Veggies = super easy soups!

I absolutely LOVE love love soup! So much so that I'm going to tell you all about it!
Vegetable soup is almost impossible to goof up! As long as you think about how long it takes to cook the vegetables and plan accordingly, you should get a good result. Ie: if you want browned onions, throw 'em in before the broth. Carrots and other roots take a bit to cook, so those should be added at the beginning. Anything pre-cooked or frozen should be added at the very end so that these items don't get over cooked and soggy. ick. Added too many veggies? Oops, now you have stew. Still tastes good. See? Hard to goof up.

I have made soup for dinner the past two nights. Each recipe was warming, delicious, nutritious, filling, and so very wallet-friendly!! I got two meals out of my first veggie soup and I'm going to guess that I have leftovers enough from soup two for about 3 more meals. YAY!

Soup 1: A very easy skillet-soup that was made from what I had laying around. Some days are like that. You can also call it a fridge-cleaning-soup if you like, but that doesn't sound so appealing :^)
All I did was saute about half an Onion and a clove of minced Garlic in roughly a Tbsp of light Extra Virgin Olive Oil (light because you don't want the particulates of my unfiltered Olive Oil to burn while you're sauteeing...no good) until the onion was soft. Then I poured in about 1/2 cup Tomato Juice (left over from a can of tomatoes I had strained out the night before) and enough water to cover everything and leave enough room in the skillet for boiling bubbles. I really like Vegetable Broth Bouillon paste, the kind in the jar, so I put a little of that in there for seasoning along with some Tarragon (awesome!), Red Pepper Flakes , for that extra warming factor, and a Bay Leaf. When the broth was simmering, I tossed in 1.5 cups of sliced frozen Zucchini and half a pint of Grape Tomatoes that I sliced in half, as well as about a cup of already cooked and chopped Kale. Then I realized I had some leftover Thanksgiving Turkey in my fridge that should be used instead of wasted, so that got diced and thrown in also. All these I put in at the end because all I want to do is heat them through, not recook them all! I like when the flavors are bright, clean, and simple!

I'd hate to overwhelm you with goodness all in one sitting, so I'll tell you about my beautiful Lentil-Vegetable soup tomorrow.

I hope you have fun cooking soup tonight! Let me know what you cook up and if it was good!!