Happy SOUPtember – Our Favorite Family-Friendly (And Healthy) Soup That We Make Every Week

Oh she’s not done with soups and I’m craving the coziness for fall, so soups are on my mind. For me, it’s more of a year-round lifestyle – SOUPtember, CROCKtober, STOVEmber, DecemBROTH, JanSTEWary, etc (admittedly this is stronger in the fall and winter months). Just to be clear I make mostly stews, chock full of veggies and protein – FULL MEAL DEALS in a pot. They are impossible to mess up (not like baking) and there are one million flavor profiles (thus not getting sick of it). I enjoy it in my mouth, my body feels good, and the cleanup is super easy – I can check one big life box with a cutting board, knife and a big pot.

Last year I started making this same soup (almost) every sunday, ready to eat for 3-4 meals the following week. This might depress you – the idea of eating the same food every week, multiple nights in a row, but we love everything about it. Here is why:

1. It tastes very good, duh.
2. This soup keeps so well – easily as good on day four as day one (many brothier soups are icky by day three).
3. It can be dressed down (for the kids – no spice) and then dressed up for us.
4. It is super healthy, filling, and EASY. I can make it with my eyes closed at this point.
5. It allows me to eat more of whatever I want on the weekends, knowing that at least Monday – Wednesday has started out really healthy. It’s a balance, folks. Always.

Consider it a “food uniform” – something we don’t have to think about and we know it works. No more 5pm “what are we doing for dinner” stress. With this in the fridge, we know going into the week that we have at least two nights good to go (the kids only eat it one night).

1. Sauté the onion, carrot, celery in the EVO for 7-10 minutes til golden and all yummy smelling (sometimes I put the garlic here, other times later).
2. Add tomato paste, cumin, and the red pepper (hold off on red pepper flakes until you’ve pulled out non-spicy portions for kiddos). Stir til the paste covers everything evenly.
3. Add the ground turkey, garlic, ginger salt and pepper. Break up the turkey and cook until the turkey is browned which is about 4-7 minutes.
4. Add the drained and rinsed beans and broth. Simmer 15-20 minutes. You can smash the beans if you want it to be thicker to release starch, or add more broth to make it brothier. I like it both ways. Also I’ve often done just two cans of beans which is enough. Loved it all.
5. Add the chopped up kale. Now our kids don’t like kale one bit, and I try to avoid unnecessary battles with them because there are too many actual necessary battles we have to fight (like how my 7-year old wants to wear crop tops). So we throw some in the pot so they don’t think we are letting them off the vegetable hook, let it wilt and dish up their bowls (or put in Tupperware).
6. Doctor it up. With the kids or non-spicy portions already removed, we make a version that we like more – we add the full head of kale chopped up, red pepper flakes, optional chopped up soft herbs and a lot of lemon (one whole lemon squeezed for the pot).

Do The Kids Really Love It?

Ha. No, but they like it enough to not fight us on it and I consider that a WIN. This recipe is an easy one to adapt for kids and then doctor it up for us with more heat and veggies for grownups.

And in case you don’t have any soup making tools or need one or two, these are my recommendations:

1. Dutch Oven | 2. 8″ Zwilling Gourmet Chef’s Knife | 3. Epicurean ® Black Non-Slip Paper Composite Cutting Board | 4. Beech Wood Solid Spoon | 5. Stainless Steel Ladle | 6. Denim Apron

Happy Cozy September Souping, folks 🙂

*Photos by Kaitlin Green