My Plant-Based Family

Eating Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet recipes, On a Budget.

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Minestrone Soup

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One of the best and easiest soups I’ve had since adopting a plant-based diet is Minestrone Soup.

One of the great things about making plant-based Minestrone Soup is that you don’t really have to make all that many changes from your typical recipe.  Plus, you can easily adapt it based on what you have on hand.

I like to use my Dry Veggie Broth Mix in this recipe. If you haven’t tried the broth mix yet you are missing out!

Minestrone Soup is the perfect year round soup. It's meatless, vegan and gluten-free when using GF noodles.

Minestrone Soup

Is perfect for for serving when you are having company. It’s a healthy soup, it’s a comforting soup but it also has an elegant flavor profile that will impress your guests. I recommend you serve it with a simple salad. I’ve served it with a pasta and marinara when I had a crowd to feed.

We make this regularly and take it for lunch the next day. I dare say, it might even taste better the next day.

Minestrone Soup is plant-based, easy to make and delicious.

You could used canned or frozen veggies to save time. 

How to Make Minestrone Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
  • 4 carrots, thinly sliced
  • 8-10 cups water + Broth Mix or Bouillon (Increase water and mix as needed)
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1½ cups cooked green beans
  • 1½ cups cooked white beans ( or 1 15 oz. can)
  • 1½ cups cooked red beans (or 1 15 oz. can)
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 cups spinach
  • 4 cups gluten-free noodles

Instructions

Step 1 – Saute

In a big pot, add onions, celery and carrots. Saute them until they start to brown and the onions get translucent.

Step 2 – Add Water and Beans

Now add water, bouillon, diced tomatoes, beans and green beans. Add only as much water as needed.

Step 3 – Season

Next, add dried oregano and garlic powder.

Step 4 – Simmer

Simmer until all veggies are soft.

Step 5 – Add Spinach and Noodles

About 20 minutes before serving, add spinach and noodles. (I’ll sometimes cook noodles separately since some gluten-free noodles are fragile.

Step 6 – Cook Noodles

Cook until noodles are soft, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup is the perfect year round soup. It's meatless, vegan and gluten-free when using GF noodles.

Minestrone Soup is plant-based, easy to make and packed full of nutrients.

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
  • 4 carrots, thinly sliced
  • 8-10 cups water + Broth Mix or Bouillon (Increase water and mix as needed)
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1½ cups cooked green beans
  • 1½ cups cooked white beans ( or 1 15 oz. can)
  • 1½ cups cooked red beans (or 1 15 oz. can)
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 cups spinach
  • 4 cups gluten-free noodles

Instructions

  1. In a big pot, add onions, celery and carrots. Saute them until they start to brown and the onions get translucent.
  2. Add water, bouillon, diced tomatoes, beans, and green beans. Add only as much water as needed.
  3. Add dried oregano and garlic powder.
  4. Simmer until all veggies are soft.
  5. About 20 minutes before serving add spinach and noodles. (I'll sometimes cook noodles separately since some GF noodles are fragile.)
  6. Cook until noodles are soft, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Notes

Use frozen or canned veggies to save time.

Did you make this recipe?

We'd love to see it! Tag us and use #MyPlantBasedFamily!

© Heather Mayes

Pin this recipe now so you don’t lose it! The check out my other delicious soups!

How To Get It Done

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I’m very fortunate and thankful to be a stay-at-home-mom. I love being home with my kids. Occasionally I miss the working world, usually it is when my kids are driving me crazy. My boys do keep me busy during the day, I can’t just stand in the kitchen for hours at a time.

Using this weeks Meal Plan I’m going to give you examples of how I prepare our dinners. I’ll give you a day by day run down of what I’ve done and how it works for us. We primarily use dried beans and grains. If that doesn’t work for you feel free to use canned beans. Dried beans are less expensive so I prefer them. I do keep canned beans in the pantry for those days I don’t plan ahead. Sometimes I do all of the soaking and cooking on the weekend; that approach may work better if you work full time during the week.

Saturday: I put about 3 cups of rinsed quinoa in 6 cups of water to soak over night. You do not have to soak your quinoa but we prefer it this way.  If you don’t know how to cook quinoa check out this link from The Kitchn.

Sunday: I rinsed the quinoa, again you don’t have to do this step but I prefer it this way. I put it in a sauce pan and with new water and cooked it for about 15 minutes. Once it cooled we put some away for my husband to take to work and the rest is stored for meals throughout the week.

On Sunday night I rinsed 2 cups of white beans and 2 cups of red beans and left them both to soak in 4 cups of water each.

Monday: I cooked both set’s of beans in the morning. It will be hard to resist those come lunch time. They could be combined and cooked in a slow cooker as well. This evening I’ll throw the red and white beans into a large pot with all of the other ingredients for Minestrone Soup. While I’m cutting veggies for this soup I may cut extra for tomorrow nights soup as well.

Tuesday: Cook Potato and Broccoli Soup, this could be done in a slow cooker before you left for work. No prep work unless I want to cut veggies for tomorrow nights meal.

