Super Easy Vegetable Soup - tomatoes

Method

• Using at least a six quart pot; pour in the tomato paste, chicken broth, red wine, and mixed vegetables. Add in the butter.
• Rinse and cut the potatoes into medium sized chunks. If they're golf ball sized I usually cut them into six pieces, once across and twice through. Leave the skin on. Add them to the pot.
• If you didn't buy diced onion then get one out and dice it up. Add this to the pot.
• Peel and mince a clove of garlic. Don't use the stuff already prepared and jarred. Do this yourself. Also, don't worry too much about being perfect with the mincing. Just get it fairly small and dump it into the pot.
• Heat the pot to boiling then reduce to a simmer. If you're using a temperature controlled kettle like I do this is just under 200° F.
• Add the salt, pepper, Worcestershire, and soy sauce. I usually add a palm of this and dashes of that without measuring but the important part is to add a little and then taste to see if the flavor profile is where you want it. Go for bare minimums at this point as more can be added later and as the pot boils the flavors will become more evenly distributed.
• Last comes the hot sauce. Use whatever you like or leave it out altogether. For me, it makes the dish. I use Blair's Ultra Death Sauce which is around 800,000 Scoville heat units. or pretty seriously hot if you're not a chili head. About half a teaspoon in six quarts of soup will make it completely inedible for anyone who doesn't like spicy foods, seriously hot for most who do, and just right for those of us who breathe fire for fun.
• Put a lid on the pot and simmer for about an hour and a half or until the potatoes are cooked through. Stir at least every twenty or thirty minutes. Taste occasionally, especially towards the end to see if anything needs to be added.