I made a huge pot of veggie soup yesterday. The canned tomatoes were very bitter. Won't use that brand again, they said peeled tomatoes but they were crushed not whole.....anyway I looked online and baking powder was suggested, in 1/8 tsp at a time additions. Still wasn't loving it. I decided to change it up, tossed a huge shake of cinnamon in the pot, less cumin and some turmeric. It's yummy now. Bet even a shake or two of curry would work. This was a new thing, never had to do this before. I like the balsamic idea, sweeten it without adding actual sugar.
Anyway, I start with sauteed onions and garlic in olive oil, then add celery and carrots. I use Pacific or Imagine or Trader Joes, low salt veggie broth (sorry I avoid salt so it's pretty much add your own here) It really has much more flavor then the chicken broth imho. Then coleslaw mix, a parsnip, fresh chopped parsley, a big old bay leaf and canned, whole tomatoes that I smash through my (clean) hands. When that is all getting soft, I will throw in things that don't need cooking as much like green beans, broccoli sometimes, zucchini and yellow squash. I don't use much frozen stuff but yesterday I did use some frozen green beans that I had hanging. I like some hot pepper, black pepper, thyme. I would use frozen corn if I had any, which I generally do after the summer but Sandy took all my supplies of that sort of thing. I also like to throw spinach, or escarole or kale or other green stuff in there. Good stuff in=good stuff out