Great idea to reduce your fresh produce waste with a great m

jillcaudill

So I try to eat lots of vegetables. I like raw veggie sticks (carrots, celery, asparagus, squash, zucchini, califlower, red pepper, or anything else I come up with) with almond butter for my lunches a lot of the time. I cook some kind of veggie for dinners, and I like a salad here and there. So when I go the grocery store I stock up on tons of different veggies for variety in the house. But then what happens when you get all that fresh food in the house? Does it end up going bad? Not in my house! lol When things start to look like they are getting a little limp, I make soup. I usually have plenty of veggies to make usually about 15 cups of soup. I cut everything up and throw it in a pot. It is different every time. Stuff that falls apart when overcooked like califlower or brocolli is fine too cause it just thickens the broth. Some of my favorite ingredients are asparagus cut into 1/2 inch pieces, onions, and mushrooms. I always save my stems from leafy greens like bok choy, kale, what have you... and throw that in the soup too. 8 cups of water with real chicken base (better than bouillon) and add different spices. This time I did 1 tsp tumeric, 1 tsp curry powder, 1 tsp 5 spice, and 1 tsp cayenne pepper. I weigh everything before I throw it in so I can calculate the pot, and then when its done I measure how many cups it makes and figure out the calories for each cup. The batch I made yesterday turned out the best that I've made so far! I love it... and its only 40 calories per cup!!!! I had 2 cups for an 80 calorie lunch and was stuffed when I was done. I had 900 calories left for dinner, only ate 630 of them, so I'm trying to figure out what I can have for desert. Super low calorie, extremely nutritious, very filling, and you reduce your fresh produce waste. How can you go wrong?

RoxyStalin

Thanks for the suggestion! I too buy a ton of fresh veggies, and some always seem to end up out in the compost pile. This will be a great way to use them up.

ladybu6205

Have you tried the green bags? They REALLY DO work! Produce seems to last several weeks with them. Another option for keeping fresh in the house...

melodyg

So what veggies did you have in your soup yesterday?

Great tip, I love using veggies for soup too, or just sauteeing them in olive oil.

glike

Nothing can go wrong. Good Job! I also make my own Chicken Broth and soups.

jillcaudill

So what veggies did you have in your soup yesterday?

Great tip, I love using veggies for soup too, or just sauteeing them in olive oil.

Water - Municipal, 8 cup (8 fl oz) 0 0 0 0 0 4
Superior Touch Better Than Bouillon Organic - Reduced Sodium Chicken Base, 9 tsp 135 18 5 0 0 0
Spice Islands Tumeric - Tumeric, 1 tsp 8 1 0 0 0 0
Spices - Pepper, red or cayenne, 1 tsp 6 1 0 0 0 0
Spices - Curry powder, 1 tsp 7 1 0 0 0 1
Asian Gourmet - Chinese Five Spice Powder, 1 tsp (0.4g) 0 0 0 0 0 0
Kale - Raw, 43 g 22 4 0 1 0 6
Onions - Sweet, raw, 206 g 66 16 0 2 10 4
Peppers - Sweet, green, raw, 85 g 17 4 0 1 2 1
Carrots - Raw, 156 g 64 15 0 1 7 5
Celery - Raw, 285 g 40 8 0 2 5 11
Raw - Califlower, 1.32 cup (100 g) 33 7 0 3 3 3
Peppers - Sweet, red, raw, 164 g 43 10 0 2 7 1
Leeks - (bulb and lower leaf-portion), cooked, boiled, drained, without salt, 55.0 g 17 4 0 0 0 2
Asparagus - Raw, 78 g 16 3 0 2 1 2
Mushrooms - Raw, 213 g 47 7 1 7 4 1
Coriander (cilantro) leaves - Raw (Cilantro, raw, Chinese parsley, raw), 10 g

mommacool

Here is another idea for making vegetable stock... save your onion skins and the greenish or hard outer layer, carrot peels, celery leaves, and any pieces you trim off your other vegetables that you might not eat but still have flavor and simmer them in some water to make veggie stock. Stain and use it to make your soup or cook rice.

mommacool

The soup is amazing. I tired you recipe with a few changes to the vegetables according to what I had on hand, but used your spice combination... DELICIOUS! Thanks for posting!

Grokette

Saving my spot to use your recipe, will be different veggies - I am mostly interested in the seasoning and spices used.

I have carrots, onions, celery, peppers, brocolli, caulfilower, radishes, spinach, and some collard greens.

knittnponder

The other good option for greens and milder veggies along with fruit is smoothies. I make green smoothies everyday with spinach, kale, parsley or broccoli. I actually buy a whole bunch of spinach at a time at Costco and just freeze the tubs of it. It doesn't matter if it's blanched or not because I'm just blending the heck out of it anyway. You can also blend vegetables together and make a "cream" soup or use it as a base for your soups.

CanuckLove

Great idea! I always get so mad when my veggies don't last