soup!

I absolutely LOVE soup! THIS Spring Minestrone soup was one of the best soups I've ever made. I've made it twice already and will definitely be making it again. The process is a bit more involved since I made the meatballs in a frying pan and then added them to the soup, but since they had the nice crisp outsides it really added to the flavor and texture of the soup.

 

 I like my soups REALLY thick - the chunkier the better - so I used larger pasta to thicken it up.

 This was also the first time I'd cooked with leeks and I was very pleased with the results. YUM in every bite!

 THIS tomato pasta soup recipe caught my eye because it minced all the vegetables. I had never done that before and wanted to see what kind of texture would result. The picture below was what I packed in my lunch, and it lost a lot of liquid in the fridge overnight, so it doesn't really look like soup at all.

I wasn't a huge fan of the texture resulting from mincing all the veggies, but I would try making this soup again with regular veggies instead.

I also made THIS mushroom barley soup but forgot to take a picture of it. It was fantastic! I would note, though, that the blog mentioned saltiness being a factor to watch out for and I would definitely point it out again. It was a bit salty for me, and I cut back from what the recipe called for originally.

I can't wait for fall to really kick in so that I can try many more soup recipes!