Soup! Soup! and more Soup!

It was a typical Monday, so... No class! Normally this means homework time (super lame way to spend my day off but such is the life of a student). I decided to procrastinate, another student talent, and make vegetable soup. I have a tendency to make 5 times as much food as I actually need. The bonus? LOTS of leftovers :) So after a quick stop to the store I got crackin...

Here are the main ingredients:
- carrots
- celery
- potatoes
- red and white onions
- head of garlic
- turnips (I have never eaten one or cooked with them before... this was my experiment for the day)
- diced tomatoes (I was lazy and used canned)
- peas (frozen or canned, personally I can't tell the difference in soup)
- corn (normally I use canned or frozen but... I'm an idiot and bought creamed corn instead... eek! another experiment!)
- canned mixed beans
- tomato paste
- pearl barley
- long grain brown rice and a little wild rice
- small brown lentils (any lentils work, whatever you have)
* I usually add cauliflower too but I forgot! Oops! *

(I added a bit more than what is shown above :P )

And here are the different seasonings I use (generally I just add, taste, add, taste, etc, etc until it tastes delicious!):
- lots of ground black pepper
- cayenne
- dried oregano
- dried basil
- soy sauce
- vegetable bouillon
- worchestire sauce
- tad of brown sugar
- occasionally salt (if needed)

(Clockwise from top-left: cayenne, oregano, soy sauce, cocoa powder)

If you're brave... try adding a little cocoa powder. It's my secret ingredient for chilli and some soups :)

I usually pre-slice/chop everything before hand so I can just throw stuff in when I need to. I started off heating a drizzle of olive oil in my giant pot. Then I threw in the crushed garlic and chopped onions, letting them sizzle until soft. I decided to pour in a little dry white wine to clean the pan and hopefully soak into the veggies.

(onions, garlic and wine... delicious!)

Immediately after I added shredded turnip, carrots and celery. I let them cook and absorb the delicious wine for a few minutes. I have to mention the smell.. I think it might be what heaven smells like! So yummy :)

(One reason I love cooking? The colors. They are amazing!)

At that point I added the tomatoes, tomato paste, lots of water, veggie bouillon and wild rice. After reaching a boil I left it to simmer for 15 minutes or so. During this I discovered I had once again, forgotten to buy ground pepper. Every time I tell myself... "I will never grind this much pepper by hand again!!" and every time I forget (good thing I have 15 minutes to burn). Next I added all the remaining veggies, barley, lentils and rice. This is the point where I realized I bought creamed corn. I was going to abandon it but then I thought "what the hell.." and just chucked it in there with a little frozen corn. I think it was actually better (happy surprise!).

It continued to simmer while I added all my seasoning (make sure you don't add too much,  as the veggies cook they will add their own touch. You can always add more at the end). I have to admit... I love adding soy sauce, it gives such a great flavour (this is why you don't need to add much salt, if any). I also dump a ton of cayenne in, yum yum yum!

After about 40 minutes I had to run to the gym and left my mom in charge of turning it off (classic, haha). When I came home it was waiting for me on the stove :) It was thick with veggies and plumped up grains, definitely more like a stew than a soup. A few swigs of soy sauce and cayenne and it was perfect! I now have a full freezer of vegetable soup and a happy vegetarian friend. Oh man... I'm getting hungry just writing this!! YUM!