Farmer's Market in a Soup!

Farmer's Market Soup

This summer started with me having nothing to do. So that is one of the reasons I started this blog. Since then, I have discovered a million TV shows, movies, video games, made-up sports, and other countless things to take up my time. I have also been away so much on the weekends that I have missed going to the farmer's market in such a long time! So I decided that enough was enough and bought out the entire farmers market to make a vegetable soup. Turns out, minestrone soup, the not-like-Eastside Mario's-soup-beacuase-it's-not-unlimited-but-probably-way-more-awesome you always get at the Spaghetti Factory with your garlic butter bread and pasta and such, on the Foodnetwork often starts with bacon (at least according to Chef at Home). I love the farmer's market bacon like there's no tomorrow. Either from the people you take a number or from the people who are by the goat cheese people, both have very good thick bacon. The only thing is that I really like the farmer's market sausage too. So I decided to make a bacon and sausage soup with all the fresh vegetables and meats from the Farmer's Market. Here's the recipe I made up. The best part of this is you can change it with the seasons. It's probably most exciting to have pieces of bacon in your soup!

Ingredients

vegetable and meat suggestions

2 sausages (I used 1 honey garlic and 1 medium choirizo) fried and cut into 1/4" pieces
6 strips bacon cut into squares
1 onion chopped to small sizes
1 zucchini chopped
1 green and 1 red pepper chopped to small sizes
2 stems broccoli chopped to desired size
1/2 stem cauliflower chopped to desired size
8 little red tomatoes chopped to large sizes
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 dry bay leaves
pepper to taste

for broth

3 bouillon cubes plus 8 cups water
or 6 cups chicken stock and 2 cups water
1 cup red wine

Directions

in large pot fry bacon and sausage
add peppers, zuchini and onions to frying mix until a bit soft
boil the wine and half the chicken broth in a separate pot to cook out alcohol
add wine-broth mixture to frying mix
add potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower to mix
finally add tomatoes and rest of liquids
at end of soup mix, add garlic, leaves and pepper to soup
let simmer for a few hours
when broccoli and cauliflower are soft, the soup is ready to eat!
freeze it for later, or eat it all in one sitting, if you choose :p