Plant based challenge-Soup for the soul-Italian Wedding Soup

This week on Plant Based Challenge the theme is Soup For the Soul.

I love soup and I could almost live on it. I grew up raised by a father who provided me with quite a bit of canned soups which I loved. He couldn't cook well and I wasn't a fussy eater. I have many a great memory of eating soup from a can watching cartoons. For me, soup for the soul is accompanied with good memories.

Today I am sharing a plantbased version of a soup that I had many years ago a few times. It was called Italian wedding soup. Apparently it's not a thing to serve at weddings in Italy. The name is a translation from minestra maritata which refers to the marriage of flavors in the soup. However I had never heard, nor tried this soup until I had it at an Italian wedding.

I had attended many many Italian weddings as a wedding singer in an Italian wedding band. This soup was served at some weddings.

Although I only eat a plant based diet, I easily made a plant based version of this for the first time since the old days when I ate this soup.

To sum up the soup that I remember, I will say that was is a broth which was usually chicken, and in it, were little meatballs, usually pork, and tiny pasta. The other featured ingredient was greens which could be spinach or kale or curly endive.

I used curly endive which is not a common green to use around this city and I have to search special grocers to find it. I also added some baby kale and spinach at the end to maintain the green colors in the soup.

The first thing I started with was making my basic vegetable soup broth which is super easy and great to have on hand for soups and sauces.

Basic Vegetable Soup Broth
1 or 2 onions
5 or 6 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
7 or eight peppercorns
Bunch of parsley
1 or 2 carrots
1 or 2 celery stalks
Salt
Water to cover
Olive oil to saute the vegetables

If you're using a big soup pot you can add more of the ingredients. I don't follow any strict recipe for this. I just throw everything in the hot oil in the pot, then adjust the seasonings at the end. Sometimes I add a little extra soup cube or powder. Sometimes I add onion powder as well.

When the stalk has simmered for 45 to 60 minutes I strain everything out and discard it. If you want to keep it you can blend it and use it for another soup or sauce. I don't bother because all the flavor has been boiled out.

For the vegan meatballs I used vital wheat gluten with mushrooms.

Vegan meatballs
4 to 5 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup tapioca starch
2 cups vegetable broth
3 tablespoons Braggs Aminos (or soy sauce)
1 tablespoon agave nectar
4 or 5 cloves garlic
1 cup textured soy
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 small pinch nutmeg
Salt to taste

Start by cooking garlic and mushrooms and soy protein in hot oil until cooked.Add spices and vegetable broth. Blend cooked ingredients then add this mixture to the vital wheat gluten and tapioca starch. Knead well tasting and adjusting the salt to your liking. Also add more flour or liquid to make sure you get a doughy consistency that will form a ball. If you add more salt or seasoning you have to knead the dough very thoroughly to distribute the salt evenly.

I set it aside for a while before I formed small balls for the soup. I only used a small portion of the dough reserving the rest to make something else.

I steamed the balls first in my electric steamer for around an hour. It doesn't have to be that long. Just long enough to firm up and swell up.

When I had this soup it always had tiny little pasta that was round like tapioca size balls. I found some that seemed to be that one but I was prepared to use any type of tiny pasta.

Now the items for the soup are ready for the final soup.

Italian Wedding Soup
1 onion chopped
4 cloves garlic
1 carrot small dice
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
1 large bunch curly endive
10 or 12 plantbased meatballs
1 cup uncooked tiny pasta (I don't know the name of the one I used. It didn't say on the package)
4 tablespoons of vegan parmesan
2 or 3 litres of vegetable soup broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Handful of baby spinach and kale or one or the other

Cook onions, garlic and carrots until tender. Add broth.

Add cooked vegan meatballs and pasta.

Add all of the endive that is chopped roughly, and the vegan parmesan.
Vegan parmesan
1 cup ground almonds
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon salt
Small pinch of citric acid (optional)
I use citric acid for things that I want to keep dry but get a lemony acidic taste.

Let it simmer for a while, around 20 minutes and before serving add spinach and/or kale. I used baby spinach and kale. Adjust the seasonings to your liking. I added a little more salt and pepper.

This was my first attempt to recreate the soup that I had many years ago. It worked! I was transported to the good times in the band. Just like yesterday. Until now I didn't think a plant based version of this would work but I was wrong.

I have approximate amounts of everything in the recipes. I like to add and taste as I go.

I would love to invite @lizelle, @sreypov, or @blackberryskunk to bring a bowl of soul to this table. It's still not too late. Is this too many invites? Because I could keep it going.

Thanks for dropping by and have a great day.

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