Soup — it’s the easiest way to warm up your kitchen on a cold day and to feed yourself and your family in one delicious and healthy bowl. But you don’t need a recipe to make soup, especially if you have fresh farmer’s market vegetables on hand. Nearly any vegetable can be turned into soup with a little time and effort.
Here’s why soup is great and a step-by-step guide to transforming nearly any kind of vegetable into delicious, nourishing soup. Try it with a freshly made grilled cheese sandwich with bread and cheese from the farmer’s market.
1. Soup is quick and easy and perfect for leftovers -making a big batch of soup on the weekend is an easy way to ensure that there is always a hot, healthy option for lunch or dinner throughout a busy workweek. Need a quick snack? Pour some leftover soup in a coffee mug and heat it in the microwave for a fast, convenient snack.
2. This year’s flu season is intense, but soup can help –vegetables have tremendous anti-inflammatory properties, and a steaming bowl of vegetable soup can reduce mucus and help you cough up mucus. If making a homemade batch of vegetable soup doesn’t fit into your busy schedule, try a fresh (not canned) soup.
3. Soup is affordable – making a warm, healthy soup doesn’t require a big investment. All you need are some fresh vegetables and broth. You can buy broth or make your own from a leftover carcass or bones. And you can throw leftovers into the soup if you have some on hand—anything from pasta and vegetables to roasted chicken.
Nearly any vegetable will make tasty soup. Sweet potato, zucchini, squash, turnip, tomato, celery, mushrooms, onions, leeks, cabbage, kale, and chard. Potatoes, rutabaga, celeriac, cauliflower, broccoli — the list goes on. To make a soup from any vegetable, you will need 1 to 2 pounds vegetables, some aromantics, such as onion, garlic, or leeks, olive oil or unsalted butter, salt and pepper and 4 to 6 cups stock. Choose and weigh 1 to 2 pounds of vegetables, then cut up the vegetables and aromatics: 1 leek and 2 cloves of garlic. Heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sauté aromatics. Brown the vegetable and then season them. At the end, add broth and cover and simmer for 30 minutes. You can also puree it if you want to!
The Victory Park Farmer’s Market takes place every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the 2900 block of North Sierra Madre Boulevard. Call (626) 449-0179 or visit www.pasadenafarmersmarket.org for more information.
