Soup, Glorious Soup

Mmmmm...I love soup. There's nothing better than hot soup on a cold winter day. I especially love the taste of Campbell's Tomato Soup. I've been making all kinds of tomato soup recipes, trying to duplicate that velvety taste without all of the salt and HFCS, but so far, no luck.

I did, however, make this yummy soup. It may not look all that tasty, but it was. The whole family ate it with no complaints -- a red letter day. I think I got it from the cookbook The 30-Minute Vegan. I did change it slightly -- I added an entire jalapeno instead of a tablespoon, and I used chopped cabbage instead of sliced.

Quinoa Vegetable Soup

serves 6



7c water or vegetable stock

3T soy sauce

3/4c uncooked quinoa, rinsed if needed

1 1/2c chopped purple potatoes (or whatever potato you want to use)

1 large carrot, sliced

3/4c diced yellow onion

4 large garlic cloves, minced

1c chopped cabbage

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

2 large tomatoes, chopped

1/4c minced fresh cilantro

1/4c minced fresh Italian parsley

1 tsp sea salt, or to taste

1/2 tsp black pepper, or to taste

Add quinoa to water and soy sauce in a large pot over med-high heat.

Begin cutting the veggies and add them to the pot as you go in this order: potatoes, carrot, onion, garlic, cabbage, jalapeno, and tomatoes

Cook until potatoes are tender and quinoa is cooked, about 20 min from the time the quinoa was added.

Add the cilantro, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Stuffed Butternut Squash

My dh and kids liked this recipe, which makes it an automatic keeper. The only thing I'd change would be to add in some beans or something. It didn't keep me full for long. It also made way too much stuffing for one squash. It probably would have stuffed 3 -- at least 2, anyway. It was quite tasty, anyway.

Stuffed Butternut Squash
serves 4
1 med onion, minced
2 med carrots, shredded
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 1/2c cooked brown rice
1 T minced fresh parsley
1 tsp dried sage
salt & pepper to taste
1 large winter squash, halved and seeded
1c hot water
Water sautee the onion, carrot, and bell pepper til softened, about 5 min. Stir in the garlic & turmeric. Then stir in the rice, parsley, and sage. Season w/salt & pepper to taste. Mix well and spoon mixture into the squash cavities.

Pour the water into a 6-qt oval slow cooker and add the squash halves, stuffing side up. Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours, til squash is tender. I don't have an oval slow cooker, so I cut the squash's "neck" off so the halves would fit -- I had to overlap one with the other, but I'd washed off the outside of the squash, so it was okay. I tucked the "necks" in on the sides. It worked okay, though it wasn't as pretty as it would have been if I'd had an oval cooker.