ring in the new year...

...with vegetable soup.

After the kid learning how to swim, by far the most valuable thing we learned in kindergarten was that a pretty much random batch of veggies, chopped and boiled, make a delicious soup.

(Field trip to farmers' market; kids bought whatever they thought would go in veg. soup; back in the classroom the veggies were chopped and boiled, with a bit of salt and a glug of veg. oil.)

The kids weren't impressed with the soup, but I was very surprised by how tasty it was.

I've been making it ever since.

This one has rutabaga, potatoes, turnips, carrots, sweet potato, some red bell pepper, onion, garlic, (o my just this minute realized I forgot the cabbage!) hot pepper flakes, turnip greens, frozen spinach, and a can of tomatoes. Olive oil, salt.

I add the greens and the tomatoes at the end, as they don't need the length of cooking of the roots. Here it is, pre-greens.






We didn't have much rutabaga (it was left over from the pasties we enjoyed when our daughter was home), so I bought turnips. The only turnips at the grocery that day had the greens attached.

I had not used turnip greens before, and the sign at the grocery said they have a strong flavor. They were really dirty/muddy, so I washed one carefully, and had a taste. Hmmm. Yep. Peppery......... I didn't want to overwhelm the soup, so I was gingerly with the turnip greens. They weren't noticeable in the finished result; I could have used a lot more.

The ribs of the leaves were mild (as were the turnips themselves), but the green part of the leaves were quite peppery.



The soup was delicious.

I looooooooooooooooove this soup. It looks so good, with all the colors. It tastes at least as good as it looks. It is totally healthy (well, maybe aside from the salt). And (aside from the tomatoes and the spinach) it is all seasonal.

I just wish it didn't take so long to chop all that stuff............

At least we'll get one more meal out of it; the remains are frozen and waiting for another day.

Yum.

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