Recipe: Best … soup … ever

Every Friday is Health Tips Day at Zen Habits.

OK, I may have oversold this recipe in the headline a bit, but trust me, you’ll love it. It’s easy to make, it’s vegan, it’s healthy, and it is perfection. I can’t get enough of it. Go out and buy the ingredients and make it today!

Ingredients

Various veggies, diced (you can use any kind that you like, but I usually throw in squash (butternut, though any kind is great), celery, carrots, corn, fresh spinach and broccoli — zucchini would be another good choice)
One yellow onion, diced
A couple cloves of garlic, diced
Vegetable bullion, four cubes
1 package pasta (any kind except the longer ones like spaghetti or linguini is good — I like the bow-tie pasta or shell pasta)
1 can each kidney beans and white beans
1 can stewed tomatoes
water
olive oil, a few tablespoons
salt and black pepper and Italian seasoning to taste

Directions

Dice all the veggies and open the cans of beans (and corn if you’re using canned corn); be sure not to skin the squash — just scoop out the seeds and dice it up
Heat up the olive oil in a large pot and saute the onion and garlic
throw in all the veggies except the spinach; stir and heat up until veggies start to get a little soft
Season veggies with some salt, pepper and Italian seasoning
throw in the beans, pasta, stewed tomatoes, and enough water so that the pot is nearly full (not all the way!); heat on high until boiling, then turn down to medium heat
mix vegetable bullion with warm water in a cup until dissolved, and pour into soup; boil until pasta nearly cooked
throw in the spinach a couple minutes before the soup is done; when the pasta is cooked, the soup is done; be sure to season with more salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste — you know when it is seasoned right when you taste it and say, “Oh … my … God!”

Enjoy! You will love this. Serve it to friends, and tell them how you found this recipe on Zen Habits. Or do what I do, and pack it for lunch every day for a week. I never get tired of it.

Update: I forgot an ingredient - stewed tomatoes - so I added it in.

Recipe: Best … soup … ever

Every Friday is Health Tips Day at Zen Habits.

Ingredients

Various veggies, diced (you can use any kind that you like, but I usually throw in squash (butternut, though any kind is great), celery, carrots, corn, fresh spinach and broccoli — zucchini would be another good choice)
One yellow onion, diced
A couple cloves of garlic, diced
Vegetable bullion, four cubes
1 package pasta (any kind except the longer ones like spaghetti or linguini is good — I like the bow-tie pasta or shell pasta)
1 can each kidney beans and white beans
1 can stewed tomatoes
water
olive oil, a few tablespoons
salt and black pepper and Italian seasoning to taste

Directions

Dice all the veggies and open the cans of beans (and corn if you’re using canned corn); be sure not to skin the squash — just scoop out the seeds and dice it up
Heat up the olive oil in a large pot and saute the onion and garlic
throw in all the veggies except the spinach; stir and heat up until veggies start to get a little soft
Season veggies with some salt, pepper and Italian seasoning
throw in the beans, pasta, stewed tomatoes, and enough water so that the pot is nearly full (not all the way!); heat on high until boiling, then turn down to medium heat
mix vegetable bullion with warm water in a cup until dissolved, and pour into soup; boil until pasta nearly cooked
throw in the spinach a couple minutes before the soup is done; when the pasta is cooked, the soup is done; be sure to season with more salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste — you know when it is seasoned right when you taste it and say, “Oh … my … God!”

Posted on 17 March 2007 in Health Tip Day |
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Comments (34)

Samer Says:

March 18th, 2007, 9:31 am

Great recipe there Leo! I usually do the same soup, only with Mexican spices (cumin, coriander, or chili seasoning), and it’s just amazing. I am not a vegetarian (or vegan), but I am trying to eliminate most animal products from my diet. Oh, btw, you can add some lentils, some curry, and make the soup Indian! :)

zenhabits Says:

March 18th, 2007, 12:56 pm

Hi Samer … your variations sound great! I’m gonna give them a try.

mtrauts Says:

March 21st, 2007, 1:21 am

Another tasty variation on this kind of soup is to leave out the tomatoes and instead stir in a couple of tablespoons of pesto at the last minute. It makes for a lighter, zestier soup, great for spring.

zenhabits Says:

March 21st, 2007, 1:29 am

Hi mtrauts … thanks for the suggestion! That sounds like a very yummy variation. That’s going on my list for this week.

