I had invited friends over for brunch.  He was a vegetarian.  She doesn’t eat any grains.  And my family is dairy, egg, and (some) nut-free.  What could I serve?  I decided on a big pot of homemade vegetable soup, supplemented by some yummy sourdough bread (for most of us) available at a local bakery.  Here’s what a threw together for the soup…easy, basic, delicious, and nutritious!

Ingredients

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 package of portabello mushrooms, chopped

Olive oil (enough to saute vegetables, about 1 -2 tbsps)

Sea salt to taste

Three carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

Three stalks of celery, sliced thinly

1 can of diced tomatoes (no salt added)

1 can of chickpeas, drained

1 small box of white cannelloni beans, drained

3 sprigs of fresh thyme (use dried if fresh not available)

5 branches of fresh oregano (use dried if fresh not available)

A drop of maple syrup

Instructions:

Saute onions in olive oil until soft.  Add mushrooms, carrots, and celery, and saute for three minutes.  Add rest of ingredients.  Fill up pot with water.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce to simmer.  Cook for 2 to 3 hours, until vegetables, chickpeas, and beans are tender.  Add more sea salt if necessary.  Serve piping hot, with your favorite bread (or not, if you don’t eat grains!).

Alternative:

For a slight variation on the same theme, make the following changes to the above ingredients:  delete the cannelloni beans, thyme, fresh oregano, and maple syrup.  Add another can of diced tomatoes, about 1 cup of frozen peas, about 6 fresh sage leaves (chopped up), about 1/8  cup of dried oregano, and about an 1/8 cup of dried basil, and some fresh ground pepper to taste.  Also, add one parsnip, chopped.  This soup yielded a delectable tastebud pleasing soup that was naturally sweet without any sugar (or maple syrup) added.  Blame it on the parsnip?  And who knew that sage can add such a savory flavor to a pot of vegetable soup.  Thyme to give another herb centerstage, I guess (Ha!).