A very simple vegetable soup, nothing fancy, just washing and chopping vegetables, stirring, and enjoying the aroma of a food that makes you hungry just preparing it.
Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add onions, celery, and carrots. Saute until they are tender. Add bell pepper and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes.
Add broth, potatoes, and turnips. Bring to a boil, reduce heat. Cover partially and cook for 15 minutes or until potatoes are almost tender. Add green beans. Simmer for 15 minutes.
Add pasta, salt, and pepper. Continue to simmer for another 15 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to sit, covered for 1/2 hour.
Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with a sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley.
Source: The recipe for this soup came from my Mother who almost couldn't wait for her "kitchen" garden to be ready to cook. She didn't always have every ingredient that's listed, but if she did, everything went into the big old soup pot.
She'd make the best baked cornbread to go with this healthy and hearty soup. It was as good to us as it was for us. I have such nice memories of helping her in that big old kitchen where the kitchen table more often than not was also where I did my school homework. I wish I had that big table still, but I don't know where I'd put it in the kitchen we have today.
By Julia from Boca Raton, FL
Take bowl of pre-cooked endives, put in blender with a few scrapings of fresh ginger, squeeze in half an orange, add last drains of a bottle of milk, and blend. Put it all back in the bowl and heat in microwave.
