About a year ago, I bought the cookbook “Twelve Month of Monastery Soups”  secondhand in one of my homeschooling groups on facebook. It seemed like a good idea because (a) monks eat healthy food (b) monks eat inexpensive food (c) monks make food that is simple and easy and (d) we are always looking for inspiration on food that is healthy, simple and inexpensive.

Naturally, it sat on a shelf for about 10 months. It probably would have been fated to a storage box or a thrift store donation if it weren’t for the fact that something made me pull it down back in October when looking for ideas. Since then, Fridays have been our designated ‘Soup Nights,’ and every night has been a hit! I haven’t made a single soup out of this book that has been anything short of delightful, and all of them fill the boys up with about a week’s worth of vegetables. And here’s the thing: they actually like them! So far, they willingly have eaten squash, spinach, mushrooms, leeks, rutabagas, and cabbage as a result of this book. And we’ve only just scratched the surface here; essentially, there are about a half dozen soups designated to each month of the year, and we’ve only gone from October to early December – I’m excited to see what comes up through this coming year!

This week was Saint Nicholas Soup – although trust me in that we won’t just be having it on Saint Nicholas day (or even just in December!) This will be a winter favorite. Gabe had seconds yesterday and Luke had thirds! And Daniel said he didn’t like it, but he ate it anyway. That’s about the best we can ever get out of Daniel, who insists he only likes whatever is not on his plate.

I made a few small modifications to make it fit with what we had in the fridge at the time. In addition, I usually replace the water in any soup with chicken bone broth to make it a little heartier. So this is easy to make vegetarian if you want, just switch from bone broth back to water (or use vegetable stock). Here you go!

2 tablespoons butter
1 rutabaga, peeled and cubed
2 leeks
4 carrots
4 potatoes
1/2 head of napa cabbage
Salt (to taste)
1 quart bone broth (You could easily use up to 6 cups for a thinner soup) 
3 quarts water

1.    Peel all vegetables and slice them into equal sized cubes of about 1/2 inch.
2.    Melt the butter in a pot, and add the vegetables and a few dashes of salt.
3.    Add the water and bone broth and simmer for about an hour on the stove, or put it in your instant pot and set it on pressure cook for 20 minutes.
4.    Once done, put the soup in a blender (or use a stick blender in the pot) until the whole soup is blended together.
5.    Serve hot with some fresh bread. I’ve been really enjoying the plaited bread that Steve has been making, even more than the baguettes he’s perfected.

And that’s it! Super easy, super versatile, and super healthy. That’s my kind of recipe! If you have kids that don’t like their vegetables (or if you are an adult that doesn’t like their vegetables!) I highly recommend 12 Months of Monastery Soups … you won’t regret it.