Wednesday: I’ll cook a Veggie Noodle Soup. While it is cooking I will rinse black beans and soak them in water over night.

Thursday: I’ll soak beans to use in Friday night’s Chili. I may have enough leftover beans and not need to cook any new beans.

Friday: I’ll cook Chili. Depending on our leftover situation I may start something new soaking. I try to use up all our leftovers over the weekend so I can shop for groceries and plan a new week of meals.

This works for us but may not work for you. Some nights we just grab bean burritos from a drive thou or eat a PB&J.

If you’ve planned your meals for this week try thinking ahead. What can you do now to save time later?

 

Meal Plan Monday: Soup Week

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Potato Soup

My household is a little under the weather this week. I want to pack as much wholesome nutrition into our meals as I can, hopefully we will recover quickly. With that in mind, I have proclaimed that this is Soup Week. And no, it has nothing to do with the Super Bowl.

For the next few weeks I will not have any rice or rice products (rice milk, rice noodles, etc.) in the Meal Plan. My 1 year old has eczema. It has gotten much better since I removed dairy from my diet (he is still nursing). Sometimes I notice reactions to rice products so I’ve decided to eliminate all rice for a few weeks to see if his eczema gets better. Instead of rice I’ll be adding plenty of other grains like quinoa, millet, and maybe even amaranth. 

This week’s Meal Plan

Breakfast will be oatmeal or toast with a nut butter and fruit.

Snack will be fresh fruit, smoothies, or raw veggies with Jalapeno hummus.

Lunch is typically leftovers or sometimes a sandwich or a wrap. My favorite lunch is throwing together leftover grains, beans, and seasonings or salsa.

Dinner

Monday: Minestrone Soup

Tuesday: Potato and Broccoli Soup

Wednesday: Veggie Noodle Soup

Thursday: Black Bean Soup

Friday: Chili

The Best Chili Ever

Last week was much less hectic since I had a meal plan, click here to see it. I had already done the shopping and planning, there was no reason to dread the question, “what’s for dinner.” I didn’t stick to it the plan perfectly but I didn’t plan to. On Thursday night we ended up having bean burritos instead of the black bean burgers. We went out to eat on Friday so there was no planning involved.

Have you planned your menu for the week?

Stir-Fry-Bleh!

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Stir-Fry never sounds good to me, but in the last 4 months of eating this way it has been awesome every time I’m made it. Truth be told, I am NOT a lover of vegetables. Shocking I know, what with this Plant-Based Diet and all. Even still, every time I made stir-fry it tasted amazing, as if God worked a miracle right there on my plate.

Until last night. The stir-fry was awful. I’m not sure what I did different but bleh, yuck, and more bleh!!! By popular vote stir-fry will not return to the Meal Plan for at least a few weeks.

Sometimes things just don’t turn out. Sometimes it happens several times in one week.

Take these muffins for example. The first time I made them they were good, but not quite sweet enough more my taste. They were perfect for my husband who, unlike me, isn’t cursed with a big honking sweet tooth.

The First Attempt

The second time I made them….what the???

Pitiful Second Attempt

They sank, were wet, and just plain pitiful. On the plus side they tasted great. I had hoped to use these for my 1 year old’s birthday, but that wasn’t going to happen.

Third Attempt

The next day I made these. Big difference. I finally realized what I did wrong. I left out 1 cup of flour. Genius I know. But I learned a lesson: when reading chicken scratch directions pay careful attention to detail. And, follow the recipe, I always want to tweak them.

See the Difference

The third attempt was good enough for a Birthday Celebration! And this is how we do it.

Birthday Cupcake

Adult version with Cherry Glaze

First Time Having Sugar

Sugar Rush

Enchilada Soup

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Back in the days before I transitioned to a plant-based diet I made a really savory Chicken Enchilada Soup. It was soooo good. People would come from miles around, OK my friend Sarah would drive a few miles to eat this soup. I love this soup!!!

Plant-Based gluten-free Enchilada Soup.

The problem was it contained a ton of not so healthy ingredients. I was determined to make it healthy without compromising the flavor. 

Enchilada Soup

This is especially good with crushed tortilla chips and nutritional yeast added to the individual bowl. If you like to use a faux sour cream add a dollop to your bowl. Try not to eat right out of the pot when you’re putting leftovers away. That is just bad manners. This made enough soup for maybe 6 bowls, but you will want seconds. Double (or triple) the recipe for a large family.  

This soup is very forgiving. If you are missing an ingredient go ahead and made it. I make it all the time but when I’m out of corn or green chilies it still tastes great. 

My husband kept going on and on about how great this soup is, how it reminds him of soup his mom made when he was a kid, how amazing I am; OK I threw that last part in there but it is not uncommon for him to say that. 

Enchilada Soup

Don’t  you just want to dive in that bowl and swim around? Well you would if you tasted it. 

If you love this soup be sure to try it’s grain-free counterpart, Taco Soup!

