Green Soup Recipe

Or How I Clean Out My Refrigerator of All Those Aging Vegetables

How often do you look in your refrigerator, pull open the vegetable drawer and notice a whole bunch of green vegetables that are starting to wilt and need to be used soon or tossed out? Here’s where my recipe for green soup comes in handy.

We buy vegetables in bulk at farmer’s markets, Costco or in a CSA package in season and often don’t get to use them all up. I don’t like throwing any food out if I can help it but it happens sometimes more often than I like. This green soup recipe is a great way to deal with this problem.

What Ingredients Do I Use For Green Soup?

The simple answer is any and all vegetables that look like they are on their way out: Spinach, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, green beans, peas, celery, zucchini, leeks and even tomatillos if I have some extras laying around for my Tomatillo Sauce recipe.

Typically I use chicken stock for making this soup but if there’s some leftover beef stock in the refrigerator, I’ll use that too. If I’m making this soup for a vegetarian, I’ll be careful to use just vegetarian stock.

I want to warn you now that I don’t have any measured amounts for this recipe except for the garlic and onion. After that, you are on your own. Doesn’t matter, the soup will taste great and be good for you.

Saying that, I don’t expect you to be throwing any rotten produce into the soup pot and expect good results. Please inspect all vegetables and toss out any that look too funky.

Also, you don’t have to wait until vegetables need to be used up. This soup is delicious so don’t hesitate going out and buying a bunch of fresh ingredients to prepare it.

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Green Soup Recipe

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time35 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Ingredients

• 4 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 onion chopped
• chicken stock beef, vegetable stock or some combination of the three, enough to cover all the vegetables in the pot.
• salt & pepper to taste
• vegetables See note below

Instructions

• Clean and chop all the ingredients you plan to use being careful not to put any ingredients in the pot that are spoiled.
• Add the garlic and onion too.
• Add enough stock to cover all the vegetables plus an inch or two more.
• Bring the stock to a boil and immediately lower the heat and simmer all the vegetables for 35 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender.
• Use a hand blender to puree the stock and vegetables to a desired consistency.

  You can also use a blender or food processor, just be careful when transferring the hot soup to the processor.
• Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
• Serve with some crusty French bread.
• Enjoy!

Notes

Here are some ideas but use "whatever’s on hand" or vegetables you prefer.

• arugula
• asparagus
• broccoli
• broccoli rabe
• Brussels sprouts
• celery
• cilantro
• green beans
• kale
• leeks
• lettuce
• red
• romaine or green leaf
• mushrooms
• parsley
• peas
• snow peas
• spinach
• sprouts
• Swiss chard
• zucchini

I have not tried freezing this soup yet because it gets eaten up so quickly but I’m sure it would freeze fine.