Smoky Supper Soup

Adapted from Fountain Avenue Kitchen

My friend Ann at Fountain Avenue Kitchen is an endless source of recipe inspiration for me. She and I are totally foodie sisters … and when I saw this recipe from her, with a fresh eggplant from my mom’s garden in my fridge, I just knew I had to make it!

Even though I was swamped with yoga teacher training at the time, I took time to make this lovely soup. And it was good. And my body was happy. I shared some of it with friends because it makes a nice hefty pot of soup … much more than I can eat on my own. The only thing I changed up was to grill the eggplant and tomato to give them a smoky flavor. This is a trick I normally do before I can tomatoes, but I didn’t get a chance to can tomatoes this year and I think this recipe was my way of making up for missing that experience. I always enjoy fire roasting my tomatoes. If I had thought of it at the time, I would have fire roasted the onion, too.

Now yoga teacher training is finally over and I have time to blog because I’m sick. I have other things I WANT to be doing, but I don’t have the energy to do them. I’m wishing I had an eggplant in my fridge to make this soup again, but I really don’t have the energy to do that tonight either. I can sit at my computer and write, though. That’s easy.

I know that this sickness is my body telling me to slow down and chill for a while … and when I think back on the past few weeks, I can feel it building up inside of me. But I didn’t take very good care of my body throughout yoga teacher training, especially toward the end. It was a HUGE challenge … and I was stressed, so I did a lot of stress eating. And I couldn’t sleep very well, even though I was doing a lot of yoga and meditation.

Now I can sleep and I’m getting back to my normal healthy diet, but it caught up to me. Now I feel like crud. I know this is a life lesson I should acknowledge and appreciate. Yes, I know, I need to slow down. Yes, I take too many things on in my life, and I just keep adding to them without taking anything away. For yoga teacher training, I gave up my blogging time, but I want to return to that. So then,what should I give up now in order to take on this new yoga teaching journey? How do I fit it into my life? Where shall I teach? I’m trying to be patient and listen for the answers. Maybe I need to go take a hot bath and soak away the aches and pains and just let the answers come when they will. Patience is not one of those virtues I possess in abundance.

I’m grateful to you for listening to me, dear foodie friends. I’m crazy whiny when I’m sick. I just hate it. Oh please let it be over soon … I hope this finds all of you healthier than me tonight.

Oh yes, and enjoy the soup!

Smoky Supper Soup

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Yield: Over 2 quarts of soup 1x

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 medium eggplant, peeled & cut into 1/2 inch slices
• About 2 lb. fresh garden tomatoes (or canned, with juices)
• 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 lb. ground beef (or venison)
• 1 medium onion, peeled & choppped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
• 2 large carrots, peeled & chopped
• 2 Tablespoons kale or basil pesto
• 4 cups beef broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 – 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1/2 – 1 cup dry macaroni (low carb or gluten free if needed)
• 2 – 3 Tablespoons fresh herbs, chopped (I used basil, oregano, tarragon, thyme, rosemary)
• About 2 cups packed fresh spinach or kale, chopped
• 1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan, Asiago or Romano cheese
• Smoked salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste

For the top: extra shredded cheese and fresh basil, parsley or oregano leaves

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Instructions

1. Fire up the grill and prep the eggplant and tomato. Roast the eggplant and tomato on the grill until tender, turning to roast all sides. The tomatoes will roast very quickly and the eggplant will take a little longer.
2. Remove from heat, putting the tomatoes in a bowl to capture the juices and cover tomatoes with a plate. Set the eggplant to the side. Let both cool until comfortable to handle.
3. Cut the eggplant into little chunks. Once the tomatoes have cooled, the peel should come easily off the tomatoes … pull it off, cut out the cores and chop the tomatoes roughly, capturing the juices as you go.
4. Meanwhile, heat a soup pot over medium heat. Add the oil, ground meat, onion and garlic and cook, chopping up the meat into little pieces and stirring frequently, until the meat is browned and the onion is soft and translucent.
5. Add the carrots, pesto, broth, bay leaf, eggplant, and tomatoes to the pot. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer over medium low heat for about 45 minutes, until the tomatoes and eggplant are soft and start to break up.
6. Add the macaroni and cook for about 10 minutes longer, until the pasta is tender, then stir in the herbs, spinach or kale, and shredded cheese. Stir and cook just for a few moments, until the greens are wilted.
7. Serve hot with extra shredded cheese and fresh herbs for garnish. Enjoy!

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Notes

You can substitute zucchini for the eggplant if you are not partial to eggplant. No need to peel the zucchini!

RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/

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This post was shared at Weekend Potluck.