Vegetable Soup

On a whim I decided to make vegetable soup.  I had eyed off a soup pack in the fruit & veg section of the supermarket earlier and pondered what to do with it.  I thought about it wandering the aisles and decided to keep it simple.  Some things are best uncomplicated.  So here's what I did.

My soup pack contained about 3 large carrots of which I diced,  2 large celery stalks - roughly chop these, a parsnip  to chop & dice, a turnip to chop & dice, a large potato to dice and a large brown onion to be roughly chopped.

To start, I added the onion to a little rice bran oil together with a teaspoon each of Garlic, finely chopped Chilli and Ginger. Stir this fragrant mix until the onion becomes soft and slightly translucent. (Oh I almost forgot - I also added a very rough teaspoon of curry powder as I'm a BIG fan but that's just me).  Mmm.. the smell is amazing

Of course fresh is best, but I always have these 3 staples (Garlic, Chilli & Ginger) in my refrigerator in the form of Gourmet Garden tubes which are available in the chilled fresh produce section of the supermarket.  I particularly like these as they are fresh, convenient and best of all - no mess or waste. These 3 are also marked gluten free but of course you can find other brands in the herbs and spices aisle which are equally good and often gluten free by ingredient.  Read your labels! Read your labels!

If you haven't yet learned to read labels, you are really doing yourself a great disservice and need to get onto it. You could potentially be cheating yourself out of so much.  If you need some help - contact 

Coeliac Australia and find out about label reading workshops in your state.

Transfer your mix to a large saucepan or stove top casserole dish and add your potato, carrot, parsnip, turnip & 2 cups of cold water - bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer.

Time to add stock, remaining vegetables including a whole diced red capsicum, a tin of Italian cherry tomatoes and a small tin of corn kernels and let simmer for at least 2 hours.

I use MASSEL chicken stock - which is actually all vegetable..  

MASSEL is preservative free lactose free and gluten free and was actually a stock that was recommended to me by a dietitian when I was first diagnosed.  I have happily used it ever since.  I notice it is quite popular with chefs and the like so that speaks VOLUMES.

To make your soup a bit thicker take out about half the tender vegetables and blitz them using a stick blender and then return them to the soup.  That's pretty much it.

Serve with some good quality grated Parmesan, some cracked pepper and some crusty bread - 

GLUTEN FREE of course!  

"Only the pure of heart can make good soup" Beethoven 

(source www.foodreference.com)