Of course, not everyone is a master gardener, especially me. This year, our family decided to plant a little of this and a little of that, to see what survived or even thrived in our desert climate. Our success rate has been better for some things, like zucchini and Swiss chard, and not quite as good with others, such as peas, green beans, or tomatoes.
At this point in the season, we can usually find something ready to pick every day, whether it's a single yellow squash, the odd cucumber or two, or perhaps a few fruits off our stunted ocra plants. Aside from the cucumbers, which can be sliced, salted, and served immediately, we almost never find something in a quantity great enough to serve as a side dish at dinnertime.
While I was looking at a pile of a little of this and a little of that on my kitchen counter top, several weeks ago, inspiration suddenly whacked me in the head. Soup! Since then, we have made pot after pot of nourishing vegetable soup, using mostly items from our garden, and I've never had to worry about not having enough peas to cook up as "just peas" or enough green beans to steam alongside spaghetti.
When a sister asked me for my recipe, I told her I take whatever vegetables I have, including leftovers if they are there, and throw them in. Each time, it is a little different, but each time, it is delicious.
This is the soup I made the other day.
Tomatoes (I actually used one store-bought tomato, seeded, in addition to the ones seen here.)
Yellow squash (half of the one seen here)
Zucchini (half of the one seen here)
Green beans
Ocra
Swiss chard
Baby potatoes
Onions (not in the picture, but my husband reminded me I had some chopped ones in the refrigerator already)
Corn on the cob, already cooked, left over from another night
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 teaspoon Italian herbs
2 Spicy Italian sausages (Normally, I use 3, but my husband had given in to a craving the day before, so I only had 2.)
The hardest part about this soup is the cutting and chopping to prepare for it.
Chop the tomatoes into pieces about a half inch square. (Or not.) Some people may say the tomatoes should be peeled. I might have said that, as well, before I met a wonderful Mexican woman when I worked in food service. She tried to teach me her recipe for albondigas, a fabulous meatball soup which I never could master, and as part of the vegetable broth of the soup, she simply cut tomatoes into wedges and threw them in the pot to saute with the onions before adding water. So that is now what I do when I use fresh tomatoes. (If I do not have fresh tomatoes, I add a can of salt-free canned diced tomatoes, including the liquid. This gives the broth a nice color.)
Peel the yellow squash. Slice and quarter the yellow squash and zucchini.
Cut off the ends of the green beans, then cut into pieces about 3/4-inch to an inch long.
Cut off the stem end of the ocra, then slice. If the ocra feels a touch woody, it may manage to turn out all right in the soup, as it has plenty of time to cook. If it is more than a touch woody, feed it to the chickens and get a different ocra.
If you've never worked with Swiss chard before, you are really missing something wonderful. Swiss chard is an ideal vegetable for us to grow in our climate, because it is more heat-tolerant and generally hardy than spinach. It is full of good nutrients--everything from iron to protein--and as long as it is cut neatly, continues to produce. Where we are, if it is protected, it can even survive the winter and come back in the spring.
Swiss chard can be boiled as spinach can and tastes very similar, but as a much hardier leaf, it takes more time for it to be finished cooking. Amazingly enough, my family likes boiled Swiss chard, so we're lucky it happens to be one of the vegetables we can grow well enough to eat on a regular basis.
The Swiss chard stems can also be chopped and cooked in recipes very much like celery. For this reason, when I make my soup, I chop Swiss chard stems to put in the pot during the saute phase and chop the leaves separately to add later on.
We had not planned on growing potatoes, but at the time we were planting our garden, a russet potato in our pantry was trying to grow. So we shrugged, cut it up, and planted it, just to see what would happen. The day I made this soup, we noticed that several of the thriving plants had taken a turn for the worst and had died, so we dug up the ground to see if any potatoes had been produced. To our delight, we found several tiny potatoes, just enough for soup after they were washed well and the larger ones cut up to match the smaller ones.
If you happen to have leftover corn on the cob, cut it off the cob.
Slice and quarter the sausages. (Or the other way around, which is usually what I do. I quarter the sausages lengthwise, then slice them.)
Once everything has been chopped, it is time to start cooking.
In a heated non-stick pot, add the tomatoes, onions, and Swiss chard stems. Saute for about 5 minutes, then add 6 cups of water, the 2 chicken bouillon cubes, and the 1 teaspoon Italian herbs. Bring to a boil.
Add the green beans, ocra, and potatoes. Bring again to a boil, then add the squash, zucchini, and Swiss chard.
It will look like the Swiss chard is not even in the water and has filled the pot impossibly high. Don't worry; it will cook down.
Cover the pot with a lid for about five minutes, then stir. By this time, some of the Swiss chard should have reduced enough to be able to stir it into the broth. Bring the pot to a simmer and cook for another five minutes or so.
Add the corn and the sausage. Return to simmer, and let it simmer until the potatoes are cooked through. (If you are not quite ready to eat yet--your biscuits aren't quite out of the oven or someone has just gone outside to milk the goat--keep the burner on low and allow the soup to sit just at or below the point of simmering.)
And that's it! You can use whatever fresh vegetables or leftovers you have on hand, provided they are the kind of vegetables which cook well, rather than primarily salad vegetables, like cucumbers or lettuce. If you do not have Swiss chard, try chopped cabbage. (A winter version of this soup, when you may not have any garden veggies at all, calls for chopped cabbage, chopped cauliflower, onions, canned diced tomatoes, canned green beans, and canned corn.) If you would rather have pasta than potatoes, add about 3/4 cup orzo and let it cook the last 10 minutes of boiling/simmering. If you prefer a different meat, or if you have some leftover chicken or roast on hand, you can use that, as well, although you may need to season the soup a bit more. (The beauty of the Spicy Italian sausage is that it tends to flavor the soup well, so seasoning aside from the bouillon and the herbs is unnecessary.)
Exercise your creativity and have fun!
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