Ever since we came back from Tucson, I feel like my diet has largely consisted of Asian food and beer. I’m addicted to this new Sichuan restaurant, Yun Nan Garden in Asiaville (Carlo’s term for Vegas’ China Town), and I dream about their spicy and tongue numbing food ALL the time. When we weren’t eating there, we made sure our other favourite Asian restaurants didn’t feel left out. It seems like whenever we leave Vegas for a few days, my body goes through massive Asian food withdrawals, and we usually end up hitting Asiaville on the way home from the airport.

Anyway, I’m determined to eat less Asian food this week and eat way more vegetables instead. Y’all know that I love making soups because they are so easy to prepare and make weekday lunches effortless if you cook a huge pot of soup at the beginning of the week. Plus soups are a really great way to load up on your veggies. On one of our healthy non-Asian food eating days last week, I made this simple but delicious soup crammed full of roasted veggies and spinach. I let the soup sit on the stove while it cooled and the roasted butternut squash really flavoured the broth. This recipe makes enough for 6 bowls of soup at $1.10 per serving.

Roasted Vegetable Soup with White Beans and Spinach, adapted from Bon Appetit, January 2000
nonstick vegetable oil spray
3 medium carrots, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 large tomatoes, quartered
1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cups (or more) vegetable or chicken broth
4 cups baby or finely chopped spinach
3 large fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 15-ounce can Great Northern beans, drained

Preheat the oven to 400¬?F, and spray a baking sheet with oil. Arrange the carrots, tomatoes, onion, butternut squash, and garlic on the sheet, and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Sprinkle the veggies with salt and pepper and toss them to coat. Roast the vegetables until they are golden and tender, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes.

Set aside the carrots and butternut squash. Place the garlic, tomatoes, and onion into a food processor and puree until the veggies are almost smooth. Pour 1/2 cup of broth onto the baking sheet and scrape up any of the browned bits stuck on the sheet.

Transfer the baking sheet broth and vegetable puree to a large pot, and add 5 1/2 cups of broth, spinach, thyme, and bay leaf to pot. Let the soup come to a boil and then reduce the heat and let everything simmer until the spinach is tender, around 20 minutes.

Add the beans and the reserved carrots and squash to soup. Simmer for 5 minutes to blend the flavors, and add more broth to thin soup if it is necessary. Season the soup with salt and pepper, and discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaf.