pantry soup

Yesterday, thanks to a sudden burst of energy combined with the need to be productive, I cleaned out our freezer, fridge, and pantry and then took inventory of absolutely every food item in our house. Wow. It was enlightening. It's amazing how much food you can have while at the same time you think you've got nothing in the house. I'm so glad we didn't go grocery shopping!

This unexpected project was definitely the inspiration behind last nights dinner. I decided to start listing items that we needed to use before they went bad (mainly vegetables) and thus the pantry soup was born! I assumed ti would be mediocre, good enough for simply combining a few ingredients on the whim. No. It was....fantastic.

Ingredients 

(mostly a rough estimation..can definitely be manipulated)

1/2 onion chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
4-5 tbs fresh rosemary

1/2 butternut squash peeled and cubed

1/2 head cabbage, chopped

chicken or vegetable broth (roughly 6 cups)

( we used chicken bullion cubes. cause it was in our pantry!)

3 yellow potatoes, cubed

1/2 cup corn  

2 green tomatoes

2 cups okra, cut into pieces

1 bunch red kale, torn into pieces

1 handful cilantro (for garnish)
Plenty of salt and pepper 


Instructions

heat extra virgin olive oil in a large pot ( enough to cover the bottom) over medium heat

 

add ontion, cook until transparent

 

add garlic and rosemary, cook for about 5 minutes, until garlic is soft and oil is fragrant

 

 

add butternut squash- cook until soft and slightly browned

 

add cabbage, cook for about 5 minutes, until cabbage cooks down

 

 

 

add salt and pepper, broth, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, and okra- cook until potatoes are soft

 

add kale- cook for 10 minutes

Garnish with cilantro and a little extra virgin olive oil if desired (do it. )

Seriously.

I am so glad i wasn't afraid to try something like this. Its...so good. Super chunky, fresh, and just..all around amazing. The cilantro, which E thought was just weird, turned out to be my favorite part!  I'm definitely doing this again. In fact, I'm eating some right now...and, as I think I've mentioned before, I hate eating leftovers. I'm just weird.

mmm.....