Vegetable Alphabet Soup
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~ raw, vegan, gluten-free, nut-free ~
Today, I had entirely too much fun in the kitchen! And as you scroll through this recipe you will be bombarded with pictures to prove it. What can I say, I am a proud soup-momma! As I was busy playing working in the kitchen, creating this soup, I had the ABC Alphabet song stuck in my head.
And the record must have had a skip on it because it played over and over and over. I spied these cookie cutters at the store last week, and I am not sure how it happened, but these little guys soon found their way into my home. My knees buckle under the influence of kitchen gadgetry.
I have so many ideas rolling around in my noggin what I want to create with them, but first things first… soup! The Fall air was wet and chilly, so a bowl of soup was in order! This soup can be eaten at room temperature or heated up on the stove. That is your call. Keep in mind that the soup will get even better the following day as the ingredients start to meld together. Day one is good; day two is even better!
This recipe would be such a fun way to get your kids involved with meal preparation! I always thought the spiralizer was such an amazing tool and would excite children, but these almost take the cake. Let them cut out the letters and spell things along the way. If you don’t want to buy these alphabet cutters, you can easily make the zucchini into any shape or form for this soup.
Remember, zucchini is the “pasta noodle” replacement in recipes. You could dice it up into small chunks, make noodle ribbons with a potato peeler or a spiralizer machine if you have one. I used Wilton Fondant Alphabet Cookie Cutters run $10 for the full alphabet and number set… a small price to pay when creating beautiful memories with your loved ones. I couldn’t find the same ones online with Amazon but (
these) could work.
I mean really, look at these adorable letters! They are guilt-free and gluten-free. Also, if you don’t have a blender, you could make this in a food processor. Personally, by the time all was said and done, I had blended mine on the Blendtec “soup” button several times.
While I was playing around, spelling out words on the cutting board, my husband walked by, and I asked him to give it a taste test. I held my breath… HE LOVED IT! I knew it was good, it tasted fantastic to me but for him to love it, well it just puts the biggest smile on my face. He was walking around talking to Verizon on the phone, trying to set my new iPhone, I mean camera. Lol (I refer to my iPhone as my camera rather than a phone). And as he was on the line talking to the rep, he kept taking spoonfuls and moaning and groaning, telling the rep that I had just made the best soup ever. Now, I am not sharing this with you to toot my own horn… my hope is that it will be a strong encouragement for you to make this soup yourself.
Nutritional Data
Whole recipe: Calories 910 / Fat 25 g / Carb 137 g / Fiber 33 g / Protein 41 g
Per 1 cup serving: Calories 152 / Fat 4 g / Carb 23 g / Fiber 5.4 g / Protein 7 g
Ingredients:
yields 6 cups
- 2 cups water
- 2 1/2 cups tomato, rough chopped (2 large)
- 2 cups zucchini (leftover from making the alphabet)
- 4 sun-dried tomatoes, rehydrate if hard
- 1/2 cup corn, fresh or frozen
- 1/2 cup carrot, rough chopped (1 large carrot)
- 1/4 cup rough chopped celery stalk (1 stalk)
- 1/4 cup hemp seeds
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 Medjool dates, pitted
- 2 vegetable bullion cubes
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Hand mix in at the end:
- 1 1/2 cup zucchini alphabet letters
- 1 cup diced cherry tomatoes
- 3/4 cup peas, frozen or fresh
- 1/2 cup corn, frozen or fresh
Preparation:
- I used 2 zucchini total for this recipe. I sliced the zucchini into thin strips with my mandolin and punched out the letters. See photos below. The leftovers from the letter making are what I used in the soup base. Therefore, no ingredients were wasted.
- Place in the blender the top ingredients listed under ” blend to a puree.” Blend to a creamy soup mix. I used the “soup” button on my Blendtec.
- Pour the puree into a large bowl and hand mix in the; alphabet letters, cherry tomatoes, peas, and corn.
- Serve at room temperature. To warm the soup, you can place the bowl into the dehydrator and warm it to the desired temperature. Another alternative is heating it on the stove. If you wish for the soup to remain raw, only warm it to 115 degrees.
Warming Suggestions:
- Allow the soup to warm to room temperature and enjoy.
- Place the serving bowl in hot water, allowing it to heat up before adding the soup. This will help take a little extra chill off of the soup and make it cozy warm to hold in your hands.
