Hearty Tortellini Soup

As a lot of you may already know, I'm a planner. Probably to a fault, really.

Having said that, it should come as no surprise to anyone that, every Sunday, I sit down and plan out a menu for the week; from that menu, I make my grocery list. And, as weird as I'm sure it sounds, I really look forward to doing it. 

I'm a huge advocate of menu planning, and I've actually written about it before (check it out here); I can't tell you how much money and time it saves me at the grocery store. On top of that, though, I care a lot about feeding my family well, and menu planning really helps with that. By mapping out our meals, I can ensure that we always have good, healthy options on hand; that, in turn, deters us from resorting to junk or fast food. Not to say that we don't eat that stuff every now and then - we absolutely do. It's just nice not to HAVE to, if that makes sense.

Anyway, I try to make a variety of meals in our house each week. For example, I include at least one seafood meal on the menu, and stick to a limit of one dinner with red meat. This year, I've started doing one "meatless" night a week as well. I also plan for leftovers, because it's nice to have a break sometimes. 

This soup is wonderful for leftovers, and can be frozen very easily should you choose to do so. I made mine with beef broth, but the original recipe (linked below) calls for vegetable stock, making it a wonderful meatless meal as well. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Hearty Tortellini Soup

Original Recipe by Julia Levy, Cooking Light (recipe here)

2 tbs olive oil

1 large vidalia onion

2 cups chopped fennel bulb

2 tbs minced garlic

12 oz sliced gourmet blend mushrooms

2 tbs tomato paste

4 cups beef stock

4 cups vegetable stock

1 cup water

2 cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

4 cups curly kale, stemmed and chopped

10 oz three-cheese tortellini

1 1/2 tbs red wine vinegar

Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add onion, fennel, garlic and mushrooms and cook 15 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add stock, water, tomatoes (with juice), and chickpeas and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer for five minutes.

Add kale and tortellini. Cook 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in vinegar. Ladle into soups and serve.

Until next time...

Cheers!