Mexican Veggie Soup

Not too long ago, my Sis put me onto a very basic, simple veggie soup recipe.  It's actually a Weight Watchers recipe (zero points to boot!).  She put me onto it because, like many other people, we were running short on easy, fast, healthy meals to take to work for lunch.

The basic, 6 serve recipe calls for:-
- 2 carrots, chopped into 1cm pieces
- 2 zucchini, chopped into 1cm pieces
- 2 celery stalks, chopped into 1cm pieces
- 1 capsicum, chopped into 1cm pieces
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 2 x 400g diced tomatoes
- 1L of chicken stock

Basically, you then stick it all into a big pot, bring it to the boil, then simmer it for 20 minutes and you're done.  I make this with no more than a chopping board, knife and the pot itself (and a can opener of course), which makes for easy cleaning after.

Now, while I love my veggies, and I love this for lunch because it is a GREAT way to get some serious veggie serves into you, this recipe is dull beyond belief.  When I first made it, I added in chilli powder and crushed garlic just to give it pep.  That actually turned out pretty good, because the chilli developed over the course of the week - so every day the soup was a bit spicier.  The I started putting a can of five bean mix into it at the end, because Hubby and I both noticed that by about 3pm, we were STARVING and the bit of carbs helped us stay fuller longer (that did, of course, up the WW points, but over six serves, you're still looking at less than a point a serve).

Last week I decided to mix it up a bit more.  We'd had nachos as a treat for dinner the night before, and that got me thinking.  How can I make this soup into a vegetarian, chilli con carne-esq meal?

I threw in my regular veggies as above, and then I added in mushroom and green beans (they needed eating up).  I threw in a heap of paprika (have I mentioned I love paprika?), chilli powder, cumin and garlic to try and get that 'Mexican' flavour.  Then I added in a big handful of roughly chopped black olives.  Once it was just about cooked, I threw in a can of five bean mix (I wanted kidney beans, but we didn't have any!).

I was a bit unsure about whether I had hit the mark on this - for instance, a can of corn in here would have probably helped a lot, and it just missed meat.  Really, it needed some meat in there.  But the next day at work, I got an unexpected phone call.  This soup was such a win that my Hubby rang me from his office just to tell me how good it was.  Lunch time win?  I think so.