Ina Garten’s Easy Vegetable Soup Uses Up Leftovers in the Best Way
Ina Garten’s easy vegetable soup can be made with a variety of leftover veggies. The Barefoot Contessa star’s soup recipe calls for her roasted winter vegetables, but she said you can throw in leftover mashed potatoes and even salad!
Ina Garten makes easy roasted winter vegetables
Garten demonstrated how to make roasted winter vegetables on an episode of Barefoot Contessa. “I like to make things that are just warm and familiar and make people feel really good,” she explained. “So in that vein, I’m making roasted winter vegetables.”
Garten said she prefers cutting the veggies in large chunks, then got to work on chopping carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and parsnips. She placed them on a sheet pan in a single layer and drizzled olive oil over the top, added salt and pepper, and tossed everything together.
“Vegetables really use up the salt so you want to make sure it’s well seasoned,” she explained. “It’s a really simple vegetable. Because there’s so many different kinds, it’s also really flavorful.”
The Barefoot Contessa star roasted the vegetables in a 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for 25 to 25 minutes, turning once with a metal spatula during the cooking time.
Garten adds the roasted vegetables to her soup
Garten uses the vegetables in soup and said there are a number of leftovers that can be added to the pot.
“I love a recipe that uses leftovers,” Garten wrote in the introduction of her roasted vegetable soup recipe in the Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook. “When I’m making roasted vegetables for dinner, I’ll make a double batch and have extras for soup the next day.”
She added, “This is a very versatile recipe — you can also throw in last night’s mashed potatoes and even the tossed green salad from lunch! It all adds wonderful flavor and goodness. And how else can you get vegetables into your kids without them knowing it?”
To make the soup, Garten heats chicken stock in a pot and adds the vegetables. Then she uses a food processor to coarsely puree the soup in two batches. She pours the soup into the pot and seasons it with salt and pepper. “The soup should be thick but not like vegetable puree,” the recipe explains. “So add more chicken stock and/or water until it’s the consistency you like.”
The ‘Barefoot Contessa’ star tops the soup with homemade croutons
Garten adds a garnish of brioche croutons and a drizzle of olive oil before serving the soup. Her croutons use up any leftover bread you might have on hand and are so easy to make.
Garten slices bread ¾ inch thick, cuts off the crusts, and dices it into ¾ inch pieces. Then she places the bread cubes on a sheet pan and drizzles them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. She bakes them in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 10 to 15 minutes, tossing once during baking.
The full recipe is available on the Food Network website.
