When I lived at home my mom often made delicious soups on Monday evenings, which is probably why I was craving soup so much lately and planned to make a big pot of soup for tonight’s dinner.

I made a Pesto Vegetable Soup loosely based on this recipe, which was based on this recipe.

Recipe For My Version Of Pesto Vegetable

You Need:

• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 medium white onion
• 2 cloves of garlice
• 3 scallions
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 Parsnip
• 2 Carrots
• 1 Medium Zucchini
• 1 Small Squash
• 2 Plum Tomatoes
• 2 cups pinto beans

For The Pesto

• 2 handfuls of basil
• 3 handfuls of spinach
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 drizzle of EVOO
• 2 T plain Non-fat yogurt
• Salt

Steps:

1. To prepare the pesto place the basil, spinach, yogurt, EVOO and a pinch of salt in a blender or food processor until smooth.

2. Sautee the cut onion, scallion and garlic in EVOO for about ten minutes.3. In a large pot, pour the veggie broth, and water and cut and quartered sweet potatoes and boil. Let cook for about 10 minutes.

4. Add cut carrots and parsnip and cook for about 10 more minutes.

5. Add the cut zucchini, squash and tomatoes and cook for 10 more minutes.

6. Add the beans. (Note: I cooked the beans dry from the bag and they are sooooo much tastier than canned beans. It wasn’t even that hard. I can’t believe it!)

7. Add 3-4 T of pesto (I added all of it) to the soup.

We had it with stuffed peppers Mark’s mom made (they contained brown rice, chick peas, tomatoes and feta cheese).