Soup is one of the easiest and quickest meals to serve up. It is also a great make ahead meal, I like to cook up a big pot of soup on the weekend to eat during the week. It's a great way to use up leftovers, so it never gets boring, the varieties are endless. Nearly every time I make soup I find something hiding in the fridge that needs using up which I add to the pot, so it's never exactly the same twice. Here's today's variety.
Spinach Mushroom Soup
1 qt. vegetable broth
1small red onion, chopped
1clove garlic, minced
8 oz. mushrooms, chopped
2 bay leaves
3 fresh tomatoes, chopped or 1 can diced tomatoes if you prefer
8 oz. fresh spinach, loosely chopped
2 c. cooked brown rice
freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 tsp. no-salt seasoning (I use Kirkland organic no-salt seasoning from Costco)
Start with a large pot- larger than you think you'll need, because the mushrooms and spinach both have large initial volumes and look like they will be too much for the soup, but they cook down quickly. I used a 4 quart pot for this and the pot was full when adding the spinach, but it shrank quickly and I ended up with about 2 quarts of finished soup.
Bring broth, onion, garlic, mushrooms, bay leaves and tomatoes to a boil. Simmer 15 minutes. Stir in spinach and rice. Simmer 3-4 minutes till rice is heated through and spinach is wilted. Remove bay leaves. Add freshly cracked black pepper and no-salt seasoning. Serve.
