Red Cabbage & Potato Stew

This stew is simple to make but incredibly warming and satisfying to eat. A quick mushroom broth is made using vegetable broth and infusing it with roasted creminis, giving this broth a rich depth of flavor.

Creamy white beans, potatoes, carrots and red cabbage simmered slowly in mushroom broth with thyme and garlic.

Red Cabbage & Potato Stew
5 tbl extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 lb cremini mushrooms, rough chop
1 tsp black pepper
4 sprigs fresh thyme
6 cups vegetable broth, divided
1 yellow onion, small dice
3 garlic cloves, minced
sea salt
1 carrot, 1/2" dice
2 cups thinly shredded red cabbage
1/4 cup white wine
2 small russet potatoes, large dice
1 bay leaf
1-15oz can cannelini beans

In a large stock pot, add 3 tbl of oil over high heat and add the mushrooms. Add pepper and thyme and sear for 5-7 minutes until golden brown. Add 2 cups of broth and bring to a boil.
Reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for 30 minutes then strain/toss out the mushrooms, reserving the stock.
Set the stock aside.
Add the remaining 2 tbl of oil to the pot and sweat the onions and garlic over medium heat for 5 minutes. Season with 1 tsp salt. Add the carrot and cabbage and saute 5 minutes more. Deglaze the pan with white wine, scraping up all the bottom bits. Cook until all of the white wine has evaporated, 5 more minutes.
Add the reserved mushroom broth and the remaining 4 cups of vegetable broth. Add the potatoes, bay lead and cannelini beans and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes until the potatoes have cooked through. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Homemade Broth & Italian Wedding Soup

The best part about this soup is the broth. Sure you can buy a quart of broth at the store, OR you can save all your veg scraps in a container in the fridge and once it's full, boil that sucker down until you have amazing and FREE vegetable broth. This was by far one of the best things I started doing. Once I noticed how much I was buying broth and how much I was throwing away vegetable scraps I got wise to my wastefulness and bought some containers. Since then I haven't needed to buy any broth and I notice that the things I put the homemade broth is taste significantly better.

Vegetable broth
a whole mess of vegetable scraps
enough water to cover
a bundle of fresh herbs (thyme and rosemary work great)
sea salt

Add the vegetable scraps and some salt in a large pot and add enough water just to cover. Simmer for 90 minutes then drain and enjoy!

Italian Wedding Soup
1 tbl extra virgin olive oil
1 carrot, small dice
8oz Nate's Vegan mushroom meatballs, semi- thawed
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
6 cups vegetable broth
1 head spinach, roughly chopped
1 cup fuscilli pasta
2 tbl chopped fresh parsley

In a large pot, heat the oil and saute the carrots for 3-4 minutes. Add the meatballs, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Saute for 3-4 more minutes until the meatballs get a crust on the outside. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a simmer. Add the spinach and pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes until the pasta is cooked through. Garnish with parsley and more salt and pepper to taste.

Sweet Onion & Garlic Soup, Spicy Chili Broccoli

Someone out there once said food is medicine and this soup is a prime example of the healing properties everyday vegetables hold within their pores. My husband and I rarely come down with the usual goings-around of coughs and colds and I believe that is can be attributed to our diet rich in produce, whole grains and unprocessed foods. This isn't a time to preach but merely a time to educate! Let food be the solution to your seasonal aches and pains. Medicine doesn't have to taste like artifical cherry or grape, instead, let your medicine taste like caramelized, sweet onions, roasted garlic and fresh raw spinach.
Onions and garlic are natural antibiotics and are known to boost your immune system while ginger and chili's help to counter the cooling effects of colds or the flu and work as a natural sinus cleanser.
I would happily eat a bowl of this before taking a pill any day!


Caramelized sweet onions, roasted garlic and rosemary blended into a smooth soup garnished with spicy roasted broccoli and baby spinach leaves.


