GLUTEN-FREE VEGAN BEET SOYRIZO MINESTRONE, OLD FAVE

This is an old favorite of mine, making its 2011 comeback.

I think you'll enjoy devouring this soup, despite the informality of the recipe's format.

This is one of those gluten-free vegan recipes that, if it weren't so healthy and delicious, I'd hesitate to post, because it is so improvised as to hardly be a recipe at all. For one, I made my own vegetable stock for the first time (I usually use Better than Bouillon vegetable concentrate), by simply take all the vegetable trimming I'd been saving in the freezer for months and boiling, then simmering, them in maybe 8 cups of water for an hour or so, before straining the liquid and discarding the vegetable scraps.Then i diced a medium onion, threw it in some olive oil, added about a quarter cup of Trader Joe Soyrizo separated into bits with a fork, about a tablespoon each of smoked paprika, oregano and basil, a teaspoon of garlic powder, a 15 oz can of kidney beans (rinsed and drained), two cups pureed grape tomatoes (or use some canned crushed tomatoes), two cups mixed roasted vegetables (beets, green peppers, carrots and onions), four cups frozen vegetables (I used peas, butternut squash cubes and broccoli, but use any mix you like). Added a bit of salt. You get the idea. I just used what was around.

After the soup was brought to a boil and was simmering, I boiled water for some rice pasta. Once again, I used what was in the kitchen, looking for the kind whose bag I found open (but I knew I didn't want something like delicate little shells--this soup was shaping up to be hearty). I cooked the pasta to where I like it to be (a hair over al dente) and then put it in its own refrigerator container after I used the amount needed for the night I made the soup. Now, each time I heat the soup I throw in some (now slightly hardened) pasta, which softens up perfectly in the time it takes to microwave the soup to steaming loveliness. (I do this to prevent the pasta from getting inedibly mushy in the uneaten soup, which rice pasta can tend to do).

Note:

The vegetable/beet/tomato base is perked up with the addition of the spicy vegan sausage which is definitely something you want to add to taste, since some may love it and some may find it too hot. If you don't have any, use TVP with some red pepper flakes, or just red pepper flakes, although then you'll mix the extra textural bonus of the TVP or sausage. The combo of sweet and spicy is a favorite of mine, so I've been eating bowls of this since I made it. Hope you like it, too!

Second Note:

I do not regularly eat soy products in large quantities, or even medium, so I allow myself this delicious soup, guiltlessly. If you feel you want to avoid soy, then you probably haven't even gotten this far down the page, but if you have, I understand, and hope you will understand my position as well.