In this ongoing blog series, Christine, a budget-minded mom and Whole Foods Market® team member, explores ways to create healthy, organic foods that appeal to both her child and the grownups. Read the other posts in her ongoing series opens in a new tab.
Getting your kids to eat vegetables shouldn’t have to be a fight. Instead of focusing on what my son doesn’t like, I like to focus on the vegetables that he enjoys. Ever since he was a baby, my son liked to eat peas. This love of peas inspired my very first blog post: More Peas, Please opens in a new tab.
Four years later, he still enjoys peas. He also now likes carrots. And, like so many kids he also loves noodles. So, let’s make a soup out of that! My son prefers cooked vegetables to raw, so making soup is the perfect solution.
For this simple soup all you need are 6 ingredients and about 12 minutes (that’s including both prep and cooking time!).
Ingredients
4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
4 large carrots
2 large handfuls organic egg noodles
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 onion
Fresh parsley to taste
Method
Start by boiling the vegetable broth. While bringing it to a boil, chop the carrots into small round pieces. Next, finely chop the onion.
Once the liquid boils, drop the onions, carrots and noodles into the pot. You can use whatever noodles you like. My son enjoys egg noodles, so I used them in this recipe. Depending on your noodle selection, cooking times will vary, but in general, dried noodles take about 8 to 12 minutes to cook. The egg noodles I used cooked in 9 minutes. The vegetables also cook in about 9 minutes. So I threw them into the pot at the same time and set the timer. Use your best judgment.
At the 2-minute mark, add the frozen peas and stir. When the timer beeps, the soup is ready. Ladle the soup into bowls and top it with a sprinkle of chopped fresh parsley. This soup serves 4.
When I served the soup to my son and husband, it was a hit! This simple dish makes a great lunch with a side of salad or bread. It also a nice starter course for dinner.
As a side note, I tried adding a can of diced tomatoes to this recipe and I also played around with adding other types of vegetables. Guess what? My family didn’t like it as much.
So honestly, when it comes to soup, stick with what they love and remember simple can be better.
What does your family like in their vegetable soup?
