I have been in the mood for soup ever since I recently tried Slow Cooker Pork and Black Bean Soup, but I wanted to try something completely different. I’ve had my eye on this Loaded Lemon Artichoke Orzo Soup recipe for a while, and this seemed like the perfect time to try it since the weather is still not cooperating for grilling. I love lemon anything, and the addition of pasta was a bonus. The fact that it’s vegan was even more of an incentive to give it a try as I’m always trying to add more vegetables to my diet. So let’s find out if this vegan soup is as light and delicious as it looks!
This nourishing vegan lemon orzo soup is fully loaded with the addition of artichokes, mushrooms, and great northern beans. It’s wholesome, nourishing, comfort food! Vegan, soy-free, nut-free, dairy-free.
The Ingredients
Loaded is definitely an accurate description of this soup! The list of ingredients is on the long side, but I was totally okay with that after I read through all the goodness that goes into this recipe. It’s packed with vegetables like celery, carrots, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and arugula. I like to cook with fresh ingredients as much as possible, and I was happy to see all the fresh vegetables in the ingredients.
Most everything was stocked at my usual grocery store and reasonably priced (no splurgy items in this recipe at all). The only thing I couldn’t find was the whole wheat orzo. I had regular orzo in my pantry, so I went with that instead of ordering it. Quite frankly, the online prices seemed too high to me.
The Process
Let’s start with the times. My soup took a bit longer than the 30 minutes listed, and I chalk that up to all the vegetables. There was a lot of chopping and slicing to be done, but it’s all core cooking skills and no fancy techniques (whew!). Here is how my time broke down:
- 15 minutes to prep
- 26 minutes to cook
- 41 minutes total
I didn’t do all the prep work at once, though. Instead, I started with boiling the water for the orzo and cutting up the carrots, celery, onion, and mushrooms. I used a 5-quart pot for the soup and a smaller saucepan for the orzo.
Once they were cooking, I moved on to the other ingredients in the order they were needed. I try to do this as much as possible as it cuts down on time. Everything went smoothly, and I didn’t have any questions or doubts about what to do at each step.
