Veggie Pasta Soup

When Spring teases you with a warm week and then Winter hits you hard with a 20 degree weekend, it’s time to make soup and cozy up! This veggie soup is super simple (I threw it together and vacumed the house at the same time!) and easily adapted to any veggies you happen to have on hand. I made a gluten free version with Jovial Brand Brown Rice Pasta but you could sub the pasta out for barley or rice too!

Ingredients

1 cup dry pasta of choice

1/4 cup red lentils

1/4 cup TVP (textured vegetable protein)

1 can chick peas drained

3 carrots diced

3 stalks of celery diced

1 large onion diced

1/2 small head of green cabbage diced

5 cloves garlic minced

1/2 red pepper diced

1 can diced tomatoes

10 cups vegetable broth OR 10 cups water and 2 Tbl veggie boullion

1 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp Spice Beast Chickeny Goodness Spice Blend

1 tsp Old Bay seasoning

Violife grated parm optional

2 Tbl olive oil

In a large stock pot or dutch oven sautee the onion, cabbage and pepper in olive oil over medium heat until the onions begin to turn transluscent. Add garlic, carrots, celery and spices and mix well and sautee another 5 min until fragrant. Add tomatoes, chick peas, lentils, tvp and broth and bring to a boil and then simmer with the lid on for 20-30min until the veggies are tender. While the soup is simmering par cook your pasta (I’m sure you could cook it directly in the soup but I don’t like the starchy water from cooking pasta so I prefer to par cook, drain and rinse before adding to the soup). Once your pasta is al dente, and your soup veggies are tender, add the pasta to the soup and serve with a sprinkling of vegan parm!