Spring in New England can be damp and grey, perfect weather for a vegetable soup. This recipe is also incredibly healthy, which is a desirable thing when summer clothing weather is on the horizon - no more hiding under the layers of winter. AND it is both addictively delicious, and super easy - win-win! We’ve been living on this stuff!

This vegetarian, dairy-free, and fat-free soup is based on a recipe from Serious Eats and we made it as written there the first few times. The Serious Eats recipe is a family recipe derived from a traditional Columbian soup that usually contains meat. It can be made stovetop or in an instant pot pressure cooker and features fava beans, which were not easy to come by, and slices of corn still on the cob.

Since then, we’ve gone to a more flexible version adding beans of any and all varieties and any other vegetables we happen to have on hand. Fava beans have an unusual flavor, and I prefer the soup made with black beans and sometimes also kidney or red beans. Making the beans in an Instant Pot makes the beans come out perfectly every time, and we have a rather substantial amount of dried black beans on hand due to a calculated quarantine delivery of 25 pounds. NOTE: 25 pounds of beans is a LOT of beans and perhaps a daring purchase during a week when toilet paper was a scarce item!

We have also added onion to the recipe, which is a terrific addition. The corn and the onion are currently non-negotiable in our version of the recipe. The recipe below is primarily the Serious Eats recipe. The actual recipe and all the usual extra useful information Serious Eats provides can be found HERE.

Hearty Vegetable Soup Recipe

Ingredients

1 sweet onion, chopped

1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped (or the equivalent in sliced baby carrots)

1 can corn kernels drained or 1 cup frozen corn kernels OR the fresh kernels from 1 ear of corn

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

1 cup frozen peas

1 1/2 cups cooked black beans (or fava beans or white beans or any combination)

1 1/2 cups vegetable stock (Better than Bouillon is our favorite and Serious Eats concurs)

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Combine all the ingredients except half the beans and half the peas in a pressure cooker and bring to high pressure and cook for 15 minutes. Release the pressure using the quick steam release, and bring the soup to a simmer. NOTE: alternatively, this step can be done without a pressure cooker by simmering stovetop in a covered dutch oven. Mash the vegetables using a potato masher to thicken the soup, then add the remaining beans and peas and simmer 5 more minutes until heated through.

Garnish with cilantro, or parsley if you hate cilantro like me. Apparently cilantro is a love-it or hate-it flavor.

Serve with this easy rustic bread (recipe HERE) or bread sticks.

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