Irish Country Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 1 can Red kidney beans – strained (or your favorite canned bean)
- 1 White onion – diced (about 1 cup)
- 3 Carrots – diced small
- 1 Turnip – diced small (or celery root or rutabaga)
- 3 Celery stalks – diced small
- 8 Mushrooms – diced small
- 8 cloves Garlic – minced
- 1/2 cup Olive oil
- ½ cup Irish Country Ketchup (or your favorite ketchup)
- 2 Bay leaf (dried)
- 2 Sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 Potato – diced small
- 1 Eggplant – diced small
- 1 Zucchini – diced small
- 2 cups Penne pasta
- 3 quarts Water
- ½ cups Butter
- 2 cups pinach – coarsely chopped
- 1 cup Parsley – chopped
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 1 tsp Dried chili
- 1 cup Peas (frozen is fine)
Instructions
- Strain your beans.
- Mince the garlic cloves and dice the veg into small-dice. You want the pieces to be small enough to fit onto a spoon of soup. Set the potato, eggplant & zucchini aside to be added later.
- In a large pot heat olive oil to low, add onion and sauté until translucent for 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic, celery, turnip, carrot, bay leaves, thyme, dried chili, and stir.
- Remove from the heat, stir in Irish Country Ketchup and mushrooms.
- Add beans, penne, potato, zucchini, eggplant, water and stir.
- Bring to the boil, then lower heat to a steady simmer until the pasta is al dente.
- This should be about 15 minutes depending on the pasta you use. There is still one more step, which requires about 5-10 minutes cooking, so make sure not to over cook the pasta. The pasta is going to absorb some of the water and release its starches, which help to thicken the soup. We used penne but you can use any pasta you have; any small bite size pasta works.
- While this is simmering chop the spinach and parsley.
- Add in spinach, parsley, salt, butter and peas. Simmer for a further 5-10 minutes.
- Return to a low heat then simmer for five minutes.
- Garnish with reserved celery leaves and a drizzle of fine olive oil serve with grilled bread and enjoy.
Notes
TOP TIPS FOR MAKING A GREAT SOUP
1) SWEAT THE VEGETABLES
As you will see in this recipe, you really want to build the flavor.
So first we sweat the ‘aromatics’– these are vegetables like onion, garlic, celery and carrots, which are part of most soup recipes. Ensure they’re sautéed in oil or butter long enough to be softened (and release their flavor) before moving on to the next step.
2) CONSIDER EACH INGREDIENT’S COOK TIME
A tiny pea will cook much faster than a cube of carrot. Stagger the addition of vegetables so that they’re all finished cooking as close together as possible
3) CHOP IN SPOON SIZES
When chopping vegetables, think about how big you want them to be on the spoon. Even hearty, rustic soups should have well chopped, reasonably sized vegetables. Greens such as spinach also need to be chopped, or they will be difficult to eat.
4) SALT YOUR SOUP SPARINGLY
Depending on the ingredients you’re adding, you don’t always know how much salt is going in. Many stocks have high levels of sodium, as do canned beans, vegetables and tomato paste. For this reason – save most of your seasoning until the end. Taste and adjust with salt and pepper as needed.
5) SIMMER, SIMMER, SIMMER
Once soup has come to a boil, reduce to a simmer and make sure that it stays there. Boil things too vigorously, and the vegetables will get mushy, the meat will toughen, and the noodles or pasta will start to break down.
6) KNOW YOUR PASTA / NOODLES
When making noodle soups, do not cook the noodles separately. Add noodles as the final addition, and cook until tender, allowing the noodles to take on the flavor of the soup. Noodles that are cooked separately will lack flavor and break down when added.
However, if you plan on freezing your soup, don’t add the noodles. Instead add them once it has been thawed and brought back to a boil. The noodles will taste much fresher this way.
CAN I MAKE SOUP AHEAD?
You sure can. This veg soup can keep in the fridge for 3-4 days. Soup is one of the most freezer friendly dishes around so if you have a big pot you could always consider doubling the recipe and freezing some.
IS THIS RECIPE SUITABLE FOR VEGANS?
This recipe is 100% vegetarian, however we have used butter in this recipe, again! We really love butter and all the flavor it adds, but you can easily swap out the butter for vegan butter or extra virgin olive oil and hey presto you’re ready to go!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!