Very Veggie Soup

Over the past few days I have browsed my local grocery store and not only found some great deals, but have crafted this tasty (and cheap!) recipe. Feel free to switch out anything at all with personal taste preferences, but I found this to be simply amazing.

1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, skin removed
1/3 cup baby carrots, coin sliced
1/3 cup celery, diced
3/4 cup leek, diced ( You could also use onions here but the leek is such an underused veggie and in season currently for me.)
1/2 bell pepper, diced (Roughly 1/2 cup)
3/4 cup frozen green beans (Another good sale)
4 cups beef broth (I personally used bouillon but any of your favorite will work.)
3 red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 in chunks
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced

First add the oil to your pot and toss in all those rough veggies. The ones that take forever to really cook. So in goes your celery, carrots, and bell pepper. Cook those down just a bit while you chop everything else up. It might seem like a skipable step, and it is, but it really adds a lot more flavor to the final product.

After that cooks for a few moments toss in the rest of your chopped veggies and pour in your broth. Add the seasoning to taste and put a lid on this one. I found leaving it just off center works the best for keeping heat in, but letting steam out.

Let that simmer for at least an hour, you can always go longer but once that smell starts drifting through the house. Good luck on waiting. Those of you with self control, I envy you some days.

Remove the ginger chunk just before serving. It also refrigerates well so feel free to make a big batch for leftovers.

The recipe above was made for 2 people (and we had a big bowl each with enough for another one tonight), so for your family you might have to adjust it. This soup (for the entire batch) cost me only about $3.

Let me know what you think, or even what parts you changed! I'd love to hear.
~Skadia, the soup crafting panther