season of soup

There is a big soup kick going on at our house. Between the weather, meal planning efforts and trying to stick to grocery budget all things are pointing to soup. I made a pretty tasty on the other day - Creamy Vegan Broccoli. I think from years of cooking for a living I sometimes, well most times have a hard time following a recipe or keeping track of what I put in. I have made some tasty soups that I could never make again from adding a pinch of this or that and then having no idea what was in it if I tried to write it down....But this time as soon as I was done and tasted it I sat down and tried my best to remember everything. Of course the measurements are my best guess but it should work out.

Creamy Vegan Broccoli Soup


In a large pot I sauteed:

1/2 cup onion
1 small zucchini
1 and a 1/2 cups chopped carrot
2 stalks celery

Then I added:

6 or 7 cups chopped broccoli
3L water
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 or 2 tbsp miso paste
2 tsp grainy mustard
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
generous sprinkle sea salt and fresh cracked pepper

And cooked until veg is mushy. Then buzz up with the hand blender and there you go. Stick a few jars in the freezer for those days you don't feel like cooking and you still have enough for lunch and leftovers.

I also made a great and easy black bean soup. I had bought a big container of Que Pasa salsa from Costco and I needed to use it up so I cooked up 2 or 3 cups of dried black beans which I had soaked over night and drained them. Then sauteed up what ever random veg I had, some celery, onion, carrot and little peice of zucchini, and added about 1 and a 1/2 cups fresh salsa, 1 tsp or so of cumin, the cooked black beans and veg stock to cover and simmered for about 15 min. Then I gave it a buzz with my trusted hand blender and added a little water to reach the right consistency, some s & p and there you go!
Top with some plain greek yogurt, a spoonful of salsa and some chopped cilantro. Delicious!