Bill's Vegetable Soup Recipe

I've been making a fresh vegetable soup once a week using organic vegetables and storebought vegetable broth. It takes under an hour and it tastes great. Serves two to four people (depending on how much you eat... I can't resist a second bowl.)

Ingredients:

1. package of liquid vegetable broth (comes in quarts)

2. Small can of tomato paste

3. Frozen organic peas (1 or 2 cups)

4. three carrots cut up

5. three green onions chopped

6. 1/2 dozen shitake mushrooms (or brown mushrooms) chopped up

7. 1 small sweet potato peeled and cubed

8. 1 cup of brown pasta (or 1/2 cup of brown rice)

9. seasonal vegetables (I love things like teeny baby corn ears, fresh green beans, etc.)

10. 1/2 cup of shredded fresh cabbage

11. Spices: basil, oregano, salt, black pepper, sage

12. 2 cups water.

Chop and prepare the vegetables. Pour about 1/2 of the quart of vegetable broth into a saucepan and set burner to high.

Add the vegetables, spices, tomato paste and water. Stir until the tomato paste is blended in. By this time the broth will have come to a boil.

Add the pasta or rice.

Add the spices, turn the burner down to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

That's it. You can refrigerate what you don't eat right away. It will get sort of thick in the refrigerator, but if you pour in a cup or so of the vegetable broth left in the package you will thin it right out again.