This is a truly simple, yet delicious soup that I make when I want something mild and comforting. In fact, I sometimes refer to it as Sick Soup because I developed the recipe once after a bout of food poisoning, but since that probably doesn’t sound all that appealing (ya think?), I’ll stick to Simple Vegetable Soup.

The true beauty of this soup is that I purposely designed it to be quick to prepare and yet highly nutritious — just what the doctor ordered when you’re recovering from illness or simply want a very basic, very healthy soup.

Here goes:

2 large zucchini, diced in quarter-inch cubes

3 carrots, peeled and diced in quarter-inch cubes

2 large potatoes (white or sweet), peeled and diced in quarter-inch cubes

1 bunch of kale, destemmed and rinsed carefully

6-8 cups vegetable broth (low or no sodium added) or 3-4 cubes of vegetable bouillon (no salt added)

Place all chopped vegetables in bottom of large saucepan; add broth (or bouillon and 6-8 cups water). Bring to a boil; cook for 20-30 minutes until vegetables are tender. Use slotted spoon or tongs to remove kale from pot and place in blender along with a small portion of the rest of the soup. Blend till smooth. Add blended mixture back to pot and stir well. Serve and enjoy.

Healthy eating notes:

I personally keep Rapunzel No Salt Added Vegan Vegetable Bouillon cubes on hand at all times just in case I want to make a soup quickly. While there is a small amount of added fat, they are otherwise very healthy and have a mild flavor that enhances many soups.

Blending part or all of a soup is a good way to create a thicker, richer tasting soup. You can blend the entire batch of soup if you wish, though I like the variety of textures. Make sure that your blender container will withstand high temperature liquids before you make this soup. High-powered blenders like the Vita-Mix (my personal favorite) generally can handle high temps. Likewise, you could also blend the raw kale with cold broth (or some of the water) prior to cooking. Simply put the leaves and some water in your blender canister, cover and blend till the kale is in small pieces.

Larger dices of veggies are fine, but count on it taking longer for the vegetables to cook if you do so. Likewise, you could easily add other veggies to this because it’s a very forgiving recipe, but pretty soon that takes the “simple” out of the soup!

Copyright 2008 Jennifer McCay

www.LeanGreenMama.com