Raid The Fridge Vegetable & Pasta Soup

The winter is officially upon us and staying warm this year will involve all of the things our mothers taught us…dress in layers, wear your woolly socks, hats and scarves, and don’t forget to eat your soup…oh, yes…lots of soup. I cook so many different types of dishes, but there is nothing quite like that homey, comforting feeling I get from eating a bowl of homemade soup. I love to fill my huge soup cup up to the rim and wrap my chilly fingers around its emanating warmth. Once I get started it’s hard to stay away from that second bowl.

Today was one of those days. I looked in the fridge and pulled out whatever I had. That’s the great thing about soup, it’s a perfect dish for leftovers or just using whatever you have on hand. If you don’t have time to make it to the market, don’t worry, just use your basic pantry items and no one will ever know…

**An original recipe from www.goodfoodgourmet.com

Simple Vegetable Broth

12 cups filtered water

6 black peppercorns

2 teaspoons Coarse salt

1 bunch fresh parsley

2 dried bay leaves

4 large celery ribs, cut and cleaned

4 large carrots, cut and cleaned

1 large bunch leek greens (or 1 large onion)

4 large whole garlic cloves

**mushroom stems (optional)

**asparagus stems (optional)

Add filtered water to a large pot and bring to the boil then add in all of the ingredients….

Bring this back to a boil, then reduce to a slow simmer and cook for 2 hours until liquid is reduced by half.

I freeze my mushroom stems, asparagus stems and dark green heads of leeks and use them in my stock when available. When your stock has reduced taken on a lovely golden color like this strain out all of the vegetables, allow the mixture to cool, pour into lidded containers and freeze.

Instead of freezing, I added the following ingredients directly to the broth and cooked it for another hour until all the veggies were soft…

1 small can tomato paste

2 cups fresh carrot, parsley & celery juice (4 large carrots. 4 large celery ribs, 1 large bunch parsley)

2 large carrots, cleaned & diced

2 large celery ribs, cleaned & diced

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 cup mini pasta, your choice, add last

S&P to taste

Once the veggies were ready I added my mini pasta shells, cooked them until they were tender and then served it piping hot…

www.goodfoodgourmet.com