We have recently found a great CSA that we get a weekly box of veggies through and now we always have fun veggies stocked in our fridge! As a result of that, we always have some of the “staples” (ie. carrots, onion and potato) leftover each week that we just didn’t manage to use and this French Fridays recipe came at a great time!
Spur-of-the-Moment Vegetable Soup is a perfect recipe to use up all sorts of odds and ends in your fridge and pantry!
bubbling away… this was a quick and filling meal!
We went ahead and included all the veg (maybe a little more than called for) that Dorie’s recipe indicated and then added a can of black beans and red kidney beans as well as some shredded and chopped cabbage, leeks, and the harlequin squash we received and hadn’t figured out a use for! It was a fantastic way to use up some veggies that were starting to go limp and the halves of things that we had used during the week for other dinners though!
Faced with the decision to blend some of it to thicken the soup, I took my immersion blender to it and went half and half. This apparently disappointed the husband a bit because we have been having a few things that are blended like the soup, but it was soon forgotten after a couple of spoonfuls of the soup!
see the green and white squash? That’s the harlequin! The rest of this is what we got in our CSA box a couple weeks ago!
At the last minute, I added a bit of finely chopped, flat-leaf parsley and sprinkled on some cheese to finish it. Those were perfect additions and just the thing the soup needed.
Certainly a keeper!
On another note, if you haven’t entered my giveaway for a copy of the cookbook we use for this group, look for it here – it ends today! Just a few precious hours left to win a copy!
To see what the other Doristas thought of this week’s recipe, click here. If you would like to join our group or this recipe, get a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s “Around My French Table” and get to cookin’!
Isn’t this the best soup recipe? So versatile and so easy!
Yes, we LOVE it!
We used this as a “use up a large amount of CSA vegetables” dish as well. It’s nice to have something that makes good use of all those odds and ends.
great minds think alike!
Yes, it is really good to have something that makes good use of all the odd bits 
Ooh, I’m so jealous of CSA box! I’ve looked into it around here, but they seem to be at a premium and are hard to grab hold of. I’ll have to keep trying if the haul could be half as good as yours! And what a wonderful soup! Beans and cabbage would be a great addition but I hadn’t thought about the cheese. Very nice!
CSAs in the States are a funny thing… most dont seem to be genuine. Lots of their items have country of origin stickers on them and are very sparse. Have a look at this website (http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=Home) it has a lot of informations for CSA by state. There are plenty of different kinds, some where you even donate a few hours work on the farm and then take away a box of produce… pretty neat, and not all expensive. Others have a limited list of people on their CSA each year because their farms are so small that they cant provide for too many people… so its very interesting.
I also do a post each Tues about my CSA if you are interested more in CSAs
Cool! Thanks! The problem around here seems to be the smaller farm thing and thus limited boxes. We’ve only been in this area for about two months, so I’m hoping I haven’t exhausted all my options! I’ll keep looking!
Fantastic timing for this recipe for you. Your soup must have been amazing with all those wonderful fresh vegetables and soooo healthy.
Oh soooo true!!
Your soup looks delicious:) This is a great recipe to use leftover veggies.
Certainly!
I’m always so jealous when you ladies get to talking about your CSA deliveries. I’ve looked into it here in Germany but it doesn’t seem to be available in my neighborhood. But organic veggies are pretty easy to find at all the stores so I guess I can’t complain too much.
LOL, if it makes you feel better, I only JUST discovered it here and its not as big a deal in Europe as it is in the States since we tend to do more (true) farmers markets
but it is fun! keep looking though, it took me two years to find one in England!
Ooh, great idea adding beans into the soup!
Thanks!
It did add some more oomph!
Alice, it is just wonderful that you got to use such a terrific variety of vegetables for your soup! The addition of beans and harlequin squash sounds delectable and the finished soup look just terrific!
Have a great weekend!
Thanks, it sure was a treat! You too!
I love the color of your soup, Alice. Is the red color from the kidney beans, or did you also add tomatoes? Nice assortment of flavors!
No tomatoes here – we were fresh out sine Mei pretty much eats one or two a day! It was just from the kidney beans.
Cheese is just the perfect accompaniment to soup in my book. Your soup looks delicious. The beans give it a lovely color.
thanks! I did love the colors of this one!
I love your soup, looks so hearty and the cheese on top makes it look like the perfect comfort food!
it certainly hit the proverbial spot!
Your CSA box looks amazing! I used to participate in one, but we got mostly greens and radishes. The harlequin squash is too cute – I love a good squash/pumpkin soup and bet it was a great addition to your version.
it was perfect
Yes, our CSA is quite a large company so we can request to skip anything we are getting too much of from week to week and it gets replaced with other veg so thats nice, but smaller CSAs dont have that ability sometimes…
I thought I left a comment on this post already, but maybe I am losing my mind…
This was a great way to use up those odds and ends. Glad to see you are getting so much enjoyment from your CSA boxes!
LOL you did
I approved and un-spammed you – dunno how that happened in the first place!
nice CSA box! your Harlequin squash looks a lot like the one we call Sweet Dumpling here in the States. the red beans were a great add, and just partly blending to thicken the soup a good idea too!
I really enjoy partially blending the soups
I like them kinda creamy and chunky if its just a veg soup, but there are days that I go to other extremes, like completely creamy or totally chunky!
Thank you for providing a source for me to source out CSA or the like in my own communities. Your soup looks delicious but your box of veggies looks even better to me. And, I’ve already read your today’s (Tuesday) Post and see what you’ve received this week. Thanks, Alice, for the help.
No problem! I thought that was the coolest website I had seen in awhile, and it would have been so helpful where I lived in the States so I’m happy to share it with everyone!
Good luck, I hope to hear what you find from it, whether it be a CSA or farmers market 
I am so sorry I missed this one
But winter is just around the corner and I think I’m going to make this soup over and over again!!!
yes soup “season” has certainly set in!