Soup du Jour

I love soup, especially when the weather's cool and/or icky.  Unloading most of the meat in our diets has made me revisit some tried-and-true favorites.  I don't use meat very often, but I do still use stock and broth, especially organic chicken broth.  So here's the Twinkle Twinkle Soup recipe, as enjoyed by all this week!  It was great at dinner, but was much better for lunch the next day, after the flavors had had time to get happy together. We had it with cranberry bran muffins, but the recipe needs some tweaking, so stay tuned!

Twinkle Twinkle, Little Soup!
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 large carrots, sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
1/2 onion, diced
1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored, and diced
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
2 quarts chicken broth or stock
1/2 c. frozen peas
1/2 c. frozen corn
1 c. stars pasta
Heat olive oil over medium heat in large stock pot.  Add in carrots, onions, apple, and celery.  Cook for a few minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften and get fragrant.  Add bay leaves and poultry seasoning, then add chicken broth.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer 20 minutes or so, until veggies are just tender.  Return to boil, and add pasta.  Cook for 5-6 minutes (or whatever time pasta directions call for), then add frozen veggies.  Stir to combine, return to boil, then turn off heat.  After about 5 minutes, frozen veggies should have thawed and be heated through, and soup should be cool enough to serve.  Enjoy!