Soup du Jour & So Much More!

Delicious supper at the W household tonight!

On the menu:

*Avocado, Spinach & Bacon on Whole Grain

*Vegetable Quinoa Soup

*Cream of Asparagus Soup

Not a great day for soup- it being 90 degrees outside and all, but I've had the ingredients in the fridge (and from the garden) pressing on a week now.  So, it was soup now or compost pile... I won't lie, I was flabbergasted that
1. No one complained or fain vomiting after trying the asparagus soup
2. That Addi asked for one of each bowl
3. That Lili asked for seconds and sucked the bowl dry

I have never been one to follow a recipe which is always an adventure and leads to many happy accidents, but unfortunately, never allows me to make the same thing twice.  Often I just wing it from what I have around the house and occasionally consult the good ole' information superhighway or better yet, a recipe book for general ideas.  Here is (roughly) what I made tonight:

Vegetable Quinoa Soup

3 Tb Butter

1 Med Onion

1-2 cups the following Veggies chopped: Carrots, Green Beans, Cauliflower, Cabbage

6 yellow cherry tomatoes halved

3 bay leaves

4 whole cardamom

1/4 c. quinoa rinsed and drained

2 small chicken bouillon cubes

Salt & Pepper to taste

Start with 3 Tb butter.  Saute 1 med onion diced until translucent. Add remaining veggies and stir to coat. Saute approx 3 minutes.  Add water to cover +1 inch and add quinoa.  Cover and bring to boil stirring occasionally.  Reduce to simmer and add bouillon cubes, cardamom, bay leaves.  Simmer approximately 20 minutes or until all veggies soft (or to your liking). Remove bay leaves and cardamom (if you can find it. It has a very intense taste and can be too strong if eaten but will not harm you). 

*I prefer to cook my soups slower over the course of a day for better flavor, but still delicious in a pinch! This would work with any veggies, really.  The quinoa adds a nice buttery flavor and protein and fiber.  For those of you not familiar with quinoa [KEEN-wah], you can learn more about it's great health benefits here.

Cream of Asparagus Soup

2 lbs Asparagus

1/4 c. Heavy Cream

1 med Onion

2 Tb butter

1 Tb garlic

Salt & Pepper to taste

Melt butter in pot and saute onion (chopped) until translucent.  Add garlic & asparagus (chopped) and saute 3-5 minutes (I only had 1 lb fresh asparagus and substituted with 2 cans of asparagus spears from Aldi's & use the pre-diced garlic jar).  Add water to cover.  Cover pot and bring to boil; reduce to simmer and cook until asparagus tender (10-15 minutes).  Remove from heat and use immersion blender (thanks again Sandie!) to blend until fully creamed.  Add heavy cream and salt & pepper to taste. May serve warm or cold. 

 Though the asparagus soup was essentially all store bought, there was something fun about the quinoa soup and letting the girls pick the ingredients from the garden for our supper. The spinach for the sandwiches was even from the garden as well.  Yum!  Now if our roma tomatoes would just ripen up so I could put those habenaros to work...