- Pour a serving size of soup in a mason jar, place lid on top, and tighten… immerse the jar in hot water till it warms the soup to your liking.
- Pour into a small saucepan and heat on the stove. Use your fingertip as the temperature gauge; it shouldn’t get too hot for your finger. You can also use a thermometer gauge if this concerns you.
- Dehydrator – if you have a “box” shaped dehydrator such as the Excalibur, pour the soup into a wide mouth baking dish and turn the heat to 145 (F) degrees. Warm for 30-60 minutes. You can also place the temperature at 115 degrees and heat for 3-4 hours. You will need to gauge this. The more soup that exposed to the air, the quicker it will warm.
To make the zucchini alphabet “noodles,” you will need a mandolin, zucchini, and alphabet fondant cutters. If you don’t own a mandolin, you can use a sharp paring knife and cut thin strips. Be slow and careful. If you can’t find organic zucchini be sure to peel the zucchini. Slice the zucchini lengthwise about 1/8″ thick. If your zucchini has large seeds, only slice down to those. If you have large seeds, it will be mushy when trying to cut out the letters. Don’t worry though, that seeded part will get used in the rest of the recipe, so nothing goes to waste.
Photo below ~ Press the cutters into the zucchini.
Spread the letters out onto a baking pan and sprinkle a good dose of salt on top. Set this aside while you prepare the rest of the soup. The salt will draw the water out of the letters, making them softer.
Meet Reuben… our friend and also an amazing electrician. He happily agreed to be a taste tester for my soup. I explained that he could eat it at room temperature, as a person eating a raw food diet would… but that if he didn’t care for it “raw,” I could heat it for him. He taste tested it in the “raw” form and said he liked it that way. You know that saying that goes something like, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”? Well, he agreed, “When in a raw kitchen, do as the raw foodies do!” Thank you, Reuben for all the hard work you do and for allowing me to put your picture on Nouveau Raw!
See all that destruction in the background? I won’t go into details about that just yet but I will give you a hint… Nouveau Raw Kitchens….
© AmieSue.com
Tags: Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Nut Free, Refined Sugar Free, Soy Free, sugar free, Vegan
This is way tooooo cute! Good job my dear friend!
Love, xx
Thanks Jana :)
You are SO creative – that is amazing!!!
Thanks Cara. :) It tastes as good as it looks too!
Is your electrician married? Just kidding. The soup looks wonderful too. Thanks for the recipe.
Haha Joanne… I will have to see if I can release that info. hehe I hope you try the soup. My husband polished off the last of the pot last night. :)
Wow Amie Sue!
You are so creative! Next break-out the dehydrator. Let’s see those letters as crackers. :) That would be a great shot.
Hi Gabrielle :) Crackers it is! Oh those would be tiny little buggers thought. haha I will see what I can come up with.
Yummy!!! This looks delicious! I am always looking for soup recipes, especially this time of year. Many are overloaded on onion and garlic, which I do not care for.
Can I leave out the corn, or replace it with something else? I am allergic to corn.
Thanks, Amie Sue, and God bless!!!!
Also, do you happen to have a chicken stock recipe (I know, it’s not raw).
Hi Chris, of course you can leave out the corn… you can add more peas, perhaps some shredded carrot… it’s really up to you and what you like and can eat.
A chicken stock recipe… like a bone broth?
amie sue
Thanks!I wasn’t sure how it would affect the texture.
Yes, a bone broth indeed (without onion!). Thanks!!!
I sent you an email Chris regarding the bone broth. :)
In the past I haven’t quite gotten the timing and temperature of warming a raw soup right. How warm is the soup at 115? How long does it take to heat the soup thru and thru in the dehydrator? Do you take the inside temp of the soup or can you just rely on the themostat setting? How do you warm for several portions, in seperate bowls? Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Naomi,
If you are wanting to be 100% accurate, I would suggest using a candy thermometer to check the temp of the soup. Whether you are doing it on the stove top or in the dehydrator. I can’t say exactly how long it would take in a dehydrator… it will be based off of how big the bowl is, how full you fill the bowl, what type of machine you are using, etc. Way to many variables for me to give you a correct answer to. Though, I will say that if you want to speed up the heating process when using the dehydrator, I would break it up into smaller bowls that expose as much soup surface as possible.
