Missed National Soup It Forward Day yesterday! The idea is to deliver love and kindness by the bowlful. I double batched my soup so I can bring some to my park association mentor, whose wife is currently in care. It will give me a good reason to drop by and have a visit.🍲

Here’s the recipe of the soup I made today. It is really easy, and one to make if you’ve got other things on tho go. Other than the initial prep and sautéing, after you bring to a boil and turn down the heat, you can putter around doing other things with the occasional stir.

I use the President’s Choice Blue Menu dried soup mix of green and yellow split peas, red split lentils, long grain white rice and pearl barley (but you can easily mix one up yourself). This is based on the recipe on the back of the package with some added oomph from pantry staples and you can mix it up to what you have on hand or prefer. I call this version “rustic” so I don’t have to cringe at the “rough dice” (friends who have gone to cooking school – avert your eyes 🤦🏻‍♀️ )

1 cup of soup mix, rinsed
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can of mushrooms, sliced or pieces/stems with liquid saved, or 1 cup fresh
1 can (796 mL) of diced tomatoes
1 L Chicken Stock
500 mL water (minus liquid saved from canned mushrooms if used)
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn

Sauté carrot, onion and mushrooms is some olive oil. Add minced garlic, soup mix, stock, water. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 60-90 minutes*. Add frozen vegetables at the end so they don’t get overly mushy. Season to taste.

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*I find that you can reduce the simmering time if you soak the dried soup mix for about 15 minutes in warm water, maybe while you are dicing and slicing the fresh vegetables and mincing the garlic. You’ll just have to check on the texture near the 60 minute mark.

I’ve used sodium free versions of the canned mushrooms, diced tomatoes and stock, but use what you have on hand. I have made with mushroom and vegetable stock so I could bring to my vegetarian friends.

Here, I’ve added some fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to act as the salt and add some umami to overall flavours. I’m excited to get a nice crusty loaf of bread to have with this.

If you have some leftover roasted chicken, it would be a nice addition of protein, either shredded or diced, and added at the end with the frozen vegetables to warm through

One day, I’ll hope to join a local Soup Sisters organization as I do love cooking for others even if it’s not the fanciest.
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