Sequestration Meal #477

 

This Italian wedding soup is super exciting to me. I've wanted to make some vegan version of this for ages, and this was a really satisfying one! I read several recipes (all non-vegan) before I set forth on my own. It's not ready to give a recipe for, but I can tell you a bit of what I did and what I plan to try in the future. Whether or not you want to make Italian wedding soup, it may give you some ideas about how to stretch your groceries and make something from what you have around.

The meatballs were made from a lone Impossible sausage I had in the fridge, bread crumbs made from the end of a loaf of bread, and bit of JUST Egg. They were good, but I think next time I'll season the mix, because I don't think the seasoning in the Impossible sausage was enough to season the bread crumbs and JUST egg, too. They puffed up a bit when cooked, so next time I'll make smaller meatballs, so I don't feel like I need to cut them up with my spoon. But other than that I think these worked out great! The flavors could be amped up but they were still delicious.

The veggies are traditional--onions, carrots, celery, and garlic cooked in olive oil, and spinach. The spinach was from the freezer, because we're in clear-the-decks mode, and I keep frozen veggies on hand for the times I don't/can't go to the store. But if I set out to make this soup under other circumstances, I would use fresh baby spinach, which would be likely to have more flavor.

The broth is made from, believe it or not, seasoning packets I had leftover from the peanut butter ramen I'd been having lately. I save the packets and then I can make a quick veggie broth or chick'n broth easily. This one has a mixture of both the veggie packets and chick'n packets. But if I were giving a proper recipe, I'd recommend bouillon like a normal person.

The pasta in this soup is orzo. I think that was fine, but there are shapes that are more fun, and most recipes seem to ask for ancini di pepe, so that might be something I tried if I bought ingredients specifically for this soup.

I further seasoned the soup with dried parsley, dried oregano, and black pepper. It didn't need salt after all that ramen seasoning, though fortunately it didn't end up too salty.

Finally, I garnished the bowl with some grated Violife Parmesan I had on hand. The perfect meal for a slightly chilly day--which I'm so grateful has finally arrived after that interminable, cruel summer. There is water in the creek bed again (we've had a drought and it's been dry), I am seeing some of the leaves change, and things are looking ever so slightly up.