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One of our staple recipes over the past year has been what we lovingly call our “Weird Green Soup.” Since we make it so often, we’ve had a chance to play around with the recipe quite a bit! One of our favorite variations is an Italian inspired version, so we thought we’d share it with you in the video above. This one turned out with a mostly orange hue, so we decided to dub it our “Weird Orange Soup.”
The original inspiration for this recipe was the “Too-Busy-to-Cook Vegetable Bean Soup” from page 147 of the Eat To Live Quick & Easy Cookbook. We have changed it quite a bit over time, so check out our full recipe below. For the original basic recipe, I really suggest you purchase the cookbook. It is full of more than 100 easy recipes to try out!
This soup does require quite a few ingredients – but they are all pretty simple and easy to put together!
The base of the soup is unsweetened almond milk that has been blended with a bag of frozen corn and combined with carrot juice. For this Italian inspired version, we decided to add in some fire roasted diced tomatoes and tomato paste as well.
For the spices, the list is a bit shorter than our Weird Green Soup 🙂 You will need some garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper and nutritional yeast.
If you are making a large double batch like we do, you’ll want around 8-9 bags of whatever frozen veggies you decide to include. We mix this up quite a bit, but for this batch we did broccoli, bell peppers, a California medley (cauliflower, carrots & broccoli), corn, green beans, blue curled kale and cauliflower. We also threw in a bag of pearl onions that I found on clearance at Whole Foods because… why not! I love using this as an opportunity to clean out the freezer of any random bags of veggies that have been hanging out for a while.
Sometimes we like to add mushrooms or a few fresh veggies as well. We usually have frozen zucchini in our soup, but we couldn’t find any this time, so we just chopped up a fresh one. We have been asked a few times if you can swap frozen veggies for fresh ones and the answer is yes! We just used frozen veggies because the original recipe called for them. It is supposed to be a SUPER quick soup that you can throw together in a hurry without chopping, etc. But if you have the time… definitely try it out with fresh veggies!
In the spirit of keeping this quick and easy, we decided to use canned beans for this batch. We use the No Salt Added beans from Whole Foods’ 365 brand.
Sometimes we use our Instant Pot to cook dry beans for this soup. If you do that, I find that about 16oz total of DRY beans (weigh them when dry) is a comparable amount to the 4-5 cans we normally use. We usually do this a day or so in advance and store in the refrigerator so they are ready to go!
Italian Vegetable Bean Soup aka Weird Orange Soup (Vegan, Oil-Free)
by Krocks In The Kitchen
Ingredients
- – 4 cups of plain unsweetened almond milk (or another plant milk of your choice)
- – 1 x 16oz bag of frozen corn
- – 4 cups of carrot juice
- – 1 x 6oz can of tomato paste (no salt added if possible)
- – 1 x 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes (we use fire roasted / no salt added)
- – 1 1/2 Tbsp garlic powder
- – 1 Tbsp onion powder
- – 1/4 cup Italian seasoning
- – 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- – 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- – 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- – 1 1/2 tsp salt (OPTIONAL)
- – 8 to 9 bags of frozen vegetables of your choice (see above for ideas; we recommend you definitely include 1 bag of frozen chopped kale or spinach + 1 bag of frozen corn)
- – 8 oz sliced fresh mushrooms (OPTIONAL)
- – 4 cups chopped fresh zucchini (OPTIONAL)
- – 4 to 5 cans of beans OR 16oz dry beans that have been pre-cooked
Directions
- Heat one 16oz bag of corn in the microwave for a few minutes and add to a blender or food processor. Add the almond milk and blend for about one minute, until smooth.
- Pour the blended corn into a 12 quart stockpot and add the carrot juice, tomato paste and diced tomatoes. Stir, breaking up the tomato paste. Add in the dry seasonings, turn the burner to medium-high and bring to a boil.
- Add in all of your frozen vegetables and stir to combine. Make sure you get all the way to the bottom of the pot when stirring!
