Vegetable Salsa Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ onion, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 7 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 red potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 carrots, diced
• 1 zucchini, sliced and quartered
• 1 quart water, or as needed
• 4 cups salsa
• 1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 1 ½ teaspoons onion powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 pinch chili powder
• 1 pinch ground paprika
• 1 head broccoli, cut into florets
• ½ cup frozen peas

Directions

Warm some olive oil in a big pot over medium heat. Toss in the chopped onion, yellow bell pepper, and garlic, and cook them gently until they’re soft and fragrant, which should take about 5 to 10 minutes. Next, add the potatoes, carrots, and zucchini, then pour in enough water to cover everything by a couple of inches. Stir in the salsa along with the Italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, bay leaves, chili powder, and paprika. Let the soup simmer over medium-low heat, just keeping a gentle boil going, until the potatoes are tender—this usually takes around 40 minutes. Once that’s done, throw in the broccoli and peas, and cook for another 20 minutes or so until the broccoli is nice and soft. Before serving, be sure to fish out the bay leaves.