Simple Vegetable and Pasta Soup
Servings 6 to 8, Preparation Time 30 minutes
It is just as it says, a Simple Vegetable and Pasta Soup. We have a cookbook somewhere in our collection that has in its title something like "Cooking in Three Steps". This recipe does not originate from this book but the book is a reminder to me that I tend to make things too complex. You can sum up all recipes in three steps. Step One, plan and prepare. Step two, combine and cook, Step three, assemble and serve. Having three large and complex steps may be awkward when written, and it is clearer and easier to follow if you break down into smaller steps. This recipe design is simple, which makes it suitable to describe in three steps and more importantly useful to use for a quick meal.
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 2 celery ribs, chopped
- 1 large sweet potato, chopped
- 13 oz (400 g) corn kernels, from frozen, canned, or fresh cobs
- 6 oz (180 g) of pasta such as Whole Wheat Fusilli pasta
- 4 cups (1 litre) vegetable stock
- Bring the vegetable stock to a boil.
- Add the prepared vegetables to the boiling stock and bring the soup to a gentle boil for 20 minutes or until the vegetables have softened.
- Cook the pasta according to the manufactures instructions which should be in the 10-minute range. You may cook the pasta directly in your soup. We prefer to cook the pasta separately and add the pasta to the soup when we are ready to serve. We most often cook the complete box or bag of pasta, therefore we cook the pasta separately and keep the extra for later use. To store cooked pasta, we rinse it with cold water and drain the excess water to prevent the pasta from sticking together.
Plants create antioxidants and store vitamins, which are not only useful to them but to us too when we eat and absorb them. One of the places plants concentrate the antioxidants and store vitamins in under and around the skin, peel, or bark. These plant parts are barriers to the outside world and the most likely places where damage can occur to the plant, therefore a convenient location to store the antioxidants and vitamins that can be used to mitigate damage. When we peel and discard the skin of a sweet potato we miss the opportunity to eat and absorb those nutrients but leaving the skin on can distract from the attractive look of the dish or can just outright annoy others if the skins are noticeable. A useful compromise is to peel your veggies and use the leftovers to make a vegetable stock or dice the peels into very small pieces to make them less noticeable. In the photograph we use, the sweet potatoes peels were diced into very small pieces before added to the soup. Do you notice them?
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