Soup: A dish that the laziest of college students can prepare with clean up as minimal as the mess. All you need is a large pot and a blender or food processor.
These pureed bowls provide warm meals filled with fall and winter vegetables that will kindly heat your belly on a cold day. Before you know it, you have ideal autumn grub that also works well during the days after your wisdom teeth removal. These recipes are all vegetarian friendly and offer 4-6 servings.
Potato Leek Soup
A purified version of Thanksgiving, this soup tastes like mashed potatoes that got a little too much loving. It’ll have you licking the bowl clean.
3 leeks
2 shallots
2 tablespoons butter
2 pounds potatoes (ideally Yukon Gold)
32 ounces vegetable broth
1/2 tablespoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 bay leaves
3/4 cup whole milk (substitute almond milk for nondairy option)
Rinse and chop the leeks into roughly 3/4 inch pieces. It’s easier to cut if you cut the long way first. Place in a bowl and rinse with water to remove any dirt, then strain. Cut up the shallots. Wash and peel the potatoes and cut them into 1-2 inch chunks. Melt butter in the soup pot; when it begins to look frothy, add leeks, shallots, salt, pepper and bay leaves.
Once leeks are soft, add potatoes and broth. Bring the soup up to a boil. Once boiling, bring down to a simmer for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
Pour into the blender, and blend until the ingredients are a steady consistency. Pour back into pot with whole milk, then mix together and let simmer for a couple minutes. Top with salt and pepper to your liking.
Sweet Butternut Squash Soup
The hardest thing about this recipe is cutting the squash, but the work is worth it. This sweet taste of fall love leaves you pining for someone to share this soup with while you rake leaves together. Butternut squash is technically a winter squash, but it’s easy to find in stores during the fall months. This recipe is adapted from the blog “A Sweet Pea Chef.”
3 tablespoons olive oil,
Medium butternut squash
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 large carrots, diced
32 ounces vegetable broth (or chicken stock)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup whole milk
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Once you saw that bad boy in half, drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil on the cut side of the squash and put it face down on a layer of aluminum foil on a baking sheet.
Throw it in the oven for an hour to an hour and a half, and catch up with your Tinder matches, but don’t forget to set a timer. When it’s done roasting and your well-deserved break is over, you should be able to easily poke a fork into the squash.
Turn the heat on the stove to medium with the
remaining two tablespoons of olive oil in the pot. Toss in the onions, carrots, nutmeg, salt and pepper until vegetables are softened. Add squash, followed by the broth.
Turn up the heat, and bring the soup up to a boil. Once it is boiling, bring down to a simmer for about fifteen minutes.
Pour into a blender with honey until completely blended with a steady consistency.
Pour back into pot with whole milk, mix together and let simmer for a couple minutes. Top with a little whole milk, and lightly stir in for an elegant white swirl.
Not Campbell’s Tomato Soup
Step away from that can of Campbell’s; you have your own tomato basil soup that’s lovesick for a grilled cheese. You can thank Rachel Ray for this simplistic recipe.
32 ounces vegetable broth
28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 cup heavy cream
20 basil leaves
Combine tomatoes, half of the basil and vegetable broth in pot and bring up to a boil. Bring heat down to a simmer.
Pour into a blender until completely blended with a steady consistency. Pour back into the pot, and let it simmer for couple minutes.
Chop up the rest of the basil for a garnish.
To add more heat, add a few drops of Tabasco sauce.
