Hearty vegetable soup is made with simple ingredients

By Jim Bailey
theyankeechef.blogspot.com

With the barest of ingredients, and the simplest of preparations, you can enjoy a filling soup that will rival any other vegetable soup found in your family recipe book.

I wanted to add more ingredients to this recipe created by my dad, the second Yankee Chef, because it seemed rather plain at the onset. But once tasting, I decided there is no reason to fix something that isn’t broken.  This recipe is perfectly seasoned without any other ingredients: It’s just that simple!

1 tablespoon oil
1/2 small onion, minced
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic in oil
5 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 (12-ounce) bag frozen California-style vegetable mix
1/2 (15-ounce) can cooked sweet potatoes, drained*
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and black pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or until onions are soft. Add remainder of ingredients; cover and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes. Uncover and, in batches if needed, transfer soup to a blender or food processor to puree until smooth. Return to saucepan, add salt and pepper to taste and bring back up to temperature before serving.

Enough for 4

* If you want a slightly sweeter soup to help offset the saltiness of the soy sauce, simply add all the sweet potatoes or buy low sodium soy sauce.
Schiffer Books of Pennsylvania has released Jim Bailey’s new book The Yankee Chef: Feel Good Food for Every Kitchen. It contains more than 550 traditional New England comfort-food recipes tweaked for today’s palates with hundreds of kitchen tips and food facts. The hardback book is 312 pages and contains 200 color images. Its ISBN is 978-0-7643-4191-5 and the cost is $34.99. The book can be ordered through Misty Valley Books, 802-875-3400.