Festive Autumn Vegetable Soup

Last year I wanted to make an easy recipe for my family'sThanksgiving dinner. Some people were vegetarians. It was important to me that all the guests enjoyed the festivities and no one walked away hungry.

The idea to make the soup occurred to me the morning of Thanksgiving, so I literally ran to the organic grocery store, saw all the colorful, fresh vegetables that were displayed, and purchased one of each. Then when the soup was being prepared added whatever I had in the freezer and refrigerator that looked good. And that is how this hearty soup was created.

Serves 12 people, just enough to freeze and give for extra meals.

One 5 - 6 quart crock-pot / slow cooker

Cook on high for 4 hours.

Ingredients - Scrubbed clean and cut all vegetables into chunky pieces. You do not need to peel the vegetables unless stated below because there are a lot of nutrients in the outer covering of a vegetable. Only organic vegetables were used. They definitely have a depth of taste and aroma that chemically treated food cannot match.

1/2 cup lentils or any bean of your choice. Soak in water for a couple of hours before cooking soup or

cook in slow cooker for a couple of hours before adding rest of ingredients.

1 miniature round gourd - boil in water for 20 minutes to make it easy to cut - remove seed.

1 large medium white or yellow onion

3 strips celery

1 - 2 cups carrots

Peel 1 large parsnip

Peel 1 medium turnip

1 large yam - this will make your soup thick.

1 small zucchini

1 miniature pumpkin - boil in water for 20 minutes to make it easy to cut - remove seeds

bag frozen corn kernels

1/2 bag Italian frozen green beans

1 cup rice

1/8 cup wild rice

1 glove crushed garlic

1 tablespoon wheat free tamari sauce

1 teaspoon salt (can increase to 1 tablespoon if not concerned with sodium intake)

1 teaspoon pepper

1 - 16 ounce cartoon of low sodium vegetable soup

Directions:

Put crock-pot temperature on high. Add above ingredients.

Then fill pot to within 1" of top with water. Cover and cook!

We served this with a thick slice of pumpkin bread. You can also add chunks of firm tofu to the soup about 5 mintues before serving.

The next day we ate the leftover soup and bread for dinner. It was really filling!