a few of my favorite things

As the temperature drops the thick long forgotten winter layers come out and so begins the season of soup.. Admittedly there are cold soups like gazpacho and watermelon. for hot summer days. But they don't really count..

If you're wondering Gazpacho is a tasty chilled Spanish soup vaguely  reminecient of salsa that you eat with a spoon instead of chips.. and the chilled fruit soups like watermelon soup, are delicious and refreshing for those sweltery days.. but honestly neither quite envoke that full fledged cuddle up to a comfortable bowl of soup feeling you get from a bowl of hot soupy goodness.. Maybe it's my bias because I hail from a cold climate and have rarely felt the need or desire to cool down any more than I already am..  I actually relish in the rare days where I can wear real summer clothing (shorts and summer dresses) and I honestly embrace the novelty of  encountering scorching heat during my travels.   Perhaps I should blame my love of heat and the intolerance to cold on my inherited tropical blood, who knows.

Soup can come in so many styles; heavy, creamy, light, chunky, pureed, etc.. but they all pretty much equal one thing in my mind.  Comfort.. Soup is my comfort food more so than anything else I consume.  The following recipe is a simple fall vegetable soup that is inspired by a turnip soup my mom makes when fall first hits.  It has bite sized chunks of veggies and some greens, it's low in fat, vegetarian /vegan friendly if you like it that way and it's loaded with vitamins from previously mentioned veggies. 

A Basic Fall Warm Up Soup

Ingredients: makes apx 5 servings

1 sweet potato - cubed

1 large carrot - cut in 1/2 then sliced into 1/2 moon shapes (I'm getting all technical on you)

3 - turnips - cubed

1 bunch of turnip greens - chopped to bite sized pieces

1 onion - little moon wedges

celery leaves and all - sliced bite sized pieces.  (I love using the center leafy part of the celery for soup, the leaves have a slight spicy kick that add a lot of flavor)

1 tbs coconut oil (why? because you need fat!!)

2 tbs - veggie boullion (or chicken if not going for veggie friendly)

5 cups water or more

2 parsnips - sliced into round moon shapes

a pinch of curry powder (super subtle hint of something amongst all the veggie goodness, more if you like but I prefer to let the variety of veggies be the main flavors in the dish)

salt - to taste

Directions:

Take 5 cups of water bring to boil with onions and boulion cook till soft 15 - 20- min.  Add rest of veggies cook an additional 20 min. 

 

orange, green, and blue are the it colors of this fall (i think it represents the very first trickling changes of fall color pretty well)

 later on i added these little pasta pockets filled with cheese.. it changed my world..