Orphan Vegetable Soup

Right now, my mom's refrigerator is overloaded with food - we've had a lot of visitors over recently and people always seem to bring food. I am noooot complaining about this, but it does mean there are often a lot of leftovers in my mom's fridge and we never know what do with it all. One thing that you CAN do with tons of leftovers is make soup! One of my favorite soups is using all my orphan vegetables that are sitting in my fridge with no purpose. Grab whatever veggies you have laying around that are on their last leg, and toss em into a pot!

Sometimes I keep my soups vegetarian, and sometimes I don't. This round, I made sausage on the side to add for myself and Anders because 1. my mom is sensitive to heat and 2. she is trying to eat less meat in general, so it was a win win - we got more sausage and she got a veggie soup of her dreams.

Basically, the bottom line is this: if you have vegetable oil, olive oil, and some vegetables in your fridge, you can make dinner. If you have chicken broth, that's a plus, but you can also use water if you don't have broth and salt it to taste.

In a time of uncertainty, I know two things: rewatching Vanderpump Rules with my boyfriend and cooking is keeping me sane and this soup contributed to my happiness and my sanity.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of Broccoli di Ciccio (or 2 broccoli florets or 1 floret of broccoli raab), roughly chopped
1 bunch rainbow chard, roughly chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped in coins
2 sticks of celery, chopped
16-20 cherry tomatoes or mini heirloom tomatoes, rinsed and kept whole
1 can cannellini beans (white beans)
3 hot Italian sausages, removed from casing, broken up into bits, and cooked separately
5 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon cumin
2 bay leaves

Directions:

1. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a large pot or pan and cook carrots, onion, and celery over medium heat until translucent and fragrant, about 6-8 minutes. Add broccoli and chard and cook down, about 2-3 minutes.

2. Add 8 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth (or any kind of broth for that matter) and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

3. Meanwhile, slice open the sausages and remove the casing, breaking it up into bits in a small to medium sized pan over medium heat. Cook until lightly browned and cooked through. You can add this to the pot of soup or leave it separately, totally up to you!

4. Once the soup is simmering high, add tomatoes, salt, pepper, thyme, cumin and bay leaves and bring the pot to a low simmer for 20 minutes. Right before you want to serve it, add cannelini beans to the pot. You don't want to do this too early on, otherwise the beans can get soggy and break apart. Remove bay leaves from the pot.

5. Enjoy with a slice of toast and feel proud of yourself that you gave your orphan vegetables a home.