Hearty Vegetable Soup

This recipe is part of Take the Pantry and Freezer Challenge series on this blog, and I made this in Week 2 of the challenge.

This really is one of our favourite soup recipes. It is my grandmother’s recipe and my mom has been making this soup for us for as long as I can remember (she still does). I cook it for us at home now too and both my hubby and I enjoy this soup so much that I always have a container or two, or more, ready in the freezer. It’s for this reason that I always cook this soup in large batches and freeze for use as needed (it freezes very well).

As you can see by the ingredients below there are lots of veggies in this soup and it’s very nutritious. It’s also very filling. We enjoy a nice, hot bowl of this hearty vegetable soup in both summer and winter. It is nicest when it’s a bit chilli but if you’re not a fan you can leave out the chillies. The good thing about this recipe is that you can mix and match the veggies that you have at home so you don’t always have to include for example cauliflower and broccoli if you only have cauliflower in the fridge. The taste will change a bit depending on the combination of veggies that you use, and the quantities, but it’s still yummy!

As I am doing the pantry and freezer challenge this month I used a packet of lentil and barley soup mix with veggies instead of adding lentils and barley individually. I also added a whole tin of corn kernels to this soup and instead of a fresh tomato I added a whole tin of chopped tomatoes. It still tasted good! Here’s how to prepare this hearty vegetable soup.

Ingredients:

Vegetables: 2 Onions, 2 Potatoes, 2 Green peppers, 3 Carrots, 1 Tomato, ½ head Cauliflower, ½ head Broccoli, 4 Baby Marrows, 1 mug Peas.

½ mug of Rice

½ mug Lentils

½ mug Barley

5 Tbsp. Sunflower Oil

2 Tsp. Sunflower Oil

Salt, Pepper, Aromat to taste

Chopped Parsley to taste

3 Tsp. Paprika

1 Chicken stock cube

Chilli Peppers (optional)

Preparation:

Finely chop onions and set aside. Peel and chop the potatoes. Chop the green peppers, tomato, and chillies if using, and break up the cauliflower and broccoli into small florets. Cut off the bottom and top bits off carrots (peeled) and baby marrows and slice them. Rinse the rice, lentils and barley.

Method:

For this quantity of vegetables I use a large 8-litre stock pot.

Fry the onions in 5 tbsp. oil for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Then add all the veggies, rice, lentils, barley and stock cube and allow to sweat for another 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently, and if necessary, add a bit of water to prevent the veggies from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Then add enough water to cover, and a bit more, depending on how much soup you would like to have. Bring to the boil then cook on moderate heat until veggies, rice, lentils and barley are done which is about an hour and a half.

Then, heat up 2 teaspoons sunflower oil in a small jug, add the paprika spice and stir until dissolved. Add this to the soup and bring to the boil. Season with salt, pepper, Aromat and chopped parsley to taste. Enjoy! This soup is delicious on a cold winter night with a slice of warm, buttered bread.