

1 medium turnip, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)

2 large leeks, white part only, sliced (about 2 cups)

2 stalks celery, sliced (about 1 cup)

5-1/4 cups Swanson® Vegetable Broth (Regular or Certified Organic)

1 can (about 19 ounces) white kidney beans (cannellini), rinsed and drained

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Easy Basil Pesto

Directions

Heat the carrots, potatoes, turnip, leeks, celery and 1 3/4 cups broth in a 6-quart saucepot over medium-high heat to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender-crisp.

Reserve 1/2 cup of broth for the Easy Basil Pesto. Stir the remaining broth, beans, bay leaf and red pepper in the saucepot and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Remove the bay leaf. Serve topped with the Easy Basil Pesto.

Easy Basil Pesto: Place 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves, 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, 3 cloves garlic and 1/2 cup reserved broth in a food processor or blender. Cover and process until smooth.

Serving Suggestion: Serve with Italian bread sticks. For dessert serve lemon bars.

HERBED CARROT SOUP



From the December 2005 issue of Runner's World; reprinted from HerbWise: Growing, Cooking, WellBeing, by Bruce Burnett



Ingredients

2 pounds of carrots, chopped

1 large onion, diced

6 sprigs of fresh parsley, 3 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon of dried thyme, and 6 six black peppercorns, bundled together so that they can be easily removed after cooking

2 cloves garlic, crushed

4 Tbs of butter

6 C of vegetable stock

Freshly grated mace or nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Lightly sauté the onion and garlic in the butter. Add the stock and carrots and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the bundle of herbs and continue to simmer for another 20 minutes. Remove the herbs, allow the soup to cool, and put it through the blender in batches. Reheat the soup over low heat while adding the mace or nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with some fresh, homemade bread and garnish with some fresh parsley and a little chopped fresh thyme.

Note: The original recipe called for vegetable or chicken stock.

SMOKY TOMATO SOUP

This yumminess is from Alexa Weibel at The New York Times cooking enewsletter. For this recipe, Alexa wrote, "A grown-up version of grilled cheese’s best friend, this tomato soup is subtly complex thanks to the addition of ancho chile and smoked paprika, but it still has all of the nostalgic qualities of a really good tomato soup: It’s silky, robust and wonderfully tomato-y. Taking a cue from this classic tomato soup, this recipe calls for sweating the onion and garlic with a little flour to thicken the soup, which creates a velvety texture that doesn’t hide the pure tomato flavor. Simmering a whole ancho chile in the soup produces an undercurrent of heat; but if you prefer more spice, pluck off the stem and blend the chile into your finished soup rather than discarding it. Adjust the amount of cream and the level of heat as you like and the soup will taste just right to you."

Prep Time: 15 minutes; Cook Time: 1-1/4 hours; Total Time: 1-1/2 hours; Yield: 4 to 6 servings (about 8-1/2 cups)

To view this online, go to https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1026266-smoky-tomato-soup. While you're at it, if you haven't already subscribed to The New York Times cooking enewsletter, I highly recommend doing so. Great recipes, guides, and more.

Note: This recipe originally called for chicken or vegetable stock. Since this is a vegetarian blog, I’ve omitted the chicken part.

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 large yellow onion (about 1 pound), minced

Salt and black pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes

3 cups vegetable stock

8 fresh thyme sprigs

2 tablespoons sugar

1 ancho chile

Crema (or sour cream thinned with water), for serving

Chives (optional), for serving

grilled cheese (optional)

Preparation

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 minutes.

Add the garlic, crushed red pepper and paprika, and cook until fragrant, 1 minute.

Sprinkle the flour on top and cook, stirring constantly, until sizzling and crackling, about 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and their juices, squeezing the tomatoes to crush them as you add them to the pot. Stir in the stock, thyme sprigs and sugar. Drop in the ancho chile (plop!) and bring to a simmer over medium-high.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover almost all the way and simmer, stirring occasionally, until flavors deepen and tomatoes break down, about 45 minutes.

Pluck out the ancho chile and thyme sprigs, then transfer the soup to a blender (in batches, if needed) and blend until creamy. (Alternatively, use an immersion blender to blend it right in the pot.) Give the soup a taste and adjust seasoning if desired. If you’d like to increase the smoky flavor, you can blend in a portion of the stemmed and deseeded chile, if desired.

