Vegetable Soup Recipe

I posted this picture on Facebook of the vegetable soup I made the other night because it just looked so pretty!  Apparently it looked yummy to all of you as well because I got lots of comments and requests for the recipe.  The thing is that I made it up with all of the veggies in my fridge and on my counter so this is going to be a rough recipe because as far as seasonings go, I just kind of threw stuff in without measuring.  It was so delicious though and I will definitely make it again!  Oh, and it is EASY!

Ingredients:

1 container vegetable stock (you could use chicken or beef stock though)

1/2 head of Cauliflower

4 stems of Kale

2 Sweet Potatoes  (I leave the skin on)

1/3 bag (the smaller bags) of baby carrots (cut in half)

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 can Stewed Tomatoes (or a few fresh tomatoes)

1 can diced tomatoes with olive oil and garlic (I used the HyVee brand)

3-4 small yellow onions (I used 4 small ones)

3 garlic cloves (chopped)

butter (ghee if you want it to be paleo)

sea salt

fresh ground pepper

red pepper flakes

Badia Complete Seasoning (this is what I use and LOVE, but I have to get it in Florida)

First, I chopped all of the veggies (except for the sweet potatoes and kale) very course.  Since there was not meat in this soup, I wanted big chunks of veggies.  In a big soup pot, I used approximately 1 TBSP ghee (or you can use butter or evoo or coconut oil) to saute all of the veggies (except for the canned tomatoes, the sweet potatoes and kale) and the chopped garlic cloves.  I just sauteed them to make them a little tender...maybe 5 minutes or so.  While doing that I seasoned with salt and pepper.  Then I poured the vegetable stock and canned tomatoes in and added some more salt and pepper as well as approximately 1 1/2 TBSP Badia and approximately 1 TSP red pepper flakes.  I let this simmer while I cut the sweet potatoes and took the kale off of the stems and chopped it into smaller chunks.  I added in the potatoes (I leave the skin on) about 30-60 minutes before serving because they can get pretty mushy.  I added the kale about 15 minutes before serving.  Throughout the cooking I was constantly tasting and adding salt and pepper as I went.  I did feel like when I was making it that I was putting in a lot of sea salt, but it needed it to get it to where the flavor was right. :)

It was SO GOOD, but just for fun when I make it again, I would maybe also add celery and even maybe mushrooms.  It would be really good with some sort of meat in there too!  If I didn't have Badia Complete Seasoning, I would probably put extra garlic in it, some extra salt (because Badia is salty), a bay leaf, basil or some other fresh herbs you like.  You could also probably just throw everything in a crock pot (and just skip the sauteeing of the veggies in butter) in the morning and then an hour before serving, add the sweet potatoes and kale into the crock pot to complete it.

I know this is not a very "official" recipe, but that's because I just made it up on a whim to get rid of a bunch of veggies I had in our fridge before they went bad! :)

Hope you all like it!