Y’all! It’s finally sweater weather! And I don’t know about you, but quarantine has me in a food fatigue. Normally, while it ‘tis my happy place, I am never cooking this much. Between baseball practice and nutcracker rehearsal, doctors visits and tennis lessons, get-together’s and date nights, I don’t get the chance to cook every night. In fact, I savor the nights when we stay home long enough that I can actually put something together. But not 2020. I have plenty of time to cook. Every. Night. Which honestly isn’t that bad… it’s brought a whole new level of meal planning, exploring and sourcing out a new CSA box and meat box delivery service. However… we have just survived what might possibly be, the worlds longest summer. I kid you not. I’ve been in shorts since the beginning of April, and only pulled out the long pants last week. Again, not a bad thing, except when it comes to food fatigue. I am so ready for fall comfort foods. Bring on the soups, the stews, the roasts. All the warm comforty things. Consider yourself warned.

After the great thanksgiving feasting days of 2020, we were all definitely in the mood for something a little less heavy. But, considering my kids started begging for the heater to be turned on yesterday, we also needed something warm and hearty. Bring on this vegetable minestrone soup for the meatless monday win!

Homemade tomato sauce, combined with vegetable stock, and all the fresh veggies I could cram in my dutch oven from our CSA… it was a huge hit, and the perfect counterbalance to last weeks calorie indulgence.

Ingredients:

8 cups vegetable stock*

7 vine-ripened tomatoes; quartered

3 Tbsp evoo

1 yellow onion, diced

2 cups celery, chopped

2 cups carrots, sliced

1 Tbsp tomato paste

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp kosher salt

2 1/2 cup green beans, sliced approx. 1/2 inch pieces

1 small head cauliflower, chopped

2 large golden potatoes, diced into small cubes

Directions:

Combine quartered tomatoes and 1 cup of the vegetable stock in a vita mix or other blender. Puree until smooth. Approx 3-5 minutes.

In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat the evoo until shimmering. Add onions, carrots, celery and salt until veggies slightly softened. Add garlic and tomato paste, stirring to combine. Add green beans, cauliflower, and potato. Mix. Add in tomato sauce. Combine. Add remainder of stock, bring to boil. Once broiling, return to simmer and let flavors meld for 45 minutes.

• Note about the vegetable stock: If you aren’t making a well seasoned homemade stock, in a separate bowl, before you start cooking, combine store bought vegetable stock with 2 sprigs of rosemary, 6 sprigs of thyme, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 onion, 1 Tbsp turmeric and a handful of italian parsley. This will help infuse the stock with even more flavor, and round out the flavors of your soup. Bring broth and aromatics to boil, then simmer for 30 minutes, and while preparing the rest of your ingredients