Hearty Tomato Vegetable Soup is a meal-in-a-bowl - chock full of vegetables and legumes, including protein-rich edamame and chickpeas. Get this flavourful soup on the table in about 30 minutes, with minimal hands-on time as the recipe uses dried spices, frozen vegetables, and canned chickpeas. This is a versatile soup - add your choice of starch, whether it be potatoes, pasta, or rice. And feel free to raid the fridge for any vegetables that you need to use up, and include those too.
Ingredients
Using fresh instead of frozen vegetables
I have not tested this recipe using fresh vegetables instead of frozen. If you'd prefer to use fresh vegetables, I'd recommend cutting them into bite-sized pieces, and adding them to the soup after you've cooked the onion, tomato paste and spices.
Add slower cooking vegetables first (carrots typically take the longest, then potatoes, and other starchy vegetables like yam or squash.) Cook them in some of the broth before adding the remaining ingredients.
If you want to include vegetables that have a higher water content, like zucchini or spinach, add them when the rest of the soup is done, and cook them long enough to heat through.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Visual Overview: Making Hearty Tomato Vegetable Soup
Add the oil to a large soup pot. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
Cooking onions
The onions should be slightly softened with some bits starting to brown.
Cooking onions
Add in the tomato paste and spices. Cook over med-low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Adding tomato paste and spices
Cooked tomato, onion, and spices
- If you are using cooked pasta or rice: Add the broth, chickpeas, frozen vegetables, and pasta/rice. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
- If you're using uncooked potatoes, add them with the vegetable broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook for about 10 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender. Then add the remaining ingredients: the chickpeas and frozen vegetables and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
Making Hearty Tomato Vegetable Soup
Edit your caption text here
Optional: Garnishing the soup
The soup is tasty enough on its own but for extra flavour and texture you can add some garnishes, such as fresh herbs, cheese, yogurt or sour cream, avocado slices, and croutons.
For the photographs, I garnished the soup with fresh basil, shredded cheese, plain yogurt, and some homemade croutons. I made the croutons by cutting shapes out of some stale bread. I used cookie cutters but you could also use a small drinking glass. After cutting out the croutons, I put them in a frying pan with a little bit of margarine and fried them for a few minutes on each side to toast them. ( I put the remaining bread scraps in a freezer bag and I'll use them in another dish.)
Tips: Cooking for mixed groups
The recipe as written is plant-based. If you eat cheese, Parmesan cheese makes a nice addition. Add it a few minutes before serving and heat through. Alternatively, you can keep the soup plant-based and serve plant-based and/or dairy versions of cheese, yogurt or sour cream on the side.
If you want to make a version of this soup for a meat-eater, it would be good with chicken or sausage meat. Cook the meat before adding to the soup. Add just a few minutes before serving and heat through.
Recipe Card
Hearty Tomato Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 2/3 cup tomato paste (156 ml can)
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups frozen vegetables of choice
- 1/2 cup frozen edamame beans
- 2 cups starch of choice (uncooked potatoes or cooked rice or pasta)
Optional, if vegetarian
- 1/2 to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Optional for garnish
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil, torn or chopped
- 2 tablespoons shredded cheese of choice
- croutons
- plain yogurt or sour cream
Instructions
- Heat the oil to medium and add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until starting to soften, with bits of brown.
- Add the tomato paste and spices: dried basil, garlic powder, and dried oregano, and cook on med-low for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
If you're using cooked pasta or rice
- Add the broth, chickpeas, frozen vegetables, and pasta/rice. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. You can leave this to simmer for longer, but the pasta/rice will absorb more water, making the soup less soupy.
If you're using uncooked potatoes
- Add the potatoes, along with vegetable broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook for about 10 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender. Then add the remaining ingredients: the chickpeas and frozen vegetables and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
Optionally, if you're vegetarian
- Add the Parmesan cheese at the end of cooking, and heat through.
Optionally, garnish the soup
- I made some homemade croutons to garnish the soup. I used cookie cutters to cut the croutons out of some slightly stale bread. I fried them lightly in margarine. I also garnished with some shredded cheese, a few dollops of plain yogurt (you could also use sour cream), and some torn fresh basil.