Homemade Vegetable Soup

On a cold winters day nothing tastes better than a bowl of homemade vegetable soup.  As soon as I saw the forecast the other day with the arctic blast that was hitting Central Florida I headed right to the grocery store to get the items I needed to make this yummy soup.  I have made this recipe for years and it's always been a family favorite.  One fun thing about this soup is that you can use just about any vegetable you have in your kitchen.  In my recipe I will include what I used but remember you can tweak this so easily.  If you get a round to making it let me know how you liked it and if you tweaked it let me know what you added or changed.  One side note - I try to use all organic vegetables and organic chicken stock but you don't have to.  

Homemade Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

1 T olive oil

4 cloves garlic crushed or chopped

1 large onion chopped

4 potatoes chopped

3-4 carrots chopped

3-4 celery stalks chopped

2 cups of frozen peas

2 cups of frozen corn

2 cups of cut green beans

28 ounce can of diced tomatoes

8 cups of chicken broth

1 1/2 tsp thyme

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a large stock pot over medium heat put in olive oil.  Add garlic and sauce a few minutes then add onion.  Sauté until onion is translucent.  Then add carrots, celery and potatoes and sauté for a few more minutes.  Then add chicken stock, thyme, salt and pepper.  Add diced tomatoes and cook until vegetables are soft.   Once soft add in frozen peas, corn and green beans and simmer until everything is heated through.