Vegetable Soupy Stew

So, I've got this event tomorrow night that requires several people to bring a dish.  It's not exactly pot-luck since we all know basically who's bringing what.  And since I wasn't sure if I'd have an oven or not, my pot had to be stove top or crock pot.  I decided to make soup.  What kind of soup, well, I'd determine that later once the date got closer.  Now it's tomorrow and I'm not sure what to do.  I have a few "fancy" soups like I like to make like Leek and Potato, or Cream of Wild Mushroom (usually has at least 5 different mushrooms), a recent addition is a Spicy Pumpkin Soup, and of course the classic Chicken Noodle, which I tend to make more like a chowder.  (I'll put that one up some day.)  But then I found out that one of the people attending is a vegetarian.  I've cooked all veggie before and have not found it to be an issue, so I took this on as saying my dish would be the one true veggie dish they can have.  Heck, I think it's even Vegan.

Now, I tend to cook meals so that they have sustenance to them.  When you leave my table, you won't go away hungry.  So when I play, I play hard.  My meals are not usually for the meek.  I like big bites.  I like big flavors.  And I always incorporate something I learned from the last time, into the next big meal.

So tonight, we play with Vegetable Soup, and I say if it can't have meat in it, go big or go home. (Am I allowed to use that?  Didn't someone copyright it?)  So, here's my hearty Vegetable Soup with bites big enough for Stew.  Let's play.  Get everything ready and prepped ahead of time, I move fast.



Ingredients

• 1 Sweet Vidallia onion (1/4 finely chopped set aside, 3/4 sliced)
• 2 short stalks celery (1/2 of one finely chopped, the rest bite size)
• 8 carrots (2 finely chopped, the rest bite size)
• 1 small cabbage (1/2 sliced to 4 by .5 inch strips)
• 1 package baby portabella mushrooms (quartered)
• 2 yellow summer squash (drawn and quartered)
• 2 zucchini  (drawn and quartered)
• 3 cloves garlic (smashed and finely diced)
• Olive Oil
• Sweet Vermouth
• 4oz tomato puree
• 2 boxes vegetable stock

Spices (I don't measure, just pour 'till it looks "right")

• 2 bay leaves
• oregano
• basil
• salt
• pepper
• red pepper flakes (5 gentle taps on the back of plastic bottle)
• thyme

And Here we Go

1. Cover bottom of LARGE pot with olive oil
2. Toss in your finely diced onion, carrots and celery (this is the standard mirapoix), generously salt and pepper here.
3. Saute this on Med-Low, keep it moving.  Sweat it out and get it brown and good.  If food starts to stick to the bottom keep it moving, but don't scrape it off.
4. When things looks dark and melted away and beyond soft (but NOT burned), pour in about 3 splashes of sweet vermouth.  And stir it up and scrape off the brown on the bottom.  This is called "fond." which I have talked about in strangely enough another Vegetarian post (Veggie Chili) - We're de-glazing the pan.
5. Alright, everything happy in the pan?  Let those veggies soak up that vermouth for a few minutes (keep them moving)
6. Toss in your bite size carrots, your bit size celery and your sliced onion.
7. Bring your pan to High and get them hot and keep them moving.
8. While these are starting to sweat start dumping in your spices.
• In go 2 bay leaves
• shake, shake, shake that oregano
• boogy woogy your basil
• more salt
• more peppa
• 5 taps on the bottom of your red pepper jar
• and "probably" about 1T of thyme
9. Med-High heat and keep moving.  You're now getting the flavors of those spices into the veggies
10. When they start to glisten (yes, they actually somewhat shine when they start to get tender), add your summer squash and zucchini
11. Add your garlic
12. Stir and keep things moving
13. Is the squash starting to shine?  Do they look like they're starting to get tender?  Alright, then add your mushrooms!
14. Hit the heat to high, keep things moving and wait for stuff to sizzle.  Get the flavors of all that spice into those veggies.  They want it.
15. When the mushrooms look like they're about to start shrinking, add your stock.  Add your can of tomato sauce.  Add enough water to all this to get the veggies floating.
16. Cover it.  Keep it on High.
17. Bring it to a boil.
18. Let it simmer on Low-Med for about 10 minutes.
19. Add your cabbage after 10 minutes.  Turn off your heat.
20. Let it sit another 10 minutes.

It should be approximately 1 hour later than when you started.  Yes?  Less?  That's OK.  More?   That's OK too.

Now, one optional component to this I MIGHT add tomorrow when I put it in the crock pot would be pasta, that small round hole pasta, looks like it's made for kids, often found in minestrone.  I haven't decided.  ALSO, I considered adding beans.  I would choose Cannelloni beans if I did.  Both may be a bit much, not sure yet.  I plan on having this at lunch tomorrow to test out and see what's missing.  I will then alter or add to it once it makes it into my crock pot tomorrow night.