Don't get mad at me for stating the truth, but... summer is almost over. Pretty soon, my husband will get all downtrodden because the sun shines less, the crickets go away, and he has to go back to work. While those are reasonable causes for summer sadness, my biggest heartbreak lies in the steady decrease of vegetables. No more zucchini, green beans, tomatoes, corn, and anything else the cute little neighborhood farmers grow for me. 

While it's been fun coming up with a million ways to cook bell peppers, sometimes you just need a way to use up a bunch of veggies at once. My favorite way? Soup. Sure, it's not super special, but everyone should know how to make a simple but yummy vegetable soup. And eating it with the windows open with a warm breeze blowing through makes it even better.

Simple Vegetable Soup

This is definitely a method. You can switch up lots of things. Just follow the basic steps, and feel free to get creative.

1. Saute all of your vegetables in olive oil or butter over medium heat until they're fairly soft. Feel free to add the softer veggies later in the process, but it won't make a huge difference.
2. SEASON. If you don't add salt and pepper - and lots of it - to these vegetables, your soup will taste pretty blah. Add them right after you add the veggies to the pan; the salt will draw out some of the liquid.
3. Add tomatoes. You don't have to do this, but vegetable soup isn't the same without a can of really good diced or crushed tomatoes. Season a little more.
4. Add protein. If you have leftover meat around that's already cooked, chop it up and drop it in. I prefer to keep it vegetarian and add a rinsed can of beans, usually chickpeas.
5. Add liquid. You can do water or a couple of cans (or one box) of chicken or vegetable stock. Whatever you like, but stock makes the soup taste more homemade in my opinion. And, yeah, season it again.
6. Add other flavorings. If you want to add some dried herbs like oregano or Italian seasoning, go ahead and add a little here.
7. Simmer. Let it gently bubble for awhile. I usually let mine go about half an hour, but it depends on your taste and how soft your veggies got during step one.
8. Top it. Cheese, croutons, crackers, fresh parsley... do whatever you want. It's fun to have a few options out in little bowls so everyone at your table can finish their soup to their taste.

Just for the record, this particular batch of mine has carrots, onion, bell peppers, zucchini (a couple of kinds), fresh corn, green beans, diced tomatoes, chicken stock, and oregano. And that's the order in which I added it all to the pot.

Now go enjoy the last few weeks of summer. I'll miss it. All except the mosquitos...