I made a simple vegetable soup last night, using up some odds and ends in the fridge. It tasted good–it almost always does without much effort. But as I walked out through the garage to feed the dog while it was simmering away, I saw a few leftovers 12 ounce cans of V8 juice that the kids had once had a taste for, then lost. I grabbed one on the way back in and added it to the soup and it really perked it up! Delicious! I do use soups throughout the winter as an easy way to get a variety of vegetables in our diet. I often, but not always, make them with chicken broth, keeping quart bags of homemade broth in the freezer for just this purpose. Tonight I used turkey broth, since that’s what I had on hand. Sometimes I add garlic to the onion but I skipped that tonight.
Vegetable Soup with V8 Juice
Ingredients
- 2 Tbs oil
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 rutabaga, peeled and chopped
- 1 stalk celery, sliced
- 1 quart turkey broth
- 1 12 ounce can of V8 juice
- juice from 1/2 a lemon
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp celery seed
Instructions
- Heat the oil and saute the carrots and onion about 5 minutes.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer a half hour or longer, until the vegetables are all soft. Remove the bay leaf before serving.
The list of other things I might have added to this is nearly endless. A can of beans, spinach or chard or other greens, leftover chicken or meatballs for a heartier soup, a can of corn, turnips, potatoes or rice or barley or pasta, red pepper, leftover bits of vegetables… If I hadn’t had a lemon on hand, I might have added 1/2 cup of white wine to perk it up.
Get creative and use up those odds and ends. Sometimes I keep a container in the freezer for soup odds and ends like this and just dump it all in a quart of broth. It always comes out good and almost always comes out great!
You’re right about the vegetable drinks. Even store brands have the same effect. Very tasty!