Customize Your Soup, and get your kids to eat vegetables

A couple months ago, I started making a recipe I saw on the boob tube from Barefoot Contessa--Pappa Al Pomodoro. It's basically vegetable soup made with a fresh fennel bulb (also called anise), San Marzano tomatoes, carrots, onions, and a little red wine. During the cooking, you add cubed ciabatta to the soup, and serve it with ciabatta croutons on top. The bread that's in the soup of course gets super soggy and mushy, and is an interesting texture contrast to the vegetables. You're also supposed to put pancetta on top, but I skip that part.

So, I made this delicious soup like 5 times, and then realized the bread wasn't making me feel great (and the buttered croutons I was putting on top...well, let's say they were not contributing to my overall good health). So I started leaving out the bread altogether. And it's still delicious! I went to make it the other day, and there was no fennel in the grocery store, so I made it with leeks instead. It was even MORE delicious!

Sydney likes tomato soup, but does not like to bite into big chunks of vegetables in her food (she likes all her spaghetti sauce to be smooth). I started pureeing the soup in my Magic Bullet--it still has some texture, but it's not chunky at all. And I sprinkle a little grated parmesan on top before serving. Sydney loves it.  It is the perfect after school snack, or sometimes I'll give them a bowl to prevent mayhem while I'm still working on dinner.  It is such a huge deal for me because Sydney is really a meat and potatoes (and pizza) girl, and I really struggle with how to get her to love veggies.  Score!

This is what it looks like in the beginning stages: