Tuesday, February 24, 2009

HolisticGuru's Wholesome Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Soup

This soup is different and delicious every time I make it. Just get creative and customize it to your preferences. Think of it as a choose your own adventure story…




Choose a base: 6-8 cups of Chicken or vegetable broth or bouillion
Onion: 1 small, medium or large; sweet, green, white yellow or purple onion
Garlic: 1-10 cloves of garlic, chopped (remember, this is about you, do you love garlic?)
Grain: Leftover brown rice, quinoa, millet, pasta, etc (or you can use uncooked potatoes instead)
Roots: carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, celery all work (choose 1-3 and chop ‘em up)
Other veggies that might need to be used up: broccoli, green beans, squash, etc (as many as you want; chopped)
Greens: escarole, spinach, beet greens, chard, collards, kale, etc (choose one, clean it well and tear it to pieces)
Protein: tofu, tempeh, chicken, beans, fish, etc (I love using leftovers from last night’s baked chicken)
Flavoring: basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, any herbs (choose no more than 2 or 3 unless you are a wild one; start with a teaspoon of each and see how that works)
Salt and pepper

1. Heat a little oil in a large soup pot and sauté the garlic until it is golden.
2. Add your broth and bring to a boil while you are chopping everything.
3. Toss the onion in whole- I’m not kidding, it becomes very sweet this way and creates a shortcut avoiding a n0n-emotional tear-fest.
4. Add ingredients in this order: pre-cooked meat or other protein, hard root veggies, other veggies, grain (pre-cooked), greens, and flavoring. The order doesn’t even really matter, just get the harder veggies in there early on because they take the longest to cook through.
5. Simmer on low for at least 30 mins until all veggies are tender. If you have a slow cooker you can have it cooking the entire time you are at work.
6. Enjoy! And let me know how you did!

2 comments:

Samantha said...

I used to LOOOOVE "Choose your own adventure" books!! This is a cute and fun idea for soup!

Molly said...

Great title! I make something like this every week to have for lunch - either in the slow cooker or my clay pot (oven). This way I don't have to think about lunch for 3-4 days.

It is good for leftovers, I definitely agree! yum!