I make a hearty veggie soup that's completely vegan (I am vegetarian). It's the most tasty if you can get really fresh produce (I call it my "farmer's market soup") but grocery store produce will do, too. I love to go to the farmer's market and pick up all the produce and then make a big batch on Saturdays and freeze it in glass bowls to make single serving ready-to-eat meals. Then I have healthy, low-fat, high-vitamin food ready to go all week.
It's pretty easy...I make a HUGE batch, you might want to scale this back...
In your biggest soup pot, dump 2-3 cartons of low-sodium veggie broth. (I buy the organic kind, from Trader Joe's)
Turn the fire on to medium-high.
Rinse a cup-full or so of barley, dump it into the broth. It'll start to cook while you're working on the veggies.
Watch your broth as you work; when it starts to boil, turn it down to where it's just below boiling.
Veggies!
Red or yellow (or any kind) of potatoes are great in this, just add one or two. Scrub and dice them and throw them into your broth water, they'll cook in there. Peel if you wish, I leave peels on for the most vitamins. I like to buy a mix of fingerling potatoes in red, yellow and purple and cut them into quarters. They have very delicate skins and the purple potatoes add some fun color.
Scrub & dice white onion (small one, or half of a large one), some leeks (or more onion), most of a head of celery (I get rid of the leafy bits), and a bundle or two of carrots. Sautee' all of this in your fat of choice (vegetable oil, if you're going vegan; I usually use butter) I make so much of this I have to sautee it in two batches.
Extra veggies: I consider the above list to be the "basics", but I'll add more veggies if I have them on hand - cauliflower is good, shredded greens (spinach, kale) are good too. Sautee them before tossing them into the pot.
Mushrooms! To make it really hearty, get some mushrooms. White button mushrooms are fine but they have the least flavor. If you can get them, my favorite is a blend of crimini, wood ear and oyster mushrooms. Portabellas are good too. After you sautee' your veggies, dump them into the soup pot and scrub, slice and sautee' the mushrooms. Dried mushrooms are good to add variety if you can't get them fresh; follow the package instructions for rehydrating them before sautee'ing them.
As your veggies and/or mushrooms are sautee'ing, add herbs & spices. Fresh thyme is wonderful in this soup but dried works too. I usually use fresh thyme, 3-4 cloves fresh garlic, and a shallow palm-full of celery salt. Use whatever you prefer! DH always adds black pepper to his bowl too. (I don't like it in this soup, but you might!)
Once it's all in the pot take a look and make sure you have enough fluid. I usually don't and add another carton of broth - don't add it cold, though! I dump it into my still-hot sautee pan first and warm it up so it won't kill the temp of the main body of the soup. Plus it gets all the yummy leftover sautee'd bits out of your sautee pan.
Once everything is in the soup pot, crank the heat down to lowest setting. You just want it to stay hot and let the flavors blend for about 30 minutes, and to let enough time for your barley to become fully done & tender. Longer won't destroy it but your potatoes and veggies start to fall apart. It's done when the barley is done!
Voila! Awesome soup is yours!
The more times you make it, the better feel you'll get for what herbs/spices you like best. I make mine a little differently each time and not one tablespoon of it has ever gone to waste. DH & I love this stuff!