Yield: 16 cups
Ingredients
- 1 can (398 ml/15 oz) red kidney beans, unsalted (about 1 ½ cups home cooked beans*)
- 1 ½ cups onions, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 1 cup carrots, chopped
- ½ cup fennel chopped, optional
- 1 Tbsp mushroom powder, optional (simple instructions to make your own)
- ½ cup red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 small container spinach, chopped (142g/5oz)
- 1 lg can (796 ml/28 oz) crushed tomatoes, unsalted
- ¼ can (156 ml/5.5 oz) tomato paste
- 6 cups water*, divided
- ½ cup nutritional yeast
- ½ cup soy sauce or tamari
- 1½ Tbsp onion powder
- 1 Tbsp Kitchen Bouquet, optional (this enhances color)
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp oregano
- ½ tsp sage
- 1 cup dry measure baby shell pasta, cooked separately
Stove Top Instructions
- To sauté with out using oil, preheat a large pot then add the onions. Leave the onions undisturbed until they show signs of browning. Stir them about while taking care to not let them burn. Posted are more details on how to sauté without oil.
- Add garlic, celery, carrots, fennel, mushroom powder and only 3 cups of the water. Cover with lid, when it comes to a boil, turn down heat and simmer until vegetables are tender.
- Add red peppers and spinach. Stir into the hot cooked vegetables. Cover and allow to sit a few minutes to get the rawness out. Then stir in the beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, nutritional yeast, tamari, onion powder, Kitchen Bouquet, basil, oregano, sage and the remainder of the water. If you prefer a thinner broth, add a bit more water. (see tip below)
- Bring soup back to boil and serve hot.
- To keep pasta from getting over cooked, cook pasta separate and add it just before serving.
- Keep leftovers in the refrigerator up to 5 days. Otherwise leftovers can be frozen. Do not freeze soup with pasta in it because it will turn mushy.
Instant Pot Instructions
- To sauté with out adding oil, use the sauté feature and preheat Instant Pot. Wait for the sauté feature to say “hot” then add the onions. Leave the onions undisturbed until they show signs of browning (about 3-4 minutes), then stir them about while taking care to not let them burn. Posted are more details on how to sauté without oil.
- Add garlic, celery, carrots, fennel, mushroom powder and only 3 cups of the water*. Stir to mix and be sure to remove all of the caramelization. (If you skip this step, the carmelization will burn). Cover with lid, and set Instant Pot to manual pressure for 3 minutes, then do a quick release.
- Add red peppers and spinach then stir them into the hot cooked vegetables. Cover and allow to sit a few minutes to get the rawness out, then add the beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, nutritional yeast, tamari, onion powder, Kitchen Bouquet, basil, oregano, sage and the remainder of the water. If you prefer a thinner broth, add a bit more water. (see tip below)
- Use the “steam” feature to bring soup back to boil and serve hot.
- To keep pasta from getting over cooked, cook pasta separate and add it just before serving.
- Keep leftovers in the refrigerator up to 5 days. Otherwise leftovers can be frozen. Do not freeze soup with pasta in it because it will turn mushy.
Tips
Beans
- As a guideline, ¾ cup dry measure will make about 2 cups cooked. If cooking beans, consider saving the cooking water as part of your water measurement. This will add more nutrition while adding another layer of flavor.
- If you prefer, substitute red kidney beans with cannellini (white kidney beans), or great northern beans.
Flavorful Broth (to make extra broth) To every cup of water add:
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp mushroom powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- scant, 1/16 tsp sage