Monday, April 4, 2016

Vegetable Soup - Easy to make vegetarian or vegan!

It seems like every time I get a new gadget, I make a million recipes in it. When I got my Vitamix, I had smoothies every morning for breakfast. And maybe for lunch. And blended cocktails. And  ... well, all sorts of blended things.

I didn't post a lot of recipes because, well, it was smoothies. Lots of bananas disappeared, but I wasn't being particularly creative.

Now that I have an Instant Pot, I'm having fun pressing buttons and seeing what it can do. One night, I was thinking about soup. I had chicken stock, canned tomatoes, fresh vegetables. It was 10:34 and I seriously wanted to make the soup that late at night. But then I decided it would be just as easy to make the soup the next day for lunch.

So that's what I did.

To make this soup vegetarian, simply swap in a vegetable stock for the chicken stock. To make it vegan, omit the butter or use olive oil instead. It might sound a little odd to add butter or oil to a soup, but this soup has no meat that would normally provide fat. It's not necessary, but it adds a little bit of richness.

The mild Hatch chilis don't add heat to the soup - if you prefer a spicy soup, use hot chilis. Or you can pass hot sauce or sriracha at the table for those who like it hot.

Vegetable Soup

1 quart chicken stock (I use Kitchen Basics if I don't have homemade)
2 14.5-ounce cans petite diced tomatoes
1 14.75-ounce can creamed corn (or corn kernels, your choice)
1 4-ounce can mild diced Hatch chilis
1 cup sliced carrots (about 3)
1 cup sliced celery stalks (about 3)
1 medium onion, diced
1/4 cup jasmine rice
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt

Place all the ingredients in the Instant Pot and give it a little stir. Set on "soup" setting and turn time to 12 minutes. When the time is up, release the pressure. Serve hot.

I received the Instant Pot though 37 Cooks in order to create a post on that site. I'm not obligated to continue posting about it.
Yum