Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always…1 Chronicles 16:11
Soup is one of my favorite things to fix and eat. I probably could eat soup every day. Living in South Florida, there isn’t a proper ‘time’ to make soup because except for a few weeks in the year, it’s pretty much always hot here. I believe soup tastes even better the next day, and since I am the only one who really likes soup, I always have leftovers. Good for me!!!
I wanted to make a soup that was healthy and easy to prepare. I have quite a few vegetarian and vegan friends and I thought it would be nice to make a soup that they could enjoy, so this is it. I did a lot of research because I didn’t want to say this was vegan and had an ingredient that was a ‘no-no’. I checked every ingredient to every product I used in this soup and I can say this is truly vegan.
I decided to use kale in this soup. I like kale and I think it’s pretty hearty for a soup. I started with a couple of cups and when I started cooking it, it kind of disappeared. I added a couple of more cups and still didn’t feel it was enough so that’s why I added 6 cups. It seems a lot but I promise you it really isn’t. I did the opposite with the orzo. I put too much orzo and it soaked up too much liquid that it didn’t really look like soup. One cup seemed to do the trick. You can always add more liquid if you like a more ‘brothy’ soup.
I decided to use tomato juice because it gives it a deeper flavor and some extra nutritional value to the soup. Now to the frozen vegetables…feel free to use any variety you favor. The first time I made the soup I used your typical bag of vegetable mix (carrots, lima beans, green beans, peas, corn).
But there are a lot of varieties of ‘mixed’ vegetables in the frozen food section of my favorite grocery store. They have a California blend which consists of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. A Vegetable Soup Mix that has tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, green beans, corn, lima beans, onions and celery in it. A Roma Blend with carrots, cauliflower, green beans, zucchini, and lima beans and many more. There are a couple of types of mixed vegetables with okra in it. My son-in-law is one of my taste testers and he loathes okra so that was never an option for me but be my guest. If you like okra, try one of those blends. The second time I made the soup, I went with an Italian Blend which has cauliflower, zucchini, lima beans, italian green beans and carrots. I thought it was good and probably will always use that blend. Make this soup your own and use what you enjoy.
Vegetable-Orzo Soup doesn’t take a lot of prep work and cooks pretty quickly. The soup can be prepared in about half-hour, from beginning to end. Serve it with a nice bread and you will have yourself a superb dinner.
INGREDIENTS
2 tbsp. Olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups kale, chopped
3 cups tomato juice
4 cups vegetable broth
1 15 oz. bag Frozen Vegetables, any variety
1 cup orzo
DIRECTIONS:
Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until softened about 5 minutes. Add the kale and cook for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add garlic and cook for about a minute. Turn the heat to medium-high and add the tomato juice, broth and frozen vegetables stirring as it comes to a boil. Add the orzo, cover and turn the heat to simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with more salt and pepper, if needed.
Yield: 8+ cups
