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Hearty Vegetable Soup

6 years ago
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Hearty Vegetable Soup is warming, nourishing, and packed with seasonal goodness – a colourful mix of veggies simmered in a rich, savoury broth until tender and full of flavour. It’s the perfect way to use up what’s in the fridge and makes for a satisfying lunch or light dinner. I love stirring through fresh herbs at the end and serving it with crusty bread. Simple, wholesome, and always comforting.

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More Winter Soups

Yield: 8

Hearty Vegetable Soup

vegetable soup
4.5 Stars (4 Reviews)

Hearty vegetable soup is one of my favourite ways to use up whatever’s in the fridge and still end up with something nourishing and delicious. I simmer seasonal veg with garlic, herbs, and good stock until everything is tender and flavourful. Sometimes I add lentils or beans for extra protein, but it’s always simple, comforting, and perfect with crusty bread. Whether I batch cook it or make a small pot, it’s the kind of meal that feels like a warm hug in a bowl.

Cook Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil (or rapeseed oil)
  • 1 large onion, finely diced
  • 3 celery stalks, finely diced
  • 2 large carrots, finely diced
  • 1 large parsnip, finely diced
  • 2 medium potatoes, finely diced
  • 1/2 swede (or turnip) finely diced
  • 1 cup red lentils
  • 1/2 cup brown rice (or wild rice, or brown basmati rice)
  • 400g can of chopped tomatoes
  • 6 cups of vegetable (or chicken) stock or broth
  • Sprigs of Thyme, a Few Bay Leaves, Salt and Pepper to Taste

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and celery and cook until soft - about 5 minutes.
  2. Next, add all remaining ingredients and stir well to combine.
  3. Add a few sprigs of fresh thyme, 2 or 3 bay leaves, and salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Bring to a heavy simmer, and once simmering, cover with a lid and reduce heat to low. Simmer for one hour, covered.
  5. Uncover, and simmer a further one hour, stirring occasionally.
  6. Serve hot.

Notes

  • 8The soup can be simmered for many hours, with the soup growing thicker the longer it cooks.
  • The soup can be refrigerated for several days and reheated.
  • If the soup is too thick, upon reheating, stir through half a cup of hot water until desired thickness is achieved.

What I Cook With

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 199Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 5mgSodium: 382mgCarbohydrates: 32gFiber: 5gSugar: 7gProtein: 9g

Please note, this nutrition information is to be used as a guide only. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

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© Bry
Cuisine: British / Category: Soup
vegetable soup

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Hearty Vegetable Soup recipe

vegetable soup

The Joy of Simmering Simplicity

When I say my hearty vegetable soup is comfort food, I mean it in the truest, most honest sense of the word. It’s the kind of food you make when you’re tired, fed up, or just in desperate need of something warm and reassuring. Not heavy, not stodgy, just comforting. This recipe is one of those brilliant little tricks that feels like it should be more effort than it is. Less than ten minutes to throw everything together, and then you can just leave it to simmer while you collapse on the sofa with a glass of wine and a vague hope of feeling human again.

I’ve always loved meals that do the hard work without me, and this soup is no exception. It’s not flashy. It’s not Insta-worthy. But it is delicious. It’s thick and nourishing and packed with vegetables, lentils, and brown rice, all bubbling away in a rich tomato base. The red lentils melt into the soup as it cooks, giving it body and substance without any cream or flour. The brown rice, meanwhile, does what it does best and adds a subtle nuttiness that makes the whole thing feel deeply satisfying without being too much.

What I love most is that this soup has become my midwinter saviour. After my run-in with Covid back in March, I’ve still been feeling the fatigue. And when I don’t know if I’ll have the energy to stand at the stove or fuss about, this soup is my safety net. It’s reliable, it’s hearty, and it doesn’t ask much of me. Which, frankly, makes it my kind of food.

vegetable soup

Root Vegetables and Childhood Hangovers

The base of the soup is simple and sensible: root vegetables, chopped tomatoes, lentils, and rice. It’s that sort of old-fashioned, practical combination that just works. I don’t overthink it, and I don’t try to get clever with the veg. Carrots, parsnips, potato, celery if I have it, all go in the pot. The root veg give the soup that cold-weather weight, like a jumper for your insides. It’s not trying to be fancy, just deeply good.

