Vegetable Soup with Beans and Kale

Now that my girls (my boys won’t go near this) are expanding their vegetable repertoire, I no longer have to purée everything to mask what’s inside my soups. This is exciting for me. I love soups with textures, colors, and a variety of healthy ingredients. I made this up for my recent Purim holiday meal, and it was a huge hit. Fresh, healthy, vegetarian comfort food at its best.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups diced onion
A diced red pepper
1 1/2 cups each sliced or diced carrots, and celery
2 cups each small/medium diced cauliflower and broccoli. You can buy bags of precut florets and cut them in half
2 cups packed chopped kale
Can white beans or chickpeas drained and rinsed
A large yellow zucchini diced
2 whole bay leaves
Cup packed chopped parsley
10 to 12 cups vegetable broth (2 1/2 to 3 boxes)
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, having more on hand to adjust to taste ( I always start with less then add)

In a large soup pot, heat 3 tbsp of olive oil. Add onions, sautéing until translucent and fragrant. Add some stock by the tbsp to deglaze the pan if it gets dry and the onion starts to burn. Add the cumin, 1 tsp of the Italian seasoning, and 1/2 tsp of the garlic powder. I find that seasoning the onions gives any dish a wonderful base. Mix, let sauté for a couple minutes. Add two cups of broth, the carrots and celery. Cover pot and sweat the onions, carrots, and celery (mirepoix) for about 7 minutes, stirring a couple times. Add all the rest of the ingredients, mix well, cover, and bring to a boil. Lower boil to a calm but active simmer for an hour. Add more salt and pepper as needed. I think I added another tsp of salt and a 1/2 tsp pepper, around the 45 minute mark. Remove bay leaves before serving.