Vegetable Noodle Soup

Warm savory soup filled with noodles and chopped fresh vegetables. A perfect remedy for a cold winter day. 

Is it as cold where you are as it is for me in San Francisco? The last couple weeks have been freezing! Looking out the window, you would think otherwise. It’s sunny with blue skies and no cloud in sight. But when you step through that front door, it’s as if you’re walking straight into a freezer. All I want to do all day is curl up in bed, wrapped in a nice cozy throw, reading a book. Instead, I decided I wanted to make the classic chicken noodle soup to warm me up. Except…. Guess what? I’m out of chicken. Again. Does it sound familiar? The same thing happened when I tried to make Chicken Marsala. So I ended up making vegetable noodle soup.

This recipe is quick and easy and requires the use of just one pot, which means less of a mess to clean up.

First wash, peel, and chop up all your vegetables. Classic chicken noodle soup has just carrots, celery, and onions. But I decided that since I don’t have chicken, I’ll also add peas and parsnips.

In a medium size pot, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil. Then add the vegetables and stir, cooking until they become tender. If the vegetables appear to be burning, add a few tablespoons of water.

Once the vegetables become soft, pour in the vegetable stock or the chicken broth. I personally used chicken broth, but if you want this recipe to be completely vegetarian, go ahead and use vegetable stock.

When the broth starts to boil, add in the spaghetti noodles. Before you put in the noodles though, make sure to break the spaghetti into fourths or smaller. That way when the soup is ready, you only need a spoon to eat with. I chose to use spaghetti since I didn’t have egg noodles on hand. But you can use egg noodles if you prefer that instead.

Add in the bay leaf and the sprigs of thyme. These two herbs will give the soup the flavoring we’re familiar with. But don’t forget to take the bay leaf out at the end. The bay leaf is dry and hard. It’s only used as flavoring, not to eat. I placed the entire sprig of thyme into the soup and removed it in the end, but I think it’s easier just to break the leaves off the stem and put it into the soup.

Cook until the noodles and the vegetables are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn off the heat and add the parsley. Allow the soup to sit for a minute or two to cool.

Serve warm in a bowl.

Enjoy!

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