Sweet Onion & Garlic Soup
3 tbl extra virgin olive oil
2 large (and I mean softball size!) sweet onions, cut into eighths
1 shallot, halved
1 head of garlic, end trimmed
1 tbl dried rosemary
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1-1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 cup baby spinach leaves
2 tbl fresh chopped chives, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 425.
Toss the oil, onions, shallots, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper together. Roast on a baking sheet in a single layer for 40 minutes until the onions are soft and caramelized. Squeeze the garlic cloves from their skin and combine with the rest of the mix in a blender or food processor.
Blend until smooth and thin out with vegetable broth.
Transfer to a pot and reheat. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Garnish with chives, raw spinach and spicy broccoli.

Spicy Chili Broccoli
1 tbl extra virgin olive oil
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
1 tbl paprika
1/2-1 tsp cayenne, depending on how hot you like it!
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Preheat the oven to 425. Toss the broccoli with oil and all of the spices. Roast for 10-15 minutes until the tips are slightly charred and caramelized.

1 Batch of Corn Broth- 2 Corn Soups

When I was writing up a recipe for Southwestern Corn soup, I found myself writing 'vegetable broth' down on my list. A few minutes later I went back to the vegetable broth and thought, "why not make corn broth?" Why not use all of the parts of the corn that I would generally throw away, to make a light and slightly sweet broth to amplify my soup flavors even more? At that point, I quit asking myself so many obvious questions and crossed vegetable broth off the list.
Homemade vegetable broths are so easy to make and require almost no effort to put together, just some time to sit on the stove top and bubble away. Additionally, they are almost always free in the sense that you just use your vegetable scraps. This corn broth is made entirely of everything I would normally have thrown away after removing the kernels. The husks, silks and shaved cob are all thrown into a pot and what is created is a surprisingly flavorful broth great for enhancing my corn soup recipes.

Two soups are featured today. One, a traditional Asian corn soup, lightly infused with lemongrass and a second Southwestern Corn soup with chipotle, red bell peppers and garlic both made with homemade corn broth.

Corn Broth
8 cobs of yellow corn
12 cups of water
1 tbl of salt
cheesecloth

Remove the husks and silks from the corn and put into a large pot. Cut the kernels off the cob and reserve for another use. Chop the cobs into thirds and add to the pot with water and salt.
Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 1 hour. Strain over a colander lined with cheesecloth.

Asian Corn Soup
1 tbl olive oil
1 stalk of lemongrass. roughly chopped
1/4 cup chopped sweet onion
3 garlic cloves, smashed
4 cups corn broth
1 heaping tbl cornstarch mixed with 3 tbl water
juice of 1/2 lime
3 cups yellow corn kernels
salt and pepper

Sweat the lemongrass, onions and garlic in oil over medium-low heat until the onion is soft and translucent but not brown, 5 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes to allow all of the flavors to infuse. Over a bowl, strain the broth, tossing the vegetable mix. Off the stove, whisk the cornstarch slurry into the broth. Bring back to the heat and bring to a simmer, whisking occasionally until the soup thickens. Add the lime juice and corn kernels and lightly simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Southwestern Corn Soup
2 tbl extra virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, small dice
1 celery stalk, small dice
1 red bell pepper, small dice
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp adobo sauce, from a can of chipotle peppers
4 tbl chopped cilantro, divided
4 cups yellow corn kernels, divided
1 tbl cumin
1 tbl ground coriander
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 cups corn broth
1 tbl vegan worcestershire sauce
1 cup coconut milk
juice from 1/2 lime
vegan sour cream, for garnish

Saute the onion, celery and bell pepper in oil over medium-high heat for 5 minutes until the vegetable start to become tender. Add the garlic, adobo sauce, 2 tbl cilantro, 1 cup corn, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper and cook 4 minutes more. Reserve 1/4th of the corn mix to the side. Add the remaining 3 cups of corn, broth and worcestershire. Simmer for 20 minutes then transfer to a blender and blend until smooth.
Bring back to the pot and add the coconut milk and lime juice. Simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with the reserved corn/pepper mix, sour cream and more cilantro.