Veggie Soup, 25 quart edition

Its vegan. It's nourishing. It takes minimal effort and limited ingredients. You can feed 30 hungry people for around $40. This soup goes hard and won't give up on you. Unless you fuck it up, but hey it'll probably still eat. It isn't fine cuisine but it really is pretty good. Call it mid to my face. I dare you.

Also note that you need some kind of giant pot for this. Like 4 or 5 gallons. It's a lot of soup!

Ingredients and prep

Aromatics, finely chop or even mince if you're feeling up for that:

• 1 bag onions (about 4)
• 1 bunch celery
• 2 bulbs garlic

Veggies, coasly chop:

• 1 bag carrots (about 10 carrots), also peel them first. Or rinse and scrub if you hate peeling.
• 10 boxes button mushrooms, try and brush off most of the dirt that's on them. I think each one is 8oz, so that's 5lbs of mushrooms.

Potatoes, rinse but don't cut up yet because they turn all grey and weird if you cut them up too early:

• 3-5lbs red waxy potatoes, or yellow idgaf

Cans, open them and drain the bean juice from the beans otherwise it'll be way too beany:

• 10 cans chickpeas, red beans, white beans, or really whatever you want or whatever is on sale.
• 3 cans diced tomatoes

Oil and flavors etc:

• Olive oil, about a cup or two total. You can use any other oil, really, but olive oil adds a bit more flavor
• "italian spices" mix from Aldi or whatever, any other herbs you feel like.
• A pepper grinder. Pre-ground pepper is just sand. It's optional either way though.
• 10 Bay leaves. Aldi doesn't have these but try the Mexican grocery around the corner. I promise bay leaves taste like something, but they are optional. I left them out before and didn't notice so it's not a big deal.
• Broth paste (better than bullion), or bullion cubes, or broth from jug. If you want to be vegetarian use veggie broth, otherwise use chicken broth. Use enough for 3 gallons of broth (that's 1 cup of better than bullion. yeah, crazy, right? maybe start with 1/2 cup broth paste and add the rest to taste.)
• Flour, just a cup or two. If you are cooking gluten free, then try using corn starch I guess?

Cook!

Prep everything as described above. If you have large mixing bowls to separate things into, that helps a lot, otherwise you can have them strewn about or use carboard boxes.

Also get out your giant soup pot. When a batch of aromatics or veggies is done, you can put it in the giant soup pot to wait.

Saute aromatics in ample olive oil (about 1/4 cup per batch). Using a 10 inch cast iron, this takes about 4 batches. Use high heat and don't overcrowd, so the onions can get nice and carmalized. Put each batch in the giant soup pot when it's done.

Meanwhile saute veggies (carrots and mushrooms) at the same time in another pan or large pot, using about a quarter cup of oil. You might need to batch them as well, depending on the size of your pot. They don't need to get carmelized, just cook until the carrots are softened a little bit. If you don't have something else to cook in, then you'll have to wait until the aromatics are done. As the veggies are finishing up, add the spices (a few tablespoons) and the flour and fold it in and remove from heat. Then put it in the giant soup pot.

Now add the cans and broth paste to the giant pot, on top of the sautee veggies and aromatics. It'll look sloppy but who cares. Use a kettle or pot to boil water to add to the pot, or add cold water if your giant pot can be heated from cold efficiently (mine can't so I only add boiling water to it). Between cycles of boiling water, cut up the potatoes and toss them in too. Finally add the bay leaf (using cheese cloth tied into a bag or a large empty tea bag for them if you want to reduce the choking hazard). Add salt, pepper, broth paste, and some more oil to taste.

Let it stew until the potatoes are soft, and stew even longer if you want it to get really stewed up all good.

Big soup!