Vegetable Soup with Country Vegetable Soup Mix

Vegetable Soup

Purchase a packet of McKenzie's Country Vegetable Soup which contains a mix of yellow and green split peas, red lentils, barley and Haricot beans and spices mix from your supermarket (or you can make your own little mix of goodies about 200grams in total)... here are three versions below of using the one soup mix that are all simple and nourishing...

1. It can be made up following the instructions on the pack and served as they are... in about 60 minutes.  
2. The same pack can be made into a vegetable soup by adding diced veggies and cooking it in a slow cooker on low over the day 7-8 hours if you want to have a go at that method.
3. Or by using the same packet blend of whole grains and adding fresh vegetables along with some browned chicken to end up with a "Chicken and Vegetable Soup".

Today I've used the packet of McKenzie's Country Vegetable soup mix and I have combined it with fresh diced vegetables and cooked it on the stove top as follows ...

Fresh diced vegetables of your choice

• In a little olive oil soften an onion, half dozen sliced spring onions, a couple of stalks of celery and a couple cloves of crushed garlic until translucent.
• Then add diced carrots, pumpkin, mushrooms and zucchini until they start to soften.
• Finally add a tin of tomatoes, 1/2 cup of tomato puree, fresh herbs of thyme and parsley, the soup and spice mix and 2 litres of water... cover and simmer for about and hour until the barley is tender... Enjoy!