Basic Vegetable Soup -killertomato

This recipe is so basic and simple it seems silly to print it except that we've eaten so much of it lately that I think it's worth noting if not simply for this one reason: After a stretch of eating it for 4 or 5 days straight,we were beginning to curse the monotony until I noticed everyone's skin just glowed.

We radiated.

We didn't even know we'd been missing all the nutrients necessary to have the complexion we wished for until push came to shove and it was time to throw everything in pot and cook it.

Incidentally, I grew up eating this, alternately with a steady diet of beans and cornbread (with chow chow), just about every night. Really, my parents would joke that I must've come from another planet for making faces. But for all the redundancy and pinings for a more glamorous lifestyle, no one ever got sick and we all had fabulous skin- and of course I know now that this diet probably sent my brother and me to college. This is impossibly cheap as well, so enjoy...

• In a large stock pot, take a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of flour and stir constantly over medium to make a roux.
• After it has become a golden sort of cream and coffee color, put about 4 cups of tomatoes in. They can be canned or fresh, but if fresh, scald briefly and peel first.
  
• Stir into roux and add salt or pepper. If using canned tomatoes from the store, you can throw in about 2 Tbsp of sugar to cut that metallic taste.
  
• Now put all vegetables that you have available into the pot and add more seasoning and stir again.
  
• Fill the pot with water, and any herbs you like. I prefer to keep it more or less simple, 2 T. dried oregano, 1 tsp. thyme, 1 T. paprika, 1 tsp. file, dash cayenne and a bay leaf. (Then I add some fresh basil when I take it off the stove because we have gobs of it growing in the yard.)
  
• Bring to a boil and simmer for an hour.