How to Make Enchilada Soup

Ingredients

  • 6 cups veggie broth
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 3 cups cooked beans (I use 1 can black beans and 1 can pinto beans)
  • 1 cup diced tomatoes (canned our fine)
  • 1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic (or 1 tsp. garlic powder)
  • 1 bell pepper, diced
  • 1 jalapeno, sliced
  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 1 cup organic corn
  • 1 4 oz. can diced green chilies
  • 1 Tbsp. chili powder
  • ½ tsp. cumin
  • salt, pepper and nutrional yeast to taste (optional)

Instructions

  1. Bring veggie broth to a simmer in a large pot.
  2. Add onions, cooked beans, diced tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, corn and rice.
  3. Add tomato sauce and let simmer.
  4. Let this cook until onions are translucent and flavors have had a chance to meld. I like to let it simmer for an hour or so.
  5. Season with chili powder, cumin and any other seasonings.

Enchilada Soup

Enchilada Soup

Plant-Based gluten-free Enchilada Soup

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes

Ingredients

  • 6 cups veggie broth
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 3 cups cooked beans (I use 1 can black beans and 1 can pinto beans)
  • 1 cup diced tomatoes (canned our fine)
  • 1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic (or 1 tsp. garlic powder)
  • 1 bell pepper, diced
  • 1 jalapeno, sliced
  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 1 cup organic corn
  • 1 4 oz. can diced green chilies
  • 1 Tbsp. chili powder
  • ½ tsp. cumin
  • salt, pepper and nutritional yeast to taste (optional)

Instructions

    1. Bring veggie broth to a simmer in a large pot.
    2. Add onions, cooked beans, diced tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, corn and rice.
    3. Add tomato sauce and let simmer.
    4. Let this cook until onions are translucent and flavors have had a chance to meld. I like to let it simmer for an hour or so.
    5. Season with chili powder, cumin and any other seasonings.

Did you make this recipe?

We'd love to see it! Tag us and use #MyPlantBasedFamily!

© Heather Mayes

What to Eat…Part 4

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On the weekends I typically get out of my normal routine. One of the casualties is drinking water. Do you drink a lot of water? Your whole body will function better if you do. Over Christmas vacation our teenagers were visiting (they live in another state) and the oldest had a headache two days in a row. I asked if he had an water recently and he had not. As soon as he started drinking water he felt better. Water helps every part of our body. So stop reading, get up and get a big glass of water.

The Apple Muffin recipe I promised is at the bottom of the post.

Today’s Meal Plan

Breakfast: Pancakes

There are a lot of pancakes recipes out there. I tried a new one today from The Happy Herbivore Cookbook by Lindsay S. Nixon. It tasted great and the pancakes were light and fluffy. I used whole wheat pastry flour and made half of the batch with blueberries. The blueberry pancakes were superior to the plain.

I also love pancakes with peanut butter or topped with fruit. 

Lunch: Baked Sweet Potatoes

Before changing my diet I had only had baked sweet potatoes at restaurants, mostly Salt Grass Steak House. Restaurants typically serve baked sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar and/cinnamon.

Baked sweet potatoes are easy to make and really good for you, sans dairy and sugar. If your in a hurry you can even “bake” it in the microwave. Our microwave has a “baked potato” button. To prepare a potato just wash thoroughly, wrap in plastic wrap (if your cooking in the microwave) poke a few holes in it then bake until soft. If your cooking them in the oven wrap in foil and bake 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size of your potato. While your at it save time and bake a big batch.

I like to add cinnamon to my bake sweet potatoes but my husband has them plain. Everyone in our home loves them. We have convinced our toddler that the peel is the best part, which he repeats continuously as he eats us.

Dinner: Stir Fry

We are never “in the mood” for stir fry. I usually make it once my veggie drawer starts looking pathetic and we need to use up all of the veggies that I had good intentions to cook. Something magical happens every time and it ends up tasting so good. 

Ingredients
  • carrots
  • onion
  • broccoli
  • peppers
  • any other veggies that need to be eaten
  • cooked brown rice, or noodles
Do
  1. In a heated skillet add carrots and any other veggies that are hard and need the longest time to cook. You not need oil. If the veggies start to stick add a spoonful or two of water to your pan. Keep stirring veggies.
  2. Add onions and peppers.
  3. Add broccoli and other fragile veggies that don’t need much cooking time. 
  4. Spices can be added now. 
Serve

Serve with warm brown rice or noodles. This could also be served with other cooked grains like millet or amaranth for some variety. 

 

Apple Muffins

Ingredients
  • 1 cup rice flour
  • 1/4 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup corn starch
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp allspice
  • dash nutmeg
  • 1 cup applesauce
  • 1/2 cup agave
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup diced apples
Do
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Add applesauce, agave and 1 tsp vanilla to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
  4. Add 1 cup dice apples and mix until just combined. 
  5. Spoon batter into paper lined muffin cups until 3/4 full. You can sprinkle extra oats or cinnamon on the muffins before baking if  you’d like. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Serve

Try not to burn yourself by eating these fresh from the oven. I took them to a ladies Bible study and they were a big hit. We ran out quickly so I plan to make more soon.