Poor Vegetarian Girl's Soup

So after a week of creation, here's my first posting! I thought why not start off with something that I am passionate about? Cooking. But not just any recipe. I love soup. Enough said.



This afternoon started off with me thinking of what to do since school ended early for today. Searching the cabinets, the beans made me want to make vegetarian tacos! I grabbed a tomato for body, got all my spices ready, picked a celery stalk and a carrot to go along with it.. but my tortilla wraps had been spoiled =( I decided soup would be best for it is comforting given the circumstances that I don't get to eat beanie burritos tonight.

I returned the tomato to the crisper and brought out some bow tie pasta. I thought about using a lentil and barley mix but that would've been weird with my beans. My spices were also reduced to just garlic salt and black pepper.

Ingredients:

1 carrot
1 celery
3 small potatoes (I love them, 1 big one or 2 small one would be of good proportions)
vegetable stalk granules
1 can red kidney beans
1 can white kidney beans
half a bag of bow tie pasta (use any small noodle, I measured about 3 1/2 cups dry)



Boil water for pasta, making sure that all of the pasta is covered - just get that big pot out.



While the water is boiling, prep the vegetables. Keep in mind potatoes and carrots are starchy and may become softer. I tend to cut potatoes slightly larger than the rest. You can add whatever you like, my ideal soup would contain plenty of mushrooms and peas! When chopped up, they've seem to have expanded 4X the amount that I started with, this was when I knew I couldn't use that same pot I had boiled pasta for.


Once boiled to al dente, drain. I reserved that liquid in a bowl to dissolved my veggie broth granules in.



I reduced the heat to medium low, threw in a glob of margarine(no oil left!) and threw in my vegetables. Stir and make sure the heat isn't too high. If it begins to stick, pour in just 1/4 cup of the broth. Saute until onion is translucent.



At this point I realized I couldn't throw everything into that one pot (which seemed large at first!). Took out an even larger pot and added: sauted vegetables, my 2 cans of beans which have been drained and rinsed, my bow tie pasta, that bowl of broth plus another 2 tablespoons and filled the rest of the pot with more water (to cover all ingredients).



I turned the heat back up to medium high, it simmered for a couple of minutes. Added some dried parsley because it was easier than retrieving the fresh parsley grown in my own garden. Then some black pepper to finish it off.



Topped with some green onion and voila! Just random ingredients that you usually can find just sitting and waiting to be expired.