Today's harvest means soup tonight

Here is what I picked from our garden today. Another small harvest, but added together they will make a nice bowl of soup for two. There were more carrots but I'd already cut them up for the soup pot. I also diced the kohlrabis, cut off the corn, and added an onion and potato from storage, a chopped jalapeno, the purple hull peas, some diced tomatoes, and chopped basil to the soup, too.

The kohlrabi's are small this year, and that poor ear of corn looks pitiful, but the purple hull peas and okra are loving this hot weather. Can't wait to have the watermelon for dessert.

30 minutes later it's soup!

Wow...that looks delicious!

Great harvest. You don't need big harvests every day, just enough for a meal or two at a time. That's what's so great about SFG.
Nice soup. Wish I was there.

Looks awesome, Ander! (Except for the okra... I have issues with okra! You keep the okra, I'll keep the limas. )

That soup looks yummy !!

Your soup looks delicious. I have been wanting to learn how to make vegetable soup. Do you have a recipe for this ?

Any help or suggestions appreciated.

I don't follow a recipe for veggie soup. I just use whatever I have on hand.

Basically I start with a mirepoix (meer-pwah) - a 2-1-1 mix of onions, carrots, and celery, diced small. I saute them in a soup pot in a little butter, fat, or oil until nearly tender. Then I take whatever other fresh veggies I want to use, chop or dice them if needed so all are roughly uniform in size, add them to the soup pot, and cover them with water. (I add them in order of cooking time. Something like a potato will go in and cook for a while before I add something that is quick cooking, such as chopped greens or okra.) Salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pot and simmer until all the veggies are nearly tender, adding a little more hot water if needed during the cooking to maintain enough stock, but be careful not to dilute the flavor too much. Then I usually add a can of tomatoes or some tomato juice and let it all simmer until the flavors are blended and the veggies are tender. I like to add chopped basil to my veggie soup, although other herbs are good, too. Experiment to find your own favorites. If needed for extra flavor, I might add just a touch more of olive oil or bacon grease for seasoning.

If I have leftover meat broth I sometimes add it for extra flavor. Sometimes I add minced garlic the last seconds of cooking the mirepoix. I also save leftover veggies and their cooking water in a "soup jar" in the 'fridge and add that to my soup. Potato water is especially good in veggie soup in place of part of the water. In winter when I don't have fresh veggies from the garden I substitute canned or frozen peas, corn, green beans, mixed vegetables, etc. If using canned corn or peas I include the liquid from the can, but I drain beans, mixed vegetables, and green beans before adding to soup. That's personal preference.

I usually try to stay away from strong-tasting veggies such as broccoli or bell peppers, but others may like them, so again, it's just a matter of personal taste. You can't really add anything "wrong" to veggie soup. I've even added leftover diced sweet potatoes or chili beans. It's all good. You can also add barley or small pasta to stretch the soup. Mine never turns out the same way twice.

Sometimes I make a minestrone-style soup and add canned cannelloni beans, chopped greens, and some shell macaroni.

The short answer to your question would be, just throw a bunch of chopped veggies in a pot, cover with water, and simmer until done. Season as desired.

It's all the extras and combinations that make the differences in flavor. Taste your soup while cooking and if you don't like it, try adding different things until you get something you like.

Let us know how yours turns out.

Ander, that is a great post! Thanks for sharing. You are making me hungry for soup. I don't make a whole lot of soup until wintertime...and it's getting cold enough that it's starting to sound really good!

I don't have a soup jar, but I do sometimes keep soup bag(s) or container(s) in the freezer. I keep two types: One is components for stock (chicken backs, necks, other carcass pieces, ends of onions, that last piece of sad-looking celery, meat juices, etc.) and the other one is leftover veggies -- half a cup of kernel corn, a little diced onion, peas etc., that are already cooked and should not be part of the stock-making process.

that looks awesome -- it's been grey, chilly (45F/7C) and drizzly here for two days.

Off to make the beef stew I've been planning.

We had beef stroganoff last night, yum! Even better than the tri-tip steak it started out as a couple days ago.

Megan wrote:Ander, that is a great post! Thanks for sharing. You are making me hungry for soup. I don't make a whole lot of soup until wintertime...and it's getting cold enough that it's starting to sound really good!

I don't have a soup jar, but I do sometimes keep soup bag(s) or container(s) in the freezer. I keep two types: One is components for stock (chicken backs, necks, other carcass pieces, ends of onions, that last piece of sad-looking celery, meat juices, etc.) and the other one is leftover veggies -- half a cup of kernel corn, a little diced onion, peas etc., that are already cooked and should not be part of the stock-making process.

SMART! in my house nearly all of that goes directly into the compost bin... I should make stock before I send it to the compost bin.

In the spring/summer, mine does too. It's only about now I start to think about doing that.... so, a very timely reminder for me!

The nice thing about soup, is you can use just about anything.

Last night did not have quite enough split peas left in the bag for a pot of soup, so added gleanings from clearing out the garden bed, (almost done) There just wasn't enough of anything to prepare on it own, but together it was great.

1/2 C dried split peas
5 C Smoked ham hock broth (I had that on hand, could use chicken, beef broth or just water)
GARDEN GLEANINGS:
3 smallish carrots,
1 onion,
8 green beans,
2 yellow beans,
5 broad beans,
3 tomatoes that were not too pretty
1 tiny zucchini
1 bay leaf that the wind had blown off the baby bay laurel plant,
ITEMS ON HAND
1 small potato (not home grown)
peas and corn leftovers from the fridge

chopped and cooked the carrots and onion in butter, added the split peas, bay leaf, much more broth than usually used to prepare that amount of split peas and simmered for 45 minutes.
Added sliced beans, chopped tomato, potato, simmered another 15 minutes
finally added the diced zucchini, cooked corn and peas just before serving so they would be warmed but not mushy.
and had a nice loose soup, with a pretty silky texture and those few veggies floating around.

My clan loves soups, doubly when it's cold and damp, so I'm given to making what has been dubbed "garbage soup" -- what doesn't go in the garbage, goes in the soup.

It's a great way to clean out the fridge, and get one more meal out of all the little odds and ends -- chopped meats and/or chicken, odds and ends of leftover veggies -- don't forget the leftover mashed potatoes, too - -they do a bang-up job of thickening soups while adding flavor and not many calories.

If I'm short somewhere, I can always add a handful of lentils or macaroni, or a can of beans to "bulk it up" a little, too, and a can of tomato soup usually makes a great way to marry all the flavors, too.