And speaking of deeply good, one of my soup quirks from childhood still sneaks its way into this recipe. When I was growing up, we had a weekly chicken soup served over pasta. We got a choice: bread or pasta. I always chose the pasta, no question. There’s something immensely comforting about a big spoonful of spirali swimming in soup. These days I skip the pasta and go straight for rice, because I’m grown-up now (allegedly), and I like the thick, soupy heft that rice gives instead.

That’s not to say you can’t serve this over pasta. You absolutely can. I’ve done it. It’s brilliant. But for me, the rice is the grown-up equivalent of those childhood bowls, giving me the same emotional warmth but with a bit more substance. And I do love a bit of substance in my life. Especially when it’s gently bubbling away on the stove while I recover from life’s latest surprise fatigue.

Stock Choices and Easy Protein Boosts

Now, when it comes to the liquid side of things, it’s a simple choice: chicken stock or veggie stock. Honestly, I tend to use whichever I have on hand, and both work beautifully. If I’m feeling particularly tired or need a little extra protein, I’ll sometimes chuck in some finely chopped chicken thigh after the onions have softened. Brown it up a bit, let it do its thing, and then continue on as usual. It doesn’t take much, and it gives the soup a bit more oomph when I need it.

But most of the time, it’s just the vegetables, lentils, rice, and stock. And it’s honestly more than enough. There’s something so satisfying about scooping up a thick spoonful of veg and grains and knowing you’ve made something hearty and nourishing without resorting to a billion ingredients or steps. Especially on days when the idea of cooking anything more complex than toast feels like a personal attack.

This soup isn’t about perfection. It’s about sustenance. It’s about making something lovely with what you have, using simple pantry staples and whatever root vegetables are rattling around the fridge. And that’s why I love it. Because even when I’m knackered, grumpy, and still in my dressing gown at 3pm, I can make this soup. And that makes it just about perfect in my books.

vegetable soup

Ingredients Breakdown

This soup really is a pantry-and-fridge friendly wonder. I start with a classic base of onion and garlic, sautéed gently to bring out their sweetness. Then it’s a parade of chopped root vegetables – carrots, parsnips, potato, maybe a bit of swede if I’m feeling wild. I add tinned chopped tomatoes for richness, and a good handful of red lentils, which break down completely to thicken the soup and give it that comforting, velvety texture.

The brown rice goes in alongside the lentils. I like how it holds its shape and adds a lovely chewiness to the mix. It also makes the soup more filling, which is handy if you’re trying to get through winter on one big meal a day. You’ll also need stock – veggie or chicken, your call – and salt and pepper to season. Sometimes I add a bay leaf, sometimes not. Depends on the mood. And if I’m feeling particularly in need of protein, I’ll brown up some diced chicken thighs before adding everything else to the pot.

That’s it. No tricks, no hidden ingredients, no nonsense. Just a warm pot of thick, hearty vegetable soup that makes you feel like everything’s going to be okay. Even if it’s not quite okay yet.

vegetable soup
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Bry is the food writer and recipe developer behind Cooking with Bry, a recipe platform built on nearly thirty years of cooking experience and over 215 original recipes spanning classic Australian, British, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. She grew up in Western Sydney, where food was never just food. It was Aussie barbecues in the backyard, Middle Eastern bakeries down the road, and Mediterranean kitchens that treated every meal like an occasion. That early, immersive exposure to bold and diverse flavours shaped her palate and her cooking instincts in ways that underpin every recipe she develops today. She spent seven years living in the UK across London and Glasgow, deepening her understanding of British comfort food and traditional European cooking before returning to Australia via Adelaide, the country's undisputed foodie capital, where a passion for exceptional produce and honest, ingredient-led cooking only grew stronger. She's now based in Brisbane, developing and testing all of her recipes from her home kitchen. All of that, Western Sydney, the UK, Adelaide, Brisbane, and everywhere in between, feeds directly into what she cooks and how she writes about it. Her recipes pull from the traditions she knows most deeply, the food that feels like home, and are developed with the home cook firmly in mind. Honest, unfussy, and built around flavours that actually work.
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