Wow! Your creative recipe idea looks like a lot of fun!
This is perfect for introducing my young nephews to raw food. If they take part in creating it, more than likely they will also eat it.
Thank you for your wonderful website!
That is exactly what I was thinking Martie…kids will look at veggies in a whole new way. :)
What a fantastic idea!!!! I love this – you are so creative!
this is a genius idea!! Courgette alphabet croutons!!! Perfect for little ones learning to spell :-) I totally love this :-)
It was a ton of fun to make… I hope you try it! amie sue
Love this soup…my goodness you need to write a book using the doTERRA oils. So many of my clients keep asking me how to prepare raw meals…after all I’m in Idaho and it is a foreign idea here. I use the oils so much because they are pure and add such a great flavor…sweet or savory it’s all great. Let’s talk, Darlene
Hi Darlene!
I am interested in these oils… I know several people who use them. I never thought of using them in recipes those… I love to pack as much nutrient into recipes as I can without getting to crazy and making it hard for people to get the ingredients. I am sure these would really add to the recipes!
This looks like so much fun Amie Sue. I never in a million years would have thought about making the letters out of zucchini. Can’t wait to try it!
Hi Kristi…. since you are moving closer to the grand kids, this would be so much fun to make with them!
I have just made this soup just beautiful and my name is Donna so I was so excited when it said just for you thank you so much for your recipes I have been on my raw journey for 3 months am loving it thank you again from your Aussie raw fan
Your welcome Donna. I hope that you had as much fun making this soup as I did. I think I spent more time spelling words out just for the fun of it. hehe Have a blessed weekend, amie sue
hello! i would luv to make this gorgeous recipe but hemp seeds are illegal in new zealand so i can’t obtain them, what could i use in place of them, sun seeds maybe? thanks alchemist amie :)
Hello Michele… my first choice would be cashews that have been soaked for 2+ hours but if you need to stay away from nuts, sunflower seeds would work too. Be sure to soak them for 2-4 hours prior to using. I hope you enjoy the recipe. Let me know if you make it. Blessings, amie sue
made the soup for someone special last night, no cashews on hand so used sunseeds. i presume cashews would’ve achieved a nicer smoother texture but that didn’t affect the taste…which was AMAZING. (and even better this morning!) i don’t have alphabet cutters so attempted cutting letters out by hand lol, still, i think it got the msg across ;)
my soup: http://imgur.com/71lYjwN
That is just precious Michele… your amazing and I think the message came across. hehe Loved seeing the picture. So glad that it was enjoyed. Thank you so much for sharing. Have a wonderful week, amie sue
Hello again,
I made this soup (sans the alphabets) several times. I tried it for my father who was in very poor health with loss of appetite.
He really liked the soup and ate it all every time that I served it.
I had to make it the next time around with out the Hemp seeds. I have a sibling who is in Recovery-and Hemp Seeds cannot be consumed.
The soup taste turned out good. Thank you, one day Iwill try it with the alphabets :)
Thank you so much for sharing Victoria. I love hearing from you. :) The zucchini alphabet letters are certainly optional but way to much fun! Have a great day, amie sue
LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea. I’m ordering those cut outs RIGHT NOW!
I love this soup too Nancy. I had way to much fun punching out the letters and just playing around them.. almost forgetting that I was making a soup with them. lol Enjoy and have fun, amie sue
It sounds delicous, but I haven’t found a vegetable bullion that is made without MSG. They always add it, even the ones that say no MSG added. Nutritional yeast has a form of it in it too. Do you have any healthy options for these two items? I have looked up all the varieties I have seen online searching for healthy alternatives. Any ideas?
Yeast extract is MSG here is the link. Also see nutritional yeast. http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html
Thanks for the link Joy. If you are sensitive to MSG, even in the tiniest amounts or have to follow a diet void of MSG this is a good link to start getting more educated on the matter. amie sue
Good morning Joy,
I have been using Red Star Nutritional yeast for years. That being said, I don’t eat it on a regular basis. It is an ingredient that gets rotated depending on what foods I am eating. Same with the vegetable bullion, which I consume ever more rarely. I haven’t any issues with them since I eat them in such amount quantities. I am sorry but don’t have any other alternative brands that I can recommend. Have a blessed day, amie sue