Balfour Says:

April 1st, 2007, 22:33 pm

Thanks for the recipe - great inspiration. I made a version of this tonight and it was so good, with more for the week.

zenhabits Says:

April 1st, 2007, 22:49 pm

Glad you liked it Balfour! I’m getting really hungry now thinking about it … I’m putting the ingredients on my shopping list! :) - leo

Nancy Says:

May 2nd, 2007, 7:30 am

Hey, that really is one of the best soups ever! I made a huge pot of it today, and plan to make many more. Thank you!

Leo Says:

May 2nd, 2007, 7:49 am

Glad you liked it! I just made some myself and am lovin’ it.

Jay Says:

May 7th, 2007, 23:09 pm

I make this very soup, except I use curry as the main flavoring agent and omit the noodles.

Kayla Says:

June 1st, 2007, 13:57 pm

I make a soup just like this-except I sometimes add meat. For those that want some extra heartiness its easy to add turkey sausage or lean ground beef.

john Says:

June 15th, 2007, 6:39 am

crap soup. it is for mongs

tru Says:

June 18th, 2007, 17:39 pm

Beautiful soup!

One tip I would add is to cook the pasta separately, and rinse it in cold water to cool. Then add it to the soup.

Not the simplest method, but it will let the pasta hold together better if you have leftovers.

Oh, and try a handful of barley instead of pasta - and cook the soup in a slow-cooker all day. Easiest dinner ever! I love to come home from a long day with my dinner already waiting for me.

Natalie Says:

June 23rd, 2007, 2:00 am

Sounds good, im going to try it.Love the site Leo, you rock!

Angie Hartford Says:

July 8th, 2007, 14:39 pm

That sounds wonderful. I am positive that Heaven is full of lots of delicious soup!

jammer Says:

July 14th, 2007, 2:37 am

This is a knockout and is very nutritious. It’s got protein, vitamins, complex carbs, omega-3 fatty acid, water… very inexpensive, too. I made a big pot last week but with some panca pepper sauce, lots of broccoli, and sauteed garlic. Instead of bullion I used the water from pressure cooking beef ribs. It is important that if you do this you let the water cool slowly first to make the grease solid at the top, (which is tasteless and nasty) then I would just poke a hole in that crud and pour the beef juice from underneath in the pot. Almost fat free and oh so good.

sal Says:

August 4th, 2007, 23:28 pm

This sounds like a great soup and actually very close to one I make myself…Why SOUNDS like?…Because of all the sodium in the cubes as well as all that MSG (goes by many names); the sodium in the stewed tomatoes; and then the addition of salt on top of that.
Better to substitute all that sodium with own made stock(ahead of time and frozen) and with a variety of spices. Experiment ofcourse with various kinds and never too much of any one spice.

MissD Says:

August 14th, 2007, 17:09 pm

I used this recipe to make my first real soup ever. It’s DELICIOUS… and there’s so much of it, I’m eating it for lunch too.

- Instead of pasta or barley I used a cup of soup mix that also had split peas and lentils in it.
- Instead of squash (which we don’t really have in NZ) I used pumpkin.

Thanks for sharing!
:)

Mentalacrobatics Says:

August 15th, 2007, 6:20 am

Thanks for sharing this. How many people does this serve?

Leo Says:

August 15th, 2007, 9:07 am

I couldn’t say how many it serves … it can feed my whole family for at least two nights. Typically, I serve it for dinner to the whole family one night, and I take it to lunch myself for the rest of the week (and even have it for dinner if the rest of the family is eating meat).

MissD Says:

August 15th, 2007, 18:02 pm

At least 6 big serves

Jane Says:

August 20th, 2007, 21:29 pm

This sounds utterly delicious. I LOVE soup. Mmmm. I really liked the way you said that you’ll know when it’s seasoned right

‘you know when it is seasoned right when you taste it and say, “Oh … my … God!”

