1 cup green beans, cut to half,
1 cup diced carrot,
1 medium onion, chopped,
2 garlic cloves, chopped,
1 cup asparagus, cut in four,
1 sweet potato, peeled and diced,
1 cup thinly sliced green cabbage,
3 tablespoons vegetable oil,
8 cups water (I always use filtered water),
2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour,
salt and pepper to taste.
Recipe: Heat the 1 tablespoon of oil in a large heavy saucepan and saute the onion, garlic, carrot and green beans for about 5 minutes. Add the sweet potato, sliced cabbage and asparagus and saute for 5 minutes more. Add the water and season to taste. Bring to a boil and reduce the temperature to simmer. Simmer the vegetable soup until the carrots and potatoes are soft and it is flavorful. As it is with most vegetable soups, this soup will taste even better if it is allowed to simmer until all the flavors mix in the broth. Make a little bit of roux with the remaining 2 tbsp. of oil and the flour, by browning the flour in a frying pan and adding a cup of the soup in it before mixing it into the soup. Traditionally roux is made with butter, but you should use oil because this is a vegetarian soup.
Tip: If you have the time and desire to make your vegetable soup more full-bodied, substitute the water in this recipe with vegetable stock. Here is my recipe for vegetable stock.
About the author: George Krumov is a Red Seal certified chef with many years of culinary experience working around the world in Europe, the Middle East, the cruise line industry and North America. In the last two decades he has headed the kitchens of several restaurants in Canada, and ran his own restaurant.
