Vegetable Soup

Mennonite cooking, which shares many similarities with traditional German cooking, has a reputation for being delicious and, well, extremely rich, at least for those of us who don't burn off tons of fat and calories working hard on the farm from dawn till dusk. There are cheesy, creamy entrees, a constant wealth of fresh bread and butter, molasses cookies and brown sugar sandwiches, cold and delicious full-fat milk, puddings and pies, and sticky buns with rich homemade jams. Personally though, my favorite part of Mennonite food is the abundance of simply cooked fresh vegetables straight from the garden. The epitome of this is my grandfather's vegetable soup. 

This is a great soup to make if anyone at home is sick since it's so soothing and has a very mellow taste, but is absolutely delicious enough to prepare anytime. I made this once in the ashram, and felt a bit shy about serving something so simple and plain as the main part of the meal, and I was completely taken aback by the response. People were crazy with praises, told me they were on their 2nd or 3rd bowl, and everyone wanted to know what was so special about the taste. As you'll see from the ingredients, I had nothing to respond! There is no secret ingredient. The secret, rather, is in the flavour combination of these particular four vegetables (the only other veggie my grandmother, mother or I have added with success has been green cabbage), and the specific timing and order in which you add them...

4 C vegetable broth

1/4 dried lima beans*

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

pinch of celery salt

3/4 C chopped celery

3/4 C chopped carrots

3/4 C chopped turnip

3/4 C chopped potato

Soak lima beans overnight (or bring them to a boil, remove from heat and let sit, covered, for an hour). Drain beans and add to vegetable broth. Add salt, pepper, and celery salt. Simmer, covered, for 45 mins. Add celery and simmer for 5 mins. Then add carrots and simmer for 5 mins. Then add turnip and simmer for 10 mins. Finally, add potatoes and simmer for another 10 mins. Keep covered during cooking.

Serve with toast or biscuits. Serves 2 - 3. 

* I've used lima beans in this recipe, but kidney beans, navy beans and pinto beans, or a mix of a couple of them, are great. Cooking times for different beans can be found here. If you are using canned beans, rinse well. 1/4 C dried beans = about 3/4 C cooked beans.