I laughed. Good one. Nice recipe too.

SJ Says:

August 22nd, 2007, 16:10 pm

Great recipe. It’s so simple to make, and yet so delicious. I made some today, and I note that it’s also very filling.

XTL Says:

August 22nd, 2007, 18:21 pm

I would say this is basically ratatouille with a lot of improvising on the ingredients and spices. I like it.

Juan Says:

August 31st, 2007, 17:26 pm

In my house, they call me “Soup John” because I love soup so much. I eat it with sandwiches, popcorn, rice on the side, you name, I’ve probably done it. This soup is good. I am not a vegan but I try to teach vegetarian dishes and a lot of salad too. This soup was good and my VERY CARNIVOROUS family members liked it as well. Thanks.

dajolt Says:

September 20th, 2007, 3:48 am

I’m tempted to try this, but you didn’t give measures - not even guesses.

So I don’t know how much water and how much veggies you recomment. Same goes for the package of pasta. These come in all kinds of different sizes.

Also it doesn’t say how much soup I’ll get in the end (how many portions?)

So while the idea of making this sounds really tempting, it’s too scary to try if you usually do not cook soup.

Kati Says:

October 22nd, 2007, 22:52 pm

This is the exact same soup that my German hostmom maded on really hot days in the summer. It was so refreshing. Thank you for reminding me of it.

Antonella Says:

November 17th, 2007, 2:17 am

Hello,
you posted a great recipe and please accept my congratulations for it. I am Italian and Italian people are quite fond of vegetable soups, particularly in Florence, where I live and, as a matter of fact, I could share several delicious and ancient recipes which in the past days, especially in the country, served to recycle left-over bread and vegetables picked up directly from the fields.
Speaking about your recipe I assume that it is meant for a large family since a package of pasta ( 500 grams ) in a soup will make a huge quantity and the problem is that, since you are not supposed to reheat cooked pasta or let it sit at room temperature for several hours lest it becomes gluey, I think that whole brown rice could be a good alternative. Besides being healthier, it will make your soup last much longer.
Also, instead of, or added to onion and garlic, you may try a couple of leeks for extra flavor.
Thank you for sharing such wonderful insights in your blog !
Antonella

Patricia - Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworker Says:

December 17th, 2007, 18:27 pm

I will have to make this soup. It sounds great. I do love spinach in my soups. I put it in just about every pot of soup that I make.

Iris M. Gross Says:

February 29th, 2008, 1:43 am

Don’t you love it when people say how great your recipe is, then proceed to tell you how they CHANGED it?! If it’s changed, it’s no longer your recipe!

Great soup, btw, AS IS.

Damaris Says:

April 2nd, 2008, 16:08 pm

This soup sounds delicious. One question… can it be made in a slow cooker? I’ve made other soups in a slow cooker, but they didn’t include pasta. I’m thinking you should add the pasta (pre-cooked about the same time as the spinach… right?

pigsonthewing Says:

April 7th, 2008, 14:28 pm

i make a similar vegan soup by sautéing or roasting diced veggies (i use a combination of 1 zucchini, 1 yellow squash, 1 onion, lots of garlic, 1-2 carrots, and 1 red bell pepper) in a bit of olive oil.

while the veggies are cooking i heat up about 6-8 cups of water with powdered veggie broth* (according to package directions), 3T nutritional yeast, 1-2 tsp dried thyme, 2T tomato paste, 2 tsp black pepper and/or hot chili paste.

once the veggies are done to my liking i add them to the broth and add 1 cup TVP, 1 15oz can of cannellini beans, 1/4 cup instant brown rice, and 1/2 cup frozen chopped collard greens. cover and let cook for 10 minutes until everything is heated through and the rice is tender.

you can use any veggies, spices, beans, pasta/grains, meat substitute you like!

*i use vogue vegebase powdered vegetable broth mix. this stuff is awesome in just about ANYthing and it’s relatively low in sodium (~1400mg/serving)