Hearty roasted vegetable soup

I love hearty and chunky vegetable soups. On a cold winter day eating a big bowl of piping hot soup with a chunk of whole grain bread is just FANTASTIC !

 

My mom recently asked me for a soup with butternut squash and this one came to mind. The flavors are awesome and although it requires some planning and a LOT of chopping, it's totally worth the effort.

For roasting:
1 small butternut squash (with peel); 

2 carrots

1 big zucchini 

2 yellow squash

1 large onion

6 to 8 cloves of garlic

2 stalks of celery 

To saute:

10 mini red potatoes
1 pint of button mushrooms, cleaned.

To add:

1/2 bunch of kale, washed and coarsely chopped.
Handful of flat green beans.

 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare these vegetables by cutting into large chunks. Save all the peels and tops of squashes for your  broth. 

Throw all the peels and tops into a large pot (8 quarts) and fill with water. Add salt, pepper, oregano and some fresh or dried basil. Bring to a boil and simmer until the quantity reduces to about 6 quarts. Remove all the debris and your broth is ready to use.
 

* Tip: during the week collect all the peels and tops of vegetable and freeze them in a ziplock bag. When you are ready to make this soup. Dump the contents of the bag to the broth. 

Place all your vegetable chunks on a baking sheet and mix with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and some coarse salt. I have been using pink Himalayan salt and am now officially hooked! 

Place the tray in the oven and roast for 45 minutes. Stir a couple of times so they roast evenly. In a separate tray roast 3 large tomatoes chopped into chunks in a similar way. Tomatoes will roast much faster than the other vegetables. This is why you don't want to mix the two. 

In the meantime, cut about 10 baby red potatoes in half and 1 pint of cleaned white button mushrooms in half. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and roast the two until potatoes are just tender. This will take about 15 minutes.

 

Add the roasted vegetable mixture, roasted tomatoes and the potato and mushroom mix to the broth. Add coarsely chopped kale and beans.

Bring to a boil. If you think the soup is very watery, mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water and add to the soup and boil till the soup thickens. Serve hot with side salad and some crusty bread for a delicious and healthy meal !

 

Enjoy!! XOXO