Dinner Snapshot - Vegetable Soup

Vegetable Soup

This recipe is the result of me chopping a whole bunch of vegetables on Tuesday for veggie kabobs, getting bored of it, and having something else for dinner. By Thursday, I really wanted to use the vegetables before they went to waste but knew they were a little past their prime. I revived them in this tasty soup. As I didn't measure anything, all amounts are estimates.

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 medium yellow onion, fine dice

1 lb eggplant, cut into large chunks

1 large red bell pepper, cut into large chunks

16 mushrooms, trimmed

1 large can of tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

3 sprigs of fresh oregano

2 sprigs of fresh tarragon

2 sprigs of fresh thyme

1/2 bag whole wheat pasta shells, cooked

1. Put all ingredients into a crockpot and add as much water as will fit. Cook on high for about 5 hours or until the eggplant and other vegetables are no longer floating but have cooked down and sunk down.

2. When cooked, cool soup until room temperature or cooler. I cooled it overnight in the refrigerator.

3. In small batches, blend the cooled soup just until it has some large chunks left. Pour each batch into a saucepan and start to heat.

4. When heated, stir in the cooked pasta shells and warm several more minutes.

5. Serve with warm crusty bread. Idea, add a dash of cream when serving or during the blending process if you would like a creamier soup.