Mari's Own Vegan Home Style Cooking Recipes
I love to cook and I am sharing some of my favorite vegan recipes. These are home recipes, easy to make and do not require expensive, exotic ingredients. They are made using fresh, wholesome ingredients easily found at most regular grocery stores.
MARI'S FRESH VEGETABLE VEGAN SOUP WITH DUMPLINGS, MADE WITH PINTO BEAN STOCK - VERY FILLING AND TASTY!
Dried Pinto Beans
The key to any great soup is the soup stock. You can make an excellent soup stock easily using beans and herbs. For making soups, I generally prefer using a crock pot. I have one of those old-fashioned crock pots without a timer but the other style works well also, the ones that have a removable ceramic heating pot.
Just about any bean will make a great soup stock. I keep several kinds of beans on hand. I use DRIED BEANS AND PEAS. These have the best flavor. Use dried beans and peas to make your soup stock. i keep on hand: pinto beans, black beans, kidney beans, red beans, lima beans, garbanzo beans, black eye peas, lentils.
Pinto beans make a great soup stock for a vegetable soup.
To get your soup stock going, cook one cup of dried pinto beans, with a small amount of olive oil, in a 2 quart or larger crock pot. Add 6 cups of cold water. Let the pinto bean soup stock cook for 3-4 hours, until the beans are really tender and very done. I like to cook pinto beans with black pepper, some dried herbs like a bit of rosemary and thyme, and a bay leaf.
When the soup stock is done, then you can start adding your favorite vegetables. I like to add:
2-3 chopped cloves of garlic
1 celery stalk, sliced
1 green or red bell pepper, chopped
4-6 fresh carrots, sliced
1 cup corn, fresh or frozen
1 small turnip, chopped
1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped
I also like to add:
1 small can of tomato paste
Let everything cook for another hour or longer, or until all the vegetables are very tender.
I season for saltiness after all the vegetables are cooked. It is a better way to avoid over-salting a soup. I use Bragg Liquid Amino Acids instead of salt for seasoning my soups.
If you want to add dumplings, here's how easy this is to do:
In a small bowl, mix 1 cup flour with a pinch of pepper and a pinch of salt.
Add a small amount of water to make a very sticky dough.
The soup must be boiling when you add the dumplings. Add the sticky dough by one teaspoon at a time. They will drop to the bottom of the soup. DO NOT STIR THE SOUP AFTER YOU HAVE ADDED THE UNCOOKED DUMPLINGS!! It takes about 20 minutes for the dumplings to cook. They will float up to the top when they are cooked.
Enjoy!!