16 Vegetable Soup with Parmesan Toasts

The players

The result

My idea here was to take as many vegetables as I can cram into a soup pot, but do three layers of flavor with the vegetables. I love that this soup goes from the richness of roasted vegetables to the goodness of slow cooked veggies to the pop of fresh veggies at the end. This is a totally free-form soup, so use whatever vegetables you want in the amounts that you choose.

Ingredients:

Soup:

3 Tablespoons olive oil, divided

4 cloves of garlic

2 small yellow onions, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

1 turnip, peeled and diced

2 parsnips, peeled and diced

2 cups sliced mushrooms

2 cups (2 medium) zucchini, sliced

2 cups (1 large) yellow squash, peeled and sliced

2 cups of peeled, diced eggplant

½ bunch (about 2 cups) Swiss chard (stems and leaves kept separate), chopped

1 bell pepper (any color), deseeded and diced

4 roma tomatoes, diced

1 radish, diced

¼ cup watercress, leaves only, chopped

¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped, with stems and leaves separated

3 cups vegetable broth

1 (15 ounce) can white beans, rinsed and drained

Salt and pepper to taste

Herbs to taste (I’m using a few teaspoons of Penzey’s Fox Point Seasoning)

1 teaspoon browning sauce ((aka Kitchen Bouquet)

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

For the Parmesan Toasts:

4 (1/2 inch thick) slices of Italian bread

1 Tablespoon olive oil

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

The roasted vegetables:  The easiest way to do this is to lay out squares of wax paper and chop all your veggies onto the squares (one square for each veg) and have two bowls ready-one for the slow roasted veggies and one for garnish ingredients.

Between two baking sheets, add 3 cloves unpeeled garlic, 1/2 of the diced onions, ½ of the celery, ½ of the carrots, all of the turnip, all of the parsnips, ½ of the mushrooms, ½ of the zucchini, ½ of the yellow squash, ½ of the eggplant, the stems of the Swiss chard, ½ of the bell pepper, and ¾ of the tomatoes. Coat with 2 Tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Roast for 40 minutes, stirring halfway through. Remove from the oven, squeeze the garlic from the skins and put all the roasted vegetables and the resulting liquid in a Dutch oven.

The slow cooked vegetables: To the Dutch oven, add the remaining garlic clove, peeled and minced. Reserve a bit of onion, zucchini, bell pepper and tomato for the garnish and add all the rest to the Dutch oven. Add in the broth, beans, salt, pepper, browning sauce and herbs. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover. Let cook for 1 ½ hours.

The fresh vegetable garnish: Meanwhile, prepare the garnish by combining the leftover onion, zucchini, bell pepper, tomato, watercress, parsley, 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, the vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Stir and set aside.

For the parmesan toasts: Place the bread slices on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil Sprinkle each slice with parmesan and bake for 10 minutes.

To serve: Ladle the soup into bowls, top with a parmesan toast and a spoon of the garnish.