Isabella

Hey all

I was just reading someone else's post on how to make veggie rounds for algae eaters, and it reminded me of a delicious zucchini/veggie soup that I often make for myself. I thought I'd give the recipe for all of you who love anything made with veggies

The reason I love it is because it is very light on stomach, tastes great, and is very nutricious

Here's what you'll need:
- 1 white onion
- 1 tomatoe
- 1 large zucchini (or 2 small ones)
- 2 larger celery stalks
- 2 larger garlic cloves
- 1/2 lb. of large Lima Beans (the dried white beans)
- some extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cubes of vegetable bullion
- pure water (not chlorinated tap water but bottled water, or tap water if you have it filtered)

*If you have any farms near you, buy the vegetables from small independent farmers. The vegetables from these farms taste totally different from the vegetables from a supermarket. The reason is simple - those at the supermarket are loaded with more chemicals/pesticides/etc ... as well as irradiated. I have cooked the soup with BOTH farm vegetables only and supermarket vegetables only - and the difference in taste between the two is unbelievable. Of course, the vegetables from the farm are a heaven better!

How to prepare the soup:

(1) Soak the beans in water for a few hours (at least 5 hrs) prior to soup preparation. When you soak them, make sure they're completely covered in water.
(2) When the beans are soaked, rinse them, put them in a pot over a stove, fill the pot with water so that the beans are completely covered, and let them boil over low to medium flame until the beans are tender/soft to your liking. Once they're done, pour them into a pasta strainer and let them stand there until they're ready to be added to the vegetables.
(3) While the beans are boiling, start preparing the vegetables. First, of course, wash your tomatoe, zucchini(s) and celery stalks. Cut the zucchini(s) in slices, chop the celery and onion, and slice the tomatoe into about 1.5" pieces. In the end, chop the garlic into very fine tiny pieces.
(4) Take out a larger pot in which you'll fry/steam all the vegetables. Pour some extra virgin olive oil in there and heat it up on low flame. Put the chopped onion in there first. Let it fry/steam (covered) on low flame until it's a little transparent, but not completely fried or burnt! It has to be still a bit raw before adding the next vegetable. Now, add the celery to the mix and cover the pot again. Like the onion, let it fry - together with the onion - until it becomes more green than it was when raw. It should be a bit tender, but not completely fried either, before adding the next vegetable. Note: remember to be mixing all the vegetables every once in a while (or else they'll get burned, lol). Now, add the zucchini into the mix, and cover the pot again. Let it fry for a few minutes, mixing the vegetables from time to time. Then add the tomatoes and garlic. Let everything simmer until the zucchini is soft (but not overdone of course). In essence, all of the vegetables should be still fresh/raw but soft and crunchy enough to eat. If you overcook them, they'll be one big mash. They should be more like steamed vegetables. You are in fact steaming them here, with a bit of olive oil. The whole steaming/frying time of all of these vegetales should take you around 15-20 minutes only.
(5) While the vegetables are steaming and while the beans are boiling, boil a full teapot of pure water. Take some container and drop two vegetable bullion cubes in there. When the water is boiling, pour it into the container with veggie cubes. Mix it until they're totally dissolved. If it tastes too strong/salty, add more water to dilute the taste. And if it is too "tasteless", then add 1/4, 1/3, or 1/2 of another veggie cube, accodring to your taste.
(6) Now, when the beans, the vegetables, and the veggie bullion water are all ready, drop all the beans into the pot with vegetables, and pour the veggie bullion water into the pot. Turn a low to medium flame on, and let the whole thing boil for a few minutes. Note: you don't have to pour all the water you've boiled into that pot. Just enough to cover the vegetables and beans; unless you like it very watery, lol Up to you.

And now ... enjoy the soup And don't burn yourself! It can be too hot right out of the pot. Let it cool a bit before you eat it.

COBettaCouple

You outta post that recipe at allrecipes.com

Tom

I was instantly turned off by the lima beans. lol I think we should have a recipe section in the 'Other' board.
Tom

Isabella

LOL, Tom, lima beans are not a "must". You can make the soup with any kind of beans that you like Unless, the general idea of the sopu doesn't appeal to you - we all have our own tastes after all

LOL, it's really a very simple soup. I think most meat-lovers wouldn't find this soup good at all. But I think it should appeal to veggie-lovers though

Tom

I'm not the biggest fan of soup and rice, but there are some soups that I like and are real soup like chicken noodle, zucchini(the way my mom makes it) and there are a few others that I don't know the name. If you want I will ask my mom for her zucchini soup recipe and I will either put it here or I will PM you with it.
Tom