Vegetable Pasta Sauce

It was snowing yesterday.

I thought it was a good day for making soup.

I wanted to make my version of Campbell's Italian Wedding Soup.

I realized I didn't have the right pasta -

- after I thawed some chicken broth and my mini-meatballs.

So, I started making something that I wasn't sure what it would end up being.

I started with chicken broth in the pan, added the vegetables I had around and needed to use.

It ended up really good. Good enough to share :-)

And since it was a totally random and clean out the refer type dish,

it ends up being pretty cheap too!

Vegetable Pasta Sauce

1/2 head purple cabbage, sliced/shredded

3 red peppers, sliced

2 potatoes, diced large with skins on

1 head garlic, minced

2 cups chicken broth + water enough to mostly cover vegetables.

Mix everything in saucepan and bring to a boil and let simmer. Add water if needed. I let mine simmer for about 6 hours. I ended up with about 6 cups of cooked vegetables and broth.

Put everything in the blender and blend smooth.

Return to saucepan and add:

1 TB salt

1/2 TB pepper

1 tsp oregano

1 1/2 tsp cumin

Add 1-2 cups cooked mini meatballs and about 2 cups fresh spinach (I tore mine slightly, but it mostly cooks down small so it isn't really necessary)

Heat everything through and allow spinach to cook down a little. Serve hot over pasta or rice or your choice of whatever :-)

Easily opt to leave out the meatballs or serve on the side to have a nice vegetarian option too!

I served it with this foccacia bread recipe I found on allrecipes.com - it ended up good and it really was a quick option for that evening when you didn't get around to making something that needed a long rise time. (Just FYI - I used 1/2 white and 1/2 wheat flour, eliminated the salt and rosemary on top and used dried basil and an Italian cheese mixture of shredded cheese on top, and cooked it my rectangle stone rather then a pan)

I really surprised myself at how tasty this was - it ended up looking like a tomato sauce, though slightly more brownish - has a little spice kick - and packed with good foods! Sorry - no pictures - my husband has the camera at the moment!

This post is part of Pennywise Platter at Nourishing Gourmet!