the giraffe life

Soup is one of my favorite foods (alongside rice) and such a versatile food that I never get sick of it. So I'm always on the look out for new soup recipes or ideas. (One I'm not sure I have the gumption to try -  cold soup . Have you had it?) Enter this Chickpeas & Dumplings soup  by Kiersten.  my small first helping - it smelled strongly of thyme and I wasn't sure I'd like it! It's the vegetarian version of Chicken & Dumplings soup, one of my top 5 favorites. We had almost all the ingredients on hand, so I made this the day she posted it. It was amazing! Even Mr. G, who was pretty certain he didn't like dumplings, loved this soup. The first picture is when I had just dropped in the dumplings. Second picture is 20 minutes of simmering later. So cool! I made a few small changes to the recipe: left out the chickpeas because we didn't have any in the pantry (thought about substituting edamame in their place, but the soup was hear...

Soup is one of my favorite foods (probably second only to rice). And not only do I love eating soup, I love making soup. I rarely follow recipes exactly, so soup has a special place in my heart because it's so forgiving. A soup recipe calls for carrots, and you don't have carrots? Add corn, celery, bell pepper, potatoes . . . and it will still be delicious. This soup is no different, so feel free to substitute away! Using rice rather than pasta earned it bonus points and the unique combination of spices made every bite really flavorful. Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I did :) Let me preface this photograph by assuring you that although it looks like alien stew, it tastes really, really good. Pinky swear. This recipe is inspired by this one from Janssen and this one from Joy.  Wild Rice and Vegetable Soup • 1/2 cup wild rice • 1 cup water • 2  tablespoons butter or olive oil • 1/2 cup celery, chopped • 1/4 cup flour • 5 cups vegetable broth • 1 cup corn ...

One of my favorite blogs is Iowa Girl Eats . She makes so many delicious meals and her photographs of said food are gorgeous! Over the weekend she posted a recipe for Italian Wedding Soup, which I sounded perfect! ( Soup and I have a thing going .) I was so excited to make this (and bring it over to the vegetarian side!). I used vegetable broth in place of chicken broth (an easy switch, but it does make the soup look a bit murky). Rather than 1/2 pound of mini meatballs, I used 2 cups of chopped potatoes; you could use a combo of onions/celery/carrots too.  I haven't had much success with "fake" meats (tried soy bacon  here  and a soy hot dog  here ), which is why I used extra veggies instead of soy meatballs. BUT t hat is a departure from traditional Italian Wedding soup, so I understand if you are deeply offended (not really - just use whatever you want in your soup and I'll never know!).  :) Enough blabbing, right?  Here's the recipe: Vegetari...

I've been on a soup kick lately. Tortellini soup, kale and quinoa soup, gnocchi soup ... and now, potato soup: This soup rocks because it's short on ingredients and effort, but still filling and delicious. You basically pile everything in the crock pot, wait 8 hours, and serve. Love it! Crock Pot Potato Soup • 3 tablespoons butter or olive oil •  2 cloves minced garlic •   3 cups chopped potatoes • 2 - 3 cups vegetable broth (enough to cover the potatoes) • 1/4 cup dried split peas •  1 - 2 teaspoons pepper • 1 teaspoon onion powder •  1 cup almond milk Instructions Add butter, potatoes, garlic, vegetable broth, peas and spices to the crockpot. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Stir in milk right before serving. Add toppings if desired. Enjoy! I topped my soup with soy bacon (my first time trying it - I think I'll skip it in the future) and parmesan cheese. Paired with a salad, this made a perfect lazy-wintertime dinner :)

I love Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Soup.  Love, love love!  In the past, I would gladly eat two bowls of it, about 5 breadsticks, and take my whole meal home!  But I've had to skip it since becoming vegetarian and that sucks.  So I found a copycat recipe online , and tweaked it to make it vegetarian.  (I am so grateful for copycat sites!) Surprisingly enough (not), the original recipe calls for chicken ... I added boiled potatoes to take their place.  You could probably cook the potatoes right in the soup - just make sure to add them early enough that they finish cooking before everything else goes soft.  That might be too much potato in one soup for some people (is that even possible?).  :)  You could bump up the amounts of the gnocchi or other veggies in the recipe, or add corn, bell peppers, or soy "chicken" if the extra potatoes don't float your boat. Any other ideas for taking the place of the chicken? Start by chopp...