Veggie Soup à la Rani

In the first of what I hope are many submissions by friends and OntheFly readers, I’m happy to present my dear friend Rani’s veggie soup. Rani is a far better cook than I am, so I am very grateful that he sent this recipe my way for soup month. He’s also a bit of a ‘closet chef’, so if you like this recipe, do take a second to show your appreciation in the comments or on Facebook so that I may have more ammunition when encouraging him to go to culinary school.

And if you would like to send me easy, flying recipes of your own, I’m happy to announce that this week I’ve activated a new email account to receive your submissions: recipes@ontheflyrecipes.com

[Prep: 10-20min* / Cook: 15min-2hrs**]
*depends on your chopping skills
**all veggie, so edible when boiled, but flavors improve with prolonged cooking

– 4 cups (1L) beef broth
– 4 zucchinis
– 4 celery stalks
– 3 carrots
– 2 tomatoes
– 1 bell pepper
– 1 butternut squash
– 1 yellow onion
– ½ cup of bean sprouts
– 3 tsp each pepper, cumin, coriander, ginger root
– 2 tsp each salt, garlic powder, oregano
– 1 tsp chili powder

– 3 Tbsp olive oil
– 2 Tbsp each cilantro and parsley
– 1 Tbsp sage
– 3 tsp basil

1. Get the broth boiling (or dissolve a beef bouillon cube in water to make beef broth) and start chopping the veggies. Discard bell pepper seeds and thoroughly rinse the bean sprouts. Set the onion aside.
2. Dump the veggies into the top with all the beautiful spices from the top portion of ingredients.
3. As that all gently boils, heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onions with the herbs from the second portion of the ingredients list until the onion turns clear. Dump in the pot with all the rest.
4. Reduce heat to simmer and cook until veggies reach desired softness and broth is flavorful.

[Serves 2, twice]

• This isn’t quite vegetarian because of the use of beef broth, but if vegetarian is what you desire, you can, of course, swap out veggie broth for the beef.
• If not vegetarian and want your soup to be as much of a full meal as possible, add cubed beef tips (or any other decent stewing beef) in the beginning. Then serve with some toast and you’re meal is done!
• OR really make it a meal and add cubed potatoes, orzo or rice and have a hearty stew.