Transfer to bowls, top with a swirl of crema and a sprinkle of chives. Serve with grilled cheese, if desired.

WEST AFRICAN PEANUT SOUP

This interesting soup comes from Drumnwrite in Allrecipes. The recipe begins, "Tomatoes and peanut butter? YES! The first time I tried this at a health food restaurant, I was hooked. About 5 years of tweaking the recipe to my personal taste has created a spicy, sweet favorite amongst my friends and family. Luckily there is always enough for everyone!"

Prep Time: 20 minutes; Cook Time: 1 hour; Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes; Servings:10

To view this online, go to https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/68530/west-african-peanut-soup/.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, very finely diced

2 large bell peppers, (any color) finely chopped

6 large cloves garlic, minced

1 (28 ounce) can chopped tomatoes with juice

8 cups vegetable broth

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 cup uncooked rice

1 (18 ounce) jar creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Cook onion, bell pepper, and garlic until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes with their juice, vegetable broth, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Add rice to soup and stir. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 25 minutes, or until rice is tender.

When rice is cooked, whisk in peanut butter and return to a simmer, and serve. Garnish with chopped roasted peanuts, if desired.

PAUL MCCARTNEY'S LENTIL SOUP

This is from Annie Campbell at Allrecipes, and begins, "Music may have taken Paul McCartney on his biggest life journey, but food has played a pretty significant role in his story, too. Early on, his eating habits looked fairly traditional—think sugar butties, egg and chips, and classic British roasts. But by 1975, after marrying Linda McCartney, his plate—and his philosophy—looked very different..."

Annie goes on to write about Paul and Linda McCartney, vegetarianism, and "The Simpsons", before finishing with, "Seriously: this soup is one-pot, two steps, and undeniably comforting. Sure, it's a sensible meal—budget-friendly, easy to make in large batches—but it's also deeply satisfying. Hearty and warming, with simple, cozy flavors that taste better the longer they sit. A soup nobody could have complaints about."

To view this online, go to https://www.allrecipes.com/paul-mccartney-lentil-soup-11892596.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 cup carrots, chopped

2 celery sticks, chopped

1/2 cup lentils

1 bay leaf

2-1/4 cups vegetable stock or water

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley

Directions

Heat the oil in a large stock pot and add the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery. Cook until softened.

Add the lentils, bay leaf, and vegetable stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the lentils are tender, about 15–20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, stir in the parsley, and remove the bay leaf before serving.

VEGAN FRENCH ONION SOUP

When I was growing up, my dad used to make French Onion Soup. This was usually done on Sundays, frequently when my grandparents were visiting, and especially around holidays. So, of course, I had to check out this recipe.

This absolute yumminess is from Nicole, creator of Oh My Veggies. (Hint: If you've never visited Oh My Veggies, I highly recommend visiting. Great site!

Anyway, this recipe begins, "This Vegan French Onion Soup is comfort food at its finest. Tender onions are simmered in a savory broth, topped with cheesy toast, and baked to perfection."

Prep Time: 10 minutes; Cook Time: 50 minutes; Total Time: 1 hour; Servings: 4

To view this online, go to https://ohmyveggies.com/vegan-french-onion-soup/. While you're at it, you might want to sign up for emails from the site. Also, Nicole has a couple of cookbooks for sale (Weeknight One-Pot Vegan Cooking; Vegan Christmas Cookbook), and you can see about buying them when you visit the site. (I plan to buy 'em after Christmas.)

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

4 yellow onions thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic minced

2 bay leaves

2 sprigs of thyme

1-1/2 cups white wine such as Chardonnay

6 cups vegetable broth

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

4 slices baguette

1 cup vegan mozzarella cheese shreds

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C, or gas mark 4).

Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook slowly for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring often, until they are lightly caramelized. Add the garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Cook for 1 minute. Add the white wine and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until slightly reduced. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the balsamic vinegar and stir. Remove the bay leaves. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Spoon the soup into four ovenproof serving dishes. Top each bowl with a slice of baguette, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup (30 g) of the vegan cheese shreds. Place the bowls in the oven for 3 to 5 minutes, until the vegan cheese is melted and the baguette is slightly toasted.