Wendy's Wonderings

Recipe Swap Friday...


Today is Friday, and that means it's time to post a recipe. I had several I wanted to post, but I decided to go with this one. Some parts of the country are starting to experience the cooler weather of fall. Not neccesarily here in east Texas, but some places in the country. ;-) Cooler weather means it's time to make SOUP. So, I'm posting my recipe for home made vegetable soup. You'll need a BIG pot. You can change the amount of any of the veggies, or omit/add if what you like. These are just the ones I prefer to use. I have used others things as well if I had them on hand. Enjoy! :-)

Homemade Vegetable Soup

2 cups of frozen corn
2 cups of frozen peas
2 cups of frozen green beans
2 cups of fresh baby carrots (those tiny ones you can buy in the little packages. OR, you can just use the big ones and cut them into coins. Just try to make sure they are about the same size.)
1 large onion, diced small
1 cup of chopped, fresh celery (or more if you like.)
2 cloves of garlic, diced tiny (or you can use the jar stuff already diced for you)
3 cans of tomato sauce
3 cans of stewed tomatoes (obviously if you can your own you can use those, and it would probably be better)
at least 2 cartons of vegetable broth, or more if you like your soup with more juice. You can also add some water here if you don't want to use so much vegetable broth. I use the sodium free/organic broth)
1/2 tsp thyme, fresh or ground
1/2 tsp rosemary fresh or ground
2 bay leaves, whole
salt and pepper to taste. I use a lot of fresh ground pepper.

Put everything into a big old pot and heat on low to low-medium heat for several hours. I usually get mine started about 8 am and just let it go until 4:00 pm or so. :-) Be sure to stir and taste every once in awhile. Remove the bay leaves and serve with fresh bread, cornbread or crackers. Refrigerate or freeze leftovers. It's even better the next day. :-)

Love,
Wendy Darling