Recipe: Creamy Vegetable Soup

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This recipe takes a little explanation.  I cook mostly vegetarian/vegan for many reasons, but also work to diversify my protein sources because it’s too easy to rely on beans (and legumes), tofu, tempeh, and seitan.  So I try to work with higher-protein vegetable sources too.  That’s one reason I keep parboiled spinach in my freezer – heat that sucker up, add a little lemon juice and pepper, and wham, 5 grams of tasty protein.

This dish is a kitbash of several dishes, centered around a recipe that used creamed vegetables for a soup.  My goal was to get a decent-tasting cream of vegetable soup to use as a main dish with one or two other vegetables.

 

  • 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
  • 1 medium chopped onion
  • 1 cup sliced mushrooms
  • 3 cups broccoli florets
  • 2 medium potatoes, sliced
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 tsp sage leaves, dried
  • 1 tsp marjoram leaves, dried
  • 1 tsp ground thyme
  • 1 tsp basil leaves, dried
  • 1 tsp oregano leaves, dried
  • 1 tsp dill, ground
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  1. Saute onions in 1 tbsp olive oil until transparent.
  2. Add mushrooms, broccoli, potatoes, water, sage, marjoram, thyme, basil, oregano, dill, pepper, salt
  3. Bring to boil, then simmer until everything is soft – about 30 minutes.  Stir occasionally and break vegetables apart – when they do break up easy you’re done.
  4. Puree in blender or in immersion blender.
  5. Add lemon juice, paprika, remaining olive oil.
  6. Reheat until hot.  Note this doesn’t take long, and that it will make really “gloopy” bubbles if you heat to quickly and splatter like crazy.

The results?

This was shockingly good.  I had expected mediocre that I could improve, but instead it’s good.  The lemon juice and Paprika add a kick to the taste, the potatos add a nice thick feel, the mushrooms add a good meaty sense, and the overall dish has a Grecian/Mediterranean taste to it.

I imagine if you served this with dark bread it’d be delicious, or sprinkled with chopped olives or feta cheese would make it really delightful.

A few tweaks could turn this into something great – so I think I’m going to focus on the “Greek” taste and tweak it in that direction.

Definite success.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.