Vegetable Soup with Naddles

This is one of my Dad's favorite dishes so I try to make it for him as much as I can in the colder months. The naddles recipe comes from my grandma (my dad's mom). Sadly she passed away before she could teach me how to make it herself but I hope she thinks I do her justice when I make this dish. Naddles are sort of like a crouton or dumpling for the soup.

I love making this because it can be simple (how my dad likes it) or you can add lots of things to it and make it extra fancy. It's great for a first or second course of a large meal because you can make it in advance and it just gets better. This version is the simple one but here are some other things you can add: green beans, canned beans, potatoes, parsnips, leeks, pasta like orzo or penne and shredded chicken, beef, or any left over meat that sounds good. It's great because you can throw in what you have or whatever is cheap at the store that day.

Ingredients:

1 Tbs butter
1 medium onion, chopped
3 carrots peeled and cut into half moons
3 ribs of celery, sliced
1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes
3-4 dry bay leaves
2 Boxes of chicken stock (or veggie stock if you want. Buy low sodium or low salt)

for naddles:
8 slices of white bread, toasted and buttered
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 TBS salt

Directions
1. Put butter in a large soup pot and allow to melt. Chop all vegetables. Try to make them about the same size so they cook evenly.

2. Put veggies into pot over medium low heat. Add a pinch of salt and allow to saute for about 5 minutes until veggies are soft.

3. Add can of tomatoes and bay leaves, allow to cook about 1 minute.

4. Pour in both boxes of stock. You need this much because naddles suck up a lot of the liquid.

To make Naddles:
1. Whisk eggs and milk in a large mixing bowl.

2. Cut toasted/buttered bread into cubes and put into bowl. Mix together.

3. Add salt to flour and pour over mixture. Mix well, dough will be really sticky.

4. Take bay leaves out of soup. Use two spoons to drop a large amount of naddles into the boiling soup. Try to make the naddles and even size.

5. Let cook at least 30 minutes, the longer the better. They taste really good the next day because the naddles soak up the flavor of the soup.