It was a Sunday evening and I hadn’t done much by way of grocery shopping the week leading up to it, and here I was wondering what soup to make for dinner. I looked in the refrigerator and I had a little of this and little of that – i.e. little bit of carrots, two fennel bulbs, parsnips, and peas in the freezer. Hence the name hodgepodge soup for this concoction of a veggie soup. As I was making this soup I got asked a few times by the family “What soup are we having for dinner?”  To which my answer with a laugh was “Hodgepodge soup.😀”  The next question was “What does that mean?”  I told them I’m just making a soup with whatever veggies were at hand and let’s hope it turns out good. Guess what folks?  Every family member LOVED the soup. I kept getting compliments like “This is really good Mommy.” and “This is delicious soup, is there more?”  In fact, we cleaned out the entire soup pot!

Hodgepodge Soup with Carrots, Fennel, Peas & Parsnips

Ingredients:

• 2 fennel bulbs finely chopped
• 2 cups carrots finely cut
• 2 cups frozen peas
• 2 cups peeled and cut parsnips
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic finely crushed
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp chili flakes (optional)
• 2 tsp herbs of your choice – thyme, chopped basil, sage, rosemary
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 5 cups vegetable broth or water
• 1 tsp garlic powder (optional)

Directions:

• In a large pot heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Sauté 4 garlic cloves and all the onions until they become tender. Add chili flakes, carrots, parsnips, peas, herbs, salt, pepper, and broth. Cook covered until the vegetables are tender – about 15 – 20 minutes.
• In the meantime in another pan heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Add 2 cloves crushed garlic and toast in oil. Next add cut fennel and cook until they beocome tender and slightly caramelized.  Add the caramelized fennel to the veggies and broth.
• Add tomato sauce and continue cooking soup for an additional 5 minutes. After 5 minutes soup is ready.
• Sprinkle garlic powder if you have and mix-in. Serve soup with extra black pepper.