Since it is snowing and cold outside, I think it’s time to focus on homemade soup to warm our bodies and souls.
Dexter Resident Carol Santoro submitted this go-to recipe that she and her husband Tom love. This is a vegan recipe that mostly requires opening cans and waiting for flavors to simmer together. I’ve included the recipe with a few comments at the end about the minor changes I made.
Minestrone Soup
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 cans Veg-All, drained
28-ounce vegetable broth
1 can red kidney beans (with liquid)
1 (14 ounce) can whole tomatoes (mashed or you can use crushed)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 (8 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 package frozen chopped spinach
Garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup (or slightly more) macaroni
Sauté onions with a little vegetable broth until softened. Add drained Veg-All, the rest of the broth, kidney beans with liquid, half of the frozen spinach, mashed whole tomatoes, tomato paste, stewed tomatoes, basil and lots of chopped garlic. I used four large cloves of garlic. Cook the ingredients for one hour on low heat. Add macaroni and cook until noodles are soft (8-10 minutes).
Tips: Dollop tablespoons of the leftover tomato paste onto waxed paper and freeze. When firm, store in a plastic baggie in the freezer to use as needed. I used the leftover spinach in Spanakopitas, but you could also add the thawed spinach to a half cup low fat mayonnaise or softened cream cheese and half cup sour cream or yogurt for a quick dip (salt and pepper to taste).
Taster’s Comments: My husband Allen was the lucky taster again and stated that he couldn’t believe how good the recipe was. He’s a carnivore, but he didn’t even miss the meat.
Anne’s Comments: I had just bought some fire roasted diced tomatoes, so I substituted 2 (14-ounce) cans for the whole tomatoes and stewed tomatoes. Since my vegetable broth was a 32 ounce carton, I just added it all. Don’t be tempted (as I was) to use more than 1/2 cup of macaroni if you aren’t eating it all at once.
The macaroni in the leftover soup continued to swell as it absorbed liquid, and required additional broth the next day. We also topped the second bowls with some ready-made pesto and that was also good.