Gnocchi Vegetable Soup

A lovely, warming vegetable soup for cold winter nights when you're fasting. (Or just being you if you're vegetarian or vegan!) This recipe is based on a recipe I found online for Italian gnocchi soup. Sickness is always stalking the house during the winter, so I threw some extra garlic in this to help stave some of that off. (Plus it just tastes good :-).) Less can always be added, or more if desired! Same for everything else in this, for that matter.



Gnocchi Vegetable Soup

Ingredients
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 medium/large onion (chopped)
2 stalks of celery (sliced)
6 cloves of garlic (crushed/minced)
2 teaspoons of parsley
2 1/2 teaspoons of Better Than Bouillon (to taste)
1 teaspoon of thyme
8 cups of water (reserve 1 cup)
1 head of cauliflower (broken into florets)
2 tablespoons of cornstarch4 medium carrots (peeled and sliced)
2 or 3 15-ounce can of white beans (drained)
1 (packed) cup of basil leaves
1 or 2 bunches of kale or spinach (chopped)
2 16-ounce packages of gnocchi

Pepper (to taste)
Salt (to taste)

Directions
1) Lord, bless!
2) Saute the onion and celery in the olive oil over medium heat. Once the onion has started to become translucent add the garlic and continue sauteing for a couple more minutes.
3) Add the pepper and herbs - excluding the basil, unless you're using dried basil - and bouillon and saute for another minute.
4) Add the water and cauliflower florets, bring to a boil, and then cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until the cauliflower is soft.
5) While the cauliflower is simmering thoroughly mix the cornstarch with the reserved cup of water, and then add it to the soup.
6) Using an immersion blender puree the soup before adding the carrots, returning the soup to a boil, and then simmering it another 10 minutes.
7) Once the carrots have softened add the beans, basil, spinach (or kale), and gnocchi and boil for 5 minutes or until the gnocchi are done.
8) Add salt and otherwise adjust the seasonings as desired, serve with some crusty baguette, nutritional yeast, and/or crackers or what have you, and enjoy!