Cooking, Recipes, and Culinary Trends

This blended vegetable soup often makes an appearance after a trip. Specifically, when we arrive home to a mostly empty refrigerator. Alternately, I tend to cook it if f I’m needing a relatively low-lift, healthful soup that will yield some legit leftovers to be excited about later in the week. Because it’s blended, this soup is creamy without the cream. It’s loaded with a range of veggies and good-for-you ingredients. It uses up all those hearty, unfussy ingredients that tend to last longest around a kitchen – onions, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, etc. The kind that are there to welcome you home.
blended vegetables soup in a bowl next to a sandwich

Contents

The Inspiration Blended Vegetable Soup: Simple Variations Can you freeze it?What to Serve with This Soup More Blended Soup Recipes:More Soup Recipes

The Inspiration

We drove back from San Francisco on Sunday, and after a few days of restaurant meals I was craving a simple soup. To be honest, there wasn’t much of an alternative, because there weren’t many fresh ingredients to cook with. There were a few carrots, a few potatoes, and we’re never without onions. There was broccoli, but it was not looking its finest. A soup like this is the answer, and an example of why I love cooking. There’s nothing fancy going on here, just a handful of simple ingredients turning into a wonderful nourishing meal with plenty of leftovers. I took the photos you see here after reheating the soup for lunch today. It’s paired with thin slices of toasted homemade sourdough (from the freezer!), and topped with egg salad for a quick lunch up on the patio.
ingredients for topping and serving blended vegetable soup on a tray

Blended Vegetable Soup: Simple Variations

This soup is the definition of flexible. The whole idea is to use up whatever vegetables you have on hand. Here are a few ways I’ve played around with the base recipe over the years.

Ginger: add some grated ginger along with the garlic.
Spicy: make it spicy with your favorite red pepper flakes, to taste.
Big green: add a couple handfuls of kale or spinach with the broccoli for added green veg boost.
Make it vegan: swap out the butter for another tablespoon of olive oil.
Keep it chunky: Skip the blending step, or, blend half and leave half unblended
Cauliflower version: if you don’t have broccoli, but have cauliflower, go ahead and make the swap.
No carrots?: Swap in an equivalent amount of sweet potatoes or winter squash.

Can you freeze it?

Yes. Let the soup cool, then place in the freezer for up to a few months. Allow to thaw, then gently reheat in a pot. Or, if you forget to thaw ahead of time. Add a bit of water to your saucepan, place the frozen soup in the saucepan, covered, over gentle heat. Give it a regular stir (or flip) every ten minutes or so until it thaws.

What to Serve with This Soup

Serving a soup like this along with some freshly baked bread is arguably the way to go, but we’ve even gone the left-over reheated pizza on occasion. Other favorite options:

Frittata Sandwich: Soup and sandwich is a classic combo for good reason.
Egg Salad Sandwich: I often do an open-faced version of this along with the soup (as pictured) – or if you’re feeling a bit more ambitious, try this shredded egg salad.
This chickpea salad sandwich is also a nice pairing. Get that bread nice and toasty!
Cheddar Jalapeño Oatmeal Bread: a favorite along-side blended soups.
Zucchini Bread: well-toasted and smeared with a herby compound butter
Six Seed Soda Bread: Seed crusted . Bonus points for adding a compound butter here as well.
Easy Little Bread: yeast-based, farm-style loaf, made from rolled oats and a blend of all-purpose and whole wheat flours.
Baked Potatoes: No one will complain.