Ah, the soup!

Here is my take, roasting adds more rich flavor...I don't add salt.


Take some sliced carrots, tomato,celery, onion, garlic,parsly and all the 'decent' trimmings from whatever else you want in the soup, and roast them in a preheated oven at 300 for about 45 minutes,turning once in a while. You want carmelized. Throw them in a gallon or so of water along with some fresh basil, rosemary,thyme, oregano, sage,cayenne(of course) 2 bay leaves,etc--5 peppercorns and bring to boil,simmer for about 40-60 minutes.

While it's cooking away cut up your veggies.

Strain/screen/cheese cloth (not a spaghetti collander)the broth and then toss in the 'harder' veggies(carrots,spuds,some minced garlic,ground pepper,cayenne pepper), add more basil and herbs,then gradually throw in everything one type at a time,ending with mushrooms and the things that cook quick.

That's it...play with it anyway you like...if you want some beans in there ,sprout them a few days before and either pressure cook them or regular cook to soften ,then add to the soup. You can add barley with the carrots. However, if you did the Master-Cleanse to loose weight , stay away from starch for awhile. You'll soak it up.

Roasting/carmelizing the stock vegetables really brings out the flavor. You don't have to roast though if you don't want to ...I mostly make my stock with the trim that I throw away anyway, so it is not much more expensive other than some carrots , a few stalks of celery,onion,etc...I even use potato peels(put the potato in h2o as not to brown). Too much, freeze some stock in little zip locks or better yet ,reusable ice cube trays...use the cubes anytime a recipe calls for stock or broth...if the stock seems to 'blahzay', then add some more basil, a great salt substitute...

some ideas:Organic of course!!!

carrots
brocolli
cauliflower
celery
zuchini
onion
garlic
red pepper
green pepper
egg plant
mushroom
hot pepper
potato
bok choy
fennel
daikon
peas
corn
soy beans

anything else you like,although I like to keep at about 7-10 different
veggies for simplicity on the system and use organic. Mess around with it.

An hour off and on in the kitchen for 3-4 days worth of food...a breeze and so much better than the shelf/canned-yuk. I could eat it for a month!

Enjoy Detour