Soup Day

When I have a lot of vegetables from the farmer's market, I will sometimes make two soups in one day. We will eat the soups for lunches, and I freeze some for future lunches. On the left is simmering a lentil mushroom soup. On the right is a vegetable bean soup.

Lentil Soup (vegan) ingredients: olive oil, carrots, leeks, potatoes, baby bella mushrooms, lentils, thyme, bay leaf, chipotle pepper/adobo sauce, dash of balsamic vinegar. I later puree most of the mixture for a creamy textured soup, reserving quite a bit of the broth first, which I have saved to use in a different dish. This soup is loosely based on the recipe on page 78, Cream of Lentil Soup (lacto-vegetarian) found in the March 2007 issue of Vegetarian Times. Note: A few weeks ago I made that recipe following the magazine's directions, but using fresh shitake mushrooms (so I skipped the step of soaking the dried mushrooms). And it was fabulous. I recommend using the shitakes. I would have used them today, but they weren't on sale this week, the baby portobellos were.

Spicy Vegetable & Bean Soup (vegan) ingredients: olive oil, carrots, leeks, 1 small yellow onion, 1 orange and 1 red bell peppers, 2 zucchini, 2 chayote squash, 4 small red potatoes, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, black beans, crushed tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, bay leaf, vegetable broth, fresh hot Thai basil leaves, chipotle pepper/adobo sauce, dash of soy sauce. I later pureed a bit of the soup to give the broth a thicker consistency, then stirred in freshly chopped cilantro. I didn't use a recipe for this soup.