Friday's Blustery Winter Soup

For anyone suffering from the Blustery Winter Blues, I highly recommend the following concoction. I also highly recommend having Friday's off, so that these concoctions can get concocted. Love from Jerusalem, Debra

Debra’s Super Yummy Israeli Tomato Vegetable Soup

Splash of canola oil for sautéing onions

2 onions, diced

3 zucchini, diced

1 or more carrot, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

2 tomatoes, chopped

6-10 leaves of beetroot, whites diced and leaves sliced into bite-size strips [or spinach if beetroot is not available]

2 teaspoons each of chopped garlic, cilantro, and basil

One small container of tomato paste – around 260 gram

Osem chicken soup mix (pareve)

½ cup red wine

½ jar of your favorite tomato sauce – around 13 ounces (400 gram)

Can of chick peas

Can of black beans (insert any bean that you like here, think of minestrone soup and tinker accordingly)

7-14 Frozen kubbeh, depending on number of people you want to feed [If you don’t have access to kubbeh, consider adding pasta and turning this into a minestrone soup]



Heat oil in bottom of large soup pot. Add diced onion and sauté til translucent (around 3-4 minutes), add diced zucchini, carrot, celery, beet root (white part only) and spices if frozen now, and sauté for 2 minutes. [If spices are fresh, add with liquid.] The diced veggies should take up 1/3 to ½ of the pot. Cover with water and add 1 container tomato paste. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 30 minutes. Add ½ jar of tomato sauce, red wine, and osem pareve chicken soup powder to taste. Add chick peas, black beans, and beetroot leaves and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add kubbeh and cook for at least 40 minutes or as long as you’d like. I cooked mine for about 3 hours and it thickened into an amazing broth, chock full of veggies in every bite. Made around 12 servings.