Homemade Vegetable Soup – A Great Way To Use Fresh or Frozen Veggies

It’s that time of the year when the garden plants are beginning to fade which means it is the perfect time to make Homemade Vegetable Soup.

For the past month, we have been picking, eating, and canning tons of tomatoes. We have canned tomato juice, salsa, picante sauce, pasta sauce and more!

Not to mention the hours that we have spent canning and freezing whole and diced tomatoes to use in future recipes.

But as I walked through the garden last week and noticed that there were still plenty of tomatoes on the vine, I knew that it was time to make large batches of soup.

We make several different types of soups from our fresh garden produce at the end of garden season. We love to use our cast iron kettle and cook soup over our fire pit whenever we can. See: Open Fire Kettle Chili Recipe

However, there are times that cooking over the fire just isn’t feasible. So that is when I knew that I would have to make our homemade Vegetable Soup in a large pot on the stove.

Large Pot Homemade Vegetable Soup

The best part about this recipe is that you can use whatever vegetables that you have on hand. You can pull fresh veggies from the garden or use bags of frozen vegetables.

We prefer to use the standard base of tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes, green beans, corn and peas in our homemade vegetable soup recipe.

Sometimes we will add in diced potatoes that we gathered from our Garden Potato Crates. Or if we are lucky enough to have a head of cabbage still left in the garden, we will add that in as well.

Each time we make it, it tastes slightly different thank the time before, depending on what ingredients that we have added to the pot.

Types of Tomatoes To Use

In fact, even the type of tomatoes that you choose to use will impact the flavor of your soup.

We use a combination of red and yellow heirloom tomatoes from the garden. Because yellow tomatoes are typically low-acid tomatoes, we do not use them in our canning recipes.

However, they are perfect to flavor all sorts of soups and sauces that you freeze.

After the soup has cooled, we will ladle it in 1 quart rectangular freezer safe plastic dishes. They are perfect to use as they stack neatly in the freezer.

The next day, when the soup bricks have frozen solid, we will remove them from the containers. We then use our Food Saver to vacuum seal the soup for long term storage.

We label each package and stack them in the freezer for a quick, easy, and healthy meal whenever we need one!

I can’t tell you how delicious this soup tastes in the middle of winter when you can only dream of being back in the garden!

Homemade Vegetable Soup

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

4 large carrots, peeled and diced

4 ribs of celery, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

7 ¼ cups low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth

4 cups diced tomatoes

3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut in bite size pieces

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

2 bay leaves

2 tsp. dried Italian Seasoning

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 1/2 cups green beans, cut in bite size pieces

1 1/4 cups corn, fresh or frozen

1 cup peas, fresh or frozen

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a large stockpot over medium heat add the olive oil.

2. Once the olive oil is hot, add onions, carrots, and celery. Sauté 5 minutes then add garlic and sauté for an additional minute, stirring constantly.

3. To the pot add in the broth, tomatoes, potatoes, parsley, bay leaves, and Italian seasoning. Stir well. Add in salt and ground pepper to taste.

4. Bring the contents to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and add the green beans.

5. Continue to simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20-25 minutes. The potatoes should be fork tender but not falling apart.

6. Add corn and peas and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

Serve immediately or freeze for later use.

Enjoy!

Mary and Jim

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