It's What's For Dinner - Soup!
It’s cold, and I am too. Boyfriend has a nice fireplace we have been using, and I decided we were going to have soup tonight. I have used several variations of this recipes for 5 or 6 years now. This is definitely an Almost Accidental Vegetable Soup, because every time I cook it, something seems to have to be different. I love adding zucchini to it, but the grocery store was out of it today. A couple of versions ago the store didn’t have fresh broccoli, so I started using frozen. Works great. Started to substitute regular squash in tonight’s version, but when I warmed up the frozen variety I didn’t care for it much. So, no squash tonight. Here is the most standard version I can give you of the recipe.
Almost Accidental Vegetable Soup
8 cups broth (you can use chicken or vegetable. This time I used chicken)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
10 oz package matchstick carrots
1 large onion, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
1 10 oz package spinach, torn
1 17 oz bag frozen broccoli
1 15 oz can peas, drained
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon kosher salt (I use a little more to taste)
I would have also used 1 large or 2 small zucchini, diced – but the grocery store was out of them
I was in a hurry, so I brought the broth to boil in another pot. This saves some time, but you do not have to do that if you start it early enough before your meal.
Standard recipe and directions: Put olive oil, onion, garlic and parsley in a Dutch oven and heat on MEDIUM HIGH. Cook for about 5-10 minutes, until onion is a nice brown. While the onion is browning, warm up the broccoli in a microwave safe dish for 4-6 minutes. You want it warm, but not overcooked. Save the zucchini until the last step. Add all the ingredients to the cooked onion and garlic (start with the broth, and be careful if you have heated it before hand) and bring to a hard boil. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrot and spinach are tender. Add the zucchini in the last 5 minutes, continue cooking until the zucchini is tender. Serve and enjoy!
Shortcut directions: If you decide to warm up the broth ahead of time like I did, add the tomato paste, carrots and spinach to the broth and warm on medium high. Then when the onion and garlic are cooked, add the heated broth and all other veggies to the onion and garlic. I then brought it to a hard boil. Continue directions as above: cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrot and spinach are tender. Add the zucchini in the last 5 minutes, continue cooking until the zucchini is tender. Serve and enjoy!
Leftovers can be reheated or frozen to enjoy later.
We also had a rotisserie chicken with the soup, and I chopped up a little of it into our bowls, as well as scarfing a good bit of chicken straight off the bone. 
In fact, the chicken was so good I decided to boil the bones and make my own chicken broth for next time.
Even though I used the chicken broth today, I have used vegetable broth several other times as well. You can also substitute other vegetables freely. Throw in whatever veggies are your favorites, leave out any that you don’t care for. You can use chopped cabbage instead of spinach for one, add celery if you like it for another. Just try to keep the ratio close to size for whatever vegetable you are trading out in the recipe. Feel free to ask me a question about any substitutions if you like. So, if you are cold I highly recommend my Accidental Soup. It’s quick, hearty and warm! Excuse me while I go cozy up to that fireplace with my warm bowl of soup. Boyfriend bought some doughnuts for dessert, I’ll catch ya later! Angela
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