This soup is phenomenal, to put it simply. Lately, with spring break and Easter, I have definitely been indulging a little more than I should be. Therefore, as of late I have been making it a priority to eat a little lighter and healthier. No word yet on any progress. Restricting myself is hard! Especially when it comes to food and especially when I spend all day every day in class describing and discussing delicious meals; torture! A great trick is to eat soup. Soup is just so satisfying. Not only is it almost always a healthy option, (unless you load up on cream and cheese) but also that the ingredient and flavor options are endless! I literally don’t get sick of soup, as you can tell by how many different kinds I make every month.
This soup is a vegan option, though you really wouldn’t know it. I wanted the meal to be hearty and filling, so I used many different tricks to achieve my goal. The first trick was that I packed in as many vegetables as I could. I made sure there was a very high vegetable to broth ratio in the pot, I hate when soup is all broth and no content. I did not want the vegetables to become mushy so I didn’t simmer the soup too long. The other thing about vegan meals is that they often lack the umami flavor. The term umami originated in Asia and is used to describe the flavor of foods that tend to be rich, savory, or hearty. Foods like this tend to be filling, which was exactly what I was going for in this soup. Mushrooms are very rich so I added plenty of them to the soup along with onions and herbs de province for depth. However, I also used a secret ingredient. The star of this meal is something called nutritional yeast. For those who are unfamiliar with it, nutritional yeast comes in a bottle and looks like powdery flakes. It is extremely healthy, especially for vegetarians or vegans who don’t get enough of certain vitamins. This is not the reason I used nutritional yeast. For me, and many others, the draw of nutritional yeast is that it tastes just like cheese! Here we have this delicious, thick and flavorful meal that tastes like a country vegetable cheese soup, yet it is also very healthy! I felt like I was cheating at life to eat something so yummy that was actually good for me. Luckily I made enough to freeze a batch. I definitely recommend this to all.
Ingredients
- Chopped Onions
- Chopped Garlic
- Chopped Carrots
- Chopped Celery
- Sliced Mushrooms
- Sliced Leeks
- Chopped Potatoes
- Vegetable Broth
- Herbs De Province
- Coarsely Ground Black Pepper
- Salt
- Nutritional Yeast
- Flour
