I had 6 cups of homemade vegetable stock frozen (collect vegetable scraps in large freezer bags --- cover 2 gallons worth with about 3 quarts of water, boil, then simmer for a hour or so. Strain then freeze the stock). I also had some kale and carrots from my local farmers market. Inspired by a recipe from simplyrecipes.com, I made a really rich, full flavored soup. Roasting, then pureeing some of the vegetables is a great wrinkle to try.
Roasting the vegetables for this soup takes vegetable soup to a new level. I am looking forward to using this basic techniques again. I hope you enjoy it.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
3 medium carrots, cut into 1/2" slices
2 tomatoes cut into wedges (or 1 15 ounce can of no added salt tomatoes when tomatoes aren't in season locally)
1 yellow onion cut into 6-8 wedges
6 big cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes ( I actually used eggplant as I didn't have squash)
1 bunch of kale, stacked, rolled up then thinly sliced
1 can cannellini beans, drained or 1 1/2 cups freshly cooked white beans
6 cups vegetable stock
1 heaping teaspoon dried thyme or a palm full of fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Lightly oil a rimmed baking pan. Arrange the carrots and squash (eggplant) on one end and the onions, garlic, and tomato on the other. Roast until everything is slightly browned --- maybe 30 mins.
Scoop the onions, tomatoes, and garlic into a blender. Puree the vegetables briefly.
Add the stock and mix briefly. Bring the stock with blended veggies to a simmer.
Add the kale, thyme, and bay leaf. Cook until the kale is tender --- about 30 mins.
Add the carrots, squash (eggplant), and white beans.
Cook for about 5 more minutes. Remove the bay leaf and the thyme sprigs if you used fresh thyme.