Creamy Vegetable Soup

I'm currently on a mission to accomplish a few things: incorporate more vegetables into our dinners, use my new camera lens, and learn how to photograph food. The next few weeks I will be trying to accomplish all three of these things by blogging about of my favorite healthy/toddler friendly recipes. I have the hardest time photographing food, it always looks like a brown pile of slop or something worse. But the only way to get better is to practice..... 

Finding a recipe that is healthy, contains vegetables, and is something that all three of us will eat sometimes feels like an impossible task. Sometimes it feels like I spend countless hours centered around the food we eat. I scour the internet for recipes that will fit the criteria listed above, create a menu, then create a shopping list based on the menu, then go grocery shopping (one of my least favorite activities), and then finally cooking the food. And now I'm adding in photographing and blogging about it? It seems a little crazy, but it's all worth it. I love food (obviously), I'm learning that I really do enjoy cooking, and of course I love taking pictures. And I'm not a fan of going out to eat very often, so to have good meals prepared at home takes some work! 

I found this recipe from this blog. There, it's called Creamy Potato Kale Soup, but I always substitute spinach for the kale (because kale is seriously disgusting) so I had to change the name. I have always loved thick, creamy, cheesy soups. This soup tastes like all of these things, but it's nothing but straight  up veggies yo. The flavor is amazing and I love to freeze it in large mason jars for quick lunches to take to work. It took a while to get him to try some, but Mark even likes it, and Beckett drinks it out of a straw. Win, win and win. 

Creamy Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup yellow onions, finely chopped
1 cup leeks, sliced 
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/4 cup white wine 
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 cups water
3 cups potatoes, diced 

1 1/2 cups parsnips, sliced 

1/2 cup carrots, diced

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard 
2 Tbsp Fresh Thyme 
2 Tbsp Fresh Oregano 
1 tsp Dried Sage 
1 cup Milk 
1 bunch of kale or spinach, diced 

6 strips of Turkey bacon

Directions:

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute the garlic, onions, leeks, celery, and carrots for five minutes until softened. Add the wine and cook for another 2-3 minutes to reduce. Add the water and broth, potatoes, and parsnips and simmer for about 20 minutes, partially covered, until the potatoes and parsnips are tender. Use a blender or hand blender to puree the soup until smooth. Stir in the mustard, herbs, and milk. If using kale: In a sauté pan, gently wilt the kale with 1 to 2 tablespoons of water. When the kale is tender, add it to the soup. If using spinach, just dice it and add. Season with salt and pepper. Cook the turkey bacon, cut into small pieces, and add to soup.