A nourishing soup prepared with fresh root vegetables, pasta, and soup seasoning.
This soup is vegan and a convenient one-pot dish.
Global Food Recipes
with Spices and Herbs
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📕 What is this soup?
The nourish me soup is, as the title explains, a healthy comfort food soup.
Chunks of root vegetables are cooked in a clear broth with a handful of soup spices.
It's inspired by and resembles the Italian Minestrone soup. This recipe doesn't include beans.
The ingredients are loosely based on my clear soup.
This soup is helpful if you are sick and if you have a cold. Other quick soups to make when you are ill, include the healing broth soup and the pastina soup.
🧅 Ingredients
Here is what you will need to make this. It's just an overview to help you get organized, the full recipe is located further below in the recipe card.
- onion - purple, white or yellow
- garlic - fresh
- potatoes - I like to use potatoes that keep their shape during the cooking process. Avoid soft potatoes if you don't want them to turn out mashy.
- root vegetables - can be one or a few. Choose between carrots, parsnips, parlsey roots, celery roots, turnips or rutabaga. Also leek can be added.
- oil - any, can be vegetable oil, canola, sunflower, olive oil.
- water
- bay leaf (optional, see FAQs)
- lovage (optional, see FAQs)
- juniper berries (optional, see FAQs)
- nutmeg (optional, see FAQs)
- chives - dry or fresh
- parsley or chervil - the latter, chervil, is more suitable for soups.
- bouillon cube - I use the vegetable one but if you do chicken, then this is a good choice too.
- pasta - any. I used penne because that's what I had at home.
- salt and black pepper
🔪 How to make it?
Here is how it comes together. Check the US and Metric measurements in the recipe card further below.
Step 1
Prep all your fresh ingredients.
Slice onion, chop garlic, cut the veggies the same size.
Step 2
Saute onion, garlic, and veggies in oil
Pour in water. Add bouillon cube and all the seasoning ingredients.
Step 3
Boil and cook until the veggies are cooked but still a bit hard.
Add the noodles and cook until done, also season with salt and pepper.
Take out whole spices and serve up.
🍴 Serving
This is Paul's favorite soup and he likes it served with garlic butter bread or plain bread rolls.
I like a green plain lettuce salad at the side with a mustard vinaigrette.
🍱 Storing
This soup is great as a meal prep dish. Just make a large batch and store it in your fridge.
It holds well for 7-10 days in your fridge because there is no meat in it.
I like to use glass containers, like the ones you get in IKEA with the bamboo lids (or the clip lids).
The glass containers can be placed in the oven or microwave to reheat your soup, which saves you from dirtying a pan.
You can also freeze this soup. It will be good for at least 2 months in its frozen state. Thaw and reheat the same way in the microwave or oven.
💭 FAQs
Those are flavor-giving spices (+ lovage is a herb). If you don't have them or you don't get them, you can skip all or one of the spices. But know that the soup will turn out less flavorful. These spices round up the soup aroma and they can be health-promoting too. That said, if you plan on making more soups in the future, I recommend getting the three spices and the culinary herb, because these are soup spices.
You can use clear broth too instead of bouillon cubes and water. They also sell bouillon flakes in stores.
Skip adding the potatoes and pasta to the soup to reduce the calories per serving.
Use a low sodium broth and skip the salt, or use low sodium salt.
👁️ More Healthy Soup Ideas
📖 Recipe
Nourish Me Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Piece Onion medium
- 2 Pieces Garlic Cloves
- 2 Piece Potatoes medium
- 1 Pound Root Vegetables *See Notes
- 1 Tablespoon Oil *See Notes
- 7 Cups Water *See Notes
- 3 Sprigs Lovage optional, *See Notes
- 5 Piece Juniper Berries optional, *See Notes
- 1 Piece Bay Leaf optional, *See Notes
- ½ Teaspoon Nutmeg optional, *See Notes
- 1 Tablespoon Chives freshly chopped or dried
- 1 Tablespoon Parsley or Chervil *See Notes
- 1 Piece Bouillon Cube *See Notes
- 1 Handful Pasta any
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Prep your vegetables. Slice onion, chop garlic, cut potatoes, and root vegetables about the same size into smaller dice.1 Piece Onion, 2 Pieces Garlic Cloves, 2 Piece Potatoes, 1 Pound Root Vegetables
- Heat up a medium-sized pot with oil and add the sliced onions. Sauté over a medium heat setting until they get a bit soft.1 Tablespoon Oil, 1 Piece Onion
- Add in the garlic and sauté over a lower heat setting. Careful to not burn the garlic.2 Pieces Garlic Cloves
- Stir in vegetables (potatoes and root veggies) and sauté for a minute or two stirring so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan. Keep over a low to medium heat setting.2 Piece Potatoes, 1 Pound Root Vegetables
- Pour in water. Keep over a medium heat setting.7 Cups Water
- Now add all the spices and herbs. Lovage, juniper berries, bay leaf, nutmeg, chives, chervil, or parsley.3 Sprigs Lovage, 5 Piece Juniper Berries, 1 Piece Bay Leaf, ½ Teaspoon Nutmeg, 1 Tablespoon Chives, 1 Tablespoon Parsley or Chervil
- Break the bouillon cube into the soup. Mix briefly everything.1 Piece Bouillon Cube
- Cover and cook the soup over a medium heat setting. Cook until the veggies are almost cooked through, this can take about 15-20 minutes.
- Take out all the whole large spices and culinary herbs (that means also the lovage).
- Add the pasta. Also, stir in the black pepper and salt.1 Handful Pasta, ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground, Salt
- Cook uncovered for about 8-10 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through (depends on the pasta, smaller ones take only 5 minutes)
- Serve up hot.
Notes
- Choose a purple, white or yellow onion
- Choose potatoes that hold their shape, not soft mashy varieties. If you don't care, you can do what you want.
- The root vegetables can be carrots, parsnip, rutabaga, celery root, parsley root. Also, leek can be added. All of them mixed or just one, the choice is yours. The base recipe calls for 1 pound/450 grams.
- Use vegetable oil or sunflower oil or canola oil or olive oil.
- Use bouillon cubes or flakes and water OR use liquid broth, commercial package one, or homemade. If you use liquid broth, skip the water in the recipe. The water is always added with the bouillon cube. I use vegetable cubes/broth but you can use chicken or beef flavored ones too (but not vegan then).
- Juniper berries, bay leaf, lovage, and nutmeg are soup seasonings. They add flavor and health benefits. If you don't have them, skip them. If you plan on cooking more soups or to up your soup game in the future, get them.
- 3 sprigs fresh lovage = about 1 tablespoon dried lovage herb in the base recipe
- Use fresh or dried chives
- Use fresh or dried parsley or chervil herb. Chervil is more suitable but it resembles parsley.
Equipment
- 8" Chef Knife