- Heat on medium while stirring occasionally for 20-25 minutes. You can add in some hot water if you find that your soup is too thick.
- Add in the mushrooms and fresh zucchini (if desired), along with the beans. NOTE: If using dry beans, they must be cooked before adding.
- Stir to combine and bring back to a simmer. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes and remove from heat.
This recipe makes approximately 9 quarts (36 cups) of soup. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or freezer for several months.
As Brian likes to say – so there you have it! After a few quick steps, you have a nice, delicious pot of soup. We love to make this on a weekend and take it to work for lunch throughout the following week.
Also, don’t be worried if the color doesn’t turn out super orange. It really depends on what veggies you add, etc. We find that this particular mix usually has an orange hue to it – but results may vary depending on the exact ingredients you use. Either way, no matter what weird color it turns out, it will be tasty!
Please keep in mind – the recipe above will make a HUGE batch! I recommend cutting it in half the first time you try it out, just so you can make sure you like it before ending up with a TON of it on hand 🙂
If you decide to make a double batch, we recommend portioning out what you need for the current week’s meals and storing those in your refrigerator for up to 4 days. Then, take the rest and put it in freezer safe containers (see below for links to the Pyrex bowls we use). Just make sure you leave enough room for it to expand a bit as it freezes. You can store in your freezer for several months if needed.
Don’t forget to check out the recipe video and leave us a comment below!
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OMG you two! I’ve been watching and reading your blog since I switched to a Whole Foods plant based lifestyle 2 months ago. Actually, I watched your YouTube videos and was hooked. Just made the Italian veg/bean soup… Weird orange soup. Fantastic! I made a half recipe and holy moly it makes a lot of soup. Called our daughter and told her their dinner was made for the evening. I also baked a loaf of Vegan bread to go along with the soup.
Thank you thank you thank you for all your great recipes and keep posting! You may not realize it but you are making a difference and I am so proud of your efforts on your lifestyle change.
P.S. Love Peef! ❤️
Thank you for the kind words Merri! It is a LOT of soup 😀 We love having extras to store in the freezer. Bread would be really tasty with it! Peef says hi 😀
Thanks for sharing this recipe! I made it tonight and my soup came out bright orange. Very yummy!
🙂 Glad you enjoyed it!
Fantastic! I just made a huge pot for the upcoming week. Thanks for the recipe, this one’s a keeper.
It is such an easy meal prep recipe 🙂
That looks really tasty! You two are inspiring me to slowly transition to a whole food plant based life style. So thanks! One question/favour to ask: roughly what weight is each bag of veg you use? I’m not based in the US so am unsure about this. And my freezer space comes at a premium, so I can’t just “guesstimate”. Thanks!
Hello! Each bag of frozen veggies is about 16oz!
This does make a ton of soup. I used both of my instant pots and it filled them. We loved it though! It’s super filling and I slept like a rock all night after having it for dinner. I adored how simple the process was because of the frozen veggies!! I’m going to freeze some in individual bowls for future use. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I absolutely love your videos!
Yes it makes a TON! We just kept making bigger batches so we can do all of the prep in advance, but definitely need some freezer space! Thank you for watching 🙂
Jessica, I bought the special boullion that Brian recommended but I can’t remember which recipe he put it in. Can you help me?
We use it any time a recipe calls for vegetable broth. You use 1 tsp for 8oz of hot water to make the broth. Here are all of the recipes we have posted that use it: https://krocksinthekitchen.com/?s=Bouillon
What can I substitute for the carrot juice? I can’t seem to find it in my local store.
That is a good question! If you have a Trader Joe’s nearby, the carry it. You could probably substitute another kind of vegetable juice… vegetable stock might work, but might not be as flavorful or thick!
have you ever made this in the Instant Pot? Wondering about time requirement and if it comes out to mushy?
We haven’t tried that yet!
This looks YUMMY!!! Can this be made in an instant pot?