Tortellini Soup

Tonight for dinner, my mom and I made a family favorite: Tortellini Soup. It is one of those recipes that we've had since before I was a vegetarian but, luckily for me (and you!), it is super easy to make meat-free. All that's needed is to swap out the beef broth for vegetable stock and the Italian Sausage for its soy counterpart. 

Rather than let my mom make two batches of soup simultaneously like she usually does (she uses vegetable stock for her soup too now, but she'll never give up real sausage), I decided it was time for me to learn how to cook this recipe, so I made my version along side her.

Let's do this.

Tortellini Soup

Ingredients:
1 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
5 cups vegetable stock
3/4 cup red wine (the rule of thumb seems to be that you should pick a wine that you like to drink, lest it go to waste after it serves its purpose)
1 cup sliced carrots (peel first)
2 cups canned diced tomato (don't drain - put that tomato liquid goodness into the soup!)
1/2 teaspoon basil (we used dried)
1/2 teaspoon oregano (we used dried here too)
1 and 1/2 cups zucchini, sliced
8 ounces cheese tortellini
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 green pepper, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
Parmesan cheese, to serve
Vegetarian Italian Sausage, optional (I like to add it, but it's completely up to you. I now use the Tofurky brand because the Morningstar one tends to fall apart. As for the amount, I put in 2 (sliced), but you can use more or less, if you want)

Here are the ingredients lined up. Well, most of them. Please note: there are more pictured here than needed for one serving. My mom made a double batch of the original recipe.

Serves: 8 (300 calories per serving); Prep time: Should be about 30 minutes, but ours took longer since we tripled the recipe and split it into meat and vegetarian versions; Cook time: 65 - 70 minutes

Directions: 
1. In a large pot, sauté the onion with the olive oil over medium heat for two minutes. Add the garlic and sauté another minute.

2. Add the Veggie Italian Sausage (if you're using it, obviously), vegetable stock, wine, carrots, tomato, basil, and oregano. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Stir every so often.

3. Add the zucchini, tortellini, parsley, and green pepper. Simmer covered for 35 - 40 minutes, stirring occasionally Basically, you want the zucchini to be soft and the tortellini cooked. Sorry for the slightly blurry picture.

4. Ladle into your bowl of choice, top with Parmesan, and eat. I had a garlic bread stick with mine.

Recipe Review:
Just as delicious as I remember the original being!

Happy eating.

Cheers,
Emma

P.S. Here's the obligatory animal picture - my cat Pippa: