Kelly's Own "Welcome To Autumn Harvest Soup"

Today we woke to a blustery and crisp autumn day with the sun shining and the leaves fluttering wherever the wind led them.  It felt like a good day to make soup with the vegetables left in the garden.  Gunnar would be working in the yard and later watching football and making soup just seemed like the thing to do.  I went outside and gathered some fresh tomatoes, onions, carrots, zucchini, a few remnant green beans, and I even dug up a few baby potatoes to throw in to the soup.

To make my Welcome To Autumn Harvest Soup I gathered:
8 or 9 medium sized tomatoes 
1 medium zucchini
8 green onions
handful of green beans
8 small carrots
5 small potatoes
1 cup sliced baby portabella mushrooms
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced or pressed
dry pasta (opetional)
1/5 au jus dry seasoned packet
corn, fresh or frozen
sea salt and pepper to taste
fresh herbs of your choice, preferably what you have growing or access to
1 lb extra-lean ground beef (I used 4% fat)
whatever else you want to throw in the pot, such as other veggies, herbs and leftovers from the fridge! 

After cleaning and cutting the tomatoes I threw them in my soup pot and let them start cooking while I cut up and added the rest of the vegetables.  Once the tomatoes had cooked down I added 2 cups of organic low sodium chicken broth and some sea salt and ground black pepper to taste.  For added nutrition and a nice mellow flavor I added 2 handfuls of sliced baby portabella mushrooms to the soup which contributed nicely to the soup's interesting mixture of autumn flavors.

I then returned to the garden to gather some herbs.  I decided on Basil because it goes well with tomatoes, Rosemary because it goes will with the lean ground beef I added after the vegetables were soft, Thyme because it adds a great flavor to everything and just a few snips of Sage to round out the flavor.  To cook the ground beef simply brown in a frying pan and add to soup when cooked rare to medium rare.  It will finish cooking in the pot.

I went back inside and added a chopped handful of each of the herbs and tossed them into the soup pot, giving the soup a good stir to blend in the herbs for added flavor and nutrients.

The soup pot looks so pretty with the addition of Rosemary and Thyme added for flavor and nutritional benefits.





I grabbed some dry pasta noodles from the cupboard and added about a handful and a half to the soup as well as a good portion, about a cup, of frozen corn.  I let this all simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally and adding a few more handfuls of fresh Rosemary, Basil and Thyme.  After a taste test I decided to add just a bit of Au Jus (about 1/5 of a dried seasoning packet), 1 cup of organic low sodium beef broth and fresh garlic.  I let this simmer another half hour until the soup smelled so wonderful we just couldn't wait any longer!

Of course, I had to taste the soup and make sure it was good enough to feed to my wonderful husband who worked so hard in the yard cleaning up the debris left by those strong autumn winds!

Gunnar loaded a big bowl of soup and with a grilled cheese sandwich on the side, it's a complete meal packed with nutrients, taste and your own garden's harvest!

Kelly eats from a smaller bowl, ever practicing control!
This is a very hearty soup that was great with the grilled cheese sandwiches but would pair nicely with a green salad and chilled fruit, such as cinnamon pears. Or just grab some crackers and enjoy!

The best thing about making a Harvest Soup is that it will be different every time you make it because you will have different vegetables to harvest each time you make the soup.

mm...mm...good!

Be creative, clean out the fridge and come up with your own fall harvest soups!  Please share your ideas and recipes here at theherbnhousewife!  I would love to post reader's recipes so don't be shy!