How to make soup

After the candy frenzy of Halloween, I felt really drawn to make soup yesterday. Thursdays, Shmoo stays at day care a little longer so I can spend some special one-on-one time with Doodlebug. When we got home from school, I asked her to help me make soup. I told her we had no recipe, so we should just taste all our vegetables and see what we wanted to put in there.

First, I showed her how to start a soup with vegetable oil, onions, and garlic, without which I don't even know how you can HAVE soup. Then we literally opened the fridge and started pulling things out as we found them. Doodlebug can be a picky eater, but like many kids, when she gets involved in the cooking, she'll try all sorts of things she'd not touch if I just set them in front of her at dinner. So, here's what we ended up with:

• Celeriac, also known as celery root. Mmmm, this is really good!, said Doodlebug after trying it raw.
• Carrots. Mommy, we have to make them CIRCLES! And can I have another one, please?
  
• Parsnips. Can these be circles too? They taste just like the carrots, but whiter!
• Yukon gold potatoes. Triangles! Yes! Cut them like triangles! And can I have one right now? (Note: oddly, she even liked this raw!)
• White cabbage. It's sweet! Put more in!
• Kidney beans. Beans! Beany beans! I love beans!
• Gemelli pasta. I mean, what's soup without noodles?
  

Add all that to the onion/garlic/oil already soft in the pan, and then five cans of vegetable broth. Doodlebug would not let me put any dill in, because once I referred to the herbs as "spices," and she doesn't like things that are "spicy." After we ate the soup for dinner and proclaimed it a success, she agreed to let me add dill next time.

The name of our soup? Lewis Shape Noodle Soup, because of the circles (carrots), squares (celeriac), and triangles (potato). It was delicious -- and made in part by a five-year-old. No recipe -- just a full fridge, a sense of adventure, and imagination!