Making Vegetable Soup (Big Batch) — Photos

I started making vegetable soup in large quantities several years ago at my church to serve after services, and this weekend I made some for myself to have in the freezer.

Making the vegetable soup instead of another recipe from my recipe collection that I had planned was a bit of a last minute decision, given that the decision to go to the cottage this past weekend was made at the last minute. As such, being at the cottage, I was cooking in a different kitchen using different equipment from usual while making the soup (see pictures).

My 16 quart pot was placed on the stove:

A can each of crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes were taken out:

The crushed tomatoes were poured into the pot:

The can with crushed tomatoes was rinsed with water, which was poured into the pot:

The diced tomatoes were then poured into the pot:

A can of kidney beans was taken out …

… poured into the pot …

… and the kidney beans can was rinsed with water, which was then poured into the pot as well:

A 32 ounce (900 mL) box of vegetable broth was taken out …

… and was poured into the pot:

About a kilogram (a bit over two pounds) of mixed frozen vegetables were taken out …

… and poured into the pot:

At this point, I started mixing the ingredients:

A 32 ounce (945mL) bottle of multi-vegetable cocktail was taken out …

… and poured into the pot:

At this point, the burner on the stove was turned on to start heating up the soup:

Throughout the following steps, I kept on mixing the soup in the pot to keep it from burning on the bottom of the pot.

Next, a couple of onions were taken out …

… then the onions were cleaned and trimmed …

… then the onions were sliced …

… then the onions were chopped …

… and the chopped onions were placed in a mixing bowl:

A potato was taken out …

… and the potato was cleaned and trimmed:

The potato was sliced along its length …

… the potato was then sliced into spears …

… then the potato was sliced into cubes …

… and the potato cubes were placed into the mixing bowl with the chopped onions:

Two carrots were taken out …

… the carrots were cleaned and trimmed …

… then the carrots were quartered to make spears …

… then the carrots were then chopped coarsely …

… and the chopped carrots were placed in the bowl with the potato cubes and chopped onions:

Throughout all the vegetable chopping, I mixed the ingredients already in the pot while it was heating up, in order to avoid burning on the bottom of the pot.

Next, olive oil was added to the bowl of chopped vegetables …

… then the chopped vegetables and olive oil were mixed together to fully coat the chopped vegetables:

A cast iron skillet was preheated on the stove:

… and the mixed chopped vegetables and olive oil were transferred to the skillet:

Salt was added to the frying chopped vegetables:

Once the chopped vegetables started to brown in the skillet, they were transferred to the soup pot that was continuing to be heated up:

The skillet was deglazed with water …

… and the deglazing liquid was added to the soup pot:

Half a cup of rice was measured out:

… and the rice was added to the soup.

Water was added to the soup pot to bring the liquid level up to the eight quart mark:

The soup was continued to be heated:

… and brought to a boil:

The heat was reduced and the soup was simmered for over half an hour:

I continued adjusting the salt level in the soup until it was to my taste.

While the soup was simmering, plastic containers (in this case, reused yoghurt containers) were laid out:

Once the soup had simmered for over half an hour (probably coming on to an hour), the soup was taken off the stove, and transferred to the containers with a ladle (the golden sheen is the olive oil reflecting the camera flash):

And the containers were covered, and placed in the freezer:

Of